- Joined
- Jun 29, 2013
- Messages
- 11
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Really enjoying the game, it's well done even in an alpha state. I would like to share some of the thoughts I've been having and suggestions that occured to me. It's a bit of an essay, sorry 
I've broken this down into sections to make it easier to read, please excuse me if these have already been covered already or are already planned features. I'll cover:
Mass and Asthetics of Weight
I think for me the biggest things that I can suggest is the reduction in cost for aesthetics. At the moment all blocks adds to the mass of a ship equally, 1 block = 0.1 mass, I think that should change. Vital components like power and weapons should add to the mass of the ship, where as hulls should add less, and purely aestetic elements should either add none or very little. Somethng along the lines of:
I think it's also be great to have blocks that aren't hulls for the insides of ships, simple decking and scaffolding like blocks, so that we can have flooring, walls and what-not that doesn't impact on the performance of the ship.
Engines and Thrusters
I think the trusters could do with expanding on. I'd like to see them broekn down into engines, thrusters and boosters. Engines turn power into thrust that is funneled through the thrusters, more engines means more potential thrust, more thrusters allows more thrust out.This might seem odd, but then when you would need thrusters facing in other directions to improve mobility and to decelerate. Boosters act as an alternative method of propulsion, they provide large thrust boosts but for much more power consumption, intended for temporary boosts in speed.
Simply this breaks down to:
Ways to improve a ships maneuverability
Shields, Choose a Weakness
Shields are at the moment simply a case of the more the merrier. To improve this I suggest a more complex system; we split shields into 3/4 types of blocks and into two catergories, generation and emitters. Of the two types of generation blocks there are the generators and the capacitors, which are fairly self explainitory. While the Emitters are project the shield generated to an area, and can be extended with Emitter Boosters.
Generators drain power to create more shield strength, capacitors store the strength. You would need both to survive, but you could chose the more optimal balance of each, more generators have a large drain on your power but have a greater regeneration rate, while more capacitors will give you longer longevity in a fire fight and a quicker shield transfer rate, but without generators to match will take much longer to regenerate.
Emitters project the shields around the ship within an area, much like docking blocks work, except centered on the emitter and they protect the blocks they cover. Emitter extenders increase the area the shield covers and boosts the the projected shields strength.
How shields work is broken into 3 sections, projected shield, stored shield and shield regen. Projected shield strength is the active defense, individual to each set of emitters. for example you could have your shields broken into fore and aft shields, each with independant shield values. Stored Shield is the shield strength stored in the capacitors, which is immediately begins transfering into an emitter when it is hit. This adds longevity to shields by acting as a buffer. Last is shield generation, this is a slower process but very necessary.
Broken down it looks like this:
I believe this will allow much more varied and interesting shield construction. Small ships would simply use a single emitter and some regen, but increasingly larger ships would have to choose how to section up their shielding and what kind of balance of regen and capacity to go for. Sectioned shielding will lead to players having to think more strategically where to aim.
Navigation, a Hitchhikers Guide
At the moment moving around space is pretty samey, you either look for pirates or players to kill or to find resources, or you find a nice spot and stay there. Doing both is too much of a pain, finding your way back is difficult, and having multiple bases is also a pain. To remedy this I suggest some fixes to the navigation and a few new block types.
At the moment navigation is a bit of a pain, so I have suggestions for basic improvements. The simple addition of a compass, being able to set waypoints by the map (P) and storing waypoints for certian objects, particularly automatically adding your owned property would be great. A clear and concise display of sector cordinates would also be a large help. Also as a small note being able to use cockpit view points at different angles and to get into a ship via the cockpit would be very appreciated,
Travelling long distances is a pain, your effectively stuck holding W until you get there. I think the additon of a new AI, or expansion of the old BobbyAI, that you can tell to automatically head to a waypoint you have set. It would do this regardless of what you are up to, so you could wander around your ship while its doing so, so it'd also be useful for the AI to inform you when it has arrived. Because this could lead to you being left behind it could also be possible to remotely give orders to your ship.
I would like to see some form of fast travel develop. For this I have two suggestions, beacons and jumpdrives for personal travel and warp gates. I'm sure most people playing this game are familiar with these. Beacons act as a homing in point for instant travel and can be placed on ships, stations or planets and allow a jumping ship to jump it at a safe distance. The jumping ship would require a Jumpdrive block, bigger ships needing more blocks. Attempting to jump drains all power on the ship and charges, requiring increasingly more energy the bigger the ship is, taking less time to charge the more power the ship produces, to a minimum of about 10 seconds.
Warpgates would be installed on stations or planets and would be either linked to a set gate or gates or allow access to all other warpgates. It would be best to have it link only to set gates of a matching size. I think that gates should work by creating an aperture, possibly either a set size generated by a single block, much the way a docking block reserves space, by linking 4 corners in a square, or with multiple blocks and the aperture appearing on the largest flat surface. I personally prefer the second version, though it seems the hardest to program.
