Having a mini-game in itself isn't really a problem as long as it's linked to the action. This is not the case for the current (and alpha) version. The mini-game should be focused on the plant, its shape, its texture,... As i already explained in another thread, iI think a sample would be more appropriate than a simple scan. An example of a loop could be :
- scan the plant to analyse the density (some plants can be scan-proof depending on the environment)
- use the density information to help find a good place to take a sample (with, for example, a colour scheme or beeps where you point the sensor to locate a good spot)
- a mini-game to calibrate the pressure needed to take the sample (too low, you don't get enough material, too high, the material is partially destroyed).
The difficulty of finding a good point would be more or less difficult to obtain depending on the species and its state of development. The difficulty of calibrating the pressure could itself be partly determined by the chosen sampling point.
But the environment could also be analysed/sampled: soil, atmosphere, subsurface scanning (root network, interconnection between plants),... requiring more tools/devices to be used, sometime from the ship (maybe like the subsurface scanner). Just like in the shooter game, where we have many tools to bring death to settlements, we should have even more tools to enlight the galaxy with knowledge.
As a complement, and to give inspiration, there is this
online game made by the french CEA where some puzzles are directly inspired by real devices used by scientists to analyse the environment, objects, materials,... or to do destructive/non-destructive analysis or sampling,... which might be relevant to see in ED.
Then, different analyses could be performed to obtain more information about the plant. From this point on, we can imagine different axes of analysis:
- molecular : to identify the potential for medical use, weaponry, medicines, genetic manipulation,... (as an objective for missions in the settlements, for example)
- food : edibility part, nutritional quality, taste, optimal preparation/packaging for long-term use... for feeding during exploration
- Biological : genetics, life cycle, symbiosis, nutrients, rejected elements, etc... understanding how the plant work.
- terraforming : recreate the environment/biome in tiny greenhouses and try to make plants from different planets/environments work together to initiate a terraforming process,...
Depending on the information already known, it might also be possible to define a number of filters on the ship's biosignal detector to refine the search for a specific species.
Regarding the appearance of the plants, actualy, the main oddity for me is that they are indestructible. It would be also awesome if some could be soft like grass or gelly, translucent with something moving inside (like blood flow). Some rare species may also be sensitive to light or temperature or having a substance oozing from its surface. I don't think that too complexe interraction would be pertinent on such thin atmosphere. Bur there may be already symbiotique relation too understand.
That's just some few exemple of possibilities.
5) tie exobiology more firmly into the central game by adding plant scanning missions which require you to go and scan particular plant varieties
offer exobiology-related missions (long ranged missions could go quite nicely here: "go to this distant system and get us samples from there")
Yep, there also ways to make them relevent depending of the settlement type (that may be cooking related for resorts (like a VIP tourist), medical for labs, genetics/terraformation experimentation for agriculture, bio-weapons/drugs for militaries,...).
3) add rarer variety's of existing plants that can only be found in extreme environments (e.g. on high g worlds or on top of mountains)
Definitely. But I thought that was the point of the new planetary technology and biome-oriented planet : to have biome-specific content.
- but also add plants which only occur inside dense clusters of other hard-to-pass plants (tubus, bigger fonticula, osseus, maybe some new ones, etc.) so that sometimes you have to get out and pick your way through them on foot.
Fix the distribution of bios so that if you fly 10 kLY from Sol you find stuff you can't find in the Bubble
Now if Frontier were working on a more complex Geology and Geography of planets I'd personally prefer that, to my way of thinking what could follow
then would be a more believable, complex and varied flora and fauna.
- Add more than just organic life. Planetary phenomena and anomalies would be amazing in addition just "simple" organic life
- Use RUMOURS (!) to hint at new locations and new types of stuff to find.
The QTE minigame wasn't a good fit and disabling it was the right decision at the time given that it was mere days before launch. It would be nice to have something in its stead though. Back during alpha I made a suggestion based on
shotgun sequencing. IRL this is done automatically of course, but there is
a puzzle game to be found in there.
May Lord Braben hear you.
