So with the Beyond Season behind us, we're informed that the 2019 Season will be as big a change to the game as Horizons itself was back in 2015. Whatever it brings, though, I do hope they go over the stuff they brought us in Beyond & make even further changes/improvements to that content.
Please note that, I genuinely believe that Beyond made some truly excellent improvements to many of the core game experiences, but I also felt like some of these things had as yet unfulfilled potential to them. So I'd like to suggest what further improvements can be made, in roughly the order that the changes were introduced in 2018:
Crime & Punishment: I really do like the more long-term consequences attached to criminal activity, though I do believe it is possible to add even *more* longevity to those consequences. For example, base Bounties & Fines haven't been increased since the launch of the game in 2014-even though players average disposable incomes clearly have increased. So I believe we need a review of the base levels for Bounties & Fines-especially for Capital Crimes like Piracy, Assault & Murder. I also feel we need a multiplier based on System Security, with Medium being the default. Crimes committed in low security systems will be half the default, whilst those committed in Hi-Sec systems would be double.
In addition, repeat offenses might carry an ever increasing base bounty/fine payable. This could be a local jurisdictional thing (repeat crimes in the same system), a Super-Power Jurisdictional thing (repeat crimes in Fed, Imperial or Alliance Space) or simply repeat crimes committed anywhere prior to getting your current Bounties/Fines removed. So a single trespass might cop you a 2000 Cr Bounty, but a second trespass might cop you a 4000 Cr Bounty (for a total of 6000 Cr), then 8000 Cr. This way, repeat crimes quickly stack up if you already have unpaid bounties/fines.
I am also of the view that paying off Bounties via IF should carry some kind of Mark Up-either a flat 25% mark up, or a Mark up based on the value of the ship your bounties were accrued in. Lastly, I feel Super-Power Bounties should be impossible to remove via IF....or the mark up should be quite prohibitive. The up-shot of all these changes might be that we see bounties stick around for significantly longer than is currently the case.
Notoriety was a great addition to the game, but the truth is that it degrades much too fast IMHO, & has too few in-game effects. I really feel it needs a lot of fleshing out. For starters, Notoriety up to level 5 should take increasingly longer to degrade than the previous notoriety level. So Notoriety 1 might degrade in 1 hour, Notoriety 2 might take 2 hours to degrade to 1.....& so on. Notoriety of 5 or above should *never* naturally degrade. It should only be removable via being "Brought to Book", doing extensive Charitable Work for the Factions (i.e. regular missions, but where you refuse to accept any compensation (even Reputation)), or by performing certain difficult/dangerous missions for Interstellar Factors. I also feel that other crimes-like Smuggling (if caught), Piracy & Assault should also add to your notoriety......only not as quickly as Murder does. I am also of the view that Notoriety should be Jurisdictional-so Imperial Notoriety, Fed Notoriety, Alliance Notoriety & Independent Notoriety.
The flip-side of this is that players pursuing a Criminal lifestyle should have incentives to retain a higher notoriety. Notoriety should bring with it a Ranking similar to the Elite Rankings (bragging rights), but should also allow players the option to menace NPC's, using a variant of the new NPC Voice Comms mechanic we got in Chapter 4-especially useful for Piracy & Kidnapping, but also maybe to scare off potential bounty hunters. Likewise, Notoriety should be one of the factors in gaining access to Black Markets (your reputation with the local anarchy faction being another) as well as a factor in the prices the Black Market is willing to purchase or sell goods to you at. It should also effect the base payout for missions conducted on behalf of Anarchy Factions.
On a final note, I think we need to raise the stakes in relation to Smuggling & Bounty Hunting, by allowing players/NPC's to utilise their Utility Mount Scanners (Manifest, Kill-Warrant & Wake) whilst in Super Cruise (at least to a limited degree), & by giving players additional tools for being Stealthy (in both SC & N-Space) & for being able to thwart scans in progress (again, in either SC or N-Space). Ship Size, Hull Engineering & power plant output should all be factors in determining the range at which a successful scan could even be begun, as well as how long the scan will take to complete. The ECM should also be usable by players to attempt to break off any scans they know are currently in progress.
One thing I think we need is to tone down the amount of info we gain from passively scanning a ship with our default scanners, with more powerful, active scans required to get more detailed info regarding your target.
For example a passive scan might reveal nothing more than the basic ship type, a low-powered scan might reveal the name of the ship, a medium-powered scan might reveal the name of the pilot & a high-powered scan of the ship might reveal detailed info about the ship & its pilot.
The amount of info revealed by other scanner types (Manifest, KW), will be tied to the type of scanner, but will also be dictated by how long you scan for. So a short Manifest Scan will reveal if the ship is carrying any cargo/passengers & how much of each. A longer scan might reveal if any of the cargo/passengers are illegal & the longest scan will reveal all the details of the ship's manifest (possibly limited to Normal Space scanning). I guess what I am saying is that I want to see the non-combat interplay between ships become much, much more skill based.....in the same vein as the improvements to mining & exploration.
