Hi,
First of all, i'm french and tryed to do this post in english in order to be understood by the most and not only by french people. I apologyze in advance for further mistakes.
I've read that frontier want to bring us a planet update soon or later with the ability to explore planets and land on it like it is said here : http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wi...it_be_possible_to_manually_land_on_planets.3F
So i will try here to post my ideas about how to fill these planet for game content, i assume a lot have been already said but i gonna try to have an energy-saving approach for frontier developper and artist.
I'm also a developper(not from frontier) and i know when someone tell me a concept how much time it will cost to implement or if it cost too much ressource to implement it.
I'll put easy to do idea and some more complicated i have in mind. My goal is to bring as much content as possible in the easiest way possible.
Summary
I - In the air
I - In the air
In this part we gonna see what action we can do from our ship when we are in the planet "atmosphere" area. Note that only a few planet have a real atmosphere and so we have to think what we can do when there is none.
I-1- Atmosphere analysis
First thing i would do when i'm in the "atmosphere area" of a planet is scanning for data.
You'll need a "Atmospheric Analysing Module"
Here is what you can catch :
Atmosphere : yes/no
Gaz composition : yes/no
Nitrogen 78%
Oxygen 20%
Argon < 1%
Carbon dioxide < 1%
Neon < 1%
Helium < 1%
Methane < 1%
Water : yes/no
water : 1,383 billion km^3
water-gaz : 2%
water-solid : 18%
water-liquid : 80%
heavy water : < 1%
Mineral : yes/no
iron : 5%
diamon : <1%
stone : 80%
titanium : <1%
copper : 5%
silver : 2%
gold : 1%
etc ...
this is way more detailed than the detailed surface module result and this can help you with knowing if there is life or not in this planet.
But life cannot be scanned that way(it would ruined the exploration pleasure) even if you can guess there isn't if no water or atmosphere.
And it won't indicate where mineral or water is in the planet.
This data may change between planet because some don't have water or mineral like gaz planet (ex: Jupiter).
In case of gaz planet, you may be able to scoop if you get closer to the core.
But be carefull, temperature is a problem and so gravity, don't go too close or you will be attracted to the core and will explode due to overwhelming temperature.
With all this data, you may decide if the planet is interesting or not.
So you may want to start mapping the planet.
I-2-Mapping
You have decided this planet is interesting and want to know a bit more about it.
Then you'll have to go a bit further down to start mapping the planet.
For me mapping should be like a scratch ticket, in function of the quality of your "exploration mapping radar" you should be able to "scratch" more or less surface underneath your ship.
And the slower your ship travel the more accurate is your scan.
By accurate i mean it can detect smaller mineral node.
eg : i travel at 400 m/s, i've have detected only stone, but if i go at 200 m/s i've detected a 8t silver node in the stone area and at 50m/s i've found a 2t gold node.
The smaller the harder to detect. (ofc can be scaled on the "exploration mapping radar" level)
for here are the things you can mapped from the sky :
- mineral nodes
- cave (i will detail this after)
- surface type (water, ice, stone, etc..)
As i mentioned above, i think it could be grate to have cave.
Cave are not scannable from the sky and you'll have to go in it on foot to find out what kind of treasure you can find there.
It could be liquid water in a fully iced planet, heavy water containing deterium (usefull for nuclear reaction, so well paid), rare minerals or even life.
Cave pattern doesn't have to be different on each planet, it's just like a "tresure box" with random good stuff(or not) in it.
Note : Cave are hard to detect, don't fly fast with your scanner or you will miss it
Well, you have flought all around the planet and now have a good planisphere of your planet.
It's now time to land !
I-3- Gas Scooping
From Lolman345 post :
So gas scooping would interest some people.
I see it like this :
You analyse atmosphere in detail to see rare gaz and then open your "Gaz Prospecting Module". When it's done, you'll have a list of gaz in your module and you'll have to choose witch one you gonna store.
I would compare it to refinery, you can catch x different gaz at the same time.
Depending on your "Gaz Prospecting Module" level you will be able to scoop more type of gaz at the same time.
For a planet with this atmosphere parameter :
Nitrogen 78%
Oxygen 20%
Argon < 1%
Carbon dioxide < 1%
Neon < 1%
if you scoop nitrogen it would be very fast to get a ton of it (depending of gaz treatment rate of your module) but if you want to get a ton of argon it will take a long time.
