Colony Survival Game

Need baseline gear for survival, planned for it to break/die/run out of power.

Colony's goal is to top out at barely pre-Industrial for tech level. No large factories, mills, etc. == Premise ==

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Coming from advanced technology, with the intent of going ‘back to the land’. There is modern tech, but give it limited uses? Only so many units in the system? Have to ration how they use matches, batteries, powered vehicles, etc.

They are in cryosleep for the trip to the new system. While they are sleeping, their minds are loaded into a game meant to help them learn to survive without most technology they’re used to. There is very little wilderness left on Earth, and very few people who know how to even build a campfire. Handcrafts are relegated to hobbies even more than in present day. Farming/Ranching is mostly automated and doesn’t take the acreage it does now? (hydroponics used a lot? Vertical?) A number of people who know how to do these things were ‘scanned’ before the trip started, in order to give the system a baseline of skills it can teach players. A few are actually along and will be taking places as NPCs in the game.

The System is also using data brought back by the initial probes and planetary scouts. Using the plant, animal, and geographical data, it builds a simulation of the colony world for the players. It is known that the game world isn’t an exact copy on the micro level, because they couldn’t catalog every single thing on the planet, but the macro level is there. The system AI is programmed to fill in the gaps in the data as best it can. It takes the information it has, extrapolates the uses of a specified object, and inserts that into the game. Or plugs gaps with something made out of parts of available data. Or, if the biome is one the research team didn’t get to, makes things up entirely.

Enter magic: There is a compound present in the dirt, water, plants, and animals of this planet that the AI decides could possible open up extra senses and abilities in the players. It offers the players skills and talents that the developers did not intend, and can’t correct for without possibly killing the players/people who are in the game. Since the AI is also drawing off of human history to inspire these abilities, the ‘spells’ range the gamut from dowsing rods to find water to doing the Hokey Pokey to call game. (This is meant to sort of mimic the hilariously bad AI learning results seen around the net today. Funky paint names, etc)

Possible storylines/Conflicts:
Tutorial/Training scenario set up by fake ship crash, escape pods landing, and need to get to designated rendezvous point.

MC was abandoned by fiance, who decided not to come. Decides to be Explorer class.

SURVIVE! First priority is don’t die

Oh crap why did the computer give them magic! Badly designed magic at that! (drink this potion. It might heal you, you might grow a third eye and shoot fire out of it)

Tech failing faster than expected due to overuse. Odd bits of tech lasting longer than expected because someone with magic is filling the gap (matches, we have so many matches because the Explorers all specced into Firebug. But Woe! Nobody with Metallurgy wants to fix the plumbing when they could be making magic swords or axes, so now we have to use outhouses)

Ruins and races! The planet is supposed to be empty. Why are there ruins of old civilizations and why do players have an option to choose a race?

Endgame: Wipe the memories of the settlers so that their personal arguments, conflicts, and alliances don't carry over into the real settlement. Don't need people splitting off to create microkingdoms or call in game debts.

This becomes even more imperative after magic tramples the colony plans. For all they know, it's a wild extrapolation made by the computer and done to liven up the game as much as anything. They don't believe people will actually develop magic on world, and can't afford people to go off looking for it or attempting to activate it when survival is more important.

Society power abuses
-Eh. Feels like a gimme and an obvious route to go. Use it as background conflict?

Issues with the idea:
How to balance making the skills feel like a game instead of a prepper handbook. When is detail too much? Building Classes/skill trees for sciences I am not a crunchy number person. Nor the type of gamer who picks apart the games I like for why and how they work. I just play the things I enjoy. 15 years of WoW. No Man’s Sky. Valheim. Stardew Valley. Those kinds of games.

Explorer
Focused on going out into the world and exploring. Scouting terrain and mapping geography and resources. Can cross into Hunter/Gather, but typically spends less time mining, picking, or hunting than looking around. Minor branches (maybe?) of Botany, Surveying, Zoology. Bounties placed by system on new data fund new equipment/upgrades.

Hunter/Gatherer
Crosses into Exploration, but usually stays in known/mapped areas. Focused on hunting or gathering food, medicinals, and other assorted resources needed to keep the colony going. Can spec into Botany, Minerology, Zoology, (Maybe those are lesser branches to spec into? Main specs more different? Research needed here. Maybe Trapping/Hunting, Mining…and?) Can sell to system or to other players

Builder-
Takes the timber, metal, and other useful resources brought in by Hunter/Gather and uses them to help build the colony infrastructure. Less interaction with the botany in this spec, unless building for agronomic purposes (Greenhouses, barns, research stations). Very few ideas for specs here yet. Colonial government figures come out of this fairly often? Farmers are in this category? Cross over mostly into Maker.

Maker-
Takes raw resources and refines them, if needed. Smelts ores and uses for blacksmithing. Takes plants and analyzes for uses, then refines for medicines, fiber, etc. Makes smaller, decorative pieces for buildings. Alchemy/Apothecary, Clothing production, Smiths are here. (no sure if those are the branch specs though)