Something that I'd really like to see is some different cockpits for different craft and for it to actually feel like you're inside a spaceship, not just having a panel (the same panel) in front of you, no matter which ship you're flying. I want to be able to look around the interior of the ship, maybe look back at any passengers that are being carried. I just want the cockpit of a Eagle to look very different to that of a Panther (for example).
Collection of Ideas for Elite 4
- Thread starter fasnoon
- Start date
I think you might have, but it doesn't hurt to repeat certain requests...they might be the ideas that are more likely to show up in E4.
Would be nice if someone could comb through this thread and extract all the ideas into a single list, as it's getting huge!
True, maybe then Braben (or someone else connected with Elite IV) is more likely to get our jist - without having to trawl 23 odd pages!
Ugh, don't mention this epitome of blandness (which completely <SNIP> the setting, by the way).
If anything use some game that doesn't suck, like Morrowind or Daggerfall as an example.
I fail to see what was that great about DB in OB anyway - just a bunch of psychopathic goths worshiping a complete perversion of estabilished lore with short, completely linear storyline (that forced you to play gullible idiot) attached. They didn't even look professional.
Back to the topic - maybe corporations as active factions in game, as well as more interaction between factions?
Yep, there should be more people to hack off/get onside than just the Feds, Independents and Imperials.
Not in anyway comparable to Elite!! Too Complex and the fighting method is crud. You should be able to have more control of the ship like in elite rather than just click and let it do its thing. Pretty poor in my opinion. Bring on elite IV
I think you might have, but it doesn't hurt to repeat certain requests...they might be the ideas that are more likely to show up in E4.
Would be nice if someone could comb through this thread and extract all the ideas into a single list, as it's getting huge!
I don't doubt for a moment that there has been some reading of this thread and many others by DB and the devs. There are some fantastic ideas and definitely some brilliant development of ideas.
Several more ideas:
1. Ability to target point in space between the systems for hyperspace.
2. Ground defenses around both, military bases and cities. Orbital station-based weapons. Also, better defenses in general for large cities. It kind of sucks that you could drop several tons of radioactives and nerve gas on Duval City, Capitol, then rake the infrastructure with your lasers and expect to make it out of there alive. It'd be better if sky filled with NN500-s and MV2-s, ground based lasers and plasma accelerators tried to blast you out of the sky and several squadrons of Imperial Guard's Imperial Explorers took off to intercept you.
3. For less serious offences, if you didn't comply with the Police, they should try to disable your drive and board the ship.
4. Better smuggling system - maybe active scans by the Police trying to determine your cargo.
5. Flying with shields down by default might be interesting, as it would take time to charge them up.
6. Rear weaponry on ships requiring extra crew members should work like mini-turret with limited range of movement (rear view would be fixed, but you'd be able to fire at ships in any point of the central area of the screen). Also, the crew should be more active, for example, if you manned the turret or rear gun, they should be flying the ship, manning another turret, etc.
1. Ability to target point in space between the systems for hyperspace.
2. Ground defenses around both, military bases and cities. Orbital station-based weapons. Also, better defenses in general for large cities. It kind of sucks that you could drop several tons of radioactives and nerve gas on Duval City, Capitol, then rake the infrastructure with your lasers and expect to make it out of there alive. It'd be better if sky filled with NN500-s and MV2-s, ground based lasers and plasma accelerators tried to blast you out of the sky and several squadrons of Imperial Guard's Imperial Explorers took off to intercept you.
3. For less serious offences, if you didn't comply with the Police, they should try to disable your drive and board the ship.
4. Better smuggling system - maybe active scans by the Police trying to determine your cargo.
5. Flying with shields down by default might be interesting, as it would take time to charge them up.
6. Rear weaponry on ships requiring extra crew members should work like mini-turret with limited range of movement (rear view would be fixed, but you'd be able to fire at ships in any point of the central area of the screen). Also, the crew should be more active, for example, if you manned the turret or rear gun, they should be flying the ship, manning another turret, etc.
Aye - I agree on this one - co-ordinate jumping would be fun.
Again I agree - attacking cities should quite rightly be tantamount to suicide.
I dunno, I quite like the whole criminal rating thing. It's the wild west out there and being gunned down is much more fun
Could get a little tiresome - there is a fine line between overcomplicated and and realism IMO.
Other than an 'aesthetic' addition I'm not sure what advantage this would have to the gameplay? I agree that the rear/side turret system could be reworked but with a control alteration approach. i.e. shutting off the ship engines and being able to control the ship from that perspective without the controls reversing. To be fair the only time I ever switched away from the primary weapon on my ships was when the turn rate was not sufficient for combat and the turret mounted weapon was.
What I would like to see is the mounting of multiple turret weapons on the larger ships and then a combined focusing system where you can fire several at once against one or multiple enemies.
