Hello all,
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what I'd like to see in ED which should actually be feesible. ED is a great game so far, but when I look back at the old Dev Diaries I can't help but think of what it could be.
Because of this, I started to actually think out some game mechanics that I think would really add to the game. Lets call it my own little ED featurelist
It won't fix everything that might be "wrong" with ED right now. But it should at least add some more depth and fun to the game. And be warned, it's a pretty big read..
1. WAR
The factions/BGS
Currently, when two factions enter a state of war with eachother some Combat Zones spawn and people shoot at eachother until one side "wins" which, to me, feels very placeholder. I'd like to see something different. So here I go:
When two factions enter a state of war, all their assets are taken into account. Do they have the materials and money to produce warships, do they have the manpower, how many planets and stations do they have and how well are those defended, do they have the food supply to keep their populace happy etc. ? This way, the game basically calculates each side's fighting strength and their chance to win. For instance, a faction with a lot of mining/production facilities would be much more able to replenish their fleet than a faction which has an economy based around agriculture, but is going to have a more difficult time feeding everyone if the other faction keeps destroying traders who are delivering food.
Next thing that happens is that every station, planetary location, and other high value targets are turned into capturable points to fight over (and if we really want to push it, destroy). With this, instead of just having serveral combat zones, and the solar systems being fought over almost become something like "planetside 2 maps" where the entire solar system is one big warzone, but battles start dynamically over special high value targets. For example, one faction can decide that they'd really like to have that asteroid ring to mine for resources to upkeep their fleet, and because of that send a fleet over to try and capture it. The other faction doesn't like this much and sends a force to defend it. This is about as close to combat zones as it's going to get, but now, there's an actual objective to fight over.
In these fights, the winner is determined very simply: which fleet destroys the other. The battles could be described as an RTS battle. Where two opposing fleets clash, and the winner depends on player intervention, fleet size and skill and luck. When faced with certain defeat, one side might retreat, or surrender. This would make battles more dynamic, instead of endless waves of reinforcements. Whilst reinforcments are an option, but that's dependent on what the faction decides to do. throwing your entire force on one battle will mean that all your other stations, planets, etc. etc. are now unprotected and vulnerable.
When these fleets fight, many ships are destroyed obviously, but instead of new waves just comming in, this drains resources. The shipyards of factions will have to produce new ships for losses to be made up, which in turn costs materials that they have to buy or produce, which costs cold hard cash. This way, destroying traders/cargo ships can disrupt a faction's supply line, which could cause their fleet to dwindle and them to lose the war altogether. Or if it's not the materials, but food which is short. Parts of the fleet of the faction's fleet and stations, planets, etc. might desert or even turn their cloak.
Fights over locations can vary a lot depending on what kind of target it is. A resource extraction zone might just be a plain battle, but a station would be more like a siege. Where if a faction doesn't have the firepower to take the station by force they blockade it, and litteraly starve the station out of the resources they need until they surrender. Sorties are possible by this station, where they can try to run or even break the blockade. (whilst not likely, if possible FD could even add the options to completely destroy a station, which would be a pretty gargantuan impact on the war effort, and leave behind a large husk of a destroyed station.
Capital ships will be pretty significant additions to fleets too, where use of one can easily turn the tide of a battle, but the loss of one means a huge loss of resources if the faction wants to build a new one.
How do players come into it?
Joining a side
Instead of jumping into a combat zone and picking a faction, Joining one side of war is more like joining a Community Goal or Power. When you join a faction, you get information on which targets they plan to attack and when, how many ships their fleet has, their supplies (ship production resources, food etc.) and basic information on the enemy force, which depends on how much you know, for instance a location or fleet turning their cloak might greatly increase your intelligence. on the exact resources of the enemy, or if you're that kind of player, you can try to infiltrate an enemy station or other location and gather information by scanning them.
You don't have to stick by your picked side though. You can turn on your current faction and join the other, but this would put a rather large bounty on your head, and make you a high priority target because of what you know.
If you want to though, you can participate but not join a faction. You obviously pick a side if you start shooting people during a battle, but trading players can for instance bring food or supplies in to the faction who needs them more which would net you a very nice profit. On the contrary, pirate players can raid all the supply convoys they want, with these propably carrying a pretty amount of resources needed for the war.
Player roles in the war
Bounty Hunter
- You can join a faction and fight for them
- You can accept bounty contracts on people who betrayed or deserted the faction
- You can accept bounty contracts on pirates raiding the supply convoys.
