Sat May 24, 2003 7:08 pm by Magson
1.) Make the SP campaign completely optional.
2.) As an adjunct to that, once you've started it, don't automatically set waypoints to wherever Juni is next once she wants you to do another mission.
3.) Ditch the Levels. I made it to the "outworld" systems where the VHF's were offered for sale after leaving Libery, but before doing any of the "Bretonian missions." (In a Dagger, no less!) I even had the $$$ to be able to buy the ships. Too bad I was only level 7 at the time. . . . Putting levels in to make it so the SP isn't "too easy" is arbitrary. Besides, some gamers will go through it with a ship that'll make it hard for them, while others will beeline for the VHF's. To have the devs put a limit on it reduces options, and IMO, reduces the fun.
4.) Allow for multiple mission to be taken simultaneously.
5.) More types of missions, especially cargo missions.
6.) Don't start the SP right away, but make the player go find the start of it. (Privateer did this well, starting you in a backwater system, but letting you know that the "real money" was in New Detroit. . . .)
7.) Make the higher level ships MUCH more expensive.
8.) Ship Design: More! For example, make a really maneuverable LF have virtually no armor, but allow for a monstrous shield on it. If the shield fails, you're toast, but until then. . . . Allow for trading out power plants. Make your gun classes (and shields) dependent upon whether the power plant can support it, not a "hardpoint class." This would actually allow people to use LF's at "high level" and still have them be viable, rather than being almost forced into the VHF's.
9.) I understand the need for speed limits, in spite of them not really being possible in space. That said, if you're gonna implement them, make the different ships have different top speeds. LF's fastest, HF's middlin', VHF's ponderous, Freighters lowest of all (did piracy just become more fun?). Make the speeds different for each individual ship, though, not just "all LF's go 100, all HF's go 90," etc. More like "Drake goes 105, StarFlier goes 110, Banshee goes 93," etc.
10.) I agree with the previous person who said to allow different thrusters for afterburner should also give different top speeds. Not only that but different for each ship. So a "regular" thruster makes a StarFlier go 225, and an advanced one makes it go 250. A "regular" one makes a Titan go 170, but an Advanced one pushes it to 190. Something like that.
[Edit: How'd I forget this?
11.) A dynamic economy (allowing for about a plus or minus 10% differential in any given location), with lower percentages of difference between the "max" and "min" prices -- except for Highly Perishable items, since those are valuable due to their scarcity outside of the system they are produced in. For standard, non-perishable items, the max profit percentage, even after 4-5 jumps should only be about 20%, and lower for shorter runs. With the price differential mentioned earlier, it could make it so that one could take Item X from Base A to Base B for a profit, and later in the game take Item X from Base B back to Base A and also turn a profit. It would also add an element of risk to trading, rather than making freight runs into guaranteed $$$ generators. Highly perishable items I could see having up to an 80% profit markup on for their "best" runs. Maybe drug smuggling could offer even higher percentages too. As it stands now though, the ability to grab something for 160 and go sell it 3-5 jumps later at 1400 and a nearly 900% profit is waaaaaaaaaaaay too much.
My $0.02.
Edited by - Magson on 24-05-2003 23:22:38