Please note that, I genuinely believe that Beyond made some truly excellent improvements to many of the core game experiences, but I also felt like some of these things had as yet unfulfilled potential to them. So I'd like to suggest what further improvements can be made, in roughly the order that the changes were introduced in 2018:
Crime & Punishment: I really do like the more long-term consequences attached to criminal activity, though I do believe it is possible to add even *more* longevity to those consequences. For example, base Bounties & Fines haven't been increased since the launch of the game in 2014-even though players average disposable incomes clearly have increased. So I believe we need a review of the base levels for Bounties & Fines-especially for Capital Crimes like Piracy, Assault & Murder. I also feel we need a multiplier based on System Security, with Medium being the default. Crimes committed in low security systems will be half the default, whilst those committed in Hi-Sec systems would be double.
In addition, repeat offenses might carry an ever increasing base bounty/fine payable. This could be a local jurisdictional thing (repeat crimes in the same system), a Super-Power Jurisdictional thing (repeat crimes in Fed, Imperial or Alliance Space) or simply repeat crimes committed anywhere prior to getting your current Bounties/Fines removed. So a single trespass might cop you a 2000 Cr Bounty, but a second trespass might cop you a 4000 Cr Bounty (for a total of 6000 Cr), then 8000 Cr. This way, repeat crimes quickly stack up if you already have unpaid bounties/fines.
I am also of the view that paying off Bounties via IF should carry some kind of Mark Up-either a flat 25% mark up, or a Mark up based on the value of the ship your bounties were accrued in. Lastly, I feel Super-Power Bounties should be impossible to remove via IF....or the mark up should be quite prohibitive. The up-shot of all these changes might be that we see bounties stick around for significantly longer than is currently the case.
Notoriety was a great addition to the game, but the truth is that it degrades much too fast IMHO, & has too few in-game effects. I really feel it needs a lot of fleshing out. For starters, Notoriety up to level 5 should take increasingly longer to degrade than the previous notoriety level. So Notoriety 1 might degrade in 1 hour, Notoriety 2 might take 2 hours to degrade to 1.....& so on. Notoriety of 5 or above should *never* naturally degrade. It should only be removable via being "Brought to Book", doing extensive Charitable Work for the Factions (i.e. regular missions, but where you refuse to accept any compensation (even Reputation)), or by performing certain difficult/dangerous missions for Interstellar Factors. I also feel that other crimes-like Smuggling (if caught), Piracy & Assault should also add to your notoriety......only not as quickly as Murder does. I am also of the view that Notoriety should be Jurisdictional-so Imperial Notoriety, Fed Notoriety, Alliance Notoriety & Independent Notoriety.
The flip-side of this is that players pursuing a Criminal lifestyle should have incentives to retain a higher notoriety. Notoriety should bring with it a Ranking similar to the Elite Rankings (bragging rights), but should also allow players the option to menace NPC's, using a variant of the new NPC Voice Comms mechanic we got in Chapter 4-especially useful for Piracy & Kidnapping, but also maybe to scare off potential bounty hunters. Likewise, Notoriety should be one of the factors in gaining access to Black Markets (your reputation with the local anarchy faction being another) as well as a factor in the prices the Black Market is willing to purchase or sell goods to you at. It should also effect the base payout for missions conducted on behalf of Anarchy Factions.
On a final note, I think we need to raise the stakes in relation to Smuggling & Bounty Hunting, by allowing players/NPC's to utilise their Utility Mount Scanners (Manifest, Kill-Warrant & Wake) whilst in Super Cruise (at least to a limited degree), & by giving players additional tools for being Stealthy (in both SC & N-Space) & for being able to thwart scans in progress (again, in either SC or N-Space). Ship Size, Hull Engineering & power plant output should all be factors in determining the range at which a successful scan could even be begun, as well as how long the scan will take to complete. The ECM should also be usable by players to attempt to break off any scans they know are currently in progress.
One thing I think we need is to tone down the amount of info we gain from passively scanning a ship with our default scanners, with more powerful, active scans required to get more detailed info regarding your target.
For example a passive scan might reveal nothing more than the basic ship type, a low-powered scan might reveal the name of the ship, a medium-powered scan might reveal the name of the pilot & a high-powered scan of the ship might reveal detailed info about the ship & its pilot.
The amount of info revealed by other scanner types (Manifest, KW), will be tied to the type of scanner, but will also be dictated by how long you scan for. So a short Manifest Scan will reveal if the ship is carrying any cargo/passengers & how much of each. A longer scan might reveal if any of the cargo/passengers are illegal & the longest scan will reveal all the details of the ship's manifest (possibly limited to Normal Space scanning). I guess what I am saying is that I want to see the non-combat interplay between ships become much, much more skill based.....in the same vein as the improvements to mining & exploration.