I've got a lot of suggestions/complaints/ramblings for this game, and I figured that instead of making a gorrilion threads about it, I'd just make this one. I'm making this without much regard to other suggestions threads, so there may be some stuff in this thread that has already been suggested or something similar has been suggested.
Power Generation that Makes Sense
This suggestion is pretty straightforward, because the power system in the game is not. I've found that currently, the best way to generate power is to put several long 1x1 rows of power blocks running front to back (of the ship) diagonal from each other. I've seen some people claim that the best way is to make some sort of spiral or some shit. Either way, it's ridiculous; something as fundamental as power generation shouldn't be so complicated, and it shouldn't require you to build an entire ship around having to stack your power blocks in a checkerboard pattern.
If you ask me, this is how power ought to be done:
power generated per group = power generated by one block * number of blocks in one group
power generated by ship = sum of the power generated by all the groups - (number of groups * some constant)
Basically, power is generated best when the builder uses a small number of large groups of power. Power blocks will work better when grouped together.
Also, it might be nice to have another power-generating block that has a higher base power generation (power generated by one block), but benefits less from grouping. This would be good for smaller ships that have less room for big groups of power.
power generated per group = power generated by one block * (number of blocks in one group * some constant less than 1)
Also, I think this complaint also covers thrusters, as I've found that thrusters also work better in long, disconnected rows just like the power blocks. Speaking of which, why do they use so much damn power in the latest update?
Hulls/Armored Hulls that Actually Protect You
I don't think anyone will deny the fact that the current hulls, reinforced or not, aren't sufficient protection when you building a ship. This means that combat defense in the game is almost entirely dependant on shields, which in itself is highly dependant on energy, thus meaning that the only ships that are effective in combat (against pirates especially) are large ships loaded with power. If you're starting the game with your meager 64,000 credits and handful of parts, that really sucks. Any ship that isn't loaded with enough power to support ridiculous shields is more or less floating space junk, and just about any ship small enough to be considerably manuverable falls under this category.
The game would benefit greatly from having stronger hulls. Newbies would actually be able to build ships that can provide them some protection from pirates (when they're working, that is). Missiles would have a new-found purpose in being used to take down ships that are heavily armored rather than shielded. Players could build small, manuverable ships that are actually useful for combat.
Revised Pirate Spawning
Speaking of pirates, I think the spawn system for pirates needs to be revised in a few ways.
First of all, they don't appear to spawn in sectors that have already been generated without them. This is a problem because they're really the only antagonists in the game, and without them the game just starts to get boring and unchallenging.
Also, I think pirates ought to spawn more often in certain places than others. It'd make more sense if they spawned more often in void systems away from shops or planets, perhaps even spawning more often in sectors with asteroids (to suggest that they use some sorts of ambush tactics).
I'd also suggest adding more types of pirate ships that can span, but I get the feeling that's already on the to-do list.
Chosing "Source" Blocks
This pertains to grouped up weapons and where the shots are actually fired from. Say, for instance, you have a 4x4 (X by Y) group of blasters. If you fire the blasters, the shot only comes out of one of these blocks (the source block). The game arbitrarily picks this block and the player has no control over it.
There ought to be a feature that allows the player to pick which block in a group of weapons is the source block. This would allow them to either cover the "inactive" weapon blocks, or make the groups fire at the center for appearance sake.
That, and it could probably fix that annoying "weapons firing from 10 feet under the ship" glitch I've been getting.
Warp Drive
This is pretty self-explanitory. Slowly flying from sector to sector kinda stinks, having some method of quickly getting to a far away sector would be helpful.
A New Factory System
Some friends I know and I have been playing this game for a while on a private server. We've been playing long enough that we've all pretty much tried out all the different features of the game, except for one - factories. None of us have bothered building factories, and that's because none of us feel that they're worth the time. None of us want to trek across the galxy finding stuff for the factory blocks just to produce protiens and other extraneous parts that we're not gonna use. That, and if we ever need and hulls, we can just kill pirates rather than having to tear apart planets and horde protiens in order to make them.
The factory system seems to be the most unused feature of the game, not just in our server but in other star-made communities as well. It's simply too much trouble for too little gain. I don't think it should be removed altogether, it just needs to be revamped. I'd say get rid of all the nonsense manufacturing parts (protiens and other such stuff) and make it more practical for producing parts that people need (hulls, glass, ship parts, etc).
