Over the last few months I've been wishing that ED had a deeper layer of immersion in the gameplay. That is to say that an aspect that isn't a grind. Here's a list of my crazy ideas.
1) I would really like to see is planetside mineral extraction with a refinery and the rest of the works.
1a) Imagine heading to a body, cruising around in-ship and being able to drop prospector limpets on the surface to determine a great spot that's rich in minerals or elements. I'd land my ship, and instead of a vehicle bay, I have a surface mineral extractor that emerges from the bottom of the ship. Using the same aspects as asteroid mining, my bins fill, I eject the crud, move from location to location and I leave the planet with a hold of wealth.
1b) Instead of using my ship to prospect, I can use an SRV and fill more of the potential of that little buggy by using the wave scanner to prospect for minerals. When i find something I like, I call my ship and it hovers over my targeted outcropping and does the work extracting more than just 3 to 5 blobs of iron or carbon. I can defend the ship from skimmers with my SRV.
1c) I use the SRV to prospect out some minerals and drop a beacon that marks the location. I call my ship and board it, then I hover over the beacon and deploy a disposable extraction / refinery unit that I can leave behind on the surface. After ~24 hours, I can return to my beacon and collect the materials, minerals, and elements that have been collected. Once the prospected point is empty, the extractor disintegrates and nothing remains.
2) Three sizes of SRV.
2a) The first is smaller, faster, has only one barrel on the turret, and can only carry 1 unit of cargo and has good shielding, which is great for racing / exploring.
2b) The second SRV size is what we have but is capable of 4 units of cargo instead of 2, and is the standard for destroying the occasional skimmer or surface defense battery.
2c) The third SRV to choose from is larger in body, slower-- with larger tires, minimal shields, and can carry 7 units of cargo before having to return to the ship. This would allow prospectors and mission runners options depending on their play style. I love missions, and when i have to collect 8 units of *whatever* from a destroyed / crashed / SRV / ship / wreckage location, I absolutely hate returning to my ship every 2 units.
3) New classes of planetary approach suites. Any suite would work in the place of any other, but specific suites would have perks to play style.
3a) High gravity suites. This setup would make landing on high gravity planets a little easier, alerting us to low gravity pockets, jagged cliff faces and meteor showers, etc, with some extra control for taking off and landing (at the cost of overall speed, perhaps) for those of us that enjoy exploring larger bodies.
3b) Standard suites. This is the one we have and would come with the ship and guides us through altitude, gravity fluctuations, escape vectors, and distances with no perks either way.
3c) Atmospheric / Hazardous area suites. Yes, I want planetary landing in atmosphere as bad as the rest of us, but imagine the extra aspect-- it's hazardous. If we can't land on atmospheric planets, let us land on the glass planets, the lava and molten planets, the sulfur planets, and possibly the water planets. The suite would alert us to hazards, temperatures, radioactivity, and corrosive gasses.
If I want to land my AspX in a molten lake of liquid titanium, crash into a glass crater, or fly through a cloud of sulfuric acid vapor, let me do it! Imagine how that could make the paint look. Imagine combining these three ideas. High speed high gravity racing through lava. Hot iron-skin planet mineral extraction. The mechanics all seem to be there. Right now I explore the beige space rocks like rolled up socks in the dirty laundry hamper, looking for the one with the blue stripe on it. I'd appreciate the effort into game mechanics and expansion rather than questionably profitable alternate paint jobs and Froot Loop weapon colors (which I totally bought in to).
Maybe this has all be suggested before, maybe it's even in the works already, but I have been rummaging for information everywhere. What do you think?
1) I would really like to see is planetside mineral extraction with a refinery and the rest of the works.
1a) Imagine heading to a body, cruising around in-ship and being able to drop prospector limpets on the surface to determine a great spot that's rich in minerals or elements. I'd land my ship, and instead of a vehicle bay, I have a surface mineral extractor that emerges from the bottom of the ship. Using the same aspects as asteroid mining, my bins fill, I eject the crud, move from location to location and I leave the planet with a hold of wealth.
1b) Instead of using my ship to prospect, I can use an SRV and fill more of the potential of that little buggy by using the wave scanner to prospect for minerals. When i find something I like, I call my ship and it hovers over my targeted outcropping and does the work extracting more than just 3 to 5 blobs of iron or carbon. I can defend the ship from skimmers with my SRV.
1c) I use the SRV to prospect out some minerals and drop a beacon that marks the location. I call my ship and board it, then I hover over the beacon and deploy a disposable extraction / refinery unit that I can leave behind on the surface. After ~24 hours, I can return to my beacon and collect the materials, minerals, and elements that have been collected. Once the prospected point is empty, the extractor disintegrates and nothing remains.
2) Three sizes of SRV.
2a) The first is smaller, faster, has only one barrel on the turret, and can only carry 1 unit of cargo and has good shielding, which is great for racing / exploring.
2b) The second SRV size is what we have but is capable of 4 units of cargo instead of 2, and is the standard for destroying the occasional skimmer or surface defense battery.
2c) The third SRV to choose from is larger in body, slower-- with larger tires, minimal shields, and can carry 7 units of cargo before having to return to the ship. This would allow prospectors and mission runners options depending on their play style. I love missions, and when i have to collect 8 units of *whatever* from a destroyed / crashed / SRV / ship / wreckage location, I absolutely hate returning to my ship every 2 units.
3) New classes of planetary approach suites. Any suite would work in the place of any other, but specific suites would have perks to play style.
3a) High gravity suites. This setup would make landing on high gravity planets a little easier, alerting us to low gravity pockets, jagged cliff faces and meteor showers, etc, with some extra control for taking off and landing (at the cost of overall speed, perhaps) for those of us that enjoy exploring larger bodies.
3b) Standard suites. This is the one we have and would come with the ship and guides us through altitude, gravity fluctuations, escape vectors, and distances with no perks either way.
3c) Atmospheric / Hazardous area suites. Yes, I want planetary landing in atmosphere as bad as the rest of us, but imagine the extra aspect-- it's hazardous. If we can't land on atmospheric planets, let us land on the glass planets, the lava and molten planets, the sulfur planets, and possibly the water planets. The suite would alert us to hazards, temperatures, radioactivity, and corrosive gasses.
If I want to land my AspX in a molten lake of liquid titanium, crash into a glass crater, or fly through a cloud of sulfuric acid vapor, let me do it! Imagine how that could make the paint look. Imagine combining these three ideas. High speed high gravity racing through lava. Hot iron-skin planet mineral extraction. The mechanics all seem to be there. Right now I explore the beige space rocks like rolled up socks in the dirty laundry hamper, looking for the one with the blue stripe on it. I'd appreciate the effort into game mechanics and expansion rather than questionably profitable alternate paint jobs and Froot Loop weapon colors (which I totally bought in to).
Maybe this has all be suggested before, maybe it's even in the works already, but I have been rummaging for information everywhere. What do you think?
