Whatever the "Next Big Thing" is for the 2019 Season, I do hope they take the time to make a number of overhauls to a number of current game mechanics. For instance:
Bounties: Bounties gained from various crimes appear to be unchanged since December 2014. Given the rate of credit inflation in the game, I feel that individual bounty sizes need to be re-balanced. Also, repeat crimes within a jurisdiction should cause Bounties to increase more rapidly than repeat crimes across multiple jurisdictions. So if I commit 5 counts of piracy within Alioth Independents Space, then my Bounty should be a great deal higher than 5 individual counts of Piracy committed in space controlled by 5 different factions.
System Security level should also act as a multiplier on the level of Bounties received. Bounties should also get a mark-up for cleaning via IF (+25%) & Interstellar Bounties should be impossible to clean.
Notoriety: I would like to see Notoriety be easier to gain (Assault, Piracy & Smuggling should all contribute to Notoriety-but only as fractions of a point), harder to lose-if not almost impossible-at levels of 5 or above, short of being brought to book, or by doing sufficient charitable works to bring it down.
However, Notoriety should come with benefits-like your starting Reputation with criminal Factions, prices offered on Black Markets & the ease with which NPC ships will give up cargo to Commanders playing pirate (via an expansion of the NPC Comms system brought in during 3.3).
I'd also like to see Notoriety come with a named ranking, & possibly split Notoriety up between the Independents & the other 3 Super-Powers (so Notoriety gained in Independent Space won't count towards your Notoriety in Imperial Space....or vice versa).
Black Markets: These are definitely in need of some love. "Black Markets" we currently have in the game should be downgraded to "Grey Markets", & should offer relatively low prices (barring notoriety effects) & only for a certain sub-set of illegal goods (like those goods obtained via illegal salvage). Proper Black Markets should be hidden from view, should not always be available in the same system as a Grey Market, & can open/close on a whim. They would become visible to players with sufficient Notoriety and/or Faction Reputation with the local anarchy faction. The prices they offer would be much higher, would be more impacted by both Security Level & System State, & would sell goods as well as buy them.
USS's: Though these have undergone major improvements in 3.3, many of them still lack a certain......something. When I drop into a USS, I want to feel like I am dropping into a situation that is currently ongoing, not one that feels like it has been set up strictly for my benefit. Weapons Fire USS's should contain ships already firing on each other.....and/or show evidence that weapons fire has been taking place before I arrived. Degraded Emissions, Encoded Emissions, Combat Aftermaths & High Grade Emissions-especially ones higher than Threat Level 0-should potentially already have ships on-site, searching/patrolling the area or....in some cases......lying in Silent Running waiting to pounce on some poor, unsuspecting Commander.
Convoy USS's should be in Normal Space for a reason, & that should be readily apparent to the Commander dropping in on them-whether this is conveyed visually and/or via NPC Comms-so maybe ships(s) are awaiting an escort, or waiting to be refueled/repaired, or waiting for an exchange of cargo/passengers. Also, don't make USS's so impermeable. If I flee ships in a USS, make it possible for the ships to chase after me. If a ship leaves a USS, then allow me to track them down in Super-cruise. Likewise, if a Non-human signal source turns up via my scanning, then have any ships within that USS be able to break out of the USS & into Super-Cruise (same with Conflict Zones).
Also, make USS's-especially Mission Specific ones-more persistent. If I drop in on 4 units of salvage, pick up 2 units then flee from pirates that have jumped in on me, then if I re-enter that USS there should only be 2 Units of salvage left.....& those pirates should definitely still be around the place, lying in wait. The USS shouldn't just reset itself each time.
Last of all, be more imaginative in where USS's can turn up. Don't be afraid to have them show up in Concentrated Signal Sources, or inside Belts & Rings, or close to Stations, Outposts or Settlements.
PoIs: Both Generic & especially Mission specific PoI's need to be more persistent. The specific placement of these PoI's needs to be decided either as soon as the player jumps into the system, or as soon as the player has finished the scan. The search zone reticule could still be used, but it would merely indicate the mid-point of the zone within which the PoI is located (but might still move around a little bit as a player gets closer to the zone). The size of the zone will depend on if the planet has been probed first. It would then be nice if we were given additional tools for finding these PoI's within a search zone. What needs to be eliminated is having the PoI's magically appear in an area a player has just searched.
Stealth & Scanning: This whole thing needs a fundamental overhaul. Heat management, Ship Profile, Hull Type & Silent Running should play a bigger role in passive detection of ships at different ranges (in both Super-Cruise and Normal-Space) & Active Detection (Kill-Warrant, Manifest etc) as well as countering said Detection, should be much more skill-based. Again, both in Super-Cruise & Normal Space. Traveling from system entry point to your final destination should be potentially much more involved than is currently the case. However, ships that are carrying nothing and/or whose pilots are unwanted, should no longer have to worry about being randomly interdicted.
Interdiction: This is being discussed in other threads, but basically Interdiction requires a lot more factors to be involved in how easy/hard it is to evade (relative ship speeds, angle of ships, relative ship size, skill of interdicting pilot etc), & keeping the blue circle in the middle of the screen should be a bigger factor in how quickly/easily you evade interdiction. Similarly, we need fixed assets (Mine-fields & Check-points) in lock-down & war states that can also cause passing ships to be either significantly slowed down or pulled out of Super-Cruise altogether.
