Well, in answering what i want in a mod, its easier to answer first what i don't want.
I don't like things being predictable, if i go to the same location and see exactly the same ships everytime then thats a bad thing. I feel that multiple loadouts overlapping are great. It might take a little while to add, but you can have, for example:
A bounty hunter, in a barracuda, loadout aimed at laser weapons
A bounty hunter, in a barracuda, loadout aimed at particle weapons
A bounty hunter, in a barracuda, loadout aimed at homing misssiles (x2)
A bounty hunter, in a barracuda, loadout aimed at pulse missiles
.. you get the idea. It just means that when they spawn, you can have a more dangerous and interesting encounter without giving them weapons that their ships should not have.
Another thing is the difficulty ramping need to be good. I played a mod a while back where i jumped through the jumpgate to texas and was attacked by, well, pretty much sabres loaded with kraken's. If they were going to add that kind of encounter it should be well away from the major trade zones and be extremely rare. It made me think straight away, "shall I bother.."
You need to give the player a reason to travel and to want to explore. Its no good creating 200 extra systems if your starting ones are dull and interesting, they never get there. Quality is clearly more important. I also feel that space, while vast and empty, should also be as unique as possible. Each base should look diferent ideally. though, obviously, that isn't possible with some of the base archetypes.
It should be rewarding too. It dosen't have to be fun as such, as lond as its challenging and keeps the player occupied to interesting things.
I've started looking for new ways to test the player for my mod (Frontierspace) and have added long range courier jobs (carrying police and millitary equipment), long range destroy (go to this system and destroy this destroyable base, tractor loot..) and even a quest with is run by bribes and commodity info. Its challenging, it could take a few days just to work your way into the best route of attack on a specific target.

Edited by - M-A-C-E_166 on 9/26/2005 6:48:19 AM

M-A-C-E: courier missions?how's that possible?

what i like in a mod:
completeness,new bases need new rumors,news and props - i'd really like to see some guns laying on tables in the bars(just a thought).new space eyecandy,jumpholes located close enough together to keep pace with tradelanes provided you know the most direct route,hunting areas for stalking capital fleets and looting them,gadget weapons,humor,definite differences in ship handling with emphasis on balancing classes against each other and creating a diverse range of flying styles,enhanced keyset,increased ship engine and thruster speeds & weapon ranges,balanced upgrades,REGULAR SIZED SYSTEMS hehe - i seriously hate systems wider than 150k,at least when they're the in the shortest path,reworked equipment locations with wider availability of guns and missiles,for example if a faction has 5 tachyon guns they should sell at least three of them at any of their bases,impulse in explosions - it makes a missile hit look & feel much more realistic,new effects for guns(there are some unused ones that can be added to effects.ini and used in whatever,along with every other effect being usable),a wider range in weapon models - half aren't even used,new sound effects - especially for capship guns.... one sound for all of them is just lame - and more

Oh, i haven't done anything too clever. Its just commodity based. Here's what you buy:

And here's the infocard:

I've literally added hundereds of these throughout the house systems and in about 10 new systems. All of the commodites are scanned for by the local pirates, the scan rate has been raised to 0.8 now and the commodity has a decay per second so it expires after a time. They are also reputation based, so you need to be very established in order to get the most from them. They are pretty good.
My new thing for my mod is to totally rearrange the existing systems. There's nothing really wrong with them and some like gamma will, most likely, stay the same.

Edited by - M-A-C-E_166 on 9/26/2005 11:32:04 AM

thats a pretty cool system you've got there

Yeah, very neat.

Pretty cool,
Now I am wondering are those the hidden items in the goods file with out a Id_name or info? Becuase I've seen weird items with no name or info. I've been planning on working on that and adding them, but don't really have the freetime digging and doing all of it.
But do those weird items have their own icon pic or do you have to make them your self?
BTW I know how to do all of it, just really don't have the time right now to do major work on my mod.

Oh, there's a bunch of them that are used for random missions in the tractor loot type ones. I've added other new types but they are the main ones. Some of the best are fugitive passengers, travelling between junker bases (with every pirate and police/bounty/millitary faction scanning for them).
Also, check these out:

Long range destroy mission Info
Then, when you've dunnit you tractor in:

Return to base info
Other stuff:

I really should get around to releasing this mod sumtime, i'm just constantly adding new things and its hard to draw a line and say,"just release the damn thing.."
Oh, and you have to make up icons, there aren't any in the game already. Its quite good fun spending an evening searching for good images to use while watchin' a film or sumthin.

Edited by - M-A-C-E_166 on 9/26/2005 8:50:14 PM