Spotlights
The game ought to have some sort of spot lights for lighing up the dark sides of planets, asteroids, etc. The current lights have too little range, so there ought to be some sort of light that emits a focused beam for a longer distance.
I/O Computers
An I/O computer would be a device that can control other devices linked to it via outputs when a certain input is fired. It could accept inputs from devices in the ship (for instance, it could receive an input from the shields when the go down) as well as the core itself (the player could link an input on the computer to a weapon slot in the weapons menu).
This one is a bit complicated, so I'm gonna split it up.
I/O Menu
The computer would need some sort of a menu, sort of like the Bobby AI. From this menu, the player can create groups (groups of blocks that can receive/fire inputs/outputs, more on those later) and edit commands.
A command would go as so, with each of the parameters in square brackets having a drop-down menu:
On [input_group] [output], [output_group] [input]
input_group - the group whose output initiates the command
output - the output from the input_group that initiates the command
output_group - the group which the command sends an input to
input - the input the command sends to the output_group
Examples:
On [shields] [GoDown], [RedLights] [TurnOn]
On [thrusters] [Avtive], [shields] [PauseCharging]
On [thrusters] [Inactive], [shields] [ContinueCharging]
On [blasters] [Firing], [lower_engines] [disable]
Every command would also show up in the weapons menu. This way, the player can link commands to inventory slots in the same way they do weapons in order to fire the commands manually. A player can also make commands with no inputs and then link them to an inventory slot if they want them to be manually activated.
Groups
As stated earlier, groups are groups of blocks that can accept inputs or fire outputs. A player can create a group in the I/O menu, name it, and then select a group of blocks to be in the group.
All the blocks in a group would have to be the same, that way a computer can't send an input to a block that can't accept that type of input.
Some Suggested Inputs/Outputs
Examples
Here are some examples of what an I/O Computer could do, for those of you who don't want to read all the technical nonsese:
I may add more to this later when I remember it.
Power Generation that Makes Sense
This suggestion is pretty straightforward, because the power system in the game is not. I've found that currently, the best way to generate power is to put several long 1x1 rows of power blocks running front to back (of the ship) diagonal from each other. I've seen some people claim that the best way is to make some sort of spiral or some shit. Either way, it's ridiculous; something as fundamental as power generation shouldn't be so complicated, and it shouldn't require you to build an entire ship around having to stack your power blocks in a checkerboard pattern.
If you ask me, this is how power ought to be done:
power generated per group = power generated by one block * number of blocks in one group
power generated by ship = sum of the power generated by all the groups - (number of groups * some constant)
Basically, power is generated best when the builder uses a small number of large groups of power. Power blocks will work better when grouped together.
Also, it might be nice to have another power-generating block that has a higher base power generation (power generated by one block), but benefits less from grouping. This would be good for smaller ships that have less room for big groups of power.
power generated per group = power generated by one block * (number of blocks in one group * some constant less than 1)
Also, I think this complaint also covers thrusters, as I've found that thrusters also work better in long, disconnected rows just like the power blocks. Speaking of which, why do they use so much damn power in the latest update?
Hulls/Armored Hulls that Actually Protect You
I don't think anyone will deny the fact that the current hulls, reinforced or not, aren't sufficient protection when you building a ship. This means that combat defense in the game is almost entirely dependant on shields, which in itself is highly dependant on energy, thus meaning that the only ships that are effective in combat (against pirates especially) are large ships loaded with power. If you're starting the game with your meager 64,000 credits and handful of parts, that really sucks. Any ship that isn't loaded with enough power to support ridiculous shields is more or less floating space junk, and just about any ship small enough to be considerably manuverable falls under this category.
The game would benefit greatly from having stronger hulls. Newbies would actually be able to build ships that can provide them some protection from pirates (when they're working, that is). Missiles would have a new-found purpose in being used to take down ships that are heavily armored rather than shielded. Players could build small, manuverable ships that are actually useful for combat.
Revised Pirate Spawning
Speaking of pirates, I think the spawn system for pirates needs to be revised in a few ways.
First of all, they don't appear to spawn in sectors that have already been generated without them. This is a problem because they're really the only antagonists in the game, and without them the game just starts to get boring and unchallenging.
Also, I think pirates ought to spawn more often in certain places than others. It'd make more sense if they spawned more often in void systems away from shops or planets, perhaps even spawning more often in sectors with asteroids (to suggest that they use some sorts of ambush tactics).
