Just wondering if there were plans for later in development to change the killzone on the gas giant so that the upper atmosphere would be open for exploration and station-building. Gas refineries and cloud cities being established in key resource pockets while braving the tops of super-storms to find them would be fairly neat. Damage from high winds and electrical discharge up top and the extreme pressure below the "Terran-standard" pressure belt could provide unique design and exploration challenges to the community without having to use an instant death barrier. Solid bet players would compete to build better "diving ships" as well. Smaller roving windstorms around the primary super-storms would be cool too, but too much unpredictability would hurt the aerostat colonisation efforts, so that's definitely an 'addition to an addition'. My additional thoughts seem to have run away the main idea, but they all dovetail at least halfway decently.
Suggestion Summary (Design Justifications)
"exploration zone" in upper layer of gas giant atmosphere (rule of cool)
reasons to build atmospheric stations and harvest and refine one or more exotic gases with randomised, evolving, or uncertain distribution; primary resources tend to be near or in super-storm zone (risk:reward dichotomy, defense and resource advantages from being closer to the storms' zones of effect, but less room to escape, massive storm size delays territory conflicts)
refinery block, gas isolation addons for specific resources, lightcruise fuel, or advanced addons/equipment mats that are much rarer when mined elsewhere (when resource mechanics implemented; creates character between different resource zones, bigger reasons for trading gameplay and thus piracy/antipiracy)
killzone effect altered to Damage-over-Time effect with increasing atmospheric depth and pressure (both heat and hull damage) and set lower inside the cloud layers to make room for the exploration zone (soft caps gas giant control, creates terrain opportunities and risks in space combat) [ED: and I definitely realize the planet interaction effects as they are are also very WIP]
navigation challenges and exploration/resource rewards in high-wind/heavy-cloud areas; high winds increase ambient pressure and push ships with large surface area:mass ratios around (further soft skill cap on gas giant control and habitation)
Secondary Suggestions
*(additional) lightning strikes (heat damage) that occur more frequently in high pressures (compounding less-lethal threats and risk gambling)
electrical insulation addon that reduces heat damage to shields? (diversity in shield design decoupled from raw defense power)
(additional) smaller stormzones that move around slowly and in long arcs (manageable unpredictability/weather forecasting/strategic cover; testbed for nebula/dust effects?)
(additional) pressure reduces line of sight to HUD markers, nearby lightning strikes (~50m) temporarily disable HUD markers with an electronic blindness timer (increased opportunities for stealth and exploration)
sensor blocks/addons that increase line of sight, reduce "blindness timer"; opportunity for EMP-style weapon addons that apply debuffs (laser)/blindness timers (beam) to sensor LoS but deal less damage than normal? (opens up recon and electronic warfare designs)
Jorpis-Jorah
commented
3 years ago
Just wondering if there were plans for later in development to change the killzone on the gas giant so that the upper atmosphere would be open for exploration and station-building. Gas refineries and cloud cities being established in key resource pockets while braving the tops of super-storms to find them would be fairly neat. Damage from high winds and electrical discharge up top and the extreme pressure below the "Terran-standard" pressure belt could provide unique design and exploration challenges to the community without having to use an instant death barrier. Solid bet players would compete to build better "diving ships" as well. Smaller roving windstorms around the primary super-storms would be cool too, but too much unpredictability would hurt the aerostat colonisation efforts, so that's definitely an 'addition to an addition'. My additional thoughts seem to have run away the main idea, but they all dovetail at least halfway decently.
Suggestion Summary (Design Justifications) "exploration zone" in upper layer of gas giant atmosphere (rule of cool) reasons to build atmospheric stations and harvest and refine one or more exotic gases with randomised, evolving, or uncertain distribution; primary resources tend to be near or in super-storm zone (risk:reward dichotomy, defense and resource advantages from being closer to the storms' zones of effect, but less room to escape, massive storm size delays territory conflicts)
killzone effect altered to Damage-over-Time effect with increasing atmospheric depth and pressure (both heat and hull damage) and set lower inside the cloud layers to make room for the exploration zone (soft caps gas giant control, creates terrain opportunities and risks in space combat) [ED: and I definitely realize the planet interaction effects as they are are also very WIP] navigation challenges and exploration/resource rewards in high-wind/heavy-cloud areas; high winds increase ambient pressure and push ships with large surface area:mass ratios around (further soft skill cap on gas giant control and habitation)
Secondary Suggestions *(additional) lightning strikes (heat damage) that occur more frequently in high pressures (compounding less-lethal threats and risk gambling)
(additional) smaller stormzones that move around slowly and in long arcs (manageable unpredictability/weather forecasting/strategic cover; testbed for nebula/dust effects?) (additional) pressure reduces line of sight to HUD markers, nearby lightning strikes (~50m) temporarily disable HUD markers with an electronic blindness timer (increased opportunities for stealth and exploration)