Hey FD and everyone,
As you’ll notice I’m coming just out of the blue (my introduction post here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/340356-Hello-everyone!) with a text wall of suggestions and ideas.
It goes without saying thad E : D is wonderful etc etc, some of its dynamics and implementations are brilliant and totally inspiring, eg physics of flight, combat dynamics, the whole normal flight - supercruise - jump system which actually allows to “use all of the space out there”, so way to go FD, but still there’s room for improvement imo, as for everything in life I guess. Moreover, I know that some of the things that I’ll propose have already been addressed, and that some development choices are bond to bigger factors (like the multi-platform development, the VR support and so on), plus I work in IT and I really understands some limits, but hey, there’s some room to talk about it on a suggestions forum, right? Maybe in the end something good can come out of it. That’s the spirit, I think.
Please everyone feel free to comment, share, put up, put down each and every one of my ideas, I’m really looking forward to have some feedback. So here the massive suggestions list goes, sorted in some major chunks.
We’re finally through. As you (may have) read, the final result is something like a feature list, traiting out a sort of roadmap concept of how the game may become in the future, imo for the better. Thanks for the patience and sorry for the many repetitions that, willingly or not, i left in the list; I know that many things are already been posted but either I missed them, or I thought to leave them to complete my point of view. Sorry for the language mistakes which are surely in there, too.
Once again, please get me (and FD) some opinions, pointing out what ideas may be good, what’s rubbish, where we may spawn dedicated threads and whatever. And FD, once again, for the game and for the way you drive us all to constantly mull over it, chapeau.
As you’ll notice I’m coming just out of the blue (my introduction post here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/340356-Hello-everyone!) with a text wall of suggestions and ideas.
It goes without saying thad E : D is wonderful etc etc, some of its dynamics and implementations are brilliant and totally inspiring, eg physics of flight, combat dynamics, the whole normal flight - supercruise - jump system which actually allows to “use all of the space out there”, so way to go FD, but still there’s room for improvement imo, as for everything in life I guess. Moreover, I know that some of the things that I’ll propose have already been addressed, and that some development choices are bond to bigger factors (like the multi-platform development, the VR support and so on), plus I work in IT and I really understands some limits, but hey, there’s some room to talk about it on a suggestions forum, right? Maybe in the end something good can come out of it. That’s the spirit, I think.
Please everyone feel free to comment, share, put up, put down each and every one of my ideas, I’m really looking forward to have some feedback. So here the massive suggestions list goes, sorted in some major chunks.
- Cockpit and instruments
- The three leds on the HUD (Gear/Scoop/Mass Lock) are kind of useless while in supercruise and jump modes… shouldn’t them be replaced with something more useful in these environments?
- We could really use a look-behind camera sometimes. That could be projected over the main interface, or maybe replace the info screen while pressing an activation button. Could even be an optional module.
- I really miss a velocity vector indicator from the HUD (that’s the classic symbol projecting your ship direction). Even a “reverse VV” marking the direction we’re coming from would be nice, since we’re in space and often drifting around with FA off.
- Another big absent imo is a “target compass”, that is even a simple arrow pointing to my current target, telling me the steering direction to bring it towards my sights. Even worse, there’s a compass for nav items only, and happened to me while in the heat of combat to use it to bring my target in front of me, not seeing it and wondering why, then finally getting it and steer in the right direction, while the actual hostile ship was cheerfully shooting at my back all along: that because it’s kind of counter intuitive to have a crosshair-like direction indicator not pointing to my target.
- It would be nice to access and display contents of the ship memory banks, such as exploration data gathered, scan data etc. This actually opens up a whole pit of ideas about data management, purchasable system software to modularly install on ownship etc.
- I’d really like to have a magnifier reticle available on my crosshair. Mechwarrior style. It would allow to identificate distant targets, to peek details, to snipe with beams… that could be a module, and provide different magnification levels.
- Another module could be the Anti Collision Radar, useful for navigating in both asteroid and mine fields. I know there’s a collision warning already… but even that could be more dramatic, with a noisy collision signal (horn) too. The module could provide an instrument to actually navigate into really dense object fields avoiding contact (...imagine infiltrating somewhere passing through a veeery dense minefields, imo that rocks) and even provide a semi-auto emergency stop feature.