I'd also suggest adding more types of pirate ships that can span, but I get the feeling that's already on the to-do list.
Chosing "Source" Blocks
This pertains to grouped up weapons and where the shots are actually fired from. Say, for instance, you have a 4x4 (X by Y) group of blasters. If you fire the blasters, the shot only comes out of one of these blocks (the source block). The game arbitrarily picks this block and the player has no control over it.
There ought to be a feature that allows the player to pick which block in a group of weapons is the source block. This would allow them to either cover the "inactive" weapon blocks, or make the groups fire at the center for appearance sake.
That, and it could probably fix that annoying "weapons firing from 10 feet under the ship" glitch I've been getting.
Warp Drive
This is pretty self-explanitory. Slowly flying from sector to sector kinda stinks, having some method of quickly getting to a far away sector would be helpful.
A New Factory System
Some friends I know and I have been playing this game for a while on a private server. We've been playing long enough that we've all pretty much tried out all the different features of the game, except for one - factories. None of us have bothered building factories, and that's because none of us feel that they're worth the time. None of us want to trek across the galxy finding stuff for the factory blocks just to produce protiens and other extraneous parts that we're not gonna use. That, and if we ever need and hulls, we can just kill pirates rather than having to tear apart planets and horde protiens in order to make them.
The factory system seems to be the most unused feature of the game, not just in our server but in other star-made communities as well. It's simply too much trouble for too little gain. I don't think it should be removed altogether, it just needs to be revamped. I'd say get rid of all the nonsense manufacturing parts (protiens and other such stuff) and make it more practical for producing parts that people need (hulls, glass, ship parts, etc).
Spotlights
The game ought to have some sort of spot lights for lighing up the dark sides of planets, asteroids, etc. The current lights have too little range, so there ought to be some sort of light that emits a focused beam for a longer distance.
I/O Computers
An I/O computer would be a device that can control other devices linked to it via outputs when a certain input is fired. It could accept inputs from devices in the ship (for instance, it could receive an input from the shields when the go down) as well as the core itself (the player could link an input on the computer to a weapon slot in the weapons menu).
This one is a bit complicated, so I'm gonna split it up.
I/O Menu
The computer would need some sort of a menu, sort of like the Bobby AI. From this menu, the player can create groups (groups of blocks that can receive/fire inputs/outputs, more on those later) and edit commands.
A command would go as so, with each of the parameters in square brackets having a drop-down menu:
On [input_group] [output], [output_group] [input]
input_group - the group whose output initiates the command
output - the output from the input_group that initiates the command
output_group - the group which the command sends an input to
input - the input the command sends to the output_group
Examples:
On [shields] [GoDown], [RedLights] [TurnOn]
On [thrusters] [Avtive], [shields] [PauseCharging]
On [thrusters] [Inactive], [shields] [ContinueCharging]
On [blasters] [Firing], [lower_engines] [disable]
Every command would also show up in the weapons menu. This way, the player can link commands to inventory slots in the same way they do weapons in order to fire the commands manually. A player can also make commands with no inputs and then link them to an inventory slot if they want them to be manually activated.
Groups
As stated earlier, groups are groups of blocks that can accept inputs or fire outputs. A player can create a group in the I/O menu, name it, and then select a group of blocks to be in the group.
All the blocks in a group would have to be the same, that way a computer can't send an input to a block that can't accept that type of input.
Some Suggested Inputs/Outputs
- Enable/Disable - an input that can be used on a number of blocks to enable/disable their effects. For instance, a player can disable shields/thrusters/weapons for the sake of testing their ship or conserving power. This could also be used on lights/beacons to turn them on and off and on doors to open/close them.
- DrainShields - an input for shields that drains them to 0. It would be good for testing how well the ship's generators handle shield charging. It would also be nice to have something similar for the power tranks for similar reasons.
- HalfPower/FullPower - commands that tell their receiver to run on full/half power for the sake of conserving power
- GoDown - an output fired by the shields when they go down
Examples
Here are some examples of what an I/O Computer could do, for those of you who don't want to read all the technical nonsese:
- Stopping the shields from recharging when the thrusters are in use to prevent power from being drained.
- Turning on red lights placed throughout the ship when the shields fail (and then turning them off when the shield goes back up).
- Draining the shields to 0 (to test recharging and its effects on the power, would be good for ship building).
- Closing all the doors on the ship when the shields are hit.
I may add more to this later when I remember it.
