The caves get made in a slightly quirky way.
Radom hardness gets distributed on the map, and then caves get eroded out with celular automata.
That said there are arguments for both approaches. And i think my shipplans are pretty pretty, so lets leave them non random for now
Ya see, there are the obligatory maneaters already, and the tree cave too. Hmm... eradicate all/some plant life on x/y.... Hey! could be that i am going to steal that thanks
What i meant with all plants do the same is that they turn sunlight & stuff into other stuff. It's really nice of them that they do, but it isn't exactly exciting. Dunno. if i do it analogue to the animals "a spider with 2 lens eyes and a trunk" just sounds a lot more interesting than "A bush with long brown leaves"
Oh right, I should see all the unique worlds before I go proposing them.
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All animals do the same thing- move around on limbs and turning stuff that goes in their mouth and stuff into other stuff. Not very exciting.
So because most plants don't change instead of mentioning something equally stationary why not use verbs. "Puffs off spores when touched" or "has attracted a variety of small bugs" seem like a move in the right direction but is a bit wordy. You could have plants with damage from the wildlife causing them to leak various types of sap or perhaps some that were natural fountains (could serve the same purpose as flowers for worlds where the plants had easy access to water but animal life did not.)
The animals have a body type/limbs, sensory organs, and some other notable appendage or feature (such as fur.)
Give plants three categories with about as many diversity and it should work just as well.
-it seems like it's not working because you don't want it to before you've tried is all.
yah... diseases.
They kinda should be there, but i have problem thinking of a way to put them in.
First of all there is the whole "Ok, the environment is hazardous? I close my helmet" thingy.
Ok, gotta find that out first, command for switching to oxygen supply. But then we got a nobrainer: just never open your helmet.
And of course they need to have several effects. Ok, hit chance and damage can be decreased, maybe a disease that makes your science officer rolls harder. Halluzinations of course. Hmm... increased oxygen need?
And of course there needs to be more than one way to deal with it. (Ok, SO, medpack, anti disease medpacks, local flora & fauna)
I really dont want to add yet another "some random damage" element. I think there are more than enough of those.
Oh: and thanks for that observation slMagnvox. thinking about it the amount of biodata has increased quite a bit while this thing grew. Of course one should push the modifier for selling it to omega bioengineering down to counter that. I think I'll do just that (*1.8... highest mod of all companies)
If you're not on your own oxygen there's the option of airborn pathogens getting through whatever filters were in the suit and you could make biodata a bit riskier by having the quality of data gained by examining something through gloves be less than really having full contact with it.
I am personally suprised you have to take all your Officers with you even the ones who have absolutely no use in the field.
Captain: "Alright so for by team Ill pick the Pilot, The Gunner, The Engineer, and no one else"
Science Officer: "Captain I must warn you against such actions, they have no use exploring an empty planet."
Captain: "No, I must bring ALL my officers no matter how much I would benefit from them staying on the ship"
Science Officer: "Your making an error, I am an Officer as well"
Captain: "You are? I thought you were a peice of equipment"
Science Officer: "What gives you that idea?"
Captain: "Well..."
TO BE CONTINUED... by someone else
You really got to give these Officers other skills to make taking some of them with you. Though they usually didn't need a reason in Retro-Sci-Fi.
I mean, the Gunner could aim the Ship weapons at Targets you indicate and the Pilot can move the ship to pick you up.
Though the only issue I have with the current roster is that the Science Officer seems... almost too important. He/she/it/android does almost everything and everyone else does nothing. Translates speach, Scans life/death, Opens Locks, and likely other things as well.
Well we could transition over to each crew member being unique but gaining particular skills in the things they do (perhaps not being able to get more than one skill past level 2. With this there would be reason to keep several members on board and take specific ones off.
A system for making that not-tedious would probably be pretty tricky though.
You think correct slmagnvox.
Hmm... It's pretty much a nobrainer actually... you guys think it should be an option to leave the pilot at the ship? Or just hardcode him out of the awayteam?
Can't really delegate stuff from the science offizer to him, since that would make very little sense.
Picking locks might not be so much a scientist thing if we thought of the scientist being very moral while the pilot was more of a street-smarts guy.