I don't know if it would have 2 module or 1 for this kind of activity. Mining got a module and a utility tool.
I think Gaz propecting could follow the same pattern with a scooping utility tool and the "Gaz Prospecting Module".
II - On the ground
II-1- Mining
II-1-a Unknown mineral
Well we are in year 3301 so human have already discovered everything on the universe... really ?
No there are still some mystery, and you might find some during your exploration on some planet with unknown mineral.
Unknow mineral cannot be scanned(because they are unknown hahaha.. hum hum) but there is a bigger chance to find some in cave.
They are not here for mining (because they will be in very few quantity), they are here for sampling and analysis.
This is exploration stuff and you'll have to get a "Mineral Analysing Module" in your ship to find out what kind of mineral it is.
Or you can bring them to a station that will analyse it for you. (But they will not give you the full value of this discovery => less money earned).
Sample will be sellable on station for a good price and ever more if you have analysed it by yourself.
II-1-b known mineral mining
Well i won't detail this so much because it's common sense.
Anyway you will be able to mine mineral nodes you found or try to drill the stone in hope you'll find some good stuff. (very low chance of finding something good that way)
I don't know if frontier will release ground vehicule and planet update at the same time so i don't know if it will be mined with a mining ground vehicule or with drones.
I don't know what more to say about this. So let's go on an other cool subject, water !
II-2- Water
II-2-a Water analysis
Water will be rare, it will be a source of happiness because with water, there can be life !!
Water analysis is the moment when you cross your finger because it's not because there is water that there will be life.
Water can be poluted by so much thing. Indeed, it depends on the solute in the water and their concentration.
e.g : Sea water is composed of 3.5% salt where water saturate at 40% of salt. So our sea water is not that salty.
But it can be other solute like sulfur or methane that may not allow life(at least not ours)
You'll have to bring back your sample to your ship and analyse it with your "Water Analysing Module"
the result shoud looks like something like this :
Water Analysis :
Result :
Water(H2O) : 95%
chlorine(CL) : 2.5%
Sodium(NA) : 2%
Heavy-Water(D2O) : < 1%
etc...
In this case water is not that poluted so it may have life on this planet (once again not sure at all)
During your water analysis, you may have the surprise to find a life form : bacteria !!!
Yes bacteria is a life form even if it is a microscopic one.
Bacteria are the most "common" life form in the universe because it is the first step of life. And some planets don't have the assets to climb steps in the life evolution.
But i will speak more of it in the life chapter.
Lets now talk about the "Water mining" part : Heavy water
II-2-b Heavy water farming
For those how don't know what heavy water is, it's one of the most valuable liquid on earth atm (1100 euros/l)
It is like water but hydrogene has been replaced by deuterium (yeah it's not an Ogame ressource only, it exist in the real world)
It is mainly used to slow down nuclear reaction. So it is still worth in 3301 and it is well paid.
It is well paid because it is really rare, but you can extract it from water at a very low percentage and it cost you time and a "Heavy Water Extractor Module" on your ship.
Or if you are very very lucky you can find it at a natural state in cave where water has been filtered through the ground letting heavy water in some puddle because heavy water is more slimy than water.
That's pretty all i've imagine for this feature. Let's see the last and most interesting chapter : Life
II-3 Life
II-3-a Microscopic life
if you say that planet with water on can have life, i'm ok with it but don't expect frontier to bring you hundreds of modelised animal witch will have to be modified to not match our "earth animal".
So i can say that it should have sometimes, but very rarely, an animal like life form.
On the other hand, We could have easy content from microscopic scale life.
As i said earlier, you can find bacteria in the water, You could found a bacteria named : Deinococcus X-03
Then you could sell this data at a station.
This kind of idea is easy to implement because it doesn't need modelisation and can be proceduraly generated through some condition like temperature, temperature delta, solar radiation, planet gaz composition.
This could bring hundreds of microscopic life forms with only a few parameter.
like this :
Name : Deinococcus X-03
Temperature min : -20°C
Temperature max : 80°C
Solar Radiation : between 55 MW/m² and 85 MW/m²
Gaz Requirement : >50% of nitrogene
Price : 500 credits
you could add a small image representing the bacteria if you want to make it fun to watch but it's not necessary.
