I have been working on a minecraft mod pack that has a mechanic where the player can fly between different worlds via the elytra. eg. the overworld -> moon -> mars etc. I have a few different directions I can take Mars’ design:
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Dead world with remnants of the extinct martian civilization. Environmental storytelling used to convey a mystery to be solved by the player
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HG Wells’ war of the worlds inspired with the martian statues referencing their 3 colored pupiled eyes on a villager model and red weed plants growing underground that infect plants like trees and spread on corrupted dirt (basically dirt that has had blood within 4 blocks of it) and eventually turns white and dies if its in one of the overworld dimensions
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harmless/benevelant living martians based on the barsoon series
Or some combination of those
Thoughts?
These planets are not meant to be realistic. Venus is themed like classic scifi depictions before modern observations revealed it to be a hell planet. i.e it is a swampy jungle world with life that would belong in the era of Earth’s dinosaurs.
Europa has a subsurface ocean that I plan to add primitive swimming mobs to.
Persephone (gas giant) has a moon orbiting it that sustains life via volcanic vents and the like. Completely dark but still full of life.
Mercury, Jupiter’s other moons and titan are dead.
Mars could go either way. Either a dead planet that used to sustain life and no longer does or continues to sustain life but rarely and underground.
These planets and moons are supposed to be interesting and a completely realistic portrayal would not fit the pack’s design goals.