Ok, so I've been lurking the forums for about two weeks now, so some of these ideas have been seen somewhere deep in the suggestions, but under strange titles and obscure threads. Please forgive me if you see an idea you've posted here, and please link back to your original thread. Anyway.
Planets should be significantly larger. Currently, many capital ships are beginining to outsize planets. Planets should take up as much of a sector as possible, soming to a point of just a few blocks, and slowly thickening to a few hundred, to prevent players from just flying beside a planet and mining. Also, greatly increase gravity near a planet, and perhaps also add a factor that causes gravity to damage the ship if mass is too large vs. gravity, thus reducing server lag from crashed ships.
Space should also be much more spread out, with a warp drive added. Have the cooldown based on the mass of the ship, and the energy cost increase at faster rate (based on mass) than the energy savings fom drive size (meaning the warp drive can be disable by having too few power/warp drive blocks vs. mass).
This will also help out little ships, as they will become preferable to shop/scout in, as they will have a shorter cooldown.
Second, this idea I've seen somewhere for sure. Have space beyond 100 sectors out each way re-spawn randomly (other than faction-protected ships). Also have pirate become stronger very quickly after leaving the 100 block radius. This will keep the outer edges open for new players to get credits, and also provide areas for large battles for late-game players. It will also keep pirate shipwrecks from lagging servers, and will help keep players somewhat contained, and promote faction battles over important territory. (Of course, have it as an option in the config file for how many sectors are "protected")
Planets should be significantly larger. Currently, many capital ships are beginining to outsize planets. Planets should take up as much of a sector as possible, soming to a point of just a few blocks, and slowly thickening to a few hundred, to prevent players from just flying beside a planet and mining. Also, greatly increase gravity near a planet, and perhaps also add a factor that causes gravity to damage the ship if mass is too large vs. gravity, thus reducing server lag from crashed ships.
Space should also be much more spread out, with a warp drive added. Have the cooldown based on the mass of the ship, and the energy cost increase at faster rate (based on mass) than the energy savings fom drive size (meaning the warp drive can be disable by having too few power/warp drive blocks vs. mass).
This will also help out little ships, as they will become preferable to shop/scout in, as they will have a shorter cooldown.
Second, this idea I've seen somewhere for sure. Have space beyond 100 sectors out each way re-spawn randomly (other than faction-protected ships). Also have pirate become stronger very quickly after leaving the 100 block radius. This will keep the outer edges open for new players to get credits, and also provide areas for large battles for late-game players. It will also keep pirate shipwrecks from lagging servers, and will help keep players somewhat contained, and promote faction battles over important territory. (Of course, have it as an option in the config file for how many sectors are "protected")