II-3-b Plant
Plant should be discoverable too in an explorer way to find new specimen and then take some sample to sell it in station.
You can analize it yourself with a "Biological portable scanner tool" to gain more money from it.
I won't expand more on this subject because it is hard to figure out how you could implement it, pretty simple but still very enjoyable.
II-3-c Wild life
Animals, oh yeah you would like to see dinosaurs again, i know you !
Well Animals would be the most rare thing in the universe to me (except maybe on earth)
It is like the 4 or 5th step of life evolution, so very rare !!
That's good because it would cost a lot to frontier to make all these "alien" animal model, sounds.
But i think frontier will want to show us some of it, it would be like "We are not alone in this galaxy".
Animal would be the most valuable discovery for exploration. You would need your "Biological portable scanner tool" and you would need to be on foot really close to the animal to scan it.
But beware, animal may attack you if this species is agressive. Don't go toward an animal without a gun.
III - Implementing this ideas
Now I've done the lore part to explain my idea, I gonna try to list all has to be implemented and the difficulties it could occur.
III-1 Atmospheric analysis
For this part it wouldn't be too much difficult it's gonna be a new module in your ship, "Atmospheric Analysing Module", that scan the atmosphere when you are really close to the planet like 10 km away from surface.
Data will be more accurate and more precise than the detailed surface scanner.
Frontier would have to do an extrapolation of planet and solar data to enhance planet data.
e.g : Planet with max temp < 0°C cannot have liquid water (unless you want to take on board pressure)
this extrapolation will help for procedural treatment.
III-2 Mapping
This might be a bit more complicated, i don't know how frontier will handle his planet mapping (through heatmap maybe?).
Anyway it will need a map that will have a "fog of war" and your "exploration mapping radar" will reveal this fog and if you go slow reveal some extra information like describe in I-2 section.
Module level will allow different detection curve with : speed of the ship / size of Point of Interest ratio
It will vary the surface scanned at once too like : Level 1 : 2km radius, Level 2 : 3 km radius, and so on.
III-3 Sample Storage
I didn't talk about this module earlier but it is a key module for exploration in planet.
It will allow you to take unknown mineral sample, plant sample, bacteria sample and will allow you to sell it
It's like a cargo but because to sustain it need certain condition, you'll have a limited slot per module like 5 or 10.
Imagine a storage box that reproduce at a smaller scale the planet condition to prevent from deterioration.
Depending on the rank of the sample storage you will be able to store more sample.
Note that Sample Storage could have to be alimented all the time risking to destroy sample in case of lack of energy.
III-4 Unknown mineral
I don't know how frontier could represent it to catch our eye on it, maybe a shiny thing on a normal block of stone i don't know.
But when you get it you'll have to analyse it on your ship with your "Mineral Analysing Module".
And then stock the sample in a "Sample Storage" to sell it on a station.
If you don't have a "Mineral Analysing Module", you'll sell the sample and get less money from it. (fact is analysing cost money)
III-5 known mineral mining
It would need to have nodes that can be mined like asteroid, as i said in the related chapter, the mining method will depends if there is ground vehicule available or not.
Except that, this shouldn't be hard to implement as it is already partially done with asteroid mining.
III-6 Water analysis
Beside the indicator of life chance on the planet, water sample will be the way to collect bacteria. You will need the "Water Analysing Module" to detect bacteria and water composition.
Same as unknown mineral analysis, if you don't have the module you will be able to sell it on a station at a lower price.
III-7 Heavy water farming
For this one, it's like mining but it's water, difference is you'll need a "Heavy Water Extractor Module" to "mine" it, it will be very long to get 1T of heavy water unless you find a ton of heavy water in a cave.
heavy water in a cave would need a vehicule to transport it to the ship.
i see it like a big tube you release from your ship and you'll have to standby a few meter above the water.
You'll have to manually activate to pump and it will start filter water to take heavy water only.
To make it less "NO BRAIN" activity, you should do like asteroid with a limited quantity area so we'll have to move further to extract heavy water again.
Some zone could be more or less rich in heavy-water like asteroid chunck do.