- You can protect supply convoys, or other non-combat ships through the warzone.
Trading
- You can profit greatly from the war by buying supplies the faction needs and selling it for a great price. (depending on how bad the faction needs them)
- You can run supply missions for a faction by joining them, granting you better pay but making you a bigger target for hostiles.
- You can run humanitarian aid where you don't make much money, but greatly gain reputation, which means that if the faction wins, you get a significant discount on commodities at their stations.
Whilst this doesn't seem like much, the interesting trading gameplay comes from figuring out what faction needs what and when. Market value drops and rises a lot faster during war.
Convoys would be actual convoys of big fleets of supply ships which could make for a pretty intense fight if they're attacked.
Exploration
- You can scout out enemy systems for high value targets (asteroid mining locations, enemy bases, etc.)
(this together with the exporation upgrade I'll talk about later could be fun, although it might need more (suggestions would be nice! )
Smuggling
- You can run enemy siege blockades and bring supplies to a location.
- You can help get deserters or people switching sides out of the system or to the other faction.
Mining
- You can mine resources for a faction.
- You can mine resources from out under a factions nose and sell them for a significant price, somewhere else, which would make you a target for that faction.
Pirates
- You can raid any and all supply convoys with much booty to be had. Altough factions don't like it if you steal their stuff. High bounties.
- You can get contracts from one side to effectively start privateering the other faction, for booty of less value mabye, but you get paid for doing it
Scavenging
- You can get contracts from your faction to scower battlefields and scrap what can be scraped.
- you can scrap battlefields yourself for much profit, but the added danger of it being illegal salvage.
- If it's possible you could scavenge destroyed stations, which you can fly into and have to navigate the destroyed corridors and landing bays for valuable parts to sell.
Passenger
- You can transport people who are either deserting, or turning their cloak.
- You can transport refugees out of the system.
- You can get missions to do post battle Search & Rescue.
All in all I think this would add greatly to the emergent gameplay and depth that you can get out of a war between two factions. Where there is a balance between profit and risk.
So that was quite a story.. but it's just the start. I've got a couple of other (albeit smaller) things
Subsystems
Heat
I would love for heat to be a more prevolent mechanic in the game. Currently it's mostly not going to close to stars and other than that you're golden. I would like ship heating to be more like how David Braben originally described it.
In fights, heat would be a very important thing. Getting shot hot metal or lasers generally is an issue, but more in the sence that as you're pulling of maneuvers, the intence use of your thrusters, weapons and boost builds up heat, as to where you have to actually take it into account. Prolonged fighting could see systems shut down due to overheating. To counter this you can deploy/open radiator panels, which would negate the heat issue, but would now be able to be shot, and if they're destroyed, you've got quite the problem where the ship can't get rid of it's heat as easily and you'd have to bail.
It would look like this:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/t...6j1ifY4cswUTHd6W0RUvEluq11XHz2R8mnkP4-TXhaRMw
Thrusters
This change is pretty basic. Make thrusters independently destroyable. So that thrusters can get shot out, and you'd be less maneuverable or even completely crippled if you have really bad luck. Right now thrusters are either all broke or all working.
Shields
I think it would be sweet if shields would also be more like talked about by David. Where larger ships have seperate generators for seperate portions of shields. For example, the Cobra MkIII/MkIV would have a front and back shield, or the Anaconda would have many different shields. This can make dogfights more tactical, where targeting a specific part of a ship can allow you to destroy ships much faster as you blow out a portion of their shield. and then can hit that part of the hull. This would make positioning in combat also more important where you have to keep the least damaged portion of your shields pointed towards the enemy.
This could also add a layer of subsystem management where you can put more power towards specific parts of you shield.
Though a much smaller addition than the whole war system I talked about. This in my opinion could also add a lot of depth to managing your ship. On to the next one
Stations
Station variety is something a lot of people want, and this is how I think it could be done. Also, this is the most probable thing to appear, since David has stated he'd like to add more types of stations.
Types of stations
Stations would have the current features of all the stations a little more devided among them. No longer can you buy a ship at every station. No longer do all station trade in all commodities. This could add a more deep level of supply and demand for traders.
Industrial refinery station
- A new station design, similar to this: http://img15.deviantart.net/2192/i/...us_space_station_by_martinhoulden-d6rejgz.jpg
And you can see all the factories running, and ships and other vehicles transport the materials around.
