Yeah the ocean cyberpunk distopia sounds amazing, also cant wait to play 2077, that out of the way let me pitch another batch of my shitty ideas:
Now there was little said about the distopic world, but suppose the whole colony is a megapolis, which would have barely any food production(just local inner farms) as a result - shortages of food, mass import of that stuff and producing mostly illegal goods for export, - modified/selfmade weapons with no markings, drugs, slaves, mercs for hire, - shitload of people concentrated in small territory manifesting into a cradle of villainy, cutthroat business, riots, gangs everywhere with barely legal 'enforcement' (who are basically geared up mercs and killers working for the rulers of the place) only maintaining order in strategically sound places and giving 0 fucks about well being of people. While this hellhole is drowning in sin outside there are storms, hurricanes, tsunamis left and right the place is locked in hard with no option to establish 'water farming'.
How could such a place come to be? Suppose it was a penal colony of sorts with all the unwanted and broken being lobbed off there, - endless supply of people on small ammount of space becoming WaterSpacerock Kowloon 2.0 over the time and now its an important 'manufacturer' of goods, while officially there are no such things the deep rooted web of corruption created a booming business venture for many.
What would such a place have? Events firing off EVERY SQUARE TRAVERSED. Since there are a lot of people, suppose there are 100-200 events some are nonrepeatable while others are endless, be it some beggars asking for a quick coin, orphans trying to steal your equipment(without a fight), police arresting you on the spot for bullshit laws expecting a bribe (which acn become a small quest of its own you know - pay them off then investigate this, try to report it and get ignored, get thrown in prison, assault them and later get 'just dues' or get away scott free having become part of the corrupt underworld who knows its not up to me). The sort of thing you'd expect to see from such a shithole. Misery, no hope, no future, no help all bleak grey.
Suppose the probe fell into the ocean and no one is interested in delving the treacherous sea due to endless storms, whirlpools that come and go and wildlife of that place - due to such harsh weather the denizens of the sea would be hardened as fuck. Now you could have normal beasts just living there, understandable BUT WHAT IF say you come to the shore told to meet some 'contact' from sea dwellers and there is a dolphin with cybernetic eye or an eyepatch one fin is made out of some galvanized plastic-metallic alloy who is smoking a cigarette and has a wig resembling Plisken. Seeing you it flicks the cigarette on the ground with its flipper and says some one liner "You sure kept me waiting." but not as lame, this is where actual writers come on. Or just does the dolphin sounds as you stand there dumbfounded till your universal translator or w/e starts working.
Ok nvm all that lets move on to the next:
Suppose there is ANOTHER snow filled planet with serious negative temperatures, windstorms, hail, blizzards and the entire planet is Mountains - the place is used as a purely research facilities, - there is extremely low traffic of spaceships, all the supplies needed are more or less locally produced in labs, order and structure are key, the various facilities are connected by underground railways and thats where the problem begins - someone crashlands (possibly rival or player) disabling the connections between some facilities, maybe some test subjects get away or perhaps an experiment goes wrong because of this, maybe air filtration gets fucked possibilities are endless. To spice things up this place's 'communicator' with rest of the galaxy should be malfunctioning despite pristine conditions - due to specifics of the planet, making calling for help almost impossible, at the same time its not 'visible' for anyone not specifically looking for the planet. Suppose its the player who crashes and you cant get off the planet till you resolve the local issue because otherwise your ship cant be fixed *extreme weather conditions will actively disrupt any attempts to fix your ship yourselves*. And there might be a soft timer to get things done, if its your rival who crashed maybe you can save their ass and they'll be little less bitchy and or you could teamswap Feruze there, who knows. Once you resolve the local issue you might be thinking 'ok surely i can get the pod and be done with it now' HELL NO. The pod is hidden god fucking knows where on the planet, the locators are FUCKED - weather, shitload of metals and magnets all over fuck with any detectors making finding the probe a 'prospector simulator' of sorts where you'll be hiring teams and paying them for weeks/months (depending how many you contract) getting reports from time to time while you are doing something else. At some point when they find it if you were an ass to the hired people or they are just scumbags they might just sell the thing to your rival of which you wont know till later unless you manually show up to check at some point. Like they might give her a month + head start. Now i know the game doesnt track time like that and thats a GOOD THING, its just something for the realistic part of it - think of it as if you were the prospector - you got the thing, while X pays you Y wants it aswell why not get extras so you sell it and DONT tell your boss who keeps funding till he comes to check up on the progress personally. Now if the probe was to be pulled OUT of the planet you'd know so its physically still there. Imagine if you previously saved your cousin *if they crashlanded* they could just tell you how much of a scumbags your 3d party contractors are right after he/she takes the code. And if you didnt help out he/she will just go on his/her merry way cackling at you getting screwed by scumbag subcontractors.
