So, the new lego station, what kind of impact are we going to see on the game? Is this really just going to be a cosmetic addition, or are we going to see some impact on game dynamic? And how much input are we going to get as to what they look like? Where are they going to go when they're first introduced?

Major Premise: We've heard that one of them will be put in the game

Minor Premise: We've heard that sector 9 will be rearranged substantially.

Deduction: Sector 9 will contain a huge, new station.

(ok that was totally not valid, but it's true :-P)

It's going to be cosmetic only at first, although there will [disclaimer: I know it's possible now, but I don't know that we've decided to do it for 3.3.3] be multiple "stores" at each station depending on which docking bay you go to, etc.

I don't know that any decision has been reached on user impact, but pretty much none at first. The arrangement of parts and the colors are fully configurable, and user-defined parts of stations are definitely possible in the future.

My sources say that one will go into 9 at first, but I don't know beyond that.

Sweet... Could one of the stores be a paint job place? That'd be awesome...

yes, please implement paint-job stuff, my guild is in full swing and we need the paint job for ID

We need a stock shop, for stock ship hulls, then several mod shops.
Like say, paint shop, engine shop, weapon shop, etc.
Stock ships would come with free engine and batt, and weapon changes on ship.

The weapon mod shop would have 'specialized' weapons, expensive but very good for the job they were made for. Like a rail gun tweaked so it consumes more energy but does alot more damage. 'Specialized' weapons should be only one per ship so you don't get tri tweaked rail guns.

I wanna be able to sell my old used ships to newbies for a discount. :-)

Yeah! That'd be awesome! You could sell crappy ones for less than the stock ones, and good ones for more! *drools*

Heh, kind of like the Arada in EV Override. There were like 15 variations of that thing.

Or the pirate variants... Or the rebel variants... :P I was thinking of the used ships in EVN...

Hehe, it would be neat to allow guild bases to be built into stations. So in the Vendetta universe you'd start of with one tiny capsule as the station, and as players begin to dock into it, they can build a module of their own with their guild logo/colors. And maybe that would be the requirement for allowing players to set their home at that station.

Of course there could also be public stations where everyone can set their home, but they wouldn't have guild module building capabilities. But ultimately I think it would be neat to allow the population to sort of mold the design of the modular station, via the number of players docking into it and making a new module for their own guild. Can we say huge city stations? Woot!

What would be even coler - albeit almost impossible - would be to only place stations in home sectors. Then leave the others empty. Make a "colony Ship" that can be flown to a sector without a station and turned into one (Then you can fly away from the station in a bus - what's left over after the station is built). This would be cool, because pirates could set up a station, or a nation could (Itani trying to take over 7 and 8, for example.) Also, it would allow the station to be built anywhere in the sector. PLUS once mining is put in, it provides the perfect mechanism for mining - Mining ships that build small stations on the asteroids.

It's a BIG step, but not THAT hard to do. Would sure be cool too.

hm hm.
but then, those stations that are placed in sectors would have to be either boardable or destroyable (with the right amount of combined effort), so that real wars about territory could take place.

Of course. Destroyable would be easy, just make them immune to FF so that they can't be rammed by accident.

I like the idea of restrictions placed upon homing. Even if it's just renting a docking pad from the port controller's office, a recurring fee should be attached to homing anywhere other than a sector of your nation.

I like that idea. Destroyable, easily creatable stations. However, make them really expensive and only available after many missions created, and only with a good economy. As it is now, with everyone's 10bil, there'd be 400 stations in sector 7, each of them armed with 100 Defense Ships. Make it something that only a nation can do.

PS: Did I mention that these stations should have rets and defense ships available?

well, if fees are in place in other places besides your nation, you should be able to expand your nation, into other sectors, by taking over the sector station. There would be completly neutral sectors, but then there would be 'fronts' that can have a nation outpost station/friggate in these sectors. These sectors would be key to controlling some trade routes that are most of the time naturally high. Having traders of other nations paying a fee to pass. hmm? sounds like a cool idea to me, its just being able to do it.

also, something kinda on/off topic: what if in some stations you could go into FPM, and walk around to the differnt stores? have AI station police so people dont get into fights, and if they do, the police could arrest or fine them... But you would have certain goods in parts of the station... yeah... that sounds cool.

How would you hold on to a sector though? People would just keep coming back. The battles would get really old really fast. We need some way to establish ownership and see to it that getting that ownership will be more than just a battle of endurance.

"what if in some stations you could go into FPM, and walk around to the differnt stores? have AI station police so people dont get into fights, and if they do, the police could arrest or fine them... But you would have certain goods in parts of the station... yeah... that sounds cool."

That's been brought up and shot down so many times I can't even remember, but it is an awsome, awsome idea, it's just not feasable for a company the size of Guild.