- Would supply metals and other refined ore, and demand raw ore and the machinery to refine them.
Advanced machinery station
- Would be a coriolis station with the standard interior.
- Would supply machinery and advanced electronics etc. and demand metals and other items needed to make their products.
Shipyard
- A new station design, similar to this: http://41.media.tumblr.com/2f0232e5c0f82fc0bd46d53c756e688d/tumblr_neqhu4Haxi1roeo08o1_1280.jpg
Where you can see ships being constructed.
- Would demand all the materials and machinery needed for ship production and supply ships and ship modules. You could even have different shipyards beloning to different Manufacturers. So to get a Cobra, you'd have to go to a Falcon DeLacy shipyard. For a hauler, a Zorgon Peterson Shipyard etc.
Mining Station
- A new station design, similar to this: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mVugPMhFGZM/UbCI4cTah9I/AAAAAAAACWE/dbKrRl6xy7Y/s1600/Pirate_base01.jpg
Where you can see the surrounding area be minded by both ships and drones.
- Would demand mining equipment. and supply raw ore.
Agriculture Station
- Would be an Orbis station. The docking bay would probably not have crop fields since those would be in the rings of the Orbis, however I would like something setting it apart from other stations. (maybe the areas beside the docking pads are storage areas for supplies ready to ship?)
- Would demand all the equipment needed for crops, dairy and cattle farms, and supply food and other grown resources.
Tourism & luxury Station
- Would be an Occelus station with the high tech interior.
- Would Demand all things needed to make luxurious guests happy (food, advanced electronics, etc.) would supply clothing, luxury items etc.
- Would be a hub for passenger missions and have beluga liners and other Saud Kreuger ships everywhere around it.
Research Outpost
- Would be an outpost station. which look fine.
- Would demand machinery for scientific experiments. and since they do research out there, they won't really supply anthing but knowledge.
Space Elevators
- Would look like the stations as seen in CQC
- Would demand materials for the different bases on the planets. Would supply the materials the bases from those planets deliver.
- Would be a way for ED players who haven't purchased any of the planetary landing expanssions to still be able to trade with planetside bases in some way.
Stations belonging to different factions
Ofcourse you'd expect station being different depening on their allegiance. Since making entirely new stations based on different factions might be too much of a resource drain for Fdev, they could simply do what they did with the Imperial Eagle, Give all the suggested stations a new coat of paint and maybe little differences here and there to make it clear that it's an imperial or federal station. I'd imagine Alliance stations not really having a different design with the Alliance being a relative newcomer and mostly existing out of systems that don't want anything to do with either the Feds or the Imperials.
This would hopefully add a bit of life and variety to the galaxy. There could be exceptions to the rules here ofcouse. I have no Idea what kind of station design I would give Obsidian Orbital, and I haven't put too much though into different types of planetary bases yet either. Suffice to say, I do think it would be a great addition to add these.
The station type present would also depend on the actual planet it's orbiting/system it's in. It makes little sence to me to build an agricultural station in orbit over a perfectly good earth-like where you could just plant the crops.
This would also add a more deep level of supply and demand. Where cutting the line between one type of station and another can cause big issues for that station, and as such, emergent gameplay as the owners of that station frantically do everything they can to keep it up and running.
Station building would also have a lot more detail, basically exactly like how David Braben described it in the 2nd Dev Diary video. More detail, more mission for it. etc.
Exploration & Mining
At last we come to the last subject I want to expand. It doesn't even need that much of an expansion, all it needs is basically what Fdev wanted from the start, so here I go.
Exploration
Although it might be a bit late to change it now, I would have liked ED's exploration a lot more if you actually had to discover the proper jump route to undiscovered systems. This would make getting to the system more of an acomplishment in the first place. It would be almost exactly like how Fdev described it where you first scan for the route in a mini-game, then you send a probe along the route to check if it's good. Then you calculate the jump and if you fail, you end up somewhere you weren't supposed to end up at. If you arrive, high-fives allround you made it!
So, first order of buisness is to determine the star type. Whilst the scanning system is pretty simple, and you honestly can't really make "scanning something" more engaging. I do think that adding visual flair would at least make it feel more expansive. As you scan the star, you can see all kinds of data come in in real time, it's composition, it's temperature, it's type etc. You could tie scanning into the heating mechaninc. where you would have to balance heating up vs. getting more data, ergo more money. (similar to fuel scooping I suppose).