- A radar warning feature may be cool, too. Something similar to the TRACK - LOCK - LAUNCH warnings on the modern aircrafts; there may be a “warning light” even for being tracked by a ship with deployed hardpoints too. That may have a major relevance with different missile combat dynamics (see [3.2]), and a similar system may even be developed to easily track actual threats, such as firing ships. These warnings may be completed by different alarm tones.
- Speaking about warning systems, I really appreciated the new “warning lights” below ship silhouettes; anyway the system could be furtherly improved. The first thing to point out is that a “low fuel” warning should be implemented, maybe letting the player to set a “bingo fuel” level. Maybe the classic fighter jet warning light matrix have to be considered a deprecated feature on a starship, but still an effective alert system clearly pointing out system fails and malfunctions is an important piece of equipment imo.
- The whole targeting system could be improved imo; even without adding much complexity, but dedicated cycle buttons for ships, objects and celestial bodies could be a start. Or something like “select mode: ships - objects - all etc” and then cycle. There’s a lot of features one can think to add to targeting systems anyway.
- When a route is plotted, it would be wonderful to have some infographic on the hud, for instance a subway-diagram-like path, maybe displayed in vertical on one side, showing progress on the overall route navigation, and some details on current and next systems, as well as fuel consumption projection and so on… for the maximum effect that should be combined with the following [1.12].
- HUD improvement and diversification. It’s a clear thing that the entire UI has been object of a lot of research and it’s state of the art for clearness, usability and so on. But still, there’s a lot of information available only by the side panels which may be useful to have displayed directly on the HUD; imo there are at least three way of implement these features. First off, there may be some margin of customization: user should be allowed to choose some elements to be or not to be displayed in the main interface, in order to suit personal play styles and activities. Second, a couple of levels of declutter may be implemented, so that a commander may have all information displayed, or only the most relevant things. Finally, a “master mode” dynamic may determine the key elements to be displayed, for instance in a navigation master mode relevant data (like described above in [1.11]) may be brought up, in a combat mode data about relative velocities and weaponery may appear and so on. This is somewhat already implemented, since when a commander deploys hardpoints weapons data is brought up, but imo this feature may be developed further and involve more information. Every master mode may even be characterized by peculiar internal lighting, warning tones and so on.
- Ship interface diversification. This someway brings further what is discussed above; the idea is to not present the very same interface for all ships but, without revolutionize everything, bring some differences up for every ship, or ship class. Examples could be many: some combat master modes or information could only be available in combat dedicated ships, as for exploration relevant data to be present only on bigger vessels and so on. Cockpit details should also expand to more than the HUD, extending to the text-display near the throttle and on the various screens scattered around different ships pits, which may be not only aesthetics, but informative displays.
- Flight dynamics and ship systems
- Deeper stealth mechanics. Emission control and ship print is a wonderful starting point and it works like a charm, but may even be only the tip of a terrific iceberg. There’s a lot of ideas about it, I’ll try to cover the main ones. First off, there may be stealth ships, both unique or variants of present ones, built with special materials which would allow to greatly reduce their print; there may even be modules dedicated to that purpose. Even the activation mode may be refined: silent running is ok, but a further “stealth mode” switch would be great, it would basically shut down all active sensors and modules resulting in relevant emissions. Cloaking devices could be a plus, implementing optical and/or EM camo at the cost of heat/no hardpoints or something similar.
- Culmination of features described above could result in the “stalking” mechanic: anchor your ship on a dark asteroid, or inside a big shipwreck, and wait for a prey. Come on, since and before Star Wars we all wanted to do that, and it’s a feature shown in a jackload of CGI videos and not yet playable. Imo the time has come. More generally, these dynamics may lead the path to new, stealth-oriented mission types, such as infiltrate undetected in enemy territory, using tactics such as dead cruising (point ship in a direction, FA of, stealth mode on, resulting in system and lights out, shut up and wait).
- Tractor beams is another feature which may, or may not, ruin or enhance the gameplay, depending on how they’re implemented. They may be utility modules used to capture canisters from a distance, try to slow down enemy ships and so on. The may interfere with shields, so that their usage should be wisely evaluated. They could even be used for towing, but since they cannot reasonably be used with FSD I don’t really see a direction for this mechanic. A funny variant could be harpoons and metal wires. Very pirate, very Serenity, very low tech.
