In general I like the game so far and can't see that much that I'd change, other than adding more variety of ships (which I hope will come anyway).
However... One thing that does bug me is entering and leaving stations. I guess there's a good reason why the entrance is so small, but with that comes an issue about (especially) NPC ships. I like to line up with the station entrance a few km off and then fly straight towards it on entering, and when doing this I find the NPC ships (or, I guess, players using the docking computer) steam up and slam to a halt about 100m from the entrance, blocking it. The docking computer, besides being comically broken in use, has an odd idea of how to enter the station. The original Elite docking computer did a much neater job, by lining up further out.
The same issues can occur when leaving: I'll be heading for the exit, nicely aligned, and some NPC ship will just charge into line ahead of me, sometimes causing a collision.
The third issue is that when I'm half way through the exit (or entrance, as may be) an NPC ship will appear and just steamroller through.
I note there are red/green lights on the left/right of the entry slot - which looks like you should keep right (green is on the right from both sides) but the NPCs hog the middle of the road anyhow.
I can think of 3 possible solutions:
1) Have the lights show alternately red or green, so that you get incoming and outgoing periods. The cycle would probably be about 10-15 seconds in each direction with a short "red both sides" for stuff already in transit to clear the exit. Entering the slot when a red light was showing would get you a fine. NPC pilots would have to observe the lights also, reducing collisions.
2) make the slot a little wider, keep the current red/green lights but make the NPC traffic keep right, where the green lights are. Players would incur a fine for not keeping right in the station entrance.
3) have a separate exit at the other end of the station, so it's 1-way traffic. The exit can be through the side, as you won't have to line up with it from outside, and it doesn't matter if your ship has an "intersting" vector after leaving the station
This would also mean the ship doesn't need to be turned in the station, which makes the hangar entry less time wasting as well as the launch sequence. While the cunning mechanism to turn the ship is quite cute, it gets boring fairly soon. The hangar system can be similar to now, just without the rotation phase.
I think on the whole option 2 is least work, in coding terms, and least disruption to existing gameplay.
However... One thing that does bug me is entering and leaving stations. I guess there's a good reason why the entrance is so small, but with that comes an issue about (especially) NPC ships. I like to line up with the station entrance a few km off and then fly straight towards it on entering, and when doing this I find the NPC ships (or, I guess, players using the docking computer) steam up and slam to a halt about 100m from the entrance, blocking it. The docking computer, besides being comically broken in use, has an odd idea of how to enter the station. The original Elite docking computer did a much neater job, by lining up further out.
The same issues can occur when leaving: I'll be heading for the exit, nicely aligned, and some NPC ship will just charge into line ahead of me, sometimes causing a collision.
The third issue is that when I'm half way through the exit (or entrance, as may be) an NPC ship will appear and just steamroller through.
I note there are red/green lights on the left/right of the entry slot - which looks like you should keep right (green is on the right from both sides) but the NPCs hog the middle of the road anyhow.
I can think of 3 possible solutions:
1) Have the lights show alternately red or green, so that you get incoming and outgoing periods. The cycle would probably be about 10-15 seconds in each direction with a short "red both sides" for stuff already in transit to clear the exit. Entering the slot when a red light was showing would get you a fine. NPC pilots would have to observe the lights also, reducing collisions.
2) make the slot a little wider, keep the current red/green lights but make the NPC traffic keep right, where the green lights are. Players would incur a fine for not keeping right in the station entrance.
3) have a separate exit at the other end of the station, so it's 1-way traffic. The exit can be through the side, as you won't have to line up with it from outside, and it doesn't matter if your ship has an "intersting" vector after leaving the station
This would also mean the ship doesn't need to be turned in the station, which makes the hangar entry less time wasting as well as the launch sequence. While the cunning mechanism to turn the ship is quite cute, it gets boring fairly soon. The hangar system can be similar to now, just without the rotation phase.I think on the whole option 2 is least work, in coding terms, and least disruption to existing gameplay.