Then you have to look for other celestial objects. Instead of the discovery scanner, I would have a system where you would again, send out probes. Which together with you, start scanning the system. Bodies close to the star are found pretty easily but for instance the second star in a binary system and it's own planets would take a little while to find. This would be visualised in a map where you can see which parts of the sector you have mapped yet.
Scanning for planets etc. yourself would make use of a scanning system where you fly around and trying to see the different movement of the planets compared to the background of infinite space. Similar to how you find planets if you basically just don't use a discovery scanner, but look for them yourself, albeit with a little help from probes and scanners.
Once you've found a planet you close in, and start scanning that. As you're doing that, similar to the star you can actually see all the data comming in, and a visual representation of the scanning, like so:
You start the basic scan:
http://40.media.tumblr.com/22ddd1c60130f93106120d66796dbf74/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o1_r1_1280.jpg
It progresses:
http://41.media.tumblr.com/850eaff035e9c75e32b594a0421d42b3/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o2_r1_1280.jpg
As the basic scan is concluded you detect POI's on the surface (which could be visited on rocky worlds right now! and atmospheric worlds later)
http://40.media.tumblr.com/37345b259b43c2d456907d2df3cbf52c/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o3_r1_1280.jpg
http://41.media.tumblr.com/b7cc8280f730895319ceeee944304699/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o4_r1_1280.jpg
Using an advanced scanner you can get even more data:
http://41.media.tumblr.com/f5cacbd5ad8136b8d9d16046a4f23d4b/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o5_r1_1280.jpg
http://36.media.tumblr.com/b6e077837e2f08502e0d6f38e960b20b/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o6_r1_1280.jpg
When the scan is complete, profit ensues (assuming you make it back to sell it )
http://40.media.tumblr.com/6ff58c009181adaf219bf0a9235d817b/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o8_r1_1280.jpg
To add gameplay to the scanning mechanic you could make it sort of like the scanning mechanic in Mass Effect 2. And whilst that still could be quite boring to some it would be a great deal better than what we have now in my opinion.
you could also add a mechanic where the explorer has to figure out how a POI happened. Say for instance, you find a barren planet, but evidence it used to be lush. What the hell happened? Or you find a crashed ship, How did it crash? and have audio and visual feedback. Seeing an overlay of the barren planet with an asteroid impacting and ruining the climate in a timelapse for example. Or hearing the audio from the crashed ship's blackbox and following it's flight path to see where and how it went wrong.
When you make it back to civilization. You can now sell your data. However. Uneversal Cartographics doesn't exist. Well sort of. You can buy and sell data to different powers (Feds, Imperials, Alliance) and keep it from others. If one faction figues out you've also sold it to another faction that can make them want retribution for selling valuable mining data out, or data of an earth like world, basically anything valueable to a faction. And ofcourse there's thargoids to discover
Mining
Mining could also use a bit more depth. Whilst the added drones do help I feel that the mining in and of itself could use more different gameplay.
You start by scanning the system (similar to exploration) for valuable mining sites. (or you buy the exploration data somewhere.) When you get to the mining site you can scan the different asteroids for their composition. You can if you want to also identify asteroids by the way they look.
http://i.imgur.com/DjH4p3b.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/62sTW8x.jpg
When you've identified the asteroid you want to mine, you fly close and power up the laser. The gameplay comes from having to carefully carve chunks of the asteroid with the laser. Also, you have to manage the laser's heat vs. its output. Setting your laser to full power can quickly cut an asteroid to bits. But your laser can overheat, short out, and blow up in the worst case. Leaving you pretty badly damaged. Scanning for weaknesses in the asteroid will help you more quickly and more efficiently cut the asteroid up. Also, depending on how precisely you use your laser to cut the areas you need, or just haphazardly slice the asteroid in half, you get more or less resources.
There would be a special "mining" UI for this purpose.
Whilst you cut the asteroid up, drones will gather the materials for you and transport it to your cargobay. You don't have to refine these materials like now, you just have to sell them.
A thing that could also add to this is really big asteroids which you can fly into. To find the materials from the inside out.
The End
Well that was quite the essay I've written there. I hope you agree on my choices, and if not, please constructively explain why. Suggestions and further ideas would also be nice. It can only get better if we work together on providing Fdev with ideas on how to improve the game
Thank you.
P.S. Pretty much all the concept art shown are from Fdev themselves.
P.P.S. Sorry about not having the images embedded, I could not get it working for some reason.
