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If you are solely interested in the suggestion skip to [The Actual Suggestion] below.
[Preface]
Okay, so we have a good game...it lacks features, those that are there aren't finalized but the ship building is wonderful. The ability to CUSTOM BUILD real multicrew ships is wonderful to behold.
I must preface my suggestion with the admittance that I am not an expert at this game, actually I'm more of a newbie, I have almost no understanding of how combat currently plays out, I have very little hands on experience with anything other than ship building and mindlessly mining resources.
But...
[The Actual Suggestion]
I think it's likely many of us want a better intel system. The current one works...sort of. You have a 3D map and little dots in the corner of the screen that (rather badly in my opinion) show you where you're going and what's around you.
What we need is a player built intel system.
What do I mean player built? Why do we need that?
I'll answer the second question first, we need it because the strength of this game is in the player creation, and the dynamic ability of the community as a whole to build spectacular things. If the intel system worked this way too the strength of the game would only be fortified by a new type of creation.
Now to the first question, what do I mean "player built"? Well this is where things get strange and you yell me off the stage for wanting something impossible or unreasonable or "not right for the context". I'll save us the argument and tell you right now, nothing I ask for is difficult to implement, but some things may be difficult to implement well. In order to ease the minds of the devs I will include a section on possible basic implementation strategies below (I am not a professional software developer but I can think my way around a problem).
[The Answer to the First Question]
When I say intel system what I really mean is instrumentation system. How do we get intel in real life? On computer screens and INSTURMENTS. There are already monitors in the game and much of the system I have in mind is possible with current blocks, but the actual intel part of the system has not been implemented and there is great room for improvement on the functionality of monitors. Right now they can only display text, but eventually couldn't they display simple graphics? It's already possible to make a text graphics system, why not integrate them with Lua and enable the writing of ship computers, AI, visualization screens, and ship interfaces? I'm talking only a simple graphics system, rectangle fills or even pixel fills, maybe a tiny graphics array. This, in combination with an integrated scanner computer, would enable all kinds of things, including advanced intel visualizations, radar screens and more.
Programmable Lua computers have been planned for a while, and with just a few graphical methods the possibilities are endless. Of course the API also has to be developed, which is a lot of work, but was already planned. If the developers keep interfaces with systems computers in mind, and develop with a powerful intel system that finds visually obtainable information (size of contact, ship/station, shape) at longer ranges in a quantitative format that could be manipulated by code, the things the players could do are practically infinite.
The fog of war is a great start to intel but it's static, and boolean, and real intel is gathered dynamically. We need a way to get the location of other entities, and we need to be able to do this dynamically based on some kind of scanning apparatus, the current scanners just aren't complicated enough, while they are interesting, use is limited.
Woah woah Lua? This sounds complicated, and why do we need scripting for something so basic?
First of all, I'm not saying a player should NEED to code, I'm saying it would be amazing to ALLOW them to code. The intel apparatus below would be COMPATIBLE with the hypothetical Lua computer, but a computer would NOT be required to view the data, maybe some basic UI elements could serve that purpose for those less programming inclined.
Also...
Space ships ARE complicated. Even in arcade space games there are six degrees of freedom and different weapon systems, complicated techniques for countering technologies, and Schine signed up for this. They knew they were creating a space game, and we can see in the number of systems that are already implemented that they had no intention of making things "simple". Even those who want to make working elevators need to use somewhat complicated logic arrangements, and elevators are basic parts of building ships/stations.
A ship computer would be incredibly helpful, it would allow for custom AI, regulation of ship systems, and an unbelievably long list of things that I will not even attempt to address here. While computers are buildable in the current game, the space requirements are ridiculous.
[Possible Game Mechanic Implementation]
The following is a rough idea, but it might be nice if computers were storage blocks in which logic blocks had to be placed to complete "circuits". That way the current logic blocks (which are quite useful) wouldn't become irrelevant to a much superior computer, the computer would be difficult to set up, and require many resources that a similar logic block assembly might not require.