III-8 Plant
Not so difficult, just have to be able to interact with plant to take a sample. We could have a "Biological portable scanner tool" that scan the plant to know if we already have discovered it.
Then will have to stock it in the "Sample Storage" module of our ship. Same thing as unknown mineral or bacteria, not scanned sample will be less paid at a station.
III-9 Wild life
It will need a "Biological portable scanner tool" to be able to discover animal. Maybe we could add a sample thing to it but for me it will make it turn into savagery of killing animal even if they are harmless.
Thing is some animal should be agressive.
And i think this will be the most difficult part.
AI, model, sounds, i hope it won't be a problem for frontier.
I've thought about fossile but i don't know if it could be interesting and cost/efficient.
III-10 Cave
Cave will be hard too, but it would be so good, it would be like a treasure because it can contain very rare things, like puddle of heavy water, unknown mineral, rare plants or even water in a suposed non-water world.
It would be very rare but it will had exploration really enjoyable.
Problem is to model this cave (because a cave cannot be extrapolate from a heatmap) maybe 4 or 5 different cave pattern to make it less "always the same".
With random rare thing in it or nothing at all, it will be the most wanted place to find in planet.
III-11-Recap Module or Tool
Here is the recap of all module and tool used in my different concept :
- "Atmospheric Analysing Module"
- "Exploration mapping radar"
- "Sample Storage Module"
- "Mineral Analysing Module"
- "Water Analysing Module"
- "Heavy Water Extractor Module"
- "Biological portable scanner tool"
For a total of 6 module and 1 tool.
It will allow ship specialization in planet exploration more than just detailed surface scanner and advancer system scanner.
-----END-----
I hope you'll find these idea interesting and feel free to add some comment on what you think is good or bad, or even give some other idea you got.
I really hope frontier team could look at this and take what seems good to them.
I know it won't be like i described here but it is how i imagine this update.
Thanks a lot for reading, hope you liked it.
First of all, i'm french and tryed to do this post in english in order to be understood by the most and not only by french people. I apologyze in advance for further mistakes.
I've read that frontier want to bring us a planet update soon or later with the ability to explore planets and land on it like it is said here : http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wi...it_be_possible_to_manually_land_on_planets.3F
So i will try here to post my ideas about how to fill these planet for game content, i assume a lot have been already said but i gonna try to have an energy-saving approach for frontier developper and artist.
I'm also a developper(not from frontier) and i know when someone tell me a concept how much time it will cost to implement or if it cost too much ressource to implement it.
I'll put easy to do idea and some more complicated i have in mind. My goal is to bring as much content as possible in the easiest way possible.
Summary
I - In the air
1-Atmospheric analysis
2-Mapping
3-Gas Scooping
II - On the ground3-Gas Scooping
1-Mining
a-unknown mineral
b-known mineral mining
2-Water
a-water analysis
b-heavy water farming
3-Life
a-microscopic life
b-plant
c-wild life
III - Implementing this ideas
1-Atmospheric analysis
2-Mapping
3-Storage Sample
4-unknown mineral
5-known mineral mining
6-water analysis
7-heavy water farming
8-plant
9-wild life
10-Cave
11-Recap Module or Tool
I - In the air
In this part we gonna see what action we can do from our ship when we are in the planet "atmosphere" area. Note that only a few planet have a real atmosphere and so we have to think what we can do when there is none.
I-1- Atmosphere analysis
First thing i would do when i'm in the "atmosphere area" of a planet is scanning for data.
You'll need a "Atmospheric Analysing Module"
Here is what you can catch :
Atmosphere : yes/no
Gaz composition : yes/no
Nitrogen 78%
Oxygen 20%
Argon < 1%
Carbon dioxide < 1%
Neon < 1%
Helium < 1%
Methane < 1%
Water : yes/no
water : 1,383 billion km^3
water-gaz : 2%
water-solid : 18%
water-liquid : 80%
heavy water : < 1%
Mineral : yes/no
iron : 5%
diamon : <1%
stone : 80%
titanium : <1%
copper : 5%
silver : 2%
gold : 1%
etc ...
this is way more detailed than the detailed surface module result and this can help you with knowing if there is life or not in this planet.
But life cannot be scanned that way(it would ruined the exploration pleasure) even if you can guess there isn't if no water or atmosphere.
