Greetings community! It has been a while! I have ideas to share, and I'd like to know your thoughts!
Where to begin... I was thinking... Piracy. This galactic role has a rather interesting "High Risk, High Reward" factor going on. I like it. I feel it. I want to try it out. There is one thing that bugs me though. If you're pirating NPCs, you actually have to engage them. What if a mechanic were to be introduced. An automated response system of sorts. Part of the comms section, you would have a "demands" selection. These demands could range anywhere from "drop your cargo or I'll open fire" to "kill your engines or I'll kill you". NPCs would have to run through a "dice roll" of sorts... having a percent chance to do exactly as you demand. If a ship is lesser armed than you are, or or is smaller than you are, they would have a much higher chance to do as you say. Larger ships will have less of a chance to meet your demands, and will obviously start putting up a fight. This will give the feel of a dynamic galaxy where NPCs all of a sudden have the ability to make a choice BEFORE combat begins. Thoughts?
Next up, ammo types for kinetic/thermal/explosive weaponry. Yes, there are a few weapons out there to choose from. However, having a diversified arsenal that could be customized in a way of your choosing would make the game far more interesting! Explosive rounds for kinetic weapons, EMP missiles/torpedoes, focus lenses that change the properties of your laser weapons. These are things that will only add to the game, I feel. Yes, a lot of the thought comes from EVE. But... EVE is just spreadsheets online... crunching numbers to meet the best possible outcome. In Elite: Dangerous, it's a much different situation. An entirely different beast. Proper piloting skills factor in, not the ridiculous additions of numbers to your spreadsheet. This gives danger a very different feeling. Yes, insurance covers a lot, but if you have to make back up a lot of those numbers and accumulate a vast amount of debt, things get more difficult for you. All of a sudden, sh*t gets real. Players and NPCs will be forced to adapt depending on the weapons AND ammunition that you're employing. What say you?
Right before I get to the more interesting suggestion, in my mind... Asteroid fields. Now, yeah, there is a lot of Piracy going on there. But, what if there were LARGE enough asteroids, that could house secret pirate bases? Places where pirates can refuel, rearm and stage their strikes on their terms? Not a bad idea if I do say so myself. Or, if that would never come to pass, what about employing a government, once you reach a certain reputation, to build commanders PERSONAL ASTEROID OUTPOSTS? The only way to find another player's hidden base would be to stumble across it, buy the data for its location from them or follow the supply ships that would frequent that area to add to the base's stocks (ie: fuel, ammo, workers, repair material)? Obviously these hidden locales would not carry weapons or ships, except for the ships captained by the commander(s) based there. I think it's a neat idea... don't you?
And last, but not least, I had a though, about a system. Gravlock Landing Gear, or a GLG module for short. Think back to Star Wars. Remember the scene where Han Solo had the Millennium Falcon attached to the Star Destroyer? He used a Landing Claw to hold the ship into place, and then floated away with their garbage while maintaining zero signature by keeping all non-essential systems offline. The GLG would do something similar. Locking to an asteroid in the middle of a planet's rings, or out in an asteroid field to simply observe, go AFK or even sit in ambush would be a STELLAR idea! Er, no pun intended... But think of the ways you could outwit potential attackers/traders/miners? Come on. Admit it. The idea's cool.
Oh, and one final suggestion... there needs to be an internal component that's an actual heatsink of sorts with a coolant system to mask your signature. Yes, there's the Heat Sink Launcher. But that is an EXTREMELY temporary and VERY situational piece of hardware. Something with more usability would make things like escaping pirates, being a pirate, or even hunting a bounty (once player hunting becomes more mainstream) much more feasible. My idea is, this "cooling" module has two specific things about it. One, it can only be engaged in Silent Running mode. Two, it has a FINITE amount of coolant, but lasts as long as there is coolant. Used in conjunction with the heat sink launcher, masking one's signature would be less of a stressful chore than it is now. Managing that reduced heat signature would also be much simpler. The higher the rating of the "coolant" module, the longer the coolant will last. From F to A, the times would range as follows (this is obviously just ballparking, but if it were to become a thing, it would get tweaked I'm sure):
F: 1:00 (60s)
E: 1:30
D: 2:00
C: 2:30
B: 3:00
A: 3:30
These times I feel are MORE than fair, making the module more of an assisting feature, rather than an overpowered piece of hardware.