The intel system could consist of an additional type of scanner, which would have a computer, and modules, much like all of the other systems in the game. This scanner would do a constant passive scan, the more modules, the greater the energy cost, but also the greater the range. (it would be cool to have it update every n game ticks, where the frequency could be increased at the cost of more power). Basically these passive scans would provide a snapshot of the local area, locations of entities, properties, and at closer ranges possibly even their block arrangement (ships in visual range already have their blueprints downloaded to the client after all). In a sense this is already done, for any player, through the navigation display, but the information is displayed in one, inflexible, way, with no variation in range scan, and no way to see details without establishing visual with the contact. Also, no special equipment is needed for the current view, but I expect that the proposed scanner would give you a wider contact radius and additional details. Since this module could be accessed by a future Lua block, the information could be displayed any way the player wanted. This could enable things like custom auto docking, docking guidance systems, space traffic control setups, more, and most of the work would be done by the players, taking the effort off of the dev team so they could focus on the rest of game development.
[Conclusion]
I am aware that there is much I didn't touch on in this topic, including performance concerns, strategies for implementing multiple computer emulations inside an already complex game, and cloaking/jamming. I would be happy to continue discussing those topics with the community and the developers, but as it is this is a wall of text and I wish to end it shortly.
If someone else has come up with an idea like this and I missed it, I apologize, please notify me and merge this with that topic.
In general I was surprised more people didn't want this, right now the interface is a bit clunky, and being able to design our own ship control systems and instruments could fix that problem and keep the diversity that makes this game so wonderful.
I feel that intel could be best implemented as part of this system.
I chose to suggest an intel system because that's the thing I most feel like is missing from the game. The sense of being in the vast depths of space is there, but in all the great space epics the interest comes from that which the characters FIND in the empty black. I feel that intel systems could create the immersion of being on your ship, clumsily fiddling with scanning frequency and range; balancing power so you can get where you need to go, and maintain awareness of your possibly hostile surroundings.
[Preface]
Okay, so we have a good game...it lacks features, those that are there aren't finalized but the ship building is wonderful. The ability to CUSTOM BUILD real multicrew ships is wonderful to behold.
I must preface my suggestion with the admittance that I am not an expert at this game, actually I'm more of a newbie, I have almost no understanding of how combat currently plays out, I have very little hands on experience with anything other than ship building and mindlessly mining resources.
But...
[The Actual Suggestion]
I think it's likely many of us want a better intel system. The current one works...sort of. You have a 3D map and little dots in the corner of the screen that (rather badly in my opinion) show you where you're going and what's around you.
What we need is a player built intel system.
What do I mean player built? Why do we need that?
I'll answer the second question first, we need it because the strength of this game is in the player creation, and the dynamic ability of the community as a whole to build spectacular things. If the intel system worked this way too the strength of the game would only be fortified by a new type of creation.
Now to the first question, what do I mean "player built"? Well this is where things get strange and you yell me off the stage for wanting something impossible or unreasonable or "not right for the context". I'll save us the argument and tell you right now, nothing I ask for is difficult to implement, but some things may be difficult to implement well. In order to ease the minds of the devs I will include a section on possible basic implementation strategies below (I am not a professional software developer but I can think my way around a problem).
[The Answer to the First Question]
When I say intel system what I really mean is instrumentation system. How do we get intel in real life? On computer screens and INSTURMENTS. There are already monitors in the game and much of the system I have in mind is possible with current blocks, but the actual intel part of the system has not been implemented and there is great room for improvement on the functionality of monitors. Right now they can only display text, but eventually couldn't they display simple graphics? It's already possible to make a text graphics system, why not integrate them with Lua and enable the writing of ship computers, AI, visualization screens, and ship interfaces? I'm talking only a simple graphics system, rectangle fills or even pixel fills, maybe a tiny graphics array. This, in combination with an integrated scanner computer, would enable all kinds of things, including advanced intel visualizations, radar screens and more.
