I love the new Odyssey bases; there's a real feeling of frontier civilization to them and they're very pretty and pleasant to explore. However, I feel like there is very little interaction with them as places of civilization; rather they are targets for on-foot missions and are otherwise redundant and disconnected from the rest of the game. So I would like to suggest a couple of ways they could be improved upon with very little effort.
Home Bases
My hope with Odyssey was that surface stations would be a good place to call home. That a player could make one into their new base of operations - he would become familiar with his home planet, its landscape, its plants, its infrastructure, its people. I think this could still happen and the new Odyssey settlements would be a great place to make that happen with a few simple adjustments:
1. Put NPC mission givers at the settlements. The settlements already have missions you can take, and the game already has mission giving NPCs. They would simply need to be placed into the settlements, and some adjustments made so they only draw from the mission pool for the owner faction. This would give players a reason to walk around the settlements and interact with the locals, making it feel much more alive. The character of the settlement, being a mining settlement or a military installation gives the home base a character, which lends to the characterisation of the player character.
2. Give security clearance to players with high reputation with the owning faction. This would allow us to explore these settlements without having to break into them; again giving the player a sense of "home". It may also give us access to additional mission givers or other NPCs should they be included (suit/weapons dealers for example).
The effect of these additions would be a much more interesting and dynamic home base, one which had its own unique character the player would come to know and appreciate. The player would be invested in their home: when another player came to sabotage it he would be there to stop them; when it went offline he would be there to bring it back; when it was at war he would be there to defend it. Should the player wish he might invest in a number of such settlements for his favourite faction, and tend them like a garden, as we presently do with the BGS.
Air Support
The second suggestion is even more simple and I'm surprised it isn't there already: local air-force security. Right now, when I attack or sabotage a settlement, I need only get to my ship and boost away and I know I'm home free . It seems very strange that, in a galaxy full of space ships, a frontier settlement would not have local space ships for security. It seems even more strange because Horizons bases DO have air support, which is one of the things that makes them so fun and dynamic to interact with. I know that when I sound the alarm at an Horizons settlement I will have to fight the drones in my SRV and also deal with the attacks from the air. When I get back to my ship the battle continues as I now have to deal with a pair of eagles or an anaconda chasing me into orbit.
Since we already have this system in place it seems to me that implementing it in Odyssey settlements shouldn't be too difficult, and would add a great deal of immersion, gameplay and especially continuity - connecting Odyssey gameplay to the rest of the game. It would make the "triangular sphere of combat" actually happen. When doing a mission for Odyssey I would have to account for the air force security of the base, so I would have to approach the mission in one of three ways.
1. Guns Blazing
With this approach the player would arrive in their ship and immediately open fire on the anti-air turrets and also the air force security. Once these had been dealt with he would land and disembark either on foot or in the SRV to deal with the external security forces before moving on to his primary objective in one of the buildings. He would then leave, being fully aware that extra ground forces may be deployed and additional air support might arrive to prevent his escape. The combat doesn't stop until he enters supercruise.
2. Hit and Run
With this approach the player uses stealth tactics to get to his mission target. At some point the alarms are triggered and he now has to dodge the full weight of the local security while he finishes his mission and makes a run for his getaway vehicle. Once he takes off he now has to escape the air force security and AA turrets as well.
3. Full Stealth
With this approach the player will have to consider all aspects of the local security to complete his mission. He will disable the alarms, and for good measure he will use the Arc Cutter to disable turrets and disable the landed security vessels so that they are unable pursue him once he takes off in the getaway vehicle. Ideally would escape the base with his mission accomplished and not a single shot fired.
Of course these approaches could be mixed in a variety of ways depending on the situation. But the point is that this simple addition would add a lot of dynamism to the existing gameplay. Most importantly it would add continuity between Odyssey gameplay and the rest of the game.
These two suggestions taken together, I believe would add a great deal of value to Odyssey settlements and, as far as I can tell, would require very little effort to implement.
Home Bases
My hope with Odyssey was that surface stations would be a good place to call home. That a player could make one into their new base of operations - he would become familiar with his home planet, its landscape, its plants, its infrastructure, its people. I think this could still happen and the new Odyssey settlements would be a great place to make that happen with a few simple adjustments:
1. Put NPC mission givers at the settlements. The settlements already have missions you can take, and the game already has mission giving NPCs. They would simply need to be placed into the settlements, and some adjustments made so they only draw from the mission pool for the owner faction. This would give players a reason to walk around the settlements and interact with the locals, making it feel much more alive. The character of the settlement, being a mining settlement or a military installation gives the home base a character, which lends to the characterisation of the player character.
2. Give security clearance to players with high reputation with the owning faction. This would allow us to explore these settlements without having to break into them; again giving the player a sense of "home". It may also give us access to additional mission givers or other NPCs should they be included (suit/weapons dealers for example).
The effect of these additions would be a much more interesting and dynamic home base, one which had its own unique character the player would come to know and appreciate. The player would be invested in their home: when another player came to sabotage it he would be there to stop them; when it went offline he would be there to bring it back; when it was at war he would be there to defend it. Should the player wish he might invest in a number of such settlements for his favourite faction, and tend them like a garden, as we presently do with the BGS.
Air Support
The second suggestion is even more simple and I'm surprised it isn't there already: local air-force security. Right now, when I attack or sabotage a settlement, I need only get to my ship and boost away and I know I'm home free . It seems very strange that, in a galaxy full of space ships, a frontier settlement would not have local space ships for security. It seems even more strange because Horizons bases DO have air support, which is one of the things that makes them so fun and dynamic to interact with. I know that when I sound the alarm at an Horizons settlement I will have to fight the drones in my SRV and also deal with the attacks from the air. When I get back to my ship the battle continues as I now have to deal with a pair of eagles or an anaconda chasing me into orbit.
Since we already have this system in place it seems to me that implementing it in Odyssey settlements shouldn't be too difficult, and would add a great deal of immersion, gameplay and especially continuity - connecting Odyssey gameplay to the rest of the game. It would make the "triangular sphere of combat" actually happen. When doing a mission for Odyssey I would have to account for the air force security of the base, so I would have to approach the mission in one of three ways.
1. Guns Blazing
With this approach the player would arrive in their ship and immediately open fire on the anti-air turrets and also the air force security. Once these had been dealt with he would land and disembark either on foot or in the SRV to deal with the external security forces before moving on to his primary objective in one of the buildings. He would then leave, being fully aware that extra ground forces may be deployed and additional air support might arrive to prevent his escape. The combat doesn't stop until he enters supercruise.
2. Hit and Run
With this approach the player uses stealth tactics to get to his mission target. At some point the alarms are triggered and he now has to dodge the full weight of the local security while he finishes his mission and makes a run for his getaway vehicle. Once he takes off he now has to escape the air force security and AA turrets as well.
3. Full Stealth
With this approach the player will have to consider all aspects of the local security to complete his mission. He will disable the alarms, and for good measure he will use the Arc Cutter to disable turrets and disable the landed security vessels so that they are unable pursue him once he takes off in the getaway vehicle. Ideally would escape the base with his mission accomplished and not a single shot fired.
Of course these approaches could be mixed in a variety of ways depending on the situation. But the point is that this simple addition would add a lot of dynamism to the existing gameplay. Most importantly it would add continuity between Odyssey gameplay and the rest of the game.
These two suggestions taken together, I believe would add a great deal of value to Odyssey settlements and, as far as I can tell, would require very little effort to implement.