Possible future expansions to the Ranch

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Possible future expansions to the Ranch

Postby akkamaddi » Sat Aug 05, 2017 10:43 am

Hello.

So, as the game slowly expands with new “personal” zones owned by the NPC’s (and I want to see BOb’s zone so badly), and the future possibility of the expansion of the story arc or a secondary story arc (will there be Slime Rancher 2.0 some day?), it’s worth keeping in mind that the Ranch will one day have to expand.

Given the game is now at a release version, I suspect the devs prefer to not adjust the map. While the mysteries of the slime sea mean that a new island could potentially rise (or even fall), these are some skeletal ideas that avoid the "Oh, there was an island there all along!" thing. I'll touch on "Pro & Con" and "Hooks".


-NEW CAVE-
"We have the grotto!" "That's been done!" Yes. However, the easiest way to expand the farm that is internally consistent with in-game logic is to simply go down. There is a mysterious glowing pit in the grotto, so there may already be a lower level planned.
It would be easy to place an entrance in the Grotto itself, or have a walkway on the face of the cliff behind the house. The ends of the little path between the ranch and the Overgrowth could also be cleared with a walkway down to a cave. An elevator would work well.

:Pro & Con: It's been done, and it's not terribly creative. However, it's easy and fits. It would require minimal story alteration.

:Hooks: The lower level may not be the lowest level! The lower cave could descend into something else entirely. This could be a new cave ecosystem. It would be logical to have some cross-over with the Indigo Quarry slimes (rock and crystal, phosphor are plentiful underground, and pink are everywhere), but it could be a very distinct environment, perhaps with magma and fire pits, perhaps petrochemicals, perhaps even a new set of ruins or crypts of the alien precursors.

Another "down there" would be essentially an ancient subway system, with teleport rings or beams of teleporting light. This could whisk the player to an old precursor transport hub with other teleport rings or beams or Bubble Slime Cabs. New areas for future versions could be accessible through the underground metro. This would let the devs add new areas that are not geographically or even stylistically contiguous with Beatrix's island. For example, a new story arc could involve a snowy evergreen valley surrounded by impassable mountains, with snow and ice slimes. (Snow Slime + Quantum Slime = Yellow Snow Gordo! It! Must! Happen!!!) The story arc could then go to a tropical beach island with city ruins, then a giant meteor crater, all without having to create a contiguous map of "how do we get from here to there", as was done with the shift from the Ruins to the Glass Desert. This would be more use of an element already used in the game.


-FLYING GREENHOUSE-
“Oh, yeah! I forgot to tell you I bought one of those! It may be in poor shape, but you should be able to get parts from 7Zee. -H”

This is literally a floating greenhouse. Take a slab of rock and adorn it with some whimsical steampunk pistons and wings, and bobs and bits that occasionally whistle steam, and put a fancy glass greenhouse on it. It should be large enough for four farm plots, the teleport pad to get there, and two or three engineering plots. One wall could have a semi-permeable force field for ejecting things into the slime sea. Make it rectangular, with a farm plot in each corner, and the teleporter and two engineering spots in a line down the middle. This would make it easier to quarantine “messy” slimes.

:Pro & Con: On style, this would be very easy to incorporate into the game. The tech level makes it easy, and I think it would be a very obvious fit into the rather whimsical “living toy” art style.

:Hooks: Perhaps sky fishing for cloud slimes? Have you noticed the multi-color birds that fly about? They might be flying low to evade something.

Cloud gondolas could also be a thing. Small air ships may be a safer way to travel long distances, compared to the player made teleporters, to visit other areas or ranches.

Also, a gliding suit would be a really cool addition. That could also be the means to explore the clouds.


-WATER PURIFICATION BARGE-
Add a small, permanently docked barge or platform in the Slime Sea that purifies water (a Slime Rancher version of a desalinization plant). It could be accessible from the cliff behind the house, or the Docks. It would have a bubbling water vat, essentially a second lagoon, in which rarely Primordy Oil and even Spiral Steam will bubble up. It would also be large enough for a couple farming fields and engineering spots.

:Pros & Cons: The Great Slime Sea is ubiquitous. There is a lot of space that could be easily used.

:Hooks: An aquatic zone! There could be crevasses and caves that are filled with sea water, over which floats the Slime Sea due to temperature differentials. A chute could lead down to an aquatic zone, where you don a heavy diving suit and slowly bounce about. (Physics would be different.) If you jump too high, contact with the Slime Sea would be damaging. This could be the the home of the long rumored squid slimes and sunfish slimes, as well as the dangerous angler slimes.


-SATELLITE-
Yes, a tiny star base. This would be a low gravity area. Farm equipment would cost 5x as much, and covering screens would be a requirement for corrals. Make this area a cube with rounded edges, and “down” shifts to the closest floor. The lower (planet-side) face would have the teleporter and some machinery, the ring of four sides would each have two farm plots, and the top side would have five engineering spots, making it a very large addition to the farm.

:Pros & Cons: Coolness. While it would only make sense for something like this to be a very high-end, late-game addition to the ranch, it would be a prestige expansion to the farm. Also, because the transporter would be very high power, it’s possible that for the return trip, the player could select from a list of all the player made teleport pads placed, in addition to the one on the farm and all the ones in the wild that have been used, so it becomes a transport hub for the player.

:Hooks: Exchange Market Export. The Ranch Exchange gets a high end version. Interstellar trade pods dock for 3-7 in-game days, asking for much larger orders than you get on the Ranch Exchange. The orders would be in the 25-150 range, and could even include (much smaller) numbers of extracted resources. Because of the order size, pods would stay docked for multiple days. The pods leave at the end of the time, or when the order is filled. Partially filled order gives partial payment, with a significant difference in payout between partial and full orders. A new pod appears in 12-36 in-game hours. Rewards would be large cash payouts, rare resources, unique slimes from far distant ranchers only available through the Market, and new tech blueprints.

Another potential thing is fishing through the debris kicked up by the violent volcanism on the lower left of the planet. (Because the Far Far Range would definitely have a “lower left”.) These space nets could find new resources and even new low-gravity slimes.

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akkamaddi
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