Other craft do it already in FE2/FFE while launching. Besides, proximity sensor should be back - I like ambushes and all, but it's not like you can't see intercepting craft in deep space from good several thousand km - being alarmed when there is another craft within 100-200km radius seems reasonable and would give you the time to raise the shields. It might allow for interesting mechanics, for example you might want to keep your shields down when approaching a trader, as doing so with your shields up would be rather obvious hint that you're up to no good. There could also be docking with other craft (for various reasons - trading, rescue missions, boarding, etc.) which would be interesting if it required shields to be down. Landing should also require dropping your shields.
It gave me another idea - cloaking systems, which would require shields to be down and would have to be deactivated prior to firing a beam weapon.
For one, it'd make multi-seat craft feel truly multiseat. It'd be much better if my second crew member in Asp was able to pick off the Ospreys from my six while I'm busy piloting the damn thing, and, to do so, non-fixed rear gun would be necessary. Same with larger craft, they have turrets *and* multiple crew members. Of course, Cobra Mk.III would still have fixed rear gun, as you'd have no one to fly it while firing your rear gun, so having additional set of controls for aiming would be impractical.
Another thing it would allow for, is differing skill levels for crew - what's the point of asking the guy if he worked on a spaceship before, if all he does is consuming your credits?
Lastly, it'd allow for different behaviour of AI craft - for example, Cobra Mk.III would never fire both guns at once, while Asp with veteran crew would be able to go after you with it's main weapon, while trying to shoot the missile off it's six with it's rear gun.
That'd be cool, same with more divergent selection of weponry (mass drivers anyone?) and multiple forward firing weapons on larger ships (say, two for Viper and Cobra, three for Asp, four or five for the IC, etc).
Agreed, I've always found it strange that the police think you deserve to die just because you disobeyed ATC!! A system where they stop and board you for less serious offences could lead to a short (or long) stretch in jail?
What I want to see is the ability to have the ship's computers fire a turret if you're not currently manning it. Also, it'd be nice if the lower turret didn't shoot your own ship, even when you're clearly aiming away from it!
What I want to see is the ability to have the ship's computers fire a turret if you're not currently manning it. Also, it'd be nice if the lower turret didn't shoot your own ship, even when you're clearly aiming away from it!
I agree - you'd think that by that stage it's no beyond the realms of difficulty for onboard computers to be able to do the targeting and gunnery on a ship. Of course you would still have to point the ship in the right direction.
I'd leave handling turrets (when player isn't manning them) to the crew. The only in-game difference between crew- and computer-controlled turrets is removal of incentive to hire one-eyed, one-armed, one-legged cripples with schizophrenia and alcohol problem to cut down on salaries in case of the former.
The crew should do a lot of different things including firing weapons, piloting the ship if player is manning the turret or rear gun (unless player orders them to keep hands off or uses autopilot), maintenance (nothing too complex - simply increase the time ship can go without service if you have skilled technician on board - invaluable for frontier miners, explorers, alien artifact hunters, etc.), using ECM, etc.
I don't want crew to be a list of names that do nothing, but eat my credits.
The crew should do a lot of different things including firing weapons, piloting the ship if player is manning the turret or rear gun (unless player orders them to keep hands off or uses autopilot), maintenance (nothing too complex - simply increase the time ship can go without service if you have skilled technician on board - invaluable for frontier miners, explorers, alien artifact hunters, etc.), using ECM, etc.
I don't want crew to be a list of names that do nothing, but eat my credits.
Of course, there's a crew, I forgot. That's what I meant, have the crew be able to fire the guns.
I see what you're getting at but surely that can be dealt with by having varying quality tracking and targeting computers - pay for what you get similar to higher spec lasers and missiles. I personally would find vetting crew members for their 'turret manning' ability etc would get tiresome. I don't really want to have to micro manage every aspect of the game.
Where's the micromanaging? In actually paying attention to what a potential crew member responds to a question you could already ask in FE2 and FFE? That's not micromanagement, that's reading comprehension. Plus, the crew could get more experienced with time which would alleviate the effects of hiring only rookies. I hate managers, therefore I by no means want Elite4 to become one, but I also hate "crew" consisting of nothing, but a list of names, each consuming 5-20 credits in regular intervals.
They don't even need separate skills, only profficiency level already implied in FFE and FE2.
I can see that. I guess improved stats on your ships performance reflected by the skills of the crew are an interesting twist. I'm still pretty keen on some automated turrets or similar. Perhaps as an intermediary sized ship over much larger crewed ships?
I'm still not convinced, as it would blur the line between single- and multiseated spacecraft when it comes to general feel and gameplay. Maybe in form of weak, short range anti-fighter/missile fully automated rapid fire pulse turrets. I would however welcome some extra flight and combat assist hardware that'd allow for partial automatization of combat, but that's mostly for giving newbs time to painlessly get used to newtonian flight, it should still be inferior in combat performance to a veteran using jordanian controls.
Deffo not suggesting that they get rid of the main mounted lasers, it would be poop if it were just a drift and shoot style of combat. Certainly something like anti missile or anti drone (oooh drones - now that could be fun
) would be a nice addition to a ship ar*enal. I would also welcome a turret mounted mining laser or similar.