I have been playing Elite Dangerous extensively for a couple of years now, and i have some suggestions that i believe would improve the game, gameplay or are simply quality of life improvements to the game for users. Some of these may not apply to the PC version, like some of the menu navigation ideas, i couldn't possibly say as i play the Xbox One version.
I hope you guys like some of my ideas... o7
1. Very important one this... Ability to transfer our commander to another platform, from PC, Xbox and PS4. Seeing as our saved data is stored at your end, this should be viable and would get people playing together more if they can transfer, and you would sell more copies of your game, win win for everyone no?
2. Ballistic weapons reload when retracted, and a specific reload button would be most welcomed.
3. In the left Multi function display when viewing your contracts in transactions, it tells you the light year distance to that missions system, to help decide which mission system to go to next.
4. When you select map from mission transactions, it goes straight to the system map (if the destination for that mission is know, ie not a search mission and you have system data), instead of the galaxy map, to make selecting your destination in-system quicker and easier without having to plod through the galaxy may every time. Failing that, an option to go to galaxy or system map from the mission MFD.
5. Alien Invasion involving combat missions, encounters, battles and community goals, though i believe you may be ahead of me on this one depending on what you have in mind with the impending Thargoid update.
6. A way to exit to the cockpit without having to dredge back through the galaxy map first.
7. Different ship technologies, upgrades, weapons etc, available only in certain parts of the galaxy, encourages travel and exploration, at the very least rewards you for it.
8. Escort/Protect missions, such as escorting convoys or small or large trader vessels. Missions to be collected at mission board and you meet the vessel you are escorting ousiide of the station base.
9. Overt distress signals that alert and inform you of pirate attack you when a player or NPC is interdicted by pirates, followed by a simple "Do you want to lock this low wake and anseer the distress call?" Tick or cross.
10. Sporadic Space station attack defence situations, where you join a side, the attaching force or defending forces. If attackers disable the stations defences you get a payout, if defenders defeat all attackers or certain amount of attackers in a time limit, you get a payout.
11. Wing Commander inter system waypoint based Cap/Patrol Missions, obtained from the mission board, where you can run into fights already under way such as pirates attacking NPC vessels, or running into groups or individual wanted vessels in the course of your system waypoint tour.
12. More long haul missions with large payouts.
13. Multi drop route delivery missions.
14. Planets with atmospheres, with blue, red etc skies, clouds, mountains, valleys, forests, cities etc. Atmospheric entry effects on ship would nice touch as well.
15. More extensive planet and atmospheric ground attack missions that provide targets over large areas, think Ace Combat and you'll have an idea of what i mean...
16. Hire able AI Wingmen for specific missions or until you next dock. Price for escort depends on pilot skill and ship they fly.
17. Flashing Identification lights on the outside of ships. Purely cosmetic, but would add a lot of character to the ships(your ship is the star of the show after all), and lets face it, would look freekin cool
18. Emergence ship fuel or repair service when out in space. I know...perhaps not the first one as maybe we don't want to put the intrepid fuel rats out of a job but the idea is sound, certainly a repair service could be a possibility, though i hear you are considering repair drones, which i admit would negate this idea/concept.
19. Capital ship defence, attack and escort missions.
20. Third and fourth option mode for turrets, 'Forward gimbal fire', self explanatory, and 'return fire' mode that only fires on targets that have attacked/are attacking you, ideal for conflict zones, when you don't want to attack every single ship on the opposing side, only ones that are engaging you specifically. Doesn't hurt to have that option to meet the needs of a given situation.
21. Gimballed multicannons for ship launched fighters.
22. Option to choose/change the name of your Commander, as some people might feel their gamertag is not appropriate or fitting as a pilots name.
23. In open play, bounty payouts are shared between ALL players (regardless of wings etc) who damaged the destroyed the vessel, based on damage caused to the vessel awarded in credit tiers, like mini CG payouts based on each individuals damage contribution in the kill, ie a ship that caused heavy damage to the destroyed vessel gets a higher percentage of bounty awarded, no last minute shots from a newcomer stealing the bounty.
24. Remove pilot avatar from Ship launched fighters, they are remotely piloted or manned, it can't be both. Before anyone says it could be an android flying the ship, this makes no sense, we have the technology now to fly planes and drones without a pilot of any kind, why construct an unnecessary and expensive android to do the job that slows down the interface between commander and slf. In other words, why control an android controlling the ship, when you can control the ship directly without one, no middle android.
25. Alternative music selections for your docking computer music, or ability to use your own ripped music or music from memory stick. There is only so long you can listen to the same one tune forever, no matter how great and iconic it is lol.
26. Option carry two pilots (in ships with two extra seats), and therefore be able to launch two AI pilot controlled ship launched fighters if you have a duel fighter bay. Seems like a waste to have one fighter in the bay when you could have both out fighting. Adds tactical options, such as do you hold one in the bay as backup, or send them both out for more support and fire-power.