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what I'd like to see in ED which should actually be feesible. ED is a great game so far, but when I look back at the old Dev Diaries I can't help but think of what it could be.
Because of this, I started to actually think out some game mechanics that I think would really add to the game. Lets call it my own little ED featurelist
It won't fix everything that might be "wrong" with ED right now. But it should at least add some more depth and fun to the game. And be warned, it's a pretty big read.. 1. WAR
The factions/BGS
Currently, when two factions enter a state of war with eachother some Combat Zones spawn and people shoot at eachother until one side "wins" which, to me, feels very placeholder. I'd like to see something different. So here I go:
When two factions enter a state of war, all their assets are taken into account. Do they have the materials and money to produce warships, do they have the manpower, how many planets and stations do they have and how well are those defended, do they have the food supply to keep their populace happy etc. ? This way, the game basically calculates each side's fighting strength and their chance to win. For instance, a faction with a lot of mining/production facilities would be much more able to replenish their fleet than a faction which has an economy based around agriculture, but is going to have a more difficult time feeding everyone if the other faction keeps destroying traders who are delivering food.
Next thing that happens is that every station, planetary location, and other high value targets are turned into capturable points to fight over (and if we really want to push it, destroy). With this, instead of just having serveral combat zones, and the solar systems being fought over almost become something like "planetside 2 maps" where the entire solar system is one big warzone, but battles start dynamically over special high value targets. For example, one faction can decide that they'd really like to have that asteroid ring to mine for resources to upkeep their fleet, and because of that send a fleet over to try and capture it. The other faction doesn't like this much and sends a force to defend it. This is about as close to combat zones as it's going to get, but now, there's an actual objective to fight over.
In these fights, the winner is determined very simply: which fleet destroys the other.
The battles could be described as an RTS battle. Where two opposing fleets clash, and the winner depends on player intervention, fleet size and skill and luck. When faced with certain defeat, one side might retreat, or surrender. This would make battles more dynamic, instead of endless waves of reinforcements. Whilst reinforcments are an option, but that's dependent on what the faction decides to do. throwing your entire force on one battle will mean that all your other stations, planets, etc. etc. are now unprotected and vulnerable.When these fleets fight, many ships are destroyed obviously, but instead of new waves just comming in, this drains resources. The shipyards of factions will have to produce new ships for losses to be made up, which in turn costs materials that they have to buy or produce, which costs cold hard cash. This way, destroying traders/cargo ships can disrupt a faction's supply line, which could cause their fleet to dwindle and them to lose the war altogether. Or if it's not the materials, but food which is short. Parts of the fleet of the faction's fleet and stations, planets, etc. might desert or even turn their cloak.
Fights over locations can vary a lot depending on what kind of target it is. A resource extraction zone might just be a plain battle, but a station would be more like a siege. Where if a faction doesn't have the firepower to take the station by force they blockade it, and litteraly starve the station out of the resources they need until they surrender. Sorties are possible by this station, where they can try to run or even break the blockade. (whilst not likely, if possible FD could even add the options to completely destroy a station, which would be a pretty gargantuan impact on the war effort, and leave behind a large husk of a destroyed station.
Capital ships will be pretty significant additions to fleets too, where use of one can easily turn the tide of a battle, but the loss of one means a huge loss of resources if the faction wants to build a new one.
How do players come into it?
Joining a side
Instead of jumping into a combat zone and picking a faction, Joining one side of war is more like joining a Community Goal or Power. When you join a faction, you get information on which targets they plan to attack and when, how many ships their fleet has, their supplies (ship production resources, food etc.) and basic information on the enemy force, which depends on how much you know, for instance a location or fleet turning their cloak might greatly increase your intelligence. on the exact resources of the enemy, or if you're that kind of player, you can try to infiltrate an enemy station or other location and gather information by scanning them.
You don't have to stick by your picked side though. You can turn on your current faction and join the other, but this would put a rather large bounty on your head, and make you a high priority target because of what you know.
If you want to though, you can participate but not join a faction. You obviously pick a side if you start shooting people during a battle, but trading players can for instance bring food or supplies in to the faction who needs them more which would net you a very nice profit. On the contrary, pirate players can raid all the supply convoys they want, with these propably carrying a pretty amount of resources needed for the war.
Player roles in the war
Bounty Hunter
- You can join a faction and fight for them
- You can accept bounty contracts on people who betrayed or deserted the faction
- You can accept bounty contracts on pirates raiding the supply convoys.