And it won't indicate where mineral or water is in the planet.
This data may change between planet because some don't have water or mineral like gaz planet (ex: Jupiter).
In case of gaz planet, you may be able to scoop if you get closer to the core.
But be carefull, temperature is a problem and so gravity, don't go too close or you will be attracted to the core and will explode due to overwhelming temperature.
With all this data, you may decide if the planet is interesting or not.
So you may want to start mapping the planet.
I-2-Mapping
You have decided this planet is interesting and want to know a bit more about it.
Then you'll have to go a bit further down to start mapping the planet.
For me mapping should be like a scratch ticket, in function of the quality of your "exploration mapping radar" you should be able to "scratch" more or less surface underneath your ship.
And the slower your ship travel the more accurate is your scan.
By accurate i mean it can detect smaller mineral node.
eg : i travel at 400 m/s, i've have detected only stone, but if i go at 200 m/s i've detected a 8t silver node in the stone area and at 50m/s i've found a 2t gold node.
The smaller the harder to detect. (ofc can be scaled on the "exploration mapping radar" level)
for here are the things you can mapped from the sky :
- mineral nodes
- cave (i will detail this after)
- surface type (water, ice, stone, etc..)
As i mentioned above, i think it could be grate to have cave.
Cave are not scannable from the sky and you'll have to go in it on foot to find out what kind of treasure you can find there.
It could be liquid water in a fully iced planet, heavy water containing deterium (usefull for nuclear reaction, so well paid), rare minerals or even life.
Cave pattern doesn't have to be different on each planet, it's just like a "tresure box" with random good stuff(or not) in it.
Note : Cave are hard to detect, don't fly fast with your scanner or you will miss it
Well, you have flought all around the planet and now have a good planisphere of your planet.
It's now time to land !
I-3- Gas Scooping
From Lolman345 post :
So gas scooping would interest some people.
I see it like this :
You analyse atmosphere in detail to see rare gaz and then open your "Gaz Prospecting Module". When it's done, you'll have a list of gaz in your module and you'll have to choose witch one you gonna store.
I would compare it to refinery, you can catch x different gaz at the same time.
Depending on your "Gaz Prospecting Module" level you will be able to scoop more type of gaz at the same time.
For a planet with this atmosphere parameter :
Nitrogen 78%
Oxygen 20%
Argon < 1%
Carbon dioxide < 1%
Neon < 1%
if you scoop nitrogen it would be very fast to get a ton of it (depending of gaz treatment rate of your module) but if you want to get a ton of argon it will take a long time.
I don't know if it would have 2 module or 1 for this kind of activity. Mining got a module and a utility tool.
I think Gaz propecting could follow the same pattern with a scooping utility tool and the "Gaz Prospecting Module".
II - On the ground
II-1- Mining
II-1-a Unknown mineral
Well we are in year 3301 so human have already discovered everything on the universe... really ?
No there are still some mystery, and you might find some during your exploration on some planet with unknown mineral.
Unknow mineral cannot be scanned(because they are unknown hahaha.. hum hum) but there is a bigger chance to find some in cave.
They are not here for mining (because they will be in very few quantity), they are here for sampling and analysis.
This is exploration stuff and you'll have to get a "Mineral Analysing Module" in your ship to find out what kind of mineral it is.
Or you can bring them to a station that will analyse it for you. (But they will not give you the full value of this discovery => less money earned).
Sample will be sellable on station for a good price and ever more if you have analysed it by yourself.
II-1-b known mineral mining
Well i won't detail this so much because it's common sense.
Anyway you will be able to mine mineral nodes you found or try to drill the stone in hope you'll find some good stuff. (very low chance of finding something good that way)
I don't know if frontier will release ground vehicule and planet update at the same time so i don't know if it will be mined with a mining ground vehicule or with drones.
I don't know what more to say about this. So let's go on an other cool subject, water !
II-2- Water
II-2-a Water analysis
Water will be rare, it will be a source of happiness because with water, there can be life !!
Water analysis is the moment when you cross your finger because it's not because there is water that there will be life.
Water can be poluted by so much thing. Indeed, it depends on the solute in the water and their concentration.
e.g : Sea water is composed of 3.5% salt where water saturate at 40% of salt. So our sea water is not that salty.