27. Ability to set a minimum rank of commanders who can join your multi crew in crew matchmaking. You may for example want to set it to dangerous, so only someone ranked dangerous or higher can join your crew, i'm actually surprised we can't do this already.
28. More material and data storage.
29. More item storage at bases/space stations, or specific space available at each specific base/space station.
30. When frame sifting to another system, if the target system is obscured, automatically default to supercriuse, or give the option to supercruise by for example pressing frameshift button a second time shortly after trying to system jump, saves having to bind a specific supercruise button if that's all you use it for.
31. Turn off the effects of Unknown Artefacts in a station/base etc where a community goal is currently running, or simply not accept Unknown Artefacts during that period, to prevent UA bombing.
32. More Surface recon vehicle variants... such as a transport variant that carries more cargo, and combat variant that carries more weapons and armour, and maybe even a missile launcher. Would certainly justify equipping a duel SRV bay more..
33. Stronger reprisals and consequences for griefers, in other words players that attack other players for no justifiable reason, such as the person they attack is carrying no cargo to pirate and do not have a bounty on them and do not belong to a rival or any power faction. Attempted murder/murder is taken very seriously in life, so should be treated equally as serious in the game in terms of consequences, such as a significant criminal wanted status. Penalties could include more aggressive and regular attacks from AI bounty hunters and system enforcement, galaxy wide bounty's, not just in-system, perhaps shared between all faction system where the crime occurred or all non anarchy systems regarding system enforcement(bounty hunters excluded), higher bounty's, higher rebuy costs and being banned from facilities in that system for a set amount of days or weeks even, such as station/base docking refusals and/or credit fines.
I believe you are addressing this in certain ways in the upcoming Karma system, so will be interesting to see if the measures in that are effective.
34. Much cheaper costs to have a ship delivered to your current system and set a cap, as the costs to transport ships is pretty ridiculous as it is, in my opinion anyway.
35. Multi crew for SRV's, if you have a second SRV that is, including the ships commander. Again, this is one thing i am surprised is not in the game already...
36. Maybe wishful thinking on this one, but Ship launched fighter capability for the Python, to compensate for its manoeuvrability, the Python is certainly seems a big enough ship to house an SLF.
37. Last but certainly not least, PSVR support for PS4 version. This type of game is surely ideally suited for VR, and really immerse players into the game and their ship
Sorry its a long list of ideas, but i have been writing these down for a while to deliver all in one go.
I hope you guys like some of my ideas... o7
1. Very important one this... Ability to transfer our commander to another platform, from PC, Xbox and PS4. Seeing as our saved data is stored at your end, this should be viable and would get people playing together more if they can transfer, and you would sell more copies of your game, win win for everyone no?
2. Ballistic weapons reload when retracted, and a specific reload button would be most welcomed.
3. In the left Multi function display when viewing your contracts in transactions, it tells you the light year distance to that missions system, to help decide which mission system to go to next.
4. When you select map from mission transactions, it goes straight to the system map (if the destination for that mission is know, ie not a search mission and you have system data), instead of the galaxy map, to make selecting your destination in-system quicker and easier without having to plod through the galaxy may every time. Failing that, an option to go to galaxy or system map from the mission MFD.
5. Alien Invasion involving combat missions, encounters, battles and community goals, though i believe you may be ahead of me on this one depending on what you have in mind with the impending Thargoid update.
6. A way to exit to the cockpit without having to dredge back through the galaxy map first.
7. Different ship technologies, upgrades, weapons etc, available only in certain parts of the galaxy, encourages travel and exploration, at the very least rewards you for it.
8. Escort/Protect missions, such as escorting convoys or small or large trader vessels. Missions to be collected at mission board and you meet the vessel you are escorting ousiide of the station base.
9. Overt distress signals that alert and inform you of pirate attack you when a player or NPC is interdicted by pirates, followed by a simple "Do you want to lock this low wake and anseer the distress call?" Tick or cross.
10. Sporadic Space station attack defence situations, where you join a side, the attaching force or defending forces. If attackers disable the stations defences you get a payout, if defenders defeat all attackers or certain amount of attackers in a time limit, you get a payout.
11. Wing Commander inter system waypoint based Cap/Patrol Missions, obtained from the mission board, where you can run into fights already under way such as pirates attacking NPC vessels, or running into groups or individual wanted vessels in the course of your system waypoint tour.
12. More long haul missions with large payouts.
13. Multi drop route delivery missions.
14. Planets with atmospheres, with blue, red etc skies, clouds, mountains, valleys, forests, cities etc. Atmospheric entry effects on ship would nice touch as well.
15. More extensive planet and atmospheric ground attack missions that provide targets over large areas, think Ace Combat and you'll have an idea of what i mean...