Programmable Lua computers have been planned for a while, and with just a few graphical methods the possibilities are endless. Of course the API also has to be developed, which is a lot of work, but was already planned. If the developers keep interfaces with systems computers in mind, and develop with a powerful intel system that finds visually obtainable information (size of contact, ship/station, shape) at longer ranges in a quantitative format that could be manipulated by code, the things the players could do are practically infinite.
The fog of war is a great start to intel but it's static, and boolean, and real intel is gathered dynamically. We need a way to get the location of other entities, and we need to be able to do this dynamically based on some kind of scanning apparatus, the current scanners just aren't complicated enough, while they are interesting, use is limited.
Woah woah Lua? This sounds complicated, and why do we need scripting for something so basic?
First of all, I'm not saying a player should NEED to code, I'm saying it would be amazing to ALLOW them to code. The intel apparatus below would be COMPATIBLE with the hypothetical Lua computer, but a computer would NOT be required to view the data, maybe some basic UI elements could serve that purpose for those less programming inclined.
Also...
Space ships ARE complicated. Even in arcade space games there are six degrees of freedom and different weapon systems, complicated techniques for countering technologies, and Schine signed up for this. They knew they were creating a space game, and we can see in the number of systems that are already implemented that they had no intention of making things "simple". Even those who want to make working elevators need to use somewhat complicated logic arrangements, and elevators are basic parts of building ships/stations.
A ship computer would be incredibly helpful, it would allow for custom AI, regulation of ship systems, and an unbelievably long list of things that I will not even attempt to address here. While computers are buildable in the current game, the space requirements are ridiculous.
[Possible Game Mechanic Implementation]
The following is a rough idea, but it might be nice if computers were storage blocks in which logic blocks had to be placed to complete "circuits". That way the current logic blocks (which are quite useful) wouldn't become irrelevant to a much superior computer, the computer would be difficult to set up, and require many resources that a similar logic block assembly might not require.
The intel system could consist of an additional type of scanner, which would have a computer, and modules, much like all of the other systems in the game. This scanner would do a constant passive scan, the more modules, the greater the energy cost, but also the greater the range. (it would be cool to have it update every n game ticks, where the frequency could be increased at the cost of more power). Basically these passive scans would provide a snapshot of the local area, locations of entities, properties, and at closer ranges possibly even their block arrangement (ships in visual range already have their blueprints downloaded to the client after all). In a sense this is already done, for any player, through the navigation display, but the information is displayed in one, inflexible, way, with no variation in range scan, and no way to see details without establishing visual with the contact. Also, no special equipment is needed for the current view, but I expect that the proposed scanner would give you a wider contact radius and additional details. Since this module could be accessed by a future Lua block, the information could be displayed any way the player wanted. This could enable things like custom auto docking, docking guidance systems, space traffic control setups, more, and most of the work would be done by the players, taking the effort off of the dev team so they could focus on the rest of game development.
[Conclusion]
I am aware that there is much I didn't touch on in this topic, including performance concerns, strategies for implementing multiple computer emulations inside an already complex game, and cloaking/jamming. I would be happy to continue discussing those topics with the community and the developers, but as it is this is a wall of text and I wish to end it shortly.
If someone else has come up with an idea like this and I missed it, I apologize, please notify me and merge this with that topic.
In general I was surprised more people didn't want this, right now the interface is a bit clunky, and being able to design our own ship control systems and instruments could fix that problem and keep the diversity that makes this game so wonderful.
I feel that intel could be best implemented as part of this system.
I chose to suggest an intel system because that's the thing I most feel like is missing from the game. The sense of being in the vast depths of space is there, but in all the great space epics the interest comes from that which the characters FIND in the empty black. I feel that intel systems could create the immersion of being on your ship, clumsily fiddling with scanning frequency and range; balancing power so you can get where you need to go, and maintain awareness of your possibly hostile surroundings.
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