- You can protect supply convoys, or other non-combat ships through the warzone.
Trading
- You can profit greatly from the war by buying supplies the faction needs and selling it for a great price. (depending on how bad the faction needs them)
- You can run supply missions for a faction by joining them, granting you better pay but making you a bigger target for hostiles.
- You can run humanitarian aid where you don't make much money, but greatly gain reputation, which means that if the faction wins, you get a significant discount on commodities at their stations.
Whilst this doesn't seem like much, the interesting trading gameplay comes from figuring out what faction needs what and when. Market value drops and rises a lot faster during war.
Convoys would be actual convoys of big fleets of supply ships which could make for a pretty intense fight if they're attacked.
Exploration
- You can scout out enemy systems for high value targets (asteroid mining locations, enemy bases, etc.)
(this together with the exporation upgrade I'll talk about later could be fun, although it might need more (suggestions would be nice!
)Smuggling
- You can run enemy siege blockades and bring supplies to a location.
- You can help get deserters or people switching sides out of the system or to the other faction.
Mining
- You can mine resources for a faction.
- You can mine resources from out under a factions nose and sell them for a significant price, somewhere else, which would make you a target for that faction.
Pirates
- You can raid any and all supply convoys with much booty to be had. Altough factions don't like it if you steal their stuff. High bounties.
- You can get contracts from one side to effectively start privateering the other faction, for booty of less value mabye, but you get paid for doing it
Scavenging
- You can get contracts from your faction to scower battlefields and scrap what can be scraped.
- you can scrap battlefields yourself for much profit, but the added danger of it being illegal salvage.
- If it's possible you could scavenge destroyed stations, which you can fly into and have to navigate the destroyed corridors and landing bays for valuable parts to sell.
Passenger
- You can transport people who are either deserting, or turning their cloak.
- You can transport refugees out of the system.
- You can get missions to do post battle Search & Rescue.
All in all I think this would add greatly to the emergent gameplay and depth that you can get out of a war between two factions. Where there is a balance between profit and risk.
So that was quite a story.. but it's just the start. I've got a couple of other (albeit smaller) things
Subsystems
Heat
I would love for heat to be a more prevolent mechanic in the game. Currently it's mostly not going to close to stars and other than that you're golden. I would like ship heating to be more like how David Braben originally described it.
In fights, heat would be a very important thing. Getting shot hot metal or lasers generally is an issue, but more in the sence that as you're pulling of maneuvers, the intence use of your thrusters, weapons and boost builds up heat, as to where you have to actually take it into account. Prolonged fighting could see systems shut down due to overheating. To counter this you can deploy/open radiator panels, which would negate the heat issue, but would now be able to be shot, and if they're destroyed, you've got quite the problem where the ship can't get rid of it's heat as easily and you'd have to bail.
It would look like this:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/t...6j1ifY4cswUTHd6W0RUvEluq11XHz2R8mnkP4-TXhaRMw
Thrusters
This change is pretty basic. Make thrusters independently destroyable. So that thrusters can get shot out, and you'd be less maneuverable or even completely crippled if you have really bad luck. Right now thrusters are either all broke or all working.
Shields
I think it would be sweet if shields would also be more like talked about by David. Where larger ships have seperate generators for seperate portions of shields. For example, the Cobra MkIII/MkIV would have a front and back shield, or the Anaconda would have many different shields. This can make dogfights more tactical, where targeting a specific part of a ship can allow you to destroy ships much faster as you blow out a portion of their shield. and then can hit that part of the hull. This would make positioning in combat also more important where you have to keep the least damaged portion of your shields pointed towards the enemy.
This could also add a layer of subsystem management where you can put more power towards specific parts of you shield.
Though a much smaller addition than the whole war system I talked about. This in my opinion could also add a lot of depth to managing your ship. On to the next one
Stations
Station variety is something a lot of people want, and this is how I think it could be done. Also, this is the most probable thing to appear, since David has stated he'd like to add more types of stations.
Types of stations
Stations would have the current features of all the stations a little more devided among them. No longer can you buy a ship at every station. No longer do all station trade in all commodities. This could add a more deep level of supply and demand for traders.
Industrial refinery station
- A new station design, similar to this: http://img15.deviantart.net/2192/i/...us_space_station_by_martinhoulden-d6rejgz.jpg
And you can see all the factories running, and ships and other vehicles transport the materials around.