Anyway, that's my far from exhaustive list. Does anyone else have any other suggestions for what can be improved in the coming season?
Bounties: Bounties gained from various crimes appear to be unchanged since December 2014. Given the rate of credit inflation in the game, I feel that individual bounty sizes need to be re-balanced. Also, repeat crimes within a jurisdiction should cause Bounties to increase more rapidly than repeat crimes across multiple jurisdictions. So if I commit 5 counts of piracy within Alioth Independents Space, then my Bounty should be a great deal higher than 5 individual counts of Piracy committed in space controlled by 5 different factions.
System Security level should also act as a multiplier on the level of Bounties received. Bounties should also get a mark-up for cleaning via IF (+25%) & Interstellar Bounties should be impossible to clean.
Notoriety: I would like to see Notoriety be easier to gain (Assault, Piracy & Smuggling should all contribute to Notoriety-but only as fractions of a point), harder to lose-if not almost impossible-at levels of 5 or above, short of being brought to book, or by doing sufficient charitable works to bring it down.
However, Notoriety should come with benefits-like your starting Reputation with criminal Factions, prices offered on Black Markets & the ease with which NPC ships will give up cargo to Commanders playing pirate (via an expansion of the NPC Comms system brought in during 3.3).
I'd also like to see Notoriety come with a named ranking, & possibly split Notoriety up between the Independents & the other 3 Super-Powers (so Notoriety gained in Independent Space won't count towards your Notoriety in Imperial Space....or vice versa).
Black Markets: These are definitely in need of some love. "Black Markets" we currently have in the game should be downgraded to "Grey Markets", & should offer relatively low prices (barring notoriety effects) & only for a certain sub-set of illegal goods (like those goods obtained via illegal salvage). Proper Black Markets should be hidden from view, should not always be available in the same system as a Grey Market, & can open/close on a whim. They would become visible to players with sufficient Notoriety and/or Faction Reputation with the local anarchy faction. The prices they offer would be much higher, would be more impacted by both Security Level & System State, & would sell goods as well as buy them.
USS's: Though these have undergone major improvements in 3.3, many of them still lack a certain......something. When I drop into a USS, I want to feel like I am dropping into a situation that is currently ongoing, not one that feels like it has been set up strictly for my benefit. Weapons Fire USS's should contain ships already firing on each other.....and/or show evidence that weapons fire has been taking place before I arrived. Degraded Emissions, Encoded Emissions, Combat Aftermaths & High Grade Emissions-especially ones higher than Threat Level 0-should potentially already have ships on-site, searching/patrolling the area or....in some cases......lying in Silent Running waiting to pounce on some poor, unsuspecting Commander.
Convoy USS's should be in Normal Space for a reason, & that should be readily apparent to the Commander dropping in on them-whether this is conveyed visually and/or via NPC Comms-so maybe ships(s) are awaiting an escort, or waiting to be refueled/repaired, or waiting for an exchange of cargo/passengers. Also, don't make USS's so impermeable. If I flee ships in a USS, make it possible for the ships to chase after me. If a ship leaves a USS, then allow me to track them down in Super-cruise. Likewise, if a Non-human signal source turns up via my scanning, then have any ships within that USS be able to break out of the USS & into Super-Cruise (same with Conflict Zones).
Also, make USS's-especially Mission Specific ones-more persistent. If I drop in on 4 units of salvage, pick up 2 units then flee from pirates that have jumped in on me, then if I re-enter that USS there should only be 2 Units of salvage left.....& those pirates should definitely still be around the place, lying in wait. The USS shouldn't just reset itself each time.
Last of all, be more imaginative in where USS's can turn up. Don't be afraid to have them show up in Concentrated Signal Sources, or inside Belts & Rings, or close to Stations, Outposts or Settlements.
PoIs: Both Generic & especially Mission specific PoI's need to be more persistent. The specific placement of these PoI's needs to be decided either as soon as the player jumps into the system, or as soon as the player has finished the scan. The search zone reticule could still be used, but it would merely indicate the mid-point of the zone within which the PoI is located (but might still move around a little bit as a player gets closer to the zone). The size of the zone will depend on if the planet has been probed first. It would then be nice if we were given additional tools for finding these PoI's within a search zone. What needs to be eliminated is having the PoI's magically appear in an area a player has just searched.
Stealth & Scanning: This whole thing needs a fundamental overhaul. Heat management, Ship Profile, Hull Type & Silent Running should play a bigger role in passive detection of ships at different ranges (in both Super-Cruise and Normal-Space) & Active Detection (Kill-Warrant, Manifest etc) as well as countering said Detection, should be much more skill-based. Again, both in Super-Cruise & Normal Space. Traveling from system entry point to your final destination should be potentially much more involved than is currently the case. However, ships that are carrying nothing and/or whose pilots are unwanted, should no longer have to worry about being randomly interdicted.
Interdiction: This is being discussed in other threads, but basically Interdiction requires a lot more factors to be involved in how easy/hard it is to evade (relative ship speeds, angle of ships, relative ship size, skill of interdicting pilot etc), & keeping the blue circle in the middle of the screen should be a bigger factor in how quickly/easily you evade interdiction. Similarly, we need fixed assets (Mine-fields & Check-points) in lock-down & war states that can also cause passing ships to be either significantly slowed down or pulled out of Super-Cruise altogether.
Anyway, that's my far from exhaustive list. Does anyone else have any other suggestions for what can be improved in the coming season?