Sure its a rought draft came up with it on the spot having seen the news wanted to share.
I am looking forward to new stuff and new crewmembers! Feel free to use or not use any of the ideas above, odds are you guys have something much better in mind! Can only fathom what glorious content was conceived.
Personally cant wait for more Amber, BestWulfe, Mitzi and personally hoping to see Verusha as crew, i know its not planned but i really dont see why not. Merc needs a job, no? Think about logistics, she is in bars nonstop at some point she will run out of money, why work for god knows who when you can be on reliable TSS Clownbus kicking names and taking ass!
Keep up the great work guys! <3
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Edited in later: FORGET EVERYTHING I SAID UP TO THIS POINT.
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The ship crashes in some shithole desert planet because you were shot down by automated defence systems which 1) you dont detect 2) shouldnt be there 3) fry your electronics and you have no spares around, having not planned for this situation. The place isnt registered as habitable or even hospitable, sun is scorching everything, there is no water in sight, just deserts all across and sand getting in the engine, clothes, hair. Water is precious and finite at this point, something you never considered to be able to run out is suddenly a hazard due to condensation.
Your mission is 4 fold: 1) find the probe which IS somewhere here 2) fix the ship so you can go in and out of this place(at which point you will find out that defence system will prevent you leaving aswell) 3) find and deal with defence system 4) discover what the hell kind of place is this in the first place
What you have going against you: time, nature, hostile defence forces, agressive highly poisonous and acidic wildlife.
What you got going for you: turns out your ship is not the only one - discover whole graveyards of vessels and learn what happened to them, they are one of the possibilities to fix your ship + discover treasures untold, buried tens of thousands of suns ago.
Discover underground tunnels devoid of life, solve the mystery of what transpired and what hidden treasure is buried here.
I would imagine players being able to salvage ships + AuDF weapons and parts. This is where having a lot of crew comes in handy - even if some dont have specific talents extra hands do help salvage faster.
Planet all about exploration, basically no extra NPCs introduced but instead it could focus on interactions between PC and companions having unique context sensitive scenes.
Maybe once all is dealt with players can open up a salvaging port there.
Fuck that here is a better one: a planet where once you step outside a seemingly infinite smells sounds and colors you havent seen before slowly pass before you like they were there all along, interchanging, dancing all natural, forms are deformed and changed, you think of an object and it appears, flows exists and not a figment of mind and reality, - from nothing into something idea shapes form, everchanging never complete endlessly flawed and perfect a mirriad reflections of it and oneself in every object.
Imagine a place where thoughts, desires take form should one will it an extremely happy place for both space and time would be shapable, and relativistic a meter turned a killometer yet remaining same, a flower withering can will itself to full bloom reversing everything done, a place with no need, the TRUE freedom unfettered by anything, not even breathing is needed.
A place of journey into oneself and dance with the mind of others just think what kind stuff your companions might be desiring. You can see it it all... but whats that? You were on a mission, why cant you just will in the probe? Turns out local vegetation is basically dumping endless ammount of its own produced drugs into the atmosphere, so anyone walkig without hazmat suit with internal filtration gets affected. You may or may not find this information prior to arriving. I can easily see the crops being harvestable in a small box to be used like an incense for an encounter with specific companion or self, its basically hard drugs with no addiction or negative health debuff.
Damn it none of this are usable. Oh well maybe some other day i'll have neat ideas :3