Lore. Requesting Zorgon Peterson Codex Entry
I have always missed a Zorgon Peterson lore entry in the Codex. Like, really missed one. All other major ship builders have one, but they do not.
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Here's a grab bag of other stuff
Lore. Trade docking
It's silly that a future galaxy-spanning civilization cannot fetch prices of other markets when they have a civilization-wide information network. I think you could explain this away by saying something like, in the future, where the computational capability of easily-obtainable computers has reached a ridiculous level, it poses a serious problem for information security and authentication systems. Trade markets are heavily reliant on security and authentication. As a result, markets developed some kind of quantum-entanglement-based system to provide both heavy security against manipulation and instantaneous secure transmission. It however requires you to physically bring your dongle thingy to the market to which you want to link.
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Gameplay. No delet SLF pilots
One more for please stopping NPC SLF pilots from being tied to ship destruction. This is really bad and I cannot understand a good gameplay reason for this. When somebody finds a good looking chick or crazy looking dude, or person that also likes honey mustard on their peanut butter sandwiches (I don't do this), they don't want to lose that. The SLF pilot should not be lost. There is no lore-related reason that could trump the pure gameplay concerns of keeping pilots. Even if you reset pilot skill, allow to keep the pilot. Considering the exorbitant amount of time it takes to level them, I still don't think it's a good idea to reset all that progress, but at least you keep the pilot.
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Lore. "Telepresence"
I always see so many complaints about "Telepresence". I personally don't think it's a big deal but I also don't think you should do anything else with it. The idea that pilots are not in the fighter feels stupid, especially when you can see their model in the fighter. Have "Telepresence" reference teleporting and not television and be the term for the short-range beam ability that allows you to get back in your ship when your SRV is blowed up. When a fighter is lost, the SLF pilot zoops back in the ship the same way you do in an SRV.
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Lore. Ship destruction.
Everywhere in the game, NPCs refer to the destruction of other ships as "murder" or "killing". When a player's ship is destroyed they just get the magic chair and end up back in a station. I propose you could tweak the lore to set it up that being approached by the Pilots Federation at the beginning of the game is what gives you this ability. All ships in the Elite universe have escape pods, but only Pilots Federation members/liasons have jump-capable magic chairs. When you get blowed up in deep space, the energy that would have been used for the jump gets used instead for a powerful but obfuscated distress beacon signal and life support chambre, and somebody from the family comes to pick you up. Only administrators or personnel working directly for the Pilots Federation handle these signals, and anybody who knows enough to isolate them knows enough to leave them alone or cover it up long enough for the Pilots Federation to deal with it. Expense/capability is the reason for the limitation. GalNet makes magic chair operation possible.
This change of relationship with the Pilots Federation and subsequent benefits is also why you start the game in a Sidewinder Mk1. The Pilots Federation demands this as a sort of rite for its members. It's done to instill some humility as well as a new outlook on the current civilization and interstellar landscape. Further it encourages a new identity for the pilot as an agent of the spaceways. It also acts to test abilities and be a method for getting pilots to express themselves through their choice of endeavours. This means that not all new pilots are fresh out of pilot kindergarten, though that isn't impossible. They could have lived very different lives before becoming a member.
Coming back around, all this explains why the game references ship destruction with the implication of "killing". The number of Pilots Federation members or liasons is somewhere around the total playerbase of all Elite games (adjusted for pre-history), which is tiny compared with the total population of humanity in the galaxy. Despite humanity's numbers, having your ship destroyed in space is a very dangerous prospect for somebody outside the magic chair player group. Assuming your escape pod works, the odds of you being picked up are much lower, making ship destruction carry heavy danger. Only Pilots Federation members are free of this, and this is why they display as an empty square on your radar. They are not really tethered to that ship.
All NPCs in the game still have Pilots Federation ranks of course, because they are tracked by the Pilots Federation, but have not been selected to become members, and therefore are represented as conventional solid targets.
