SECTION (NEW) - Terraforming & Mining

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Grummz

$6k package
Community Manager
Ember Dev
Jul 25, 2016
808
6,719
93
#1
(Please look for typos, grammar, and contradictory or confusing points. TY! You guys have been an amazing help so far!!!!)

Terraforming & Mining

Outside of invasions, terraforming and mining are the other primary goals of the player. Em-8ER is a frozen world with volcanic activity. The atmosphere is not suitable for humans, and pockets of breathable air and life sustaining temperatures must be opened up and prepared before mining can begin.

Terraforming “pockets” are actually the zones that open up on the world map and form the battlefields where the players fight against the Tsi-Hu. Each pocket can range in size from 4-8 square kilometers. As more episodes of the game are released, more of the zones open up for players to terraform. Each episode may open up 6-8 new zones to fight over. Over time, more and more of the planet will be made available to players.

Why Terraform?

Terraforming is key to discovering and unlocking new technological crafting tiers to all players. The more zones are terraformed and closer to their final biome, the higher tiers which are unlocked and made available to players. This act as a world goal common to all players, giving them a reason to fight, found bases, defend them from being destroyed, and advancing not just their characters, but the world and story itself. They also serve to keep the game changing and interesting, as the zones themselves change as the process transforms the landscape.

Terraforming

Terraforming a zone is a lengthy process that can take weeks. Each zone must first be cleared of major Tsi-Hu forces and defended while bases are established. Players contribute resources to build up bases and to deploy giant Terraforming platforms in the sky. These platforms require a continuous supply of resources to convert the zone.

As the zone converts, it will start to change. There will be at least three stages of Terraforming. Zones will start as frozen and volcanic wastelands, and then move to a thawing stage. After thawing will be the final biome type, which will vary. Some zones are unsuitable for much more than deserts or grasslands, while others might spring into lush jungles or forests. New flora and fauna will appear to populate the zones, seeded from local remnants of bygone species and blended with stores from the Terraformer’s gene-banks.

Terraforming requires a constant stream of resources and sufficient Terraforming platforms. Players must mine and contribute resources to both build bases and power terraformers. Success depends on several factors:

Sufficient Bases - A pocket or zone must contain enough player built bases to cover the majority of the zone. Falling below the minimum can set back Terraforming efforts and will take more time to complete as atmospheric levels revert.

Resources - Each stage of terraforming requires a certain amount of resources to reach. Players can contribute to this effort individually and their contributions added to the whole for the zone.


Mining

Mining in Em-8ER is an active, frenetic activity. Players use large MEK/A called THMPRs delivered via drop-ships to mine where players have located a caches of resources. These giant autonomous robots start drilling into the mantle of the planet and collecting the resources, rare elements and even alien artifacts exposed by drilling. Mining causes disruptions that attract Tsi-Hu and their various Kaiju who begin to attack the MEK/A and players.

Players must defend their THMPR MEK/A while increasingly difficult waves of enemies attack. The longer the mining continues, more and rarer resources are recovered. However, should the enemies overrun the players and THMPR, the resources will be lost. This creates a pushing dynamic where players can push their skill envelope to obtain more rewards, but can also opt out at any time to take what they have gathered so far.

When the players determine they have mined enough, they can trigger an EMP pulse that will temporarily disrupt and phase out the attackers. Then the players must escort the THMPR back to the nearest base to deposit their resources. During the escort, further enemies may appear, which the players will have to fight back all the way to the base.
 

Terricon4

Base Commander
Base Commander
#3
"Outside of invasions, terraforming and mining are the other primary goals of the player."

Reads a bit unclear given my knowledge of the game. Invasions aren't the goal for the player to go after, so much as something they defend or react against. This reads kind of like us going and invading is one goal. Maybe add "defending from" before invasions to keep it clear.

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"This act as a world goal common to all players, giving them a reason to fight, found bases, defend them from being destroyed, and advancing not just their characters, but the world and story itself."

act should be acts. And pretty sure that comma after characters should be removed.

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"Players use large MEK/A called THMPRs delivered via drop-ships to mine where players have located a caches of resources. "

Comma after THMPRs, and drop-ships. caches should be singular.

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"Mining causes disruptions that attract Tsi-Hu and their various Kaiju who begin to attack the MEK/A and players."

Doesn't quite flow right. Perhaps changed too...

Mining causes disruptions that attract the Tsi-Hu and their various Kaiju, who will then begin to attack the MEK/A and players.

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" The longer the mining continues, more and rarer resources are recovered."

The longer the mining continues, the more numerous and rarer the resources recovered.

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Off Topic: "Zones will start as frozen and volcanic wastelands, and then move to a thawing stage. After thawing will be the final biome type, which will vary."

I hope you plan to have some ruins and proper terrain change in some of these. Like you start off just seeing the tips of buildings on some flat areas of ground poking through the ice, then once the thawing stage starts you have a partial valley form, with more of the building visible, and maybe a little stream trickling through the valley. And then in final form you an see the entire building, and in some areas the terrain might be revealed to be fairly different with a full on 20 feet of ice being melted away. With the right approach you could make the thawed map, then just make two versions of snow covering it with relativly little find detail/doodad/fauna attention keeping it reasonable on the time investment too.

I do REALLY hope that some of the biomes stay snowy and cold though. I like a good snow map with plants and greenery poking through here and there, little frozen lakes, signs of a thaw starting... but still cold and white.
 

