First of all missions since afaik they would be adressed in 1.3
- missions should have a progress that's obvious ( easier - less rewarding mission -> harder far better rewarding missions ).
- right now they seem to be very random and thrown in with no accounts for any progression.
- currently the 'unavailable' ( require better reputation ) missions might be sensible worse than the available one.
- as you progress the missions should be increasingly harder and increasingly rewarding. and with viable rewards.
( past sidewinder who would do a mission for 10k ? )
- the limit should be what you can actually accomplish not the missions itself : aka the difficulty of the highest available mission (providing you have enough reputation ) should require a wing to complete but have good enough rewards to be attractive.
- this can also be accomplished for trade missions that would require multiple players or multiple trips. ( adding a time limit would make having a wingman far more attractive ).
also this would allow for interesting gameplay as in trade convoys and the need for escorts. you would need 3 BIG haulers to carry all the load but you would also want one two fighter ships to keep you safe from pirates since if not the rewards will be highly diminished.
this also have the effect of enouraging more players join the multiplayer as well as diminshing the 'solo' trader route profession. surley you would still be able to go that way but for less profits.
- also partial completion of the missions or the existence of bonus conditions
- the existing 'alternative' mission should be expanded and/or refined. i might just not want to get the alternative or cancel it right away. also alternative missions should be attractive enough and offer enough rewards to create an actual choice. ( i have to kill pirates for 17.000 - but the alternative mission offer 650 if i refuse to kill them and go to a certain station to claim the reward - uuh i really wonder what i will choose )
Travel:
- the current in-system travel is at times highly inefficient. There are certain stations that are 100.000 + LS from the sun - wich adds interesting gameplay but a travel time of 13 minutes just inside that solar system. 13 minutes with nothing to do. Sure watching the universe outside the window might be interesting the first 10 times or so... but it get's old pretty fast.
- alternative the stations that are at a great distance should offer significant rewards for traveling there - such as extraordinary markets, or good pricess ( sell/buy ). since well not anyone is willing to travel so far - so those should be good trading opportunities
- the 'auto' speed while traveling inside the system is widely inaccurate at times. the fact that you need to set the throttle in a 'zone' to activate it and while in that 'zone' it is active and not 'inactive' also complicates the things since you might want to correct manually but are unable since you are in the 'zone'. Overshooting is frequent and sometimes unavoidable. Skill seems to be less of a factor there.
as i see it it should be one of the two
- auto - get's you in the place you want to be in a decent time and it is exact (no overshooting) ( enough time to give the possibility to be intercepted and whatnot but also small enough not to bore you to death. )
- manual - considerably faster then the auto but with much more skill and concentration necessary. ( maybe something like free-flight where you should be able to decelerate by turing you ship with it's main engines towards your target thus maximizing both the acceleration - when accelerating - and deceleration when decelerating ?)
- inside the FTL flight there really is unclear what are the acceleration limits and rules. it seems to be depending on the mass around you but it's very un-intuitive. make it easier to determine when you are affected by close mass and when not and make it so you could plot some highly efficient routes avoiding direct routes.
Ships :
more ship specialization and /or ships that encourage team gameplay. i feel that the current lineup of ships offer very little variation.
i'd like to see :
- dedicated miner ships
- dedicated in-system hauler ships as companion for miner ships ( decent jump range because well you would still need to be able to travel trough systems - you might not find the asteroid belt you want in the system where you brought the ship but the ship itself shouldn't be used for trade.
- support ships such as refuel-er ship ( might come in handy with the ship above and/or exploration parties )
- support ships such as repair ships ( again for long range trading or exploration parties )
- support ships that can carry modules and allow refitting
- support recon ships - ships that ( well they cant boost the sensor range that would suffer from highly lacking of realism ) but they can have specially fitted modules that have far better sensor range /accuracy and they would share the data with the ships in wing ) - coincidentally for example that would offer far more interesting game mechanics since such a dedicated ship would offer advantages by defeating countermeasures such as chaff /flares enabling gimballed /turreted or guided weapons to work trough this. - again this also would mean in a battle those ships will be considered primary targets. of course balancing will be needed in order not to make them either overpowered or useless. - for example power grid or configuration of those ships should give them less agility less shields and less offensive making them vulnerable on their own.
Combat :
- the 'target modules' offers excellent potential but just that.
- for smaller ships ( unless we talk about cargo-hatch ) it's plainly useless.
- for larger ships the most commonly and useful is the powerplant witch offers a reduction in damage needed by ~ 30-40%.
- targeting other systems is plainly inefficient due to the extrremly large hp pool of such modules. ( an external turret seems to have the same hp pool as the powerplant again giving no real choice there ).
- however there's a lot of gameplay that can be done if the modules hp is balanced :
- you could target and disable/damage the sensors offering far less accuracy for gimballed/turreted weapons
- you could target and disable/damage turrets reducing the incoming damage
- you could disable the shield generator
- and so on - the principle here should be that we need far more flexibility by changing the HP pool of the various modules to offer alternative routes.
All those would allow for for more flexibility and more interesting fights. Right now you find an anaconda the rule is simple - target power plant
How about
- if it has lots of turreted weapons target the sensors for reduced accuracy
- if it has fixed weapons target thrusters or drives for less maneuverability
- if you are mostly concerned about forward facing turrets target those killing the forward-facing firepower
- if the ship you are facing has extremely good shields - after managing to break them target the shield generator to disallow recharge
I'm expecting criticism of course but i also expect arguments if you disagree
fly profitably !
