This is just gonna turn into me daydreaming a bit and trying to be creative with how we could use existing assets to create deeper, more engaging gameplay loops. I believe that especially the mission system has a lot of untapped potential.
With all of this I'm trying to keep in mind existing assets in the game and how they could be used/altered to create new content.
It is very clear to me that any suggestions that require complete or at least significant new developments are highly unlikely to ever be considered. Not that I can imagine anyone at FDev reading this anyway, but who knows...
My main idea is to make it possible for gameplay to be more than just singular actions. Meaning that our actions should have more consequences and should provide us with opportunities based on the gameplay we engage with.
Let's start with some examples:
These districts could/should then be filled with a lot of random NPCs depending on population, district type and BGS states, just to make things look alive.
Limit in-person mission givers to those districts and remove them from the concourse, it makes no sense for them to loiter there and openly talk to random CMDRs about their illegal jobs...
Okay, so with this, imagine entering a district, walking through streets and alleys filled with random shops and walking/driving NPCs. Not all shops and NPCs have to be interactable, look at games with cities like GTA or similar games. Fill in the void of non-interactable shops by creating multiple fictive chains for each shop type. So you could find pioneer supplies competitors that maybe offer things for less credits, but have limited stock (e.g. single manufacturer?), won't sell to you unless allied with faction XYZ, the possibilities are nigh infinite. The differences would all be superficial and shallow, but still provide an immense sense of immersion while also adding some gameplay (find the best shops in the bubble hidden away in a corner + their unlock requirements).
As you walk around, you bump into some NPC who waves you over and gives you an on foot assassination job. You accept it, but as you arrive you have to watch them leaving in a ship. You don't have a FSD wake scanner, so you get a wrinkle where you have to find a contact in another system, also the mission's now turned into a ship assassination mission and the timer shortened as you have to catch them before they reach their destination.
Or maybe, instead you picked up a smuggling mission, which upon delivery adds an optional protection/escort mission because the recipient is being chased by baddies. If you accept, said NPC "boards" your ship and you have to defeat a few waves of intercepting NPCs. Finally, you may get another follow-up mission where you can take the recipient back to their home base for another extra reward.
With this I've let loose some of my thoughts and ideas. If you reached this, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed thinking about the great potential many aspects of this game have. Feel free to add your own thoughts
With all of this I'm trying to keep in mind existing assets in the game and how they could be used/altered to create new content.
It is very clear to me that any suggestions that require complete or at least significant new developments are highly unlikely to ever be considered. Not that I can imagine anyone at FDev reading this anyway, but who knows...
My main idea is to make it possible for gameplay to be more than just singular actions. Meaning that our actions should have more consequences and should provide us with opportunities based on the gameplay we engage with.
Let's start with some examples:
- You're mining or trading and bringing your haul to a station. Add a random chance for mercenaries/bounty hunters to offer to guard you, for a fee. Make the amount based on the value of your current cargo, and maybe add further costs if an existing mission is sending their goons after you. If you accept and pay the fee, bounty hunter NPCs would spawn in a similar way pursuing pirate NPCs do, but they'd mark any hostile coming after you and attempt to interdict them before they can interdict you. And if they fail at that, they will drop out with you and attack any hostiles that interdicted you. Accepting such protection may also boost your rep with the offering faction and/or their economy/security rating, in a similar way to donation missions since you're essentially giving people a job. This could also incentivise traders to fit weaponry on their ships, as with NPC helpers they may stand a chance at fighting back & the bounties earned could make for higher profits.
- Bounty hunting in a RES site could have a chance for a scenario to spawn, like we have with orbital installations and megaships. Such scenarios could be a mining ship asking for protection for X minutes, system security support getting cut off for a period of time (which could offer boosted bounty values maybe?) or just a couple waves of extra-strong pirates dropping in similar to the combat training scenarios
- While traveling through a system with cargo in your hold, create a chance for a NPC to contact you and offer to buy your cargo, or only part of it, for a much higher price than usual. This could happen regardless of whether it's mission cargo or not and maybe make you think about "betraying" your original mission giver for more profit, or maybe just faster profit as maybe you won't have to travel as far as your original destination anymore, with the offering NPC flying up to you directly.
These districts could/should then be filled with a lot of random NPCs depending on population, district type and BGS states, just to make things look alive.
Limit in-person mission givers to those districts and remove them from the concourse, it makes no sense for them to loiter there and openly talk to random CMDRs about their illegal jobs...
Okay, so with this, imagine entering a district, walking through streets and alleys filled with random shops and walking/driving NPCs. Not all shops and NPCs have to be interactable, look at games with cities like GTA or similar games. Fill in the void of non-interactable shops by creating multiple fictive chains for each shop type. So you could find pioneer supplies competitors that maybe offer things for less credits, but have limited stock (e.g. single manufacturer?), won't sell to you unless allied with faction XYZ, the possibilities are nigh infinite. The differences would all be superficial and shallow, but still provide an immense sense of immersion while also adding some gameplay (find the best shops in the bubble hidden away in a corner + their unlock requirements).
As you walk around, you bump into some NPC who waves you over and gives you an on foot assassination job. You accept it, but as you arrive you have to watch them leaving in a ship. You don't have a FSD wake scanner, so you get a wrinkle where you have to find a contact in another system, also the mission's now turned into a ship assassination mission and the timer shortened as you have to catch them before they reach their destination.
Or maybe, instead you picked up a smuggling mission, which upon delivery adds an optional protection/escort mission because the recipient is being chased by baddies. If you accept, said NPC "boards" your ship and you have to defeat a few waves of intercepting NPCs. Finally, you may get another follow-up mission where you can take the recipient back to their home base for another extra reward.
With this I've let loose some of my thoughts and ideas. If you reached this, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed thinking about the great potential many aspects of this game have. Feel free to add your own thoughts