@IBOL - Thanks, that clears up a lot. I agree that realism is dull and pointless, but there still has to be some sort of rationale to things. Like perhaps the game begins with your cat jumping on the controls and sending your ship to an unknown sector!
That would explain why a trading or mining vessel might find itself in unexplored territory.
Quote: "landing party: health bar dictates survival chance. this system may change."
I think this could definitely be clearer and possibly a single bar, unless you have something specific planned.
Quote: "I currently like crew as a 'resource' more than an actual group of people but that may change."
I think it would add a lot to the game to have individual crew members, even if they are still represented as a single person on the planet. Maybe they could have buffs for certain things that would help you, like a navigator would buff the ship's sensors, engineer would help the ship's fuel last a little longer, a soldier would do more damage to aliens, etc. Then you have to choose what is most important to you and who is expendable who selecting your landing party.
Procedural Generation
Exactly how much of the game is (going to be) procedurally generated?
If you are thinking about making PG plants and animals then maybe I could help with that. I am planning my own space exploration game that would require these things. I don't have an algorithm in front of me now though so I can't promise anything at the moment. I have learned that it is important to make the game you can make, not one you think you might be able to make in the future.
I don't know what direction you are taking with this game but I want to make a game that is all about knowledge. For example, you might land on an alien planet and find a huge beast that growls and gnashes its teeth at you menacingly, you decide to shoot it as it might be dangerous, then what do you do with its body? If you eat it you might find it's toxic or maybe it's delicious and you can make a living by hunting these beasts and selling the meat. What if you then discover this beast is actually civilised and its growling was actually a peaceful greeting? What if you have just started an interplanetary war through your ignorance!? I don't know how to do all that quite yet but some of it is a lot more straightforward than it sounds.
When I landed on a planet and found narcotics I immediately thought, "Crap, there must be smugglers here, better be on my guard.", but there was no one there. I would make it so that there was a plant that you had to harvest to get the narcotics, then you might walk right by it without realising what it was.
Formerly OBese87.