16. Hire able AI Wingmen for specific missions or until you next dock. Price for escort depends on pilot skill and ship they fly.
17. Flashing Identification lights on the outside of ships. Purely cosmetic, but would add a lot of character to the ships(your ship is the star of the show after all), and lets face it, would look freekin cool
18. Emergence ship fuel or repair service when out in space. I know...perhaps not the first one as maybe we don't want to put the intrepid fuel rats out of a job
but the idea is sound, certainly a repair service could be a possibility, though i hear you are considering repair drones, which i admit would negate this idea/concept.19. Capital ship defence, attack and escort missions.
20. Third and fourth option mode for turrets, 'Forward gimbal fire', self explanatory, and 'return fire' mode that only fires on targets that have attacked/are attacking you, ideal for conflict zones, when you don't want to attack every single ship on the opposing side, only ones that are engaging you specifically. Doesn't hurt to have that option to meet the needs of a given situation.
21. Gimballed multicannons for ship launched fighters.
22. Option to choose/change the name of your Commander, as some people might feel their gamertag is not appropriate or fitting as a pilots name.
23. In open play, bounty payouts are shared between ALL players (regardless of wings etc) who damaged the destroyed the vessel, based on damage caused to the vessel awarded in credit tiers, like mini CG payouts based on each individuals damage contribution in the kill, ie a ship that caused heavy damage to the destroyed vessel gets a higher percentage of bounty awarded, no last minute shots from a newcomer stealing the bounty.
24. Remove pilot avatar from Ship launched fighters, they are remotely piloted or manned, it can't be both. Before anyone says it could be an android flying the ship, this makes no sense, we have the technology now to fly planes and drones without a pilot of any kind, why construct an unnecessary and expensive android to do the job that slows down the interface between commander and slf. In other words, why control an android controlling the ship, when you can control the ship directly without one, no middle android.
25. Alternative music selections for your docking computer music, or ability to use your own ripped music or music from memory stick. There is only so long you can listen to the same one tune forever, no matter how great and iconic it is lol.
26. Option carry two pilots (in ships with two extra seats), and therefore be able to launch two AI pilot controlled ship launched fighters if you have a duel fighter bay. Seems like a waste to have one fighter in the bay when you could have both out fighting. Adds tactical options, such as do you hold one in the bay as backup, or send them both out for more support and fire-power.
27. Ability to set a minimum rank of commanders who can join your multi crew in crew matchmaking. You may for example want to set it to dangerous, so only someone ranked dangerous or higher can join your crew, i'm actually surprised we can't do this already.
28. More material and data storage.
29. More item storage at bases/space stations, or specific space available at each specific base/space station.
30. When frame sifting to another system, if the target system is obscured, automatically default to supercriuse, or give the option to supercruise by for example pressing frameshift button a second time shortly after trying to system jump, saves having to bind a specific supercruise button if that's all you use it for.
31. Turn off the effects of Unknown Artefacts in a station/base etc where a community goal is currently running, or simply not accept Unknown Artefacts during that period, to prevent UA bombing.
32. More Surface recon vehicle variants... such as a transport variant that carries more cargo, and combat variant that carries more weapons and armour, and maybe even a missile launcher. Would certainly justify equipping a duel SRV bay more..
33. Stronger reprisals and consequences for griefers, in other words players that attack other players for no justifiable reason, such as the person they attack is carrying no cargo to pirate and do not have a bounty on them and do not belong to a rival or any power faction. Attempted murder/murder is taken very seriously in life, so should be treated equally as serious in the game in terms of consequences, such as a significant criminal wanted status. Penalties could include more aggressive and regular attacks from AI bounty hunters and system enforcement, galaxy wide bounty's, not just in-system, perhaps shared between all faction system where the crime occurred or all non anarchy systems regarding system enforcement(bounty hunters excluded), higher bounty's, higher rebuy costs and being banned from facilities in that system for a set amount of days or weeks even, such as station/base docking refusals and/or credit fines.
I believe you are addressing this in certain ways in the upcoming Karma system, so will be interesting to see if the measures in that are effective.
34. Much cheaper costs to have a ship delivered to your current system and set a cap, as the costs to transport ships is pretty ridiculous as it is, in my opinion anyway.
35. Multi crew for SRV's, if you have a second SRV that is, including the ships commander. Again, this is one thing i am surprised is not in the game already...
36. Maybe wishful thinking on this one, but Ship launched fighter capability for the Python, to compensate for its manoeuvrability, the Python is certainly seems a big enough ship to house an SLF.
37. Last but certainly not least, PSVR support for PS4 version. This type of game is surely ideally suited for VR, and really immerse players into the game and their ship
Sorry its a long list of ideas, but i have been writing these down for a while to deliver all in one go.