Ways to add depth to the game, with minimal work*

[SpitTheDog]

It was just a throw-away comment about a way of looking at why everything is bought in 1T units. It's certainly not worth bogging the topic down with. Essentially I think the idea of buying partial tonnage cargo adds nothing to the game other than decimal points. (But you realise you're applying "real life" to a sci-fi game?)

Yes, yes I do.

However in my defence it was in response to a rejection of non-tonnage quantities in order to improve 'immersion'.

 

[Armour]

When we order from...amazon we don't get our laptop arrive in a packaging box large enough to fit an american fridge freezer.

I don't know what the last thing you ordered from Amazon was, but the last thing I got would have fitted into a match box but arrived in a box that you could fit a kettle into and probably still have room for a teapot and a cup or two. It was ridiculous.

 

[Riedquat]

This is one of my biggest issues with the game. Right now the only reason to trade anything other than the highest price items is if you can't afford them, and that isn't a problem for long. For example, food should be very valuable in starving systems, with more profit per tonne than consumer electronics and stuff. That would also allow you to manipulate the market by starving out a system so you could then milk it for trade profits etc.

A proper dynamic economy along with persistent NPC's that are part of that economy would change this game alot, for the better.

It would open the game up for so much more emergent gameplay.

One day perhaps.

 

[hjd_uk]

All good ideas apart from fraction tonnage. As previously said its complication without benefit. Commodities are sold in cargo-rack-units, actual density or mass of the contents per unit is irrelevant - head-canon: low density or 'fragile' contents would need extra shock-absorbing equipment in the pod which would offset the lower mass per container of a low density commodity.

I'd like to see some sort of physicality involved with cargo, it really is immersion breaking when you can exchange cargo on a solid, flat, dock with zero audio or other effects of having hundreds of tonnes of gold slammed into your hold in a fraction of a second. I its especially bad when a 'Seeking X' ship magically teleports cargo out of your hold - in a SF universe that explicitly 'bans' teleportation etc.
I want cargo-docking required, that would utilize the cargo-port-camera for ship-to-ship and require being in the hangar for physical cargo exchange etc. - along with machine-noises and a units-per-second limit on the cargo transfer, where larger ships with larger cargo-hatches can transfer more units per second.
( You would not be required to enter the hanger for the bulliten board or courier missions ( electronic documents )

 

[Captain Undercroft]

I don't know what the last thing you ordered from Amazon was, but the last thing I got would have fitted into a match box but arrived in a box that you could fit a kettle into and probably still have room for a teapot and a cup or two. It was ridiculous.

As a manager in an Amazon FC, I can tell you that isn't standard policy. The computer at the packing station will have told the packer what the correct box was to use and the scanner at the end of the line should have alerted someone that the item was in the wrong size box. Sounds like the person manning the scanner was either new to it or really, really busy. Sorry.

 

[Anopheles]

Also little things like some landing pads being 'closed for maintenance' would be a small thing that would have a big impact on immersion.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

More NPCs in general especially when entering a new region of occupied space and you're the 1st one there. (Why is it when I return to SC from normal all the NPCs seem to have done the same too )

 

[SpitTheDog]

I don't know what the last thing you ordered from Amazon was, but the last thing I got would have fitted into a match box but arrived in a box that you could fit a kettle into and probably still have room for a teapot and a cup or two. It was ridiculous.

Ah, but did it weigh a ton?

 

[Jason S]

*as imagined by a non coder.

Let's think of ways to add texture to the game with little changes. Discuss or suggest, as thou wilst.

My rough ideas.

Fractions of tonnage. Instead of plain tonnes, have some goods be sold in 1.5 or 1.25 tonnes. Make the universe a little less standardised.

Replace some NPC ships with Fluff ships that players can't fly, such as dredgers, tugs, hospital ships, etc.

Lockdown systems where any entry is punished by destruction for a time.

Npc vendettas. Wherever you are, killing that important NPC will come back to haunt you. Not today, not tomorrow, but sometime.

Station or system prohibition for crime. You enter a system and no stations will take you and fleets of npc make sure you don't settle anywhere for long. It could be a badge of honour that you are not welcome in any civilized space.

You lot. Go.

Some of those ideas are good.

--

In another space game called endless skys the player base writes the missions.

If ED had a framework that allowed submission of player created mission, and then had a volunteer team that moderated the submissions. This would be good.

 

[glynie]

Aye I agree with the OP. Loads of things could be added. I imagine a few years down the line when modding comes into it, we'll see loads of cool stuff then.

 

[h347h]

Joining a player group and doing things together...

 

[Faybs]

Ah, but did it weigh a ton?

The 1t crates we load into our ships aren't like amazon or fedex boxes, they're like 21st century cargo containers which are standardized:

 

[Vasious]

I'm sure it would be easier on that way, but since we have similar conditions today when shipping items, if it was economically viable it would be done today. It isn't economically viable to transport unnecessary and/or to waste valuable cargo space.

When the postie arrives we don't see him/her struggling with envelopes or parcels that are all the same size. When we order from ebay or amazon we don't get our laptop arrive in a packaging box large enough to fit an american fridge freezer. When car companies ship cars across the ocean they balance the load, they don't artificially increase the weight and size of each car so they are all the same.

Courier vans don't need to have a constant centre of mass for the wheels to provide propulsion that wont create an unwanted Yaw/pitch/roll, nor do cargo ships in the sea.
Spaceships however do

 

[CmdrJacks]

Normal space speed range increased with scaled acceleration to compensate. I'm worried that flying close to the ground is going to feel slow. Scale it all back down when landing gear is deployed for controlled landings.

 

[Red Dirt Nurse]

Replace some NPC ships with Fluff ships that players can't fly, such as dredgers, tugs, hospital ships, etc.

Yes please. Hustle and bustle - a sense of purposeful activity. Might mitigate against the complaints of a "sterile" space, a little.