I like the idea of having your own base etc.
Perhaps to expand on it though you could restrict base ownership to an actual player faction containing 5 people or more . This means of course that the game will have to allow the creation of player factions which are similar to NPC factions.. i.e. reputations, trading alliances etc.
The nice thing with having a player based faction owning a base is that each individual contributes to the maintenance of said base. For example, on completion of a mission/trading run, 10% of each player's earnings automatically gets assigned to faction use. The faction leader/s can then use these funds to hire mercs for base defence(which will come in handy when most members are offline), general repair, base upgrades, buying better ships for fellow members etc. This would encourage people to work together and give them something to do with their hard earned money (other than buying a bigger gun/ship).
What i do feel though, is that should the base come under attack, one shouldn't be able to destroy it, but just in fact completely disable it, forcing the owners to get enough money together to fully repair it again.
I mean, imagine being in a pirate group and you have an old and probably illegally obtained battleship as your base. Sure it might be a bit dilapidated at first, but at least you can move it to a new location every now and then, upgrade it every chance you get and keep the vigilanties/cops on their toes. The possibilities are quite endless.
But, this is all probably just a pipe-dream. Without the SDK i don't think most of this is possible. Maybe we'll get lucky and see an expansion including something similar one day...... i can dream can't i ?
Edited by - calisza on 05-03-2003 16:22:47