- Probes may be coupled with scanners for exploration tasks, being programmed to fly to a target and transmitting useful information. They may even be shoot in a direction to extend the sensor data about ships present in the current region. This is the basic concept (a programmable and deployable sensor), usage ideas can be many more.
- Ship sensor arrays wisely represent data coming from different kind of sensors (EM, heat etc) on a single, user friendly interface, as is reasonable in a modern spacecraft fashion. But still, sensor management may be enriched with some advanced features. First of all, there could be a “passive mode” in which at the cost of reduced range and accuracy the ship just listens, making herself harder to being detected (this is of course part of the dynamics described in [2.1]). Moreover, some advanced combat modes may be developed, maybe as optional modules, such as rapid threat locking (auto lock on the major threat) or single target tracking (all sensor power diverted to a single target, loud emissions, but difficult for the enemy to evade). Even here, you name it, there may be many different features. Different sensor gears could differentiate ship capabilities (e.g. combat specific radars on fighter crafts) and allow for ship customization.
- Bringing together [2.1] and [2.5] suggests the definition of diversified emissions types (Heat, EM, ...) per ship and per activity, determining different behaviours for detection, sensors and weapon locks and so on. This may result in severe complexity and have to be wisely designed and implemented to not result too geeky/engineered, but could really add positive gameplay depth imo.
- Autopilot. Yes, yes, I know. But still. Imo a modular A/P is somewhat mandatory in a game like this and it would boost the overall experience A LOT. As long as it’s not there, the feeling will always be there’s one major system missing from the ship. The main critic to A/P is of course the bot-like result in longest journeys, like you plot the course, you push the play button and you watch the movie along with some Netflix. OK, I get it, but it haven’t to be that way, some tradeoff may be implemented. For instance, A/P would auto turn off if disrupted or incapacitated in resolving navigation to next waypoint, emitting a warning tone and switching back to manual flight mode. Events kicking off A/P could be many, such as being targeted/attacked, gravity anomalies, flying too close to USS, dropping off near certain type of stars, not resolving in a limited time the best steering path… you name it. And of course you can’t scan anything while auto cruising. A/P could be a navigational aid, especially for longest routes, but flying around would still require the attention of the helmsman since there’ll always be a reasonable chance, also depending on the environment, that automatic guidance will fail and the pilot needs to manually guide the ship, correct the course and possibly reactivate automatic guidance. The A/P modules could present many other functions, it’s easy to imagine a number of possible features for assisted flight, each and every one of which will come with its price, advantages and drawbacks. For instance, the target speed match. First impression is it will completely rip off the beautiful combat dynamics we have today. But is that really so? Because the module could present a lag, and would be probably be useless if the ship I’m pursuing would switch off flight assist, face me and boost. So, would that be useful? Of course, used in certain situations. Otherwise it would be only harmful. It would be just another tool in the hand of a pilot for him or her to put it to good use, if capable. There even may be more aid modes, like keep distance to target, minimum distance to target… a whole world of configurations to explore. All I’m asking is do not trash the entire pack a priori. Consider it. ...Please?
- Exterior lighting may be hugely improved: beyond the present searchlights, position, anti-collision and formation lights may be added (to be switched off during stealth operations among other things). Specialized vessels may have special lighting features too, such as police ships featuring distinctive, powerful flashing lights.
- Combat
- I know everything, but still. There’s need for more weapon groups. Really. FD, I mean, seriously. Even if I may partially understand the motivations to deny it, that remains a tremendous limitation imo, and I know I’m in good company. Anyway, I won’t say much more about it since the issue cyclically comes up anyway, but I’d like to pinpoint a couple of related things: if not more fire groups, may an “alpha strike” (fire all at once) button be considered? It’ll not solve everything, but in some configurations it’ll help. Even support for the dual stage trigger should be nice. The thing may work in a way that if at stage one I fire X, pushing to stage two I’ll fire X+Y. Anyway, as long as I imagine it more or less like an additional fire group, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Shame. At least something may be done for the non-weapon systems bound to fire buttons (scanners): can we have a dedicated button for everyone of those at least, like it already happens for chaffs? And since we’re discussing it, it’s frustrating having to keep the button pressed in order to keep scanning. Function should be scanner on - scanner off imo.