- Would supply metals and other refined ore, and demand raw ore and the machinery to refine them.
Advanced machinery station
- Would be a coriolis station with the standard interior.
- Would supply machinery and advanced electronics etc. and demand metals and other items needed to make their products.
Shipyard
- A new station design, similar to this: http://41.media.tumblr.com/2f0232e5c0f82fc0bd46d53c756e688d/tumblr_neqhu4Haxi1roeo08o1_1280.jpg
Where you can see ships being constructed.
- Would demand all the materials and machinery needed for ship production and supply ships and ship modules. You could even have different shipyards beloning to different Manufacturers. So to get a Cobra, you'd have to go to a Falcon DeLacy shipyard. For a hauler, a Zorgon Peterson Shipyard etc.
Mining Station
- A new station design, similar to this: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mVugPMhFGZM/UbCI4cTah9I/AAAAAAAACWE/dbKrRl6xy7Y/s1600/Pirate_base01.jpg
Where you can see the surrounding area be minded by both ships and drones.
- Would demand mining equipment. and supply raw ore.
Agriculture Station
- Would be an Orbis station. The docking bay would probably not have crop fields since those would be in the rings of the Orbis, however I would like something setting it apart from other stations. (maybe the areas beside the docking pads are storage areas for supplies ready to ship?)
- Would demand all the equipment needed for crops, dairy and cattle farms, and supply food and other grown resources.
Tourism & luxury Station
- Would be an Occelus station with the high tech interior.
- Would Demand all things needed to make luxurious guests happy (food, advanced electronics, etc.) would supply clothing, luxury items etc.
- Would be a hub for passenger missions and have beluga liners and other Saud Kreuger ships everywhere around it.
Research Outpost
- Would be an outpost station. which look fine.
- Would demand machinery for scientific experiments. and since they do research out there, they won't really supply anthing but knowledge.
Space Elevators
- Would look like the stations as seen in CQC
- Would demand materials for the different bases on the planets. Would supply the materials the bases from those planets deliver.
- Would be a way for ED players who haven't purchased any of the planetary landing expanssions to still be able to trade with planetside bases in some way.
Stations belonging to different factions
Ofcourse you'd expect station being different depening on their allegiance. Since making entirely new stations based on different factions might be too much of a resource drain for Fdev, they could simply do what they did with the Imperial Eagle, Give all the suggested stations a new coat of paint and maybe little differences here and there to make it clear that it's an imperial or federal station. I'd imagine Alliance stations not really having a different design with the Alliance being a relative newcomer and mostly existing out of systems that don't want anything to do with either the Feds or the Imperials.
This would hopefully add a bit of life and variety to the galaxy. There could be exceptions to the rules here ofcouse. I have no Idea what kind of station design I would give Obsidian Orbital, and I haven't put too much though into different types of planetary bases yet either. Suffice to say, I do think it would be a great addition to add these.
The station type present would also depend on the actual planet it's orbiting/system it's in. It makes little sence to me to build an agricultural station in orbit over a perfectly good earth-like where you could just plant the crops.
This would also add a more deep level of supply and demand. Where cutting the line between one type of station and another can cause big issues for that station, and as such, emergent gameplay as the owners of that station frantically do everything they can to keep it up and running.
Station building would also have a lot more detail, basically exactly like how David Braben described it in the 2nd Dev Diary video. More detail, more mission for it. etc.
Exploration & Mining
At last we come to the last subject I want to expand. It doesn't even need that much of an expansion, all it needs is basically what Fdev wanted from the start, so here I go.
Exploration
Although it might be a bit late to change it now, I would have liked ED's exploration a lot more if you actually had to discover the proper jump route to undiscovered systems. This would make getting to the system more of an acomplishment in the first place. It would be almost exactly like how Fdev described it where you first scan for the route in a mini-game, then you send a probe along the route to check if it's good. Then you calculate the jump and if you fail, you end up somewhere you weren't supposed to end up at. If you arrive, high-fives allround you made it!
So, first order of buisness is to determine the star type. Whilst the scanning system is pretty simple, and you honestly can't really make "scanning something" more engaging. I do think that adding visual flair would at least make it feel more expansive. As you scan the star, you can see all kinds of data come in in real time, it's composition, it's temperature, it's type etc. You could tie scanning into the heating mechaninc. where you would have to balance heating up vs. getting more data, ergo more money. (similar to fuel scooping I suppose).