But it can be other solute like sulfur or methane that may not allow life(at least not ours)
You'll have to bring back your sample to your ship and analyse it with your "Water Analysing Module"
the result shoud looks like something like this :
Water Analysis :
Result :
Water(H2O) : 95%
chlorine(CL) : 2.5%
Sodium(NA) : 2%
Heavy-Water(D2O) : < 1%
etc...
In this case water is not that poluted so it may have life on this planet (once again not sure at all)
During your water analysis, you may have the surprise to find a life form : bacteria !!!
Yes bacteria is a life form even if it is a microscopic one.
Bacteria are the most "common" life form in the universe because it is the first step of life. And some planets don't have the assets to climb steps in the life evolution.
But i will speak more of it in the life chapter.
Lets now talk about the "Water mining" part : Heavy water
II-2-b Heavy water farming
For those how don't know what heavy water is, it's one of the most valuable liquid on earth atm (1100 euros/l)
It is like water but hydrogene has been replaced by deuterium (yeah it's not an Ogame ressource only, it exist in the real world)
It is mainly used to slow down nuclear reaction. So it is still worth in 3301 and it is well paid.
It is well paid because it is really rare, but you can extract it from water at a very low percentage and it cost you time and a "Heavy Water Extractor Module" on your ship.
Or if you are very very lucky you can find it at a natural state in cave where water has been filtered through the ground letting heavy water in some puddle because heavy water is more slimy than water.
That's pretty all i've imagine for this feature. Let's see the last and most interesting chapter : Life
II-3 Life
II-3-a Microscopic life
if you say that planet with water on can have life, i'm ok with it but don't expect frontier to bring you hundreds of modelised animal witch will have to be modified to not match our "earth animal".
So i can say that it should have sometimes, but very rarely, an animal like life form.
On the other hand, We could have easy content from microscopic scale life.
As i said earlier, you can find bacteria in the water, You could found a bacteria named : Deinococcus X-03
Then you could sell this data at a station.
This kind of idea is easy to implement because it doesn't need modelisation and can be proceduraly generated through some condition like temperature, temperature delta, solar radiation, planet gaz composition.
This could bring hundreds of microscopic life forms with only a few parameter.
like this :
Name : Deinococcus X-03
Temperature min : -20°C
Temperature max : 80°C
Solar Radiation : between 55 MW/m² and 85 MW/m²
Gaz Requirement : >50% of nitrogene
Price : 500 credits
you could add a small image representing the bacteria if you want to make it fun to watch but it's not necessary.
II-3-b Plant
Plant should be discoverable too in an explorer way to find new specimen and then take some sample to sell it in station.
You can analize it yourself with a "Biological portable scanner tool" to gain more money from it.
I won't expand more on this subject because it is hard to figure out how you could implement it, pretty simple but still very enjoyable.
II-3-c Wild life
Animals, oh yeah you would like to see dinosaurs again, i know you !
Well Animals would be the most rare thing in the universe to me (except maybe on earth)
It is like the 4 or 5th step of life evolution, so very rare !!
That's good because it would cost a lot to frontier to make all these "alien" animal model, sounds.
But i think frontier will want to show us some of it, it would be like "We are not alone in this galaxy".
Animal would be the most valuable discovery for exploration. You would need your "Biological portable scanner tool" and you would need to be on foot really close to the animal to scan it.
But beware, animal may attack you if this species is agressive. Don't go toward an animal without a gun.
III - Implementing this ideas
Now I've done the lore part to explain my idea, I gonna try to list all has to be implemented and the difficulties it could occur.
III-1 Atmospheric analysis
For this part it wouldn't be too much difficult it's gonna be a new module in your ship, "Atmospheric Analysing Module", that scan the atmosphere when you are really close to the planet like 10 km away from surface.
Data will be more accurate and more precise than the detailed surface scanner.
Frontier would have to do an extrapolation of planet and solar data to enhance planet data.
e.g : Planet with max temp < 0°C cannot have liquid water (unless you want to take on board pressure)
this extrapolation will help for procedural treatment.
III-2 Mapping
This might be a bit more complicated, i don't know how frontier will handle his planet mapping (through heatmap maybe?).
Anyway it will need a map that will have a "fog of war" and your "exploration mapping radar" will reveal this fog and if you go slow reveal some extra information like describe in I-2 section.