Utility Belt
More assortment of ship based tools could add further specialisation other then combat. Blocks that facilitate scanning of a variety to types, radar functions, AI control, defensive weaponry, probes, decoys and jamming
Scanning would allow you to scan for certian objects, the more scanner blocks you have the greater the range but the more power each scan consumes. Scanning sufferes from interference, so bigger ships require more scanner blocks, and bigger ships, asteriods etc are harder to scan for certian blocks. Successful scans review limited information, such as the presence or absence of certian blocks. Scans that a well above the limitations of resistance review more information, possibly displaying the locations of such blocks. Such scans could temporarily reveal cloaked or radar jamming ships.
Radar should only be available after a ship has installed a radar system, more blocks produce a longer range/more frequent update, but put a constant drain on power. Also the stronger your radar the more resistant to countermeasures it will become.
Remote control of AI could be very useful, achieved by adding in communication blocks. This could lead to needing communication blocks to access certian channels of chat too. For example each block could be 'tuned' to the right frequency (or code/key) to access that channel, with faction specific channels being encoded meaning you would also need to have an appropriate faction module on your ship to read that chat.
The inclusion of weapon blocks that are designed to counter missiles could add a new layer to combat. Simply automaticly firing weapons that act like normal weapons otherwise (same mechanics) they can damage missiles to try and destroy them. If they aren't already missiles from larger arrays are more resilient.
Probes would allow players to gather basic data on areas of space without having to actually go there. Probes could be launched from special weapon type blocks, large arrays launching longer lasting, faster and tougher probes then smaller ones.
Decoys could either be simply fake heat signitures to confuse heat seekers to complex mirror image devices that great fake copies of the players ship to appear. They could be visual or just appear on the enemies sensors such as scans.
Jamming already appears defensively for radar, but jamming could also extend to scans or missile locks, or even extend to offensive means by locking out enemy sensors.
Building on Building
The functions in the advanced build UI are very good and do make construction much easier. But there are some basic building utilities that I feel could make a lot of difference. The ability to highlight areas with a simple box selection and copy, cut and paste would go a long way. Further on that there could be the ability to rotate sections, either those already place or that have been copied to the clipboard. The addtion of being able to reposition the ship core after construction, and either rotate the block or the orientation of the ship, would make a lot of ship builders either very happy or relieved.
I think thats everything so far, sorry for the long read. And again, great job with the game!
I've broken this down into sections to make it easier to read, please excuse me if these have already been covered already or are already planned features
. I'll cover:- Mass and Asthetics of Weight
- Engines and Thrusters
- Shields, Choose a Weakness
- Navigation, a Hitchhikers Guide
- Utility belt
- Building on Building
Mass and Asthetics of Weight
I think for me the biggest things that I can suggest is the reduction in cost for aesthetics. At the moment all blocks adds to the mass of a ship equally, 1 block = 0.1 mass, I think that should change. Vital components like power and weapons should add to the mass of the ship, where as hulls should add less, and purely aestetic elements should either add none or very little. Somethng along the lines of:
- Essentials = 1 mass
- Light hull = 0.2 mass
- Heavy Hull = 0.5 mass
- Aesthetics = 0.1 or 0 mass
I think it's also be great to have blocks that aren't hulls for the insides of ships, simple decking and scaffolding like blocks, so that we can have flooring, walls and what-not that doesn't impact on the performance of the ship.
Engines and Thrusters
I think the trusters could do with expanding on. I'd like to see them broekn down into engines, thrusters and boosters. Engines turn power into thrust that is funneled through the thrusters, more engines means more potential thrust, more thrusters allows more thrust out.This might seem odd, but then when you would need thrusters facing in other directions to improve mobility and to decelerate. Boosters act as an alternative method of propulsion, they provide large thrust boosts but for much more power consumption, intended for temporary boosts in speed.
Simply this breaks down to:
- More Engines = higher potential speed.
- More Thrusters = more possible acceleration in thruster direction.
- More Boosters = larger temporary boost to speed, much large energy consumption
Ways to improve a ships maneuverability
Shields, Choose a Weakness
Shields are at the moment simply a case of the more the merrier. To improve this I suggest a more complex system; we split shields into 3/4 types of blocks and into two catergories, generation and emitters. Of the two types of generation blocks there are the generators and the capacitors, which are fairly self explainitory. While the Emitters are project the shield generated to an area, and can be extended with Emitter Boosters.
Generators drain power to create more shield strength, capacitors store the strength. You would need both to survive, but you could chose the more optimal balance of each, more generators have a large drain on your power but have a greater regeneration rate, while more capacitors will give you longer longevity in a fire fight and a quicker shield transfer rate, but without generators to match will take much longer to regenerate.
Emitters project the shields around the ship within an area, much like docking blocks work, except centered on the emitter and they protect the blocks they cover. Emitter extenders increase the area the shield covers and boosts the the projected shields strength.
How shields work is broken into 3 sections, projected shield, stored shield and shield regen. Projected shield strength is the active defense, individual to each set of emitters. for example you could have your shields broken into fore and aft shields, each with independant shield values. Stored Shield is the shield strength stored in the capacitors, which is immediately begins transfering into an emitter when it is hit. This adds longevity to shields by acting as a buffer. Last is shield generation, this is a slower process but very necessary.