Pharon
- missions should have a progress that's obvious ( easier - less rewarding mission -> harder far better rewarding missions ).
- right now they seem to be very random and thrown in with no accounts for any progression.
- currently the 'unavailable' ( require better reputation ) missions might be sensible worse than the available one.
- as you progress the missions should be increasingly harder and increasingly rewarding. and with viable rewards.
( past sidewinder who would do a mission for 10k ? )
- the limit should be what you can actually accomplish not the missions itself : aka the difficulty of the highest available mission (providing you have enough reputation ) should require a wing to complete but have good enough rewards to be attractive.
- this can also be accomplished for trade missions that would require multiple players or multiple trips. ( adding a time limit would make having a wingman far more attractive ).
also this would allow for interesting gameplay as in trade convoys and the need for escorts. you would need 3 BIG haulers to carry all the load but you would also want one two fighter ships to keep you safe from pirates since if not the rewards will be highly diminished.
this also have the effect of enouraging more players join the multiplayer as well as diminshing the 'solo' trader route profession. surley you would still be able to go that way but for less profits.
- also partial completion of the missions or the existence of bonus conditions
- the existing 'alternative' mission should be expanded and/or refined. i might just not want to get the alternative or cancel it right away. also alternative missions should be attractive enough and offer enough rewards to create an actual choice. ( i have to kill pirates for 17.000 - but the alternative mission offer 650 if i refuse to kill them and go to a certain station to claim the reward - uuh i really wonder what i will choose )
Travel:
- the current in-system travel is at times highly inefficient. There are certain stations that are 100.000 + LS from the sun - wich adds interesting gameplay but a travel time of 13 minutes just inside that solar system. 13 minutes with nothing to do. Sure watching the universe outside the window might be interesting the first 10 times or so... but it get's old pretty fast.
- alternative the stations that are at a great distance should offer significant rewards for traveling there - such as extraordinary markets, or good pricess ( sell/buy ). since well not anyone is willing to travel so far - so those should be good trading opportunities
- the 'auto' speed while traveling inside the system is widely inaccurate at times. the fact that you need to set the throttle in a 'zone' to activate it and while in that 'zone' it is active and not 'inactive' also complicates the things since you might want to correct manually but are unable since you are in the 'zone'. Overshooting is frequent and sometimes unavoidable. Skill seems to be less of a factor there.
as i see it it should be one of the two
- auto - get's you in the place you want to be in a decent time and it is exact (no overshooting) ( enough time to give the possibility to be intercepted and whatnot but also small enough not to bore you to death. )
- manual - considerably faster then the auto but with much more skill and concentration necessary. ( maybe something like free-flight where you should be able to decelerate by turing you ship with it's main engines towards your target thus maximizing both the acceleration - when accelerating - and deceleration when decelerating ?)
- inside the FTL flight there really is unclear what are the acceleration limits and rules. it seems to be depending on the mass around you but it's very un-intuitive. make it easier to determine when you are affected by close mass and when not and make it so you could plot some highly efficient routes avoiding direct routes.
Ships :
more ship specialization and /or ships that encourage team gameplay. i feel that the current lineup of ships offer very little variation.
i'd like to see :
- dedicated miner ships
- dedicated in-system hauler ships as companion for miner ships ( decent jump range because well you would still need to be able to travel trough systems - you might not find the asteroid belt you want in the system where you brought the ship but the ship itself shouldn't be used for trade.
- support ships such as refuel-er ship ( might come in handy with the ship above and/or exploration parties )
- support ships such as repair ships ( again for long range trading or exploration parties )
- support ships that can carry modules and allow refitting
- support recon ships - ships that ( well they cant boost the sensor range that would suffer from highly lacking of realism ) but they can have specially fitted modules that have far better sensor range /accuracy and they would share the data with the ships in wing ) - coincidentally for example that would offer far more interesting game mechanics since such a dedicated ship would offer advantages by defeating countermeasures such as chaff /flares enabling gimballed /turreted or guided weapons to work trough this. - again this also would mean in a battle those ships will be considered primary targets. of course balancing will be needed in order not to make them either overpowered or useless. - for example power grid or configuration of those ships should give them less agility less shields and less offensive making them vulnerable on their own.
Combat :
- the 'target modules' offers excellent potential but just that.
- for smaller ships ( unless we talk about cargo-hatch ) it's plainly useless.
- for larger ships the most commonly and useful is the powerplant witch offers a reduction in damage needed by ~ 30-40%.
- targeting other systems is plainly inefficient due to the extrremly large hp pool of such modules. ( an external turret seems to have the same hp pool as the powerplant again giving no real choice there ).
- however there's a lot of gameplay that can be done if the modules hp is balanced :
- you could target and disable/damage the sensors offering far less accuracy for gimballed/turreted weapons
- you could target and disable/damage turrets reducing the incoming damage
- you could disable the shield generator
- and so on - the principle here should be that we need far more flexibility by changing the HP pool of the various modules to offer alternative routes.
All those would allow for for more flexibility and more interesting fights. Right now you find an anaconda the rule is simple - target power plant
How about
- if it has lots of turreted weapons target the sensors for reduced accuracy
- if it has fixed weapons target thrusters or drives for less maneuverability
- if you are mostly concerned about forward facing turrets target those killing the forward-facing firepower
- if the ship you are facing has extremely good shields - after managing to break them target the shield generator to disallow recharge
I'm expecting criticism of course but i also expect arguments if you disagree
fly profitably !
Pharon