What if instead of having the same pirates strewn about in random places, the game spawned these enemies based on how far away from spawn you are?
This idea implements a Threat level for the enemy spawning code and a list of ships for that code to choose from based on level.
-The levels go from 1-10. The ships that belong to each level are hardcoded into the game starting at level 1 (unmanned and unarmed drones), to flagships and titans that send chills into pilots of very powerful ships.
-The Threat level increases every sector away from spawn you travel, so 0,0,5 would give a spawn rate of 5 and -5,9,15 would give a spawn rate of 29. This affects what level of ship spawns and in what number, as well as how much shops stock and their price, deep space is threatening but has shops with more blocks at a cheaper price, to compensate for the size of ship the player needs to build.
Enemies deeper in or with a higher level also drop more valuable loot.
Once a sector has been completly cleared of all enemies it is considered "Clean" and allows player made shops and bases to be built in it. Waves still occour but no new enemies will spawn naturally.
Pirate stations also follow this level system, destroying one will also reduce the threat level by its level globally, a level 10 pirate base is a giant ball of computer controlled miniguns, defeating this will be a challenge but will grant great rewards.
So many new ships would take months to create alone, so don't you let the community help? Weekly challenges and flicks through the ships page can provide many fun and unique ships for the player to fight.
As far as implementation, community made ships can fill in the list and the dev team need to implement the spawning code for them.
This idea implements a Threat level for the enemy spawning code and a list of ships for that code to choose from based on level.
-The levels go from 1-10. The ships that belong to each level are hardcoded into the game starting at level 1 (unmanned and unarmed drones), to flagships and titans that send chills into pilots of very powerful ships.
-The Threat level increases every sector away from spawn you travel, so 0,0,5 would give a spawn rate of 5 and -5,9,15 would give a spawn rate of 29. This affects what level of ship spawns and in what number, as well as how much shops stock and their price, deep space is threatening but has shops with more blocks at a cheaper price, to compensate for the size of ship the player needs to build.
Enemies deeper in or with a higher level also drop more valuable loot.
Once a sector has been completly cleared of all enemies it is considered "Clean" and allows player made shops and bases to be built in it. Waves still occour but no new enemies will spawn naturally.
Pirate stations also follow this level system, destroying one will also reduce the threat level by its level globally, a level 10 pirate base is a giant ball of computer controlled miniguns, defeating this will be a challenge but will grant great rewards.
So many new ships would take months to create alone, so don't you let the community help? Weekly challenges and flicks through the ships page can provide many fun and unique ships for the player to fight.
As far as implementation, community made ships can fill in the list and the dev team need to implement the spawning code for them.
