Orbiting Station, A bit of math. Procedural Generation.

[Nullbear]

Rather than having the station on an asteroid, Make it its own "z-level" with some conceptual 3d orbits around the central mass of whateverthefuck. The game will be 2d, the 3D orbits could be calculated mathematically with vectors and whatnot. While it may not appear at first to "do" anything, it could eventually affect random events, and be modified for shuttle mechanics, so a little bit of knowledge is needed to pilot a shuttle sans-auto-pilot. Not gunna go into much detail, don't have much. Oh yeah, and procedurally generated asteroids... Eventually you'll start running out of minerals, So being able to have proc. asteroids would make ores renewable, but what if someone starts building an outpost on the asteroid? Should the asteroids be saved so that you can return to the same one later? Would they go "quiet" and despawn when there were no living players on them? Or would building on them be disallowed, and they would use the same sort of despawning mechanics as the proposed gateways? (Only a short time allotted for travel between static "z-level" and proc.gen. Once thats closed, the world will exist until all players left on it are dead.

With the gateway concept, how much time seems reasonable? I think there should be a few options. and a "Stability" variable.

Depending on stability, the gateway would stay open longer/shorter. Anywhere between 15 IRL minutes, and 24 hours. To prevent too many other worlds/dimensions/asteroids from being created, we could force the gateway to be open for that entire duration. Once a gateway is opened, it will not close for that particular amount of time. This could be used for a few things: a low stability gateway, which is only open for 15 minutes or so, for disposing of corpses, waste, etc. A medium stability gateway (SeveralIRL hours. 8 maybe?) for some mining, exploration, etc. And an extremely stable gateway (24 hours+) mainly for mining, but some outpost type structures could be built as well for on-site ore-processing and whatnot. The amount of possible worlds that are spawned would depend on how many gateways exist in the "static" world. The amount of time gateways are opened can be lengthened by using large amounts of electricity/rare ores etc. So if you find a world that is particularly resourceful, but it was originally only opened for say 30 minutes, The time can be extended INDEFINITELY by using station resources.

Lets hear your thoughts on this all.

[Amelorate]

So currently, I have two incompatible ideas:

1. Basically, this. Having a single station or system with very few players outside of it. This idea would fit well.

2. Having an entire universe where players own corporations and use wormholes to traverse the universe. Sort of like Eve online, but less focused on ships and more on stations. There would be a tech tree, but it is more of everybody in the game working together towards a common goal. This would be less like SS13 and might not attract the people playing SS13, but it would be able to have many more players. That would also take alot more time to become a popular thing that people play. (If ever)

[Nullbear]

In the second case, You'd have to make sure it is still fun to play with very few people online. And also prevent people from going completely solo. Often in MMO's, players avoid interactions with other players. Having this happen in a game like this would make it a lot less fun to play. While i agree that a larger-universe would be fun and more open, a smaller one encourages player interactions more.

[Amelorate]

Also, this is a good bit far into the (IRL) future, as engine development is taking a while, so we have a good while to make decisions regarding core gameplay.

[Par]

Alright, I decided to pop in here to see what was happening. I saw your release post and everything, I'm interested in knowing how this project is doing.
Personally, I believe that option 1 is my favorite. Having a single space station where all the action is happening lets you put more depth into the game, in my opinion. I started playing SS13 simply because of the isolation and shit going down on the station. You know, Stephen King kinda stuff. It has quite an appeal.

If ever you need something done sprite wise, or even website wise, send me a PM. I check this site every now and then.