[UI] GGG Expansion idea: space anomaly scanner (SAS)

"Our scientists have tried to find new places to explore and exploit. But even after all these years, we were unable to find anything. But we missed one important aspect of space: Radiation anomalies. Small and temporary places in the depths of space, which often reveal useful resources. The only downside is that we cannot create permanent pathways to these anomalies, as we would end up wasting resources for a place we cannot visit anymore shortly after.

VRU and Space Travel Infinite™ combined their efforts with the mutual goal to find a technology that would be well suited for these anomalies. After years of research, we finally created a stable technology: Temporary rifts. This portal consists purely of energy, punching a wormhole into the fabric of space to any desired location for a short amount of time, allowing travel back and forth for the time. Combined with a new scanner on the Galaxy Gate Generator, you are now able to find and visit anomalies and help both your company and yourself with the resources provided by these sectors."

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Index

1. Introduction
2. What is the space anomaly scanner?
3. Where is the space anomaly scanner located? How does it work?
4. How do anomalies work?
5. What are objectives?
6. What are my rewards?
7. Titles, achievements and ranking?
8. Final words

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Introduction
There are many undiscovered places in space. Unfortunately, all of them are inaccessible. Most are too far away, and those we could reach are blocked off by radiation which we can't protect ourselves from. But thanks to our newfound technology, we can now exploit natural events, and explore these sectors for our own gain. Those previously inaccessible sectors are now in your grasp. Yes, pilot, we want you as our prime explorer. We grant you access to this technology, and it's up to you to gather information about both these anomalies, as well as the sectors surrounding them.

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What is the space anomaly scanner?
The space anomaly scanner, or SAS for short, allows you to search for and access anomaly sectors. These sectors are temporary and timely, meaning the moment you find an anomaly, it's active for 45 minutes. Hurry up, once the anomaly closes, you will be trapped there until you die from radiation!

Each anomaly is different! Which means they're randomly generated for everyone who uses them. Obviously, that also mean each time you get different rewards. The more you do, the higher the chances for the resources you need.

Where is the space anomaly scanner located? How does it work?
You can find the SAS in the Galaxy Gate Generator. It can be found in the animation between the multiplier, and the generation button. I doubt anyone watches their loot being sent to their ship, right? This is where you find it, consisting out of a button for searching/generating a rift to a new anomaly.

This action does have a fixed cost. Creating a rift to an anomaly will cost you 250 extra energy, and for once cannot be skipped with Uridium. I want extra energy to have a new relevance. And thanks to daily missions, getting 250 extra energy isn't even that difficult.

Clicking the button to search an anomaly will take up to 30 minutes to find a new anomaly. This time is made so people don't just jump right in, but instead keep playing for a while. Should an anomaly be found, the player will be notified. The portal to this anomaly is placed automatically, and located right above the base for VRU, below for EIC, and to the right for MMO. Should find free space among those 100 others, right?

Once an anomaly has depleted, you have to wait 4 hours to create a new portal. So this is linked to a cooldown.

How do anomalies work?
Unlike Galaxy Gates, those anomalies don't work with a wave system. Instead, you will be given objectives which you can complete, and if the objectives are ignored, it can be treated as a semi-regular map. Completing the objectives will yield rewards though, and not too little ones either. They of course cannot compete with galaxy gates, since they're so cheap.

Each map is different in terms of objectives, difficulty, types of enemies and types of rewards. Even the name and background is different. The name goes with the schematic of one letter followed by a number between 001 and 999. So for instance: AS-U827. This is purely cosmetic and doesn't add any relevance to the sector.

Based on some factors, the map generated can increase/decrease in difficulty, intensity, objectives and types of events and NPC's generated. In other words, the following 5 factors determine the type of the anomaly:

• Type: What kind of anomaly this is. Can be multiple types. Types can be: Resource-hotspot, invasion, assault, meteor shower and Point of Interest. (probe construction)
  • Resource hotspot means you will find many little stones on the ground, like Promerium, Seprom and even Osmium. Few aliens will be around to annoy you and respawn.
  • Invasion is... Well... An invasion.
  • Assault means there will be a fixed amount of stronger aliens which you have to defeat to secure the sector. Cannot be combined with Invasion.
  • Meteor shower will rain meteors from one side to another. Getting in the way of a meteor will deal hefty damage, destroying meteors will yield a decent uridium reward.
  • PoI in short means you have to construct a probe and defend it until the objective is complete.
  • ... More could come in the future, those were the 5 I had in mind.
• Difficulty: How hard the Anomaly is going to be. Varying from 1 - 5. (1 = easy, 5 = Very difficult) A harder difficulty yields stronger NPC's, the objectives require higher input...
• Intensity: The intensity of an anomaly determines the amount of types combined and their respective difficulty. Ranges from 1 to 3. Meaning 1 = 1 type, 3 means 3 types.
• NPC Population: What kind of NPC you will face. Can range between 3 to 8 different aliens. Aliens can be almost anything except for: Mindfire Behemoth, Invoke, Event NPC
• Ambient events: Determines what hazards will await you. Hazards like anomalous disturbances mean there will be areas with negative influence. Asteroid field will mean you will have obstacles/walls. Dark sector mean you have limited vision (similar to VoT, but actual black-out)

These combined will determine the anomaly. So you could technically get a high intensity, high difficulty anomaly consisting of Melters, Boss Kristallon, Kurcubium, etc...