- Basically, all the combat we have in E : D is dogfight. Don’t misunderstand me, it rocks. But why don’t we consider adding a new tactical layer introducing some BVR combat dynamics? That would involve long range detecting (and avoiding lock, see [2.1] [2.5] [2.6]) and a new set of BVR missiles, different for warhead, guidance, speed, turn ratio and so on. Following that a new dynamic would arise: dodging missiles, like bring them on a nine-three axis, break their turn ratio while chaffing and so on. Other kind of long range weapons may be considered, like LR Railguns for instance, to be used in conjunction with the [1.6] magnification reticle.
- Generally I think that adding a greater variety of weapons may be a good thing. Variants could be many: different ammo types for cannons (sabot, HE, proximity, flak…), the missiles described above, different kind of torpedoes and so on. Some types of ordnance may be available only on certain ships, working for some factions and in different regions.
- One winning key concept of the game imo is the hardpoint retracting in order to configure the ship for FSD operation; this determines the impossibility for ships to carry external ordnance. But a capital ship launched fighter craft may overcome this. There may exist ships stripped of FSD and equipped with pylons, stationed on carriers and bases, capable of carrying an extended set of missiles, cannons and various ordnance in addition to their hardpoints capability. These ships may even be equipped with FSD, but could use it only after the jettison of all the external stores. Another attached module could be the booster rocket (remember the Wasp?) to be used for emergency egress, intercept assignments and so on.
- A quick one: I could really use a reload feature on cannons, autocannons etc. At the price of discarding what’s left in the current clip I can reload between engagements so to have my gun ready for the next target.
- Ground attack may be developed as well: some dedicated weapons, some dedicated interfaces (ground attack radar and targeting system) in order to effectively punch ground installations and defences. A further, more ambitious development may be implementation of OTS (Orbit To Surface) scans and attacks, with dedicated modules, weapons etc.
- Game Modes
- Let’s just say it: many of us only dream to serve in the Navy. Embark on a capital ship as a fighter pilot and take part in military operations pursuing a goal, living the military life. Imo this would be THE breakthrough for this game, and I guess this is the most relevant suggestion in all this load of stuff I posted. Of course, one main issue would be how to make that work in an open world multiplayer game, but I think it could be done.
Given the game nature, one can’t imagine a career-centric gameplay experience; we rather need to blend this kind of path into the existing universe. This can work this way: given the lack of skilled pilots and the need of resources in order to carry on military operations, navies open up recruitment procedures to commanders. Enlistment would be possible after the meeting of certain requisites (superpower reputation, combat rank and so on) and would give access to a training cycle, which when successfully completed would grant access to active duty operations.
The key idea for integrating the military career with the free gameplay is the concept of Tour Of Duty: a commander signs up for a TOD and report to a base; he or she is then embarked or committed to carry out a series of missions or activities relevant for a military campaign, operation or such. At the end of the tour rewards are granted and the commander is placed on leave, allowing him or her to return to “free life” until the next TOD.
While on a TOD, single activities and mission types to be carried out could be many: patrol, escort, defense, attack to different objectives, interdiction, interception, technology testing, survey, reconnaissance, search and rescue, search and destroy, ambush, disable, capture (see [5.8]), transport wares or personnel, area lockdown, fire support, lay or remove minefields just to state some examples. Some activities may concern training, and result in the qualification to fly certain ships or to take part in certain missions; these would probably be organized in dedicated TODs.
A relevant change in the current military ranking system would be necessary: if today they only determine a parallel “friendship scale” with the superpowers, granting some privileges, they need to become a more profound characterization of the military career of a commander: starting from midshipmen in training, he or she would be promoted to ensign when beginning the active duty and progress in the classic navy fashion with carrying out operation, gaining prestige, succeed in dedicated trainings and examinations and so on. Ranking also determines TODs and missions availability, as well as available crafts, equipment and so on. Military and rank insignia could be worn by the commander avatar, and may be comprehensive of squadron patches, ribbons, medals and so on.
