Spawners and Village Creation Discussion

[Fox]

Okay, I've been playing around with the various spawner items recently, building a house and creating a community of assistants to live in it and poppulate it. And that got me thinking about the potential for using such things as the game continues to grow, and what options there might be when Starbound is finally finished. I'm intrigued by the prospects, and kinda excited too.

So this thread is for discussing those prospects, and throwing around possible ideas for the future.

First of all, I can't help but notice that any guard spawned by the spawner is hopelessly outmatched by monsters even on a level 1 planet, particularly birds. Before anyone says anying - yes I know the game is a beta and this will likely improve in time.

But it got me wondering if we will ever get customisation options for guards, to choose their level when they spawn so they can survive on higher level planets? Will there be a spawner for each tier of planet, and each one takes a different item to build? Or will guards level up as you go along, so starting them on low level planets will get them exp and health, then you can transfer them to a higher tier later on? Will we be able to heal our guards by giving them items, or will they heal themselves when injured? And will we even be able to select the weapons they use to defend our bases, either when spawning them or by trading with them after spawning?

So too with the utillity and villager spawners - I wonder what sort of potential for customisation there will be in time. For example, will we be able to choose the races of utillity NPCs when they spawn, or their appearance? When I was testing out the items in my own game my tool vendor spawned as a Hylotl, but one of my guards was Floran - of course in game lore this would not happen as those two races are enemies, but some players may want this species crossover, imagining the backstory that everyone in the settlement is an outcast like them and they have come together despite racial boundaries in order to survive. Will we have the option to customise these things so we can personalise our games to whatever we wish?

Also, might there be some benefit to running a village in the full game? Already in the beta villagers have hoes and ocasionally till the ground around their spawn point as if starting a farm, and that makes me wonder if perhaps you could set up a village to work for you while you go explore other planets. Could you perhaps assign villagers to work as farmers, tending crops etc while you're away, so when you return there will be plenty of food waiting for you to collect? Might this also eventually extend to other trades too, such as the spinning wheel for clothes, or the cooking table for higher level food goods? May elements of settlement management come into play, where your villagers create items for you to sell on other planets for pixels, and you care for them as a 'town mayor' sort of character?

This is just a brainstorm of random ideas...I don't know what the devs have in mind for the spawners and town creation. But it's interesting to imagine the posibillities. And perhaps if some of the ideas are good enough, the team might even take note and consider incorporating some of them into the game too. Whatever the case, anyone else have any thoughts on the matter?

Discuss.

[dfens00]

Not sure how to keep them alive. Tried putting them in the basement of my fort, with the next floor up high enough that they could not jump to reach it (They would spam tries for several minutes). Somehow they died anyway. Not sure what I did.

[Lina]

well if you read the description of the game, not trying to ruin your ideas or anything, it tells you how you meet npcs, who then come to live in places you make, guessing something along the lines of terraria which when a structure meets certain requirements they move in. It even says when you pick a new home planet they move there with you. As of now spawners are neither of those things, just a one shot plop. Really a waste unless used on ship. So for now they are just a place holder. Not saying you could use the feature in mods to make some things, very neat things, beyond the holographic dancer mod lol

[Tweed]

They're suppose to make villages more meaningful at some point, how much more I dunno, but I spawned one whole villager just to try it out and then left them there, alone, forever.

[Lina]

yes but i am talking about spawners specifically, what they will do with npcs in villages who knows. Im sure they will become quest hubs, make stores more worth wild as more content comes in, maybe even crafting stations we cant build on our own

[MTpromises]

Originally posted by dfens00:

Not sure how to keep them alive. Tried putting them in the basement of my fort, with the next floor up high enough that they could not jump to reach it (They would spam tries for several minutes). Somehow they died anyway. Not sure what I did.

If your base is at high enough altitude birds can spawn inside rooms.

[Lina]

never had birds come spawn in my rooms..yet, have to keep that in mind for future. I just made solid floors, was an easy fix and they dont like some doors either so was easy to lock em in

[Lina]

oh and when wiring is fixed youll be able to lock em in rooms easy

[Sekhmet_]

I also love the idea of caring about your own town.
It would be the only reason to set a home planet and for people who are just satisfied to be nomades there would be no need to build a city.
I also love games where you care for you little pixel inhabitents and it would just be so much fun building outposts etc. Also if you read the story for example of the humans then they would reaally need a settlement or as an apex, a base for your resistance etc.
(sorry for my terrible english)

[Doc Shawski]

♥♥♥♥.... lol

Originally posted by Tweed:

They're suppose to make villages more meaningful at some point, how much more I dunno, but I spawned one whole villager just to try it out and then left them there, alone, forever.

[yung jizzle]

There is a colony mod where you bring npc's in with a beacon, and then can make them mine, farm or build

[Necrius]

Devs promise NPC rescue missions, cooperation, diversity and you get one-use merchant/guard/decorative walking dummy spawner that will be wasted if you try to scan it in 3D printer.

[AgentSmith]

My problem with the spawned people is that they seem to be replicating on their own. I laid out 6 villager spawners and now I have over 20 villagers and they tend to hang out in one spot. The FPS drop alone is enough to make me murder them all.

[Aero]

same

[Tummy Ruffles]

Originally posted by SoulChaserJ:

My problem with the spawned people is that they seem to be replicating on their own. I laid out 6 villager spawners and now I have over 20 villagers and they tend to hang out in one spot. The FPS drop alone is enough to make me murder them all.

I wiped out all my villagers because of that fps drop