Right, those are my suggestions! Throw your thoughts at me! Let's see if the Devs will take a look
Where to begin... I was thinking... Piracy. This galactic role has a rather interesting "High Risk, High Reward" factor going on. I like it. I feel it. I want to try it out. There is one thing that bugs me though. If you're pirating NPCs, you actually have to engage them. What if a mechanic were to be introduced. An automated response system of sorts. Part of the comms section, you would have a "demands" selection. These demands could range anywhere from "drop your cargo or I'll open fire" to "kill your engines or I'll kill you". NPCs would have to run through a "dice roll" of sorts... having a percent chance to do exactly as you demand. If a ship is lesser armed than you are, or or is smaller than you are, they would have a much higher chance to do as you say. Larger ships will have less of a chance to meet your demands, and will obviously start putting up a fight. This will give the feel of a dynamic galaxy where NPCs all of a sudden have the ability to make a choice BEFORE combat begins. Thoughts?
Next up, ammo types for kinetic/thermal/explosive weaponry. Yes, there are a few weapons out there to choose from. However, having a diversified arsenal that could be customized in a way of your choosing would make the game far more interesting! Explosive rounds for kinetic weapons, EMP missiles/torpedoes, focus lenses that change the properties of your laser weapons. These are things that will only add to the game, I feel. Yes, a lot of the thought comes from EVE. But... EVE is just spreadsheets online... crunching numbers to meet the best possible outcome. In Elite: Dangerous, it's a much different situation. An entirely different beast. Proper piloting skills factor in, not the ridiculous additions of numbers to your spreadsheet. This gives danger a very different feeling. Yes, insurance covers a lot, but if you have to make back up a lot of those numbers and accumulate a vast amount of debt, things get more difficult for you. All of a sudden, sh*t gets real. Players and NPCs will be forced to adapt depending on the weapons AND ammunition that you're employing. What say you?
Right before I get to the more interesting suggestion, in my mind... Asteroid fields. Now, yeah, there is a lot of Piracy going on there. But, what if there were LARGE enough asteroids, that could house secret pirate bases? Places where pirates can refuel, rearm and stage their strikes on their terms? Not a bad idea if I do say so myself. Or, if that would never come to pass, what about employing a government, once you reach a certain reputation, to build commanders PERSONAL ASTEROID OUTPOSTS? The only way to find another player's hidden base would be to stumble across it, buy the data for its location from them or follow the supply ships that would frequent that area to add to the base's stocks (ie: fuel, ammo, workers, repair material)? Obviously these hidden locales would not carry weapons or ships, except for the ships captained by the commander(s) based there. I think it's a neat idea... don't you?
And last, but not least, I had a though, about a system. Gravlock Landing Gear, or a GLG module for short. Think back to Star Wars. Remember the scene where Han Solo had the Millennium Falcon attached to the Star Destroyer? He used a Landing Claw to hold the ship into place, and then floated away with their garbage while maintaining zero signature by keeping all non-essential systems offline. The GLG would do something similar. Locking to an asteroid in the middle of a planet's rings, or out in an asteroid field to simply observe, go AFK or even sit in ambush would be a STELLAR idea! Er, no pun intended... But think of the ways you could outwit potential attackers/traders/miners? Come on. Admit it. The idea's cool.
Oh, and one final suggestion... there needs to be an internal component that's an actual heatsink of sorts with a coolant system to mask your signature. Yes, there's the Heat Sink Launcher. But that is an EXTREMELY temporary and VERY situational piece of hardware. Something with more usability would make things like escaping pirates, being a pirate, or even hunting a bounty (once player hunting becomes more mainstream) much more feasible. My idea is, this "cooling" module has two specific things about it. One, it can only be engaged in Silent Running mode. Two, it has a FINITE amount of coolant, but lasts as long as there is coolant. Used in conjunction with the heat sink launcher, masking one's signature would be less of a stressful chore than it is now. Managing that reduced heat signature would also be much simpler. The higher the rating of the "coolant" module, the longer the coolant will last. From F to A, the times would range as follows (this is obviously just ballparking, but if it were to become a thing, it would get tweaked I'm sure):
F: 1:00 (60s)
E: 1:30
D: 2:00
C: 2:30
B: 3:00
A: 3:30
These times I feel are MORE than fair, making the module more of an assisting feature, rather than an overpowered piece of hardware.
Right, those are my suggestions! Throw your thoughts at me! Let's see if the Devs will take a look