Except for SLF pilots, who are chaperoned.
I have always missed a Zorgon Peterson lore entry in the Codex. Like, really missed one. All other major ship builders have one, but they do not.
==
Here's a grab bag of other stuff
Lore. Trade docking
It's silly that a future galaxy-spanning civilization cannot fetch prices of other markets when they have a civilization-wide information network. I think you could explain this away by saying something like, in the future, where the computational capability of easily-obtainable computers has reached a ridiculous level, it poses a serious problem for information security and authentication systems. Trade markets are heavily reliant on security and authentication. As a result, markets developed some kind of quantum-entanglement-based system to provide both heavy security against manipulation and instantaneous secure transmission. It however requires you to physically bring your dongle thingy to the market to which you want to link.
==
Gameplay. No delet SLF pilots
One more for please stopping NPC SLF pilots from being tied to ship destruction. This is really bad and I cannot understand a good gameplay reason for this. When somebody finds a good looking chick or crazy looking dude, or person that also likes honey mustard on their peanut butter sandwiches (I don't do this), they don't want to lose that. The SLF pilot should not be lost. There is no lore-related reason that could trump the pure gameplay concerns of keeping pilots. Even if you reset pilot skill, allow to keep the pilot. Considering the exorbitant amount of time it takes to level them, I still don't think it's a good idea to reset all that progress, but at least you keep the pilot.
==
Lore. "Telepresence"
I always see so many complaints about "Telepresence". I personally don't think it's a big deal but I also don't think you should do anything else with it. The idea that pilots are not in the fighter feels stupid, especially when you can see their model in the fighter. Have "Telepresence" reference teleporting and not television and be the term for the short-range beam ability that allows you to get back in your ship when your SRV is blowed up. When a fighter is lost, the SLF pilot zoops back in the ship the same way you do in an SRV.
==
Lore. Ship destruction.
Everywhere in the game, NPCs refer to the destruction of other ships as "murder" or "killing". When a player's ship is destroyed they just get the magic chair and end up back in a station. I propose you could tweak the lore to set it up that being approached by the Pilots Federation at the beginning of the game is what gives you this ability. All ships in the Elite universe have escape pods, but only Pilots Federation members/liasons have jump-capable magic chairs. When you get blowed up in deep space, the energy that would have been used for the jump gets used instead for a powerful but obfuscated distress beacon signal and life support chambre, and somebody from the family comes to pick you up. Only administrators or personnel working directly for the Pilots Federation handle these signals, and anybody who knows enough to isolate them knows enough to leave them alone or cover it up long enough for the Pilots Federation to deal with it. Expense/capability is the reason for the limitation. GalNet makes magic chair operation possible.
This change of relationship with the Pilots Federation and subsequent benefits is also why you start the game in a Sidewinder Mk1. The Pilots Federation demands this as a sort of rite for its members. It's done to instill some humility as well as a new outlook on the current civilization and interstellar landscape. Further it encourages a new identity for the pilot as an agent of the spaceways. It also acts to test abilities and be a method for getting pilots to express themselves through their choice of endeavours. This means that not all new pilots are fresh out of pilot kindergarten, though that isn't impossible. They could have lived very different lives before becoming a member.
Coming back around, all this explains why the game references ship destruction with the implication of "killing". The number of Pilots Federation members or liasons is somewhere around the total playerbase of all Elite games (adjusted for pre-history), which is tiny compared with the total population of humanity in the galaxy. Despite humanity's numbers, having your ship destroyed in space is a very dangerous prospect for somebody outside the magic chair player group. Assuming your escape pod works, the odds of you being picked up are much lower, making ship destruction carry heavy danger. Only Pilots Federation members are free of this, and this is why they display as an empty square on your radar. They are not really tethered to that ship.
All NPCs in the game still have Pilots Federation ranks of course, because they are tracked by the Pilots Federation, but have not been selected to become members, and therefore are represented as conventional solid targets.
Except for SLF pilots, who are chaperoned.
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