Broken down it looks like this:
- Emitters - covers an area with shielding.
- Emitter Booster - increases the area of a shield and it's strength.
- Shield Capacitor - Stores shield strength, more increases amount stored and transfer rate.
- Shield Generator - Regenerates shield strength, more produces more shields, drains more power.
I believe this will allow much more varied and interesting shield construction. Small ships would simply use a single emitter and some regen, but increasingly larger ships would have to choose how to section up their shielding and what kind of balance of regen and capacity to go for. Sectioned shielding will lead to players having to think more strategically where to aim.
Navigation, a Hitchhikers Guide
At the moment moving around space is pretty samey, you either look for pirates or players to kill or to find resources, or you find a nice spot and stay there. Doing both is too much of a pain, finding your way back is difficult, and having multiple bases is also a pain. To remedy this I suggest some fixes to the navigation and a few new block types.
At the moment navigation is a bit of a pain, so I have suggestions for basic improvements. The simple addition of a compass, being able to set waypoints by the map (P) and storing waypoints for certian objects, particularly automatically adding your owned property would be great. A clear and concise display of sector cordinates would also be a large help. Also as a small note being able to use cockpit view points at different angles and to get into a ship via the cockpit would be very appreciated,
Travelling long distances is a pain, your effectively stuck holding W until you get there. I think the additon of a new AI, or expansion of the old BobbyAI, that you can tell to automatically head to a waypoint you have set. It would do this regardless of what you are up to, so you could wander around your ship while its doing so, so it'd also be useful for the AI to inform you when it has arrived. Because this could lead to you being left behind it could also be possible to remotely give orders to your ship.
I would like to see some form of fast travel develop. For this I have two suggestions, beacons and jumpdrives for personal travel and warp gates. I'm sure most people playing this game are familiar with these. Beacons act as a homing in point for instant travel and can be placed on ships, stations or planets and allow a jumping ship to jump it at a safe distance. The jumping ship would require a Jumpdrive block, bigger ships needing more blocks. Attempting to jump drains all power on the ship and charges, requiring increasingly more energy the bigger the ship is, taking less time to charge the more power the ship produces, to a minimum of about 10 seconds.
Warpgates would be installed on stations or planets and would be either linked to a set gate or gates or allow access to all other warpgates. It would be best to have it link only to set gates of a matching size. I think that gates should work by creating an aperture, possibly either a set size generated by a single block, much the way a docking block reserves space, by linking 4 corners in a square, or with multiple blocks and the aperture appearing on the largest flat surface. I personally prefer the second version, though it seems the hardest to program.
Utility Belt
More assortment of ship based tools could add further specialisation other then combat. Blocks that facilitate scanning of a variety to types, radar functions, AI control, defensive weaponry, probes, decoys and jamming
Scanning would allow you to scan for certian objects, the more scanner blocks you have the greater the range but the more power each scan consumes. Scanning sufferes from interference, so bigger ships require more scanner blocks, and bigger ships, asteriods etc are harder to scan for certian blocks. Successful scans review limited information, such as the presence or absence of certian blocks. Scans that a well above the limitations of resistance review more information, possibly displaying the locations of such blocks. Such scans could temporarily reveal cloaked or radar jamming ships.
Radar should only be available after a ship has installed a radar system, more blocks produce a longer range/more frequent update, but put a constant drain on power. Also the stronger your radar the more resistant to countermeasures it will become.
Remote control of AI could be very useful, achieved by adding in communication blocks. This could lead to needing communication blocks to access certian channels of chat too. For example each block could be 'tuned' to the right frequency (or code/key) to access that channel, with faction specific channels being encoded meaning you would also need to have an appropriate faction module on your ship to read that chat.
The inclusion of weapon blocks that are designed to counter missiles could add a new layer to combat. Simply automaticly firing weapons that act like normal weapons otherwise (same mechanics) they can damage missiles to try and destroy them. If they aren't already missiles from larger arrays are more resilient.
Probes would allow players to gather basic data on areas of space without having to actually go there. Probes could be launched from special weapon type blocks, large arrays launching longer lasting, faster and tougher probes then smaller ones.
Decoys could either be simply fake heat signitures to confuse heat seekers to complex mirror image devices that great fake copies of the players ship to appear. They could be visual or just appear on the enemies sensors such as scans.
Jamming already appears defensively for radar, but jamming could also extend to scans or missile locks, or even extend to offensive means by locking out enemy sensors.
Building on Building
The functions in the advanced build UI are very good and do make construction much easier. But there are some basic building utilities that I feel could make a lot of difference. The ability to highlight areas with a simple box selection and copy, cut and paste would go a long way. Further on that there could be the ability to rotate sections, either those already place or that have been copied to the clipboard. The addtion of being able to reposition the ship core after construction, and either rotate the block or the orientation of the ship, would make a lot of ship builders either very happy or relieved.
I think thats everything so far, sorry for the long read. And again, great job with the game!