Astro

Omni Ace
Omni Ace
Jul 26, 2016
86
134
33
#4
"This act as a world goal common to all players, giving them a reason to fight, found bases, defend them from being destroyed, and advancing not just their characters, but the world and story itself."

I'm thinking "advancing" should just be "advance". or "to advance"...

Seems wrong to have an "ing" in there when previously in the list, it's "found" not "founding", and "defend" not "defending"

And maybe use "construct" instead of "found". At first I thought that implied discovering, but it's also Sunday and Sundays are for shutting down my brain.
 

DinsdaleP13

NEW - SHIFTER
Jul 26, 2016
458
542
93
121
Arizona, U.S.A.
#5
Something something, first post so I can edit later. It's been a while since I've seen that.

Edits:
(Please look for typos, grammar, and contradictory or confusing points. TY! You guys have been an amazing help so far!!!!)

Terraforming & Mining

Outside of invasions, (replace with semi-colon?) terraforming and mining are the other (Remove. Outside implies other already) primary goals of the player. Em-8ER is a frozen world with volcanic activity. The atmosphere is not suitable for humans, and (Personal preference: replace with full stop) pockets of breathable air and life sustaining temperatures must be opened up and prepared before mining can begin.

Terraforming (Terraformed. Tense.) “pockets” are actually the zones that open up on the world map and form the battlefields where the players fight against the Tsi-Hu. Each pocket can range in size from 4-8 square kilometers. As more episodes of the game are released, more of the zones open up for players to terraform. Each episode may open up 6-8 new zones to fight over. Over time, more and more of the planet will be made available to players.

Why Terraform?

Terraforming is key to discovering and unlocking new technological crafting tiers to all players. The more zones are terraformed and closer to their final biome, the higher tiers which are unlocked and made available to players. (The zones that are terraformed, and which are closer to their final biome will have higher tier unlocks available to players.) This act as a world goal common to all players, giving them a reason to fight, found bases, defend them from being destroyed, and advancing not just their characters, but the world and story itself. (This common goal gives players a reason to fight, establish bases, and defend them from being destroyed. Not to mention advancing the world and story.) They (the biomes? Players? Bases?) also serve to keep the game changing and interesting, as the zones (they) themselves change as the process transforms the landscape.

Terraforming

Terraforming a zone is a lengthy process that can take weeks. Each zone must first be cleared of major Tsi-Hu forces and defended while bases are established. Players contribute resources to build up bases and (remove) to deploy giant Terraforming platforms in the sky. These platforms require a continuous supply of resources to convert the zone (Personal preference: ...convert the zones into livable/habitale ones).

As the zone converts, it will start to change. There will be at least three stages of Terraforming. Zones will start as frozen and volcanic wastelands, and then move to a thawing stage. After thawing will be the final biome type, which will vary (After a zone thaws, it will reach it's final state. These zones vary.). Some zones are unsuitable for much more than deserts or grasslands, while others might spring into lush jungles or forests. New flora and fauna will appear to (remove) populate the zones, seeded from local remnants of bygone species and blended with stores from the Terraformer’s gene-banks.

Terraforming requires a constant stream of resources and sufficient Terraforming platforms. Players must mine and contribute resources to both build (Reverse) bases and power terraformers. Success depends on several factors:

Sufficient Bases - A pocket or zone must contain enough player built bases to cover the majority of the zone. Falling below the minimum can set back Terraforming efforts and will take more time to complete as atmospheric levels revert.

Resources - Each stage of terraforming requires a certain amount of resources to reach. Players can contribute to this effort individually and their contributions (Why double space? Padding the character count? Hmmmmm?)added to the whole for the zone. (Players can contribute to this effort individually, or together. Their effort is an amalgamation for the whole zone.)


Mining

Mining in Em-8ER is an active, frenetic activity. Players use large MEK/A called THMPRs delivered via drop-ships to mine where players have located a caches (cache. Consider removing "a cache of" for calrity.) of resources. These giant autonomous robots start drilling into the mantle of the planet and collecting (collect) the (remove) resources, rare elements and even alien artifacts exposed by drilling (Redundant. Remove.). Mining causes disruptions that attract Tsi-Hu and their (Remove, unless Kaiju and Tsi0hu are inseperable, and are owned. various Kaiju who begin to attack the MEK/A and players.

Players must defend their THMPR MEK/A while increasingly difficult waves of enemies attack. The longer the mining continues, more and rarer resources are recovered (Change of tenses. Fix?). However (Remove. Personal preference?), should the (Same) enemies overrun the players and THMPR, the resources will be lost. This creates a pushing (Dynamics are generally "pushing". Remove.) dynamic where players can push their skill envelope to obtain more rewards, but can also opt out at any time to take what they have gathered so far.

When the players determine they have mined enough, they can trigger an EMP pulse that will temporarily disrupt and phase out the attackers. Then the players must (The players must then. Personal preference.) escort the THMPR back to the nearest base to deposit their resources. During the escort, further (More. Despite current use of the word, we're not talking about how spacial located the enemies are. Despite this being the context being a game in space. .) enemies may appear, which the players will have to fight back all the way to the base.

Tried to do corrections (in yellow and red in the top comment), and explain why...Hope it makes sense.

If not, feel free to throw things at me.
 
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