This all is vague and I'd love to explain more, but explaining something randomly generated is kinda difficult. So let's just go with: Sector... Random... Temporary... Rewards. Nuff said. (jk)

What are objectives?
Objectives are your optional goals, but also kinda mandatory if you want rewards. Based on the types selected, your objectives will differ. Here is a list of the objectives that can be generated:

• Collect X Resources
• Fly to X Coordinates
• Fly X Distance
• Kill X enemies of type Y
• Activate all probes
• Eliminate all enemies
• destroy X meteors
• Investigate X anomaly (being close to it)

This is a small portion of objectives that can be chosen. 2 Objectives are base, with each point in intensity, there will be one more task. So up to 4 tasks are possible.

What are my rewards?
Of course the most important part. What kind of rewards will await you? Well, I'm proud to announce that it will be possibly everything. So yeah, that also includes rewards like Tetrathrin, Scrap, Rinusk, Booty keys, ammunition... So basically, almost anything. Except some ships and weapons, obviously.

Rewards are calculated by 3 key factors: Difficulty, which serves as both the multiplier, as well as the "what type of rewards will I get?", intensity, which will further enhance the loot, and lastly the objectives completed. If you don't complete any objectives, you won't receive any loot. Completing at least one objective is required to receive a final reward.

I would provide examples, but due to the sheer amount of possible rewards, plus their separate calculation, it would be kinda difficult.

Titles, achievements and ranking?
Of course, what would be a new content without proper achievements? Of course, we will have a few achievements, titles and ranking will also be a thing.

Completing an anomaly will give you 50 Ranking points... Should be okay, right?

A new ranking board will also be made, showing both how many objectives people have completed, as well as how many anomalies have been visited and explored.

Achievements and titles:
Anomaly finder - Find one anomaly.
Anomalous being - Find ten anomalies.
Space-fabric - Find 25 anomalies.
I AM the anomaly - Find 100 anomalies.*

My orders? - Complete 10 tasks
I got this - Complete 50 tasks
Obedient worker - complete 200 tasks
Taskforce one - Complete 400 tasks*

I think this about sums it up in terms of achievements, titles and ranking.

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Final words
Of course, this idea is a bit more complex and probably doesn't get as much recognition, but I do hope some people will like it. I thought afterall that this would save the work behind having to create new gates altogether. And that would be new content that would last for at least a little while.

Kind regards - Zecora

 

Yeah, its certainly more complex but that is good. DO doesn't usually have game ideas that are all too complex; its nice to see the creativity and effort put behind it. I certainly think this would be a great addition to the GGs due to the fact that there are not really any gates for the newer players to have a chance at finishing without spending hours in one. I believe they would be not as willing to implement this as it does not bring any payment to the table. (great for the players, bad for money hungry DO) But, I would hope they see the value in making more players interested in playing the game by adding a more dynamic gate.
Great creative skills man I don't really see anything I would change from your idea so 10/10 great job!

 

Hey, thank you.

Yeah, the primary goals were to add something dynamic and random into the game. And honestly, I think a system like this would certainly benefit both high level and low level players alike.

I wouldn't exactly call it a gate. More of a temporary and private map. But let's roll with gate. Gate sounds better.

 

The only disagreement we have is that it would be yet another solo-play style which would be fine if most of the GGs where group oriented.
It's just a preference though, I like to play with others when I choose to play an online game; nevertheless it's a good idea.

True. I'm glad I read your comment.
The GG system needs a rework from the ground up.
They should be seen as Dungeon areas where accessing them is limited by account level.
The final boss should reward, randomly and with a probability, items such as Laser, drone designs etc, all things needed to progress through the game. More content is necessary though.
There should be a progress system with easy gates for when your level is low and hard gates for the ones that reach end-game (I don't see an end-game in Darkorbit but anyways it's just give an idea).

 

I think group content in general would be more appreciated, and in the German forums I did suggest exactly that, albeit with negative resonance. Not sure however how that would work here. Since it's randomly generated, we cannot exactly treat this as the regular group gate, unless we say that up to 4 people can generate the same instance, in which case this would work somewhat.

That could technically work, but would require both a group that starts the generation at the same time which on some servers could become a problem, and the timer shortened to like 5 minutes instead, so other people cannot "steal" a spot in that instance if you plan to play with a few pals.

So yes, generally I agree, but I don't think we can efficiently practice that in that idea specifically. For that, a randomly generated clan dungeon would work better, where one clan generates the same dungeon

 

This is perfect! I'm all for game updates that rely heavily on space exploration rather than "Kill X Enemy that we gave a random name to".

Zecora for game developer! Let's start the campaign.