Module level will allow different detection curve with : speed of the ship / size of Point of Interest ratio
It will vary the surface scanned at once too like : Level 1 : 2km radius, Level 2 : 3 km radius, and so on.
III-3 Sample Storage
I didn't talk about this module earlier but it is a key module for exploration in planet.
It will allow you to take unknown mineral sample, plant sample, bacteria sample and will allow you to sell it
It's like a cargo but because to sustain it need certain condition, you'll have a limited slot per module like 5 or 10.
Imagine a storage box that reproduce at a smaller scale the planet condition to prevent from deterioration.
Depending on the rank of the sample storage you will be able to store more sample.
Note that Sample Storage could have to be alimented all the time risking to destroy sample in case of lack of energy.
III-4 Unknown mineral
I don't know how frontier could represent it to catch our eye on it, maybe a shiny thing on a normal block of stone i don't know.
But when you get it you'll have to analyse it on your ship with your "Mineral Analysing Module".
And then stock the sample in a "Sample Storage" to sell it on a station.
If you don't have a "Mineral Analysing Module", you'll sell the sample and get less money from it. (fact is analysing cost money)
III-5 known mineral mining
It would need to have nodes that can be mined like asteroid, as i said in the related chapter, the mining method will depends if there is ground vehicule available or not.
Except that, this shouldn't be hard to implement as it is already partially done with asteroid mining.
III-6 Water analysis
Beside the indicator of life chance on the planet, water sample will be the way to collect bacteria. You will need the "Water Analysing Module" to detect bacteria and water composition.
Same as unknown mineral analysis, if you don't have the module you will be able to sell it on a station at a lower price.
III-7 Heavy water farming
For this one, it's like mining but it's water, difference is you'll need a "Heavy Water Extractor Module" to "mine" it, it will be very long to get 1T of heavy water unless you find a ton of heavy water in a cave.
heavy water in a cave would need a vehicule to transport it to the ship.
i see it like a big tube you release from your ship and you'll have to standby a few meter above the water.
You'll have to manually activate to pump and it will start filter water to take heavy water only.
To make it less "NO BRAIN" activity, you should do like asteroid with a limited quantity area so we'll have to move further to extract heavy water again.
Some zone could be more or less rich in heavy-water like asteroid chunck do.
III-8 Plant
Not so difficult, just have to be able to interact with plant to take a sample. We could have a "Biological portable scanner tool" that scan the plant to know if we already have discovered it.
Then will have to stock it in the "Sample Storage" module of our ship. Same thing as unknown mineral or bacteria, not scanned sample will be less paid at a station.
III-9 Wild life
It will need a "Biological portable scanner tool" to be able to discover animal. Maybe we could add a sample thing to it but for me it will make it turn into savagery of killing animal even if they are harmless.
Thing is some animal should be agressive.
And i think this will be the most difficult part.
AI, model, sounds, i hope it won't be a problem for frontier.
I've thought about fossile but i don't know if it could be interesting and cost/efficient.
III-10 Cave
Cave will be hard too, but it would be so good, it would be like a treasure because it can contain very rare things, like puddle of heavy water, unknown mineral, rare plants or even water in a suposed non-water world.
It would be very rare but it will had exploration really enjoyable.
Problem is to model this cave (because a cave cannot be extrapolate from a heatmap) maybe 4 or 5 different cave pattern to make it less "always the same".
With random rare thing in it or nothing at all, it will be the most wanted place to find in planet.
III-11-Recap Module or Tool
Here is the recap of all module and tool used in my different concept :
- "Atmospheric Analysing Module"
- "Exploration mapping radar"
- "Sample Storage Module"
- "Mineral Analysing Module"
- "Water Analysing Module"
- "Heavy Water Extractor Module"
- "Biological portable scanner tool"
For a total of 6 module and 1 tool.
It will allow ship specialization in planet exploration more than just detailed surface scanner and advancer system scanner.
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I hope you'll find these idea interesting and feel free to add some comment on what you think is good or bad, or even give some other idea you got.
I really hope frontier team could look at this and take what seems good to them.
I know it won't be like i described here but it is how i imagine this update.
Thanks a lot for reading, hope you liked it.
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