Then you have to look for other celestial objects. Instead of the discovery scanner, I would have a system where you would again, send out probes. Which together with you, start scanning the system. Bodies close to the star are found pretty easily but for instance the second star in a binary system and it's own planets would take a little while to find. This would be visualised in a map where you can see which parts of the sector you have mapped yet.
Scanning for planets etc. yourself would make use of a scanning system where you fly around and trying to see the different movement of the planets compared to the background of infinite space. Similar to how you find planets if you basically just don't use a discovery scanner, but look for them yourself, albeit with a little help from probes and scanners.
Once you've found a planet you close in, and start scanning that. As you're doing that, similar to the star you can actually see all the data comming in, and a visual representation of the scanning, like so:
You start the basic scan:
http://40.media.tumblr.com/22ddd1c60130f93106120d66796dbf74/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o1_r1_1280.jpg
It progresses:
http://41.media.tumblr.com/850eaff035e9c75e32b594a0421d42b3/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o2_r1_1280.jpg
As the basic scan is concluded you detect POI's on the surface (which could be visited on rocky worlds right now! and atmospheric worlds later)
http://40.media.tumblr.com/37345b259b43c2d456907d2df3cbf52c/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o3_r1_1280.jpg
http://41.media.tumblr.com/b7cc8280f730895319ceeee944304699/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o4_r1_1280.jpg
Using an advanced scanner you can get even more data:
http://41.media.tumblr.com/f5cacbd5ad8136b8d9d16046a4f23d4b/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o5_r1_1280.jpg
http://36.media.tumblr.com/b6e077837e2f08502e0d6f38e960b20b/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o6_r1_1280.jpg
When the scan is complete, profit ensues (assuming you make it back to sell it
)http://40.media.tumblr.com/6ff58c009181adaf219bf0a9235d817b/tumblr_nkwn32Szk21roeo08o8_r1_1280.jpg
To add gameplay to the scanning mechanic you could make it sort of like the scanning mechanic in Mass Effect 2. And whilst that still could be quite boring to some it would be a great deal better than what we have now in my opinion.
you could also add a mechanic where the explorer has to figure out how a POI happened. Say for instance, you find a barren planet, but evidence it used to be lush. What the hell happened? Or you find a crashed ship, How did it crash? and have audio and visual feedback. Seeing an overlay of the barren planet with an asteroid impacting and ruining the climate in a timelapse for example. Or hearing the audio from the crashed ship's blackbox and following it's flight path to see where and how it went wrong.
When you make it back to civilization. You can now sell your data. However. Uneversal Cartographics doesn't exist. Well sort of. You can buy and sell data to different powers (Feds, Imperials, Alliance) and keep it from others. If one faction figues out you've also sold it to another faction that can make them want retribution for selling valuable mining data out, or data of an earth like world, basically anything valueable to a faction. And ofcourse there's thargoids to discover
Mining
Mining could also use a bit more depth. Whilst the added drones do help I feel that the mining in and of itself could use more different gameplay.
You start by scanning the system (similar to exploration) for valuable mining sites. (or you buy the exploration data somewhere.) When you get to the mining site you can scan the different asteroids for their composition. You can if you want to also identify asteroids by the way they look.
http://i.imgur.com/DjH4p3b.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/62sTW8x.jpg
When you've identified the asteroid you want to mine, you fly close and power up the laser. The gameplay comes from having to carefully carve chunks of the asteroid with the laser. Also, you have to manage the laser's heat vs. its output. Setting your laser to full power can quickly cut an asteroid to bits. But your laser can overheat, short out, and blow up in the worst case. Leaving you pretty badly damaged. Scanning for weaknesses in the asteroid will help you more quickly and more efficiently cut the asteroid up. Also, depending on how precisely you use your laser to cut the areas you need, or just haphazardly slice the asteroid in half, you get more or less resources.
There would be a special "mining" UI for this purpose.
Whilst you cut the asteroid up, drones will gather the materials for you and transport it to your cargobay. You don't have to refine these materials like now, you just have to sell them.
A thing that could also add to this is really big asteroids which you can fly into. To find the materials from the inside out.
The End
Well that was quite the essay I've written there. I hope you agree on my choices, and if not, please constructively explain why.
Suggestions and further ideas would also be nice. It can only get better if we work together on providing Fdev with ideas on how to improve the game Thank you.
P.S. Pretty much all the concept art shown are from Fdev themselves.
P.P.S. Sorry about not having the images embedded, I could not get it working for some reason.
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