Being part of a navy may bring a number of side effects, both positive and negative: free ship services while in active duty on military ships and installations, a permanent discounted price at faction bases, a base salary and bonuses; on the other hand the player could not enlist in different navies and may be subject to specific military regulations, resulting in fines and penalties for committing common or specific crimes (desertion, military wares smuggling, dishonorable behavior and so on).
All of these activities, even if at first glance may seem unbalanced towards solo play, may be fit in open mode, since commanders may gather at academies, bases, ships in operation zones and so on and take part together in military operations. - Alongside with the military career, a commander may join, with similar dynamics, to a Police Force, which of course would bring specific advantages, drawbacks and mission types, such as patrol, pursue, scan, quick reaction and so on.
- These careers may even be the entry point for much more prestigious, rewarding and dangerous assignments, such as being recruited by intelligence services, unlocking undercover operations and other peculiar mission types.
- These “military” missions would greatly take advantage of structured briefing sequences including the classic animated starmap, flight plan, loadout screens and all of these immersive features.
- Not necessarily related to the careers described above, imo a customizable mission simulator would be very useful for training and fun purposes. It would basically allow to set up, populate and play a sandbox environment, letting the player train with no risks and no rewards. As part of the simulation, flight actions may be recorded to be analyzed after the action in order to study and improve maneuvers and tactics: that would be the beloved ACMI functionality.
- Piracy imo needs to be more rewarding, since while we dream about serving in the navy we all also secretly yearn for being space pirates. But today, even if that’s possible, sometimes it’s not worth it: the fact is a freelance commander can stack loads of credits by carrying out legal tasks, rather than go lawless and take a lot of risks for so little reward (in proportion). Fact is that solution ain’t trivial: once I got a ship cargo, let alone the pain of collecting it all, what else can I get? Imo there’s a couple of possible directions: first off, a pirate could incapacitate a ship and strip it of some of its modules and components: as we all know many of them are worth millions. Poor prey may then be left floating while broadcasting a distress signal [5.5] or, if you’re an evil pirate, be turn to ashes. A more deep, challenging and super-cool activity, involving the [5.8] dynamic, may be the actual capture of the vessel to be sold, or kept by the pirate.
- CQC is a nice, funny side game, and that’s cool. Some developments, even if they’re not a priority imo, should focus on the fact that (oversimplifying) CQC is essentially Unreal Tournament with starfighters. So, some related game dynamics may be considered, such as assault, domination, duel, instagib and so on.
- Let’s just say it: many of us only dream to serve in the Navy. Embark on a capital ship as a fighter pilot and take part in military operations pursuing a goal, living the military life. Imo this would be THE breakthrough for this game, and I guess this is the most relevant suggestion in all this load of stuff I posted. Of course, one main issue would be how to make that work in an open world multiplayer game, but I think it could be done.
- Game Dynamics
- Cash transfers between players, proposed and discussed many times, could be a big improvement imo. They’re basically possible already, but they involve buying and exchanging goods in space, a somewhat intricate mechanic: I think some simplification would be in order. To avoid unpleasant consequences, though, the possibility to send credits should be available only by commanders docked at qualified starbases. I’m always referring to in-game credits of course: implementing real money to buy game money (and corresponding mechanics) would imo be a huge mistake.
- Module storage units has been a good step forward; next step on this path may be items storage; they may be bought or leased for instance. This would also allow to overcome the annoying mechanic of carrying own stuff from one ship hold to another.
- I understand that this is gonna be reviewed soon, so I won’t say much about it. Violations system and related punishment and consequences is a cool mechanic but it feels somewhat like a stub: it may be broadly developed and improved.
- Another great leap forward would be having different types of SRV, and the possibility to outfit them, thus resulting in a broader range of viable operations.
- Communications with NPCs may imo be developed a lot, setting up a radio communication interface with some channels, predefined messages and so on. Some of these messages could be broadcasts, simply transmitting an all frequencies to report a pirate attack, fuel shortage, assistance request due to system failure… or to set up a trap. These kind of requests should also trigger some sort of “distress beacon” to be picked up as signal source in space. On military contexts like the dream described in [4.1] this could have a lot of space, with comms for requesting intel on enemy forces (AWACS), tanker docking operations, carrier takeoff and landing requests and so on. A lot may be done even implementing NPC wings (and something’s there already with the new fighters). A related module may be a communication jammer which may disturb (maybe with a certain chance/time depending on the module rating) all radio traffic within a restricted area of from/to a target vessel; this could find broad application within piracy actions.
