The "Rust World" and temporal stability rework

[Rainbow Fresh]

So, seeing as there are one or another thread already around discussing the current temporal mechanics (temporal stability, rifts, temporal storms) I have been building this idea after reading through a couple of those, suggesting an approach to how temporal stability and its stronger effects during temporal storms could - in abstract theory - be reworked. I am aware that what I am suggesting would be a huge feat of software engineering but still think it's a cool enough concept to consider discussing. I will also mix parts of how the experience would be for the user with how I would roughly think it could be implemented.

This entire idea is built off of the concept mentioned in the wiki about how "Temporal Stability is a game mechanic that measures how close the player is to entering the Rust World." This, to me, implies there is intended to be a whole different "world" (seeing as this is temporal stuff rather another "time") from which the Rust Creatures come, spawned into our world through the space-time-rifts. Mechanically that sounds like having a different dimension much like Minecraft separates world instances of the overworld, nether and end dimensions; I don't know how feasable actually multithreading dimension instances would be for what the gimmicks I will bring up later are but that will ultimately be a design decision for the developers to make.

The idea is the following: There is a whole second game world dimension which will be the Rust World. This dimension is a carbon copy of our main game world, as such generated from the same seed under the same conditions. In fact, for more enforced equality across changing world generation (mods/version updates), I'd rather recommend the Rust World main world data to literally just be copied from the main dimension's one upon generating any new chunk. This way the Rust World is exactly the same world as we play in as it, again, should be just "temporally" different; same world, different time. The main difference of this second dimension would be that
A : The temporal storm VFXs (minus the warping, maybe) are constantly active
B : Temporal stability doesn't naturally increase
C : Much like during temporal storms, monsters spawn all the time - more on that in detail later
D : Using the new 1.22 procedural dungeon system, big Rust World dungeons spawn frequently all over the place

With this framework in place, the Rust World could be integrated with the temporal stability mechanic and the temporal storm mechanic in way more impressive and risk-reward type ways than just spawning monsters on your head during storms and having some wobbly visuals, and the complete lack of any notable mechanics tied to reaching low temporal stability. Instead, one could literally utilize the Rust World and the concept of "getting closer to the Rust World" when temporal stability is low. Imagine the following: When temporal stability gets low, individual chunks of the world get visually overlapped with the chunk data from the Rust World at that location plus according localized VFXs (doable, because for every untouched natural bit of the world, the Rust World looks exactly the same except for Rust World dungeons maybe). This would be a visually impressive and much more notable warning indicator for low temporal stability than glitchy monsters spawning and ultimately just taking neglectable amounts of damage. After all, the player is getting closer to the Rust World, being no longer temporally anchored in this plane of existence, not the other way around. Upon reaching 0% temporal stability, the player is then teleported to the Rust World at their currently location (plus safety to not be inside blocks) proper. This could be visually smoothened (nobody likes "Loading..." screens) by replacing the chunk data at their current location first, then just re-loading chunks around them normally but with Rust World data, gradually "turning" the world around them into the Rust World.

Instead of actively being harmful, this would make the temporal instability mechanic passively harmful. It would also greatly expand the scope of this mechanic and turn it from a simple "avoid" nuisance into a more detailed risk-reward mechanic. The point of the proper Rust World is that it is incredibly hostile - I am thinking minimum Tier 4, up to Tier 6? monsters with unique monsters found only there - but also very rewarding with all the dungeon loot found only there. To the unsuspecting, unprepared player it as a "to be avoided" death sentence (and being a different game dimension, on death items would basically be lost forever, so more reason to avoid). To the prepared player (or group of players); or the foolishly brave, it is a challenging opportunity to seek out on purpose. The way to escape the Rust World would then be to get your temporal stability back up to 100% by either killing monsters, finding temporal gears as loot or potential other mechanics one could come up with.

With this framework in place, temporal storms could also get the same upgrade. During a temporal storm, random chunk patterns (as in, not just individual chunks but patches of chunks to have connected structures) will be replaced with their Rust World counterpart. This makes them much more impressive and much more dangerous than just annoyingly spawning monsters in your face. Literally. This would also elevate the intended danger coming from high tier monsters spawning in your face in a more predictable and meaningful way - instead of high tier monsters spawning at random anywhere, random patches of the world turn into their Rust World counterpart spawning the high tier monsters from there. The "not being safe anywhere" notion is replaced by "Oops, half your house is now Rust World instead". Of course, since this is a much more disrupting approach, I also suggest the Rift Ward to instead create a safety bubble in which the world cannot be turned into the Rust World, so players can earn protection of their base and as such a semblence of safety during storms. And since this is dealing with chunk data from two different world instances, the normal world is safely revertable at any point.

As mentioned at the beginning, I am aware that this would be a huge undertaking to implement - in general, but especially in the "fancy" way I suggested. Most complicated would be the treatment of server vs client in multiplayer settings. After all, temporal storms would affect the world as a whole and such need to be synced between all players. Meanwhile, the warning illusions of low temporal stability would be an effect only affecting the player with low stability. Going to the Rust World on 0% stability, however, needs to be a synchronized act allowing for multiplayer cooperation again.

 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Edited Monday at 08:21 AM by Rainbow Fresh
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