This game need some personality...........
Don't get me wrong, I love it but it's lacking some charm and depth in terms of immersion.
An example of this is the station menu, it's functional but lacks any real personality. I feel that there is a lot of room to add personality to the station and the universe in general.
For example why are all weapons and equipment generic. There is no branding, no idea where it comes from, no depth. If you had different manufacturers all competing for you business and offering their wares to suit different markets like in real life e.g.
Blazzer - low cost, lightweight weapons mainly energy based for small and medium turrets - suitable for traders/explorers who only have weapons fitted as a precaution. The efficiency and damage would be relatively poor.
Vance & Klein - mid price, well made reliable weapons for all ship types and sizes - suitable for everyone.
Winchester - expensive, exquisite weapons for professionals, specialising in mid to large turrets.
This means you now have some real choice, each manufacturer will have a range of weapons, there is room for specialists, i.e. missile launcher manufacturer and you can have certain manufacturers weapons only available in certain areas, i.e. federation space only and even down to having handcrafted weapons available from one outlet in one station.
You could also have second hand ships & equipment that is much cheaper but far less efficient.
If you did this for each area of equipment it would feel much more real. You could then have, munitions, repairs, fuel and commodities following the same model. I'd love to see an advert when coming into dock from 'Sam's service and repair' who will 'beat any quote' but whose work will never reach 100%. You could choose to use that service or go for a more expensive service and repair that might actually give you a small boost to your modules. Perhaps when you are on a backwater outpost there will be no choice. Or how about 'Uracol - uranium enriched fuels' for abit more range.
The contact section & bulletin board could also do with some personality, I'd love to be able to build up a network of contacts that improve the more you use them and can offer you special missions/rewards as time goes by. They could be affiliated to one of the three main factions or to one of the local system factions, they could be neutral, criminal, pirates etc.. I hate to mention EVE but their agents are the sort of thing I'm thinking of but with the ED touch. If you work for a Federation agent and build up a good reputation with the federation then when you move on to a new station the Federation agent there will be more inclined to work with you, obviously not quite to the extent of your previous agent etc... You could even have agents as central parts of a short mission based storyline. So instead of having an assassination mission that gives you a system you could be directed to another agent who can give you details on the targets last known position or tells you a rumour about his favourite hunting ground. Just make it more involved than it currently is.
Implementing these kind of changes would add depth and make the universe feel more real. Choice, brands, NPCs you can interact with, agents would all add real depth and give the galaxy a sense that it's a living breathing environment.
Don't get me wrong, I love it but it's lacking some charm and depth in terms of immersion.
An example of this is the station menu, it's functional but lacks any real personality. I feel that there is a lot of room to add personality to the station and the universe in general.
For example why are all weapons and equipment generic. There is no branding, no idea where it comes from, no depth. If you had different manufacturers all competing for you business and offering their wares to suit different markets like in real life e.g.
Blazzer - low cost, lightweight weapons mainly energy based for small and medium turrets - suitable for traders/explorers who only have weapons fitted as a precaution. The efficiency and damage would be relatively poor.
Vance & Klein - mid price, well made reliable weapons for all ship types and sizes - suitable for everyone.
Winchester - expensive, exquisite weapons for professionals, specialising in mid to large turrets.
This means you now have some real choice, each manufacturer will have a range of weapons, there is room for specialists, i.e. missile launcher manufacturer and you can have certain manufacturers weapons only available in certain areas, i.e. federation space only and even down to having handcrafted weapons available from one outlet in one station.
You could also have second hand ships & equipment that is much cheaper but far less efficient.
If you did this for each area of equipment it would feel much more real. You could then have, munitions, repairs, fuel and commodities following the same model. I'd love to see an advert when coming into dock from 'Sam's service and repair' who will 'beat any quote' but whose work will never reach 100%. You could choose to use that service or go for a more expensive service and repair that might actually give you a small boost to your modules. Perhaps when you are on a backwater outpost there will be no choice. Or how about 'Uracol - uranium enriched fuels' for abit more range.
The contact section & bulletin board could also do with some personality, I'd love to be able to build up a network of contacts that improve the more you use them and can offer you special missions/rewards as time goes by. They could be affiliated to one of the three main factions or to one of the local system factions, they could be neutral, criminal, pirates etc.. I hate to mention EVE but their agents are the sort of thing I'm thinking of but with the ED touch. If you work for a Federation agent and build up a good reputation with the federation then when you move on to a new station the Federation agent there will be more inclined to work with you, obviously not quite to the extent of your previous agent etc... You could even have agents as central parts of a short mission based storyline. So instead of having an assassination mission that gives you a system you could be directed to another agent who can give you details on the targets last known position or tells you a rumour about his favourite hunting ground. Just make it more involved than it currently is.
Implementing these kind of changes would add depth and make the universe feel more real. Choice, brands, NPCs you can interact with, agents would all add real depth and give the galaxy a sense that it's a living breathing environment.
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