- Wormholes may be (in a quite distant future i guess) an interesting artifice to implement gameplay and story developments. They would be basically portals connecting different regions of space,with a lot of variants: single or bi directionality, positioning inside the same galaxy or in another one, stable or not stable and so on. They could steer the game plot towards colonization, invasions, exploration… a lot of things. As I said, just an idea for the future.
- Just a quickie: shouldn’t shields go down while cargo scooping? It’s ok if there’s a threshold speed for incoming objects or anything, it’s just that intuitively one would have to lower shields to collect stuff.
- A major game dynamic to add should be, of course, ship boarding and capturing. Since towing and FSD have to be reasonably incompatible, these may implemented in a couple of ways imo: incapacitate the target ship, board it and assume command (after neutralizing/capturing crew) [4.6] or even, if ship sizes allow that, target ship may even be towed [2.3] and/or swallowed after being disabled: remember the ISD preying on the Corellian Corvette back in the 70s? Anyway I think a Sidewinder would fit into an anaconda cargo bay. That may even allow a new bounty hunting dynamic, differentiating between dead or alive rewards. Boarding dynamics of course would require a lot of work, concerning a whole new way of managing crew comprehensive of boarding parties and so on.
- More generally, the [5.8] boarding dynamic described above would be based on a ship-to-ship docking capability: generally speaking, every ship should reasonably be equipped with an universal docking plate allowing to connect with any other vessel, allowing not only the boarding/capture but even fuel and cargo transfer and aiding procedures such as system repairing (allowing actual distress call response and intervention).
- Game Improvements
- There are many requests for having more different voices for station chatter, plus it would be nice to add voice chatter to all those direct messages which are now text-only. I think FD may use the community resource for that: ask players to record those words and phrases, in that format and under that specifications and to submit that all. The result would be a gigantic pool of new audio tracks, and players would love that.
- Integrated reference and lore database. Requested already. Would be great. Not much else to say.
- While introducing new ships, navies and so on, a great thing would be to outline and formalize a ship classification system based on size and roles, as well as navy hierarchical structure with squadron numbers, names and so on. All of this lore should be documented in the reference system described above in [6.2] and would allow to refer to a system most of us love, living in a universe populated with corvettes, frigates, destroyers, cruisers, battlecruisers, dreadnoughts, battleships, fighters, bombers, carriers, interdictors, transports, gunships and more.
- I guess a great idea would be to change the planetary scanner sound effect with something less dramatic than War of the Worlds’ tripods horn sample. Wouldn’t some beeping tone be better?
- One great graphical improvement would be a better planetary ring transition. I know it’s challenging, but today, while supercruising and getting close, rings appear to be some kind of bidimensional, opaque, grainy sheet and then you magically drop to a whole different region full of stones.
- I understand this will come soon, but we really need a decent external view system, with cheesy stuff like flyby cam and so on. Even some internal view options may be nice, such as to padlock view to current target (in the limit of the head movement of course).
- A shop providing premium, payable content it’s ok, as long as it’s purely aesthetic features, as it is today. My observation is that the ship pieces kits, which are sooo cool, might have been placed in game and provided by engineers (so not buyable with real money) as they would be much better if providing some small bonus to turn rate and so on instead of being only a pimp feature. They may at least be differentiated: aesthetics stuff in the shop, functional stuff in game. On the other hand, ship pieces (at least should) expose a wider target surface, it would then be fair to have some performance improvement in return.
We’re finally through. As you (may have) read, the final result is something like a feature list, traiting out a sort of roadmap concept of how the game may become in the future, imo for the better. Thanks for the patience and sorry for the many repetitions that, willingly or not, i left in the list; I know that many things are already been posted but either I missed them, or I thought to leave them to complete my point of view. Sorry for the language mistakes which are surely in there, too.
Once again, please get me (and FD) some opinions, pointing out what ideas may be good, what’s rubbish, where we may spawn dedicated threads and whatever. And FD, once again, for the game and for the way you drive us all to constantly mull over it, chapeau.
