Forums » Suggestions
I think the whole game needs a huge boost in the general "customisation" direction. (I've just cancelled my subscription purely for the lack of customisation that currently exists, along with the usual lack of time - great game that's headed in a reasonable direction, no complaints from me about that - and I'll certainly pick it up in a year or two's time just to see where it's at - but right now I have other fish etc..). I mean, what have I got? Ship. Ship Mk II. Ship Mk III. Ship Mk IV. Where does that end? Ship Mk XXDCXVIIX?
I say ditch the entire concept of Ship MkI's and II's, take out all the different "well, the MkI is just shitty, the MkII is just as shitty but has more armour and the MkIII - Well, why would you want to use anything else?" and replace them with armour upgrades (which add mass and slow you down accordingly), different engines, spoilers, computer chips, body kits... the whole bit. At the moment I feel like I'm "playing in someone elses ship". I'm not buying my own ship and saying "Now Scotty, can you tweak the engines to give me a bit more thrust? I know there'll be a drop in overall speed but I'm willing to pay that price" - in a sense crafting my very own "Millenium Falcon" - I'm instead being forced to buy a ship which I seemingly can't do anything with. At all. Beyond pick the weapons.
It's not going to make the game too complex for a number of reasons. Firstly, your base ships are still going to be "reasonable" in and of themselves (or should be balanced with a leaning that way) and still adequately able to carry out the tasks they were primarily designed for. Secondly, the community is always going to be on hand to offer a myriad of suggestions for "what works best". Join a clan and I'm sure they'll gladly hand over their plans for "the best quick-attack fighter" or "the best manouverable fighter". Thirdly, if someone wants to take a ship designed for trading and turn it into a bomber, then who cares?
It's no different to people taking a Hyundai and adding a full body kit and spoilers. I mean, on one hand, it's still a Hyundai. On the other, it's their Hyundai and they can do with it what they wish (even if the end result does look completely daft). By point one above, your base Hyundai is still going to be a capable run-about with infiniboost. Point two means that if someone finds out the best way to sup-up the Hyundai to make it a decent fighter, you'll hear about it. Point three means hey, if they turn the Hyundai scout ship into a capable fighter, good luck to 'em I say.
.. and finally, the Lambourghini is still going to completely PWN your stupid little Hyundai no matter how many spoilers and roof vents you put on the damn thing. Your tricked out version might give the Lamb a run for its money - certainly if the Lamb is in the hands of an incompetent pilot - but in the hands of equal pilots, you're screwed.
There are two downsides to all this customisation though.
1) One would presume the current tactic of certain upgrades at certain stations would be kept. That'd mean that to get the best "widget", you might have to venture into Serco territory. Maybe the Itani have the best armour upgrades? Maybe the independents have the best engines? To get the best of everything, you'd need to do some pretty crafty faction management. That means the races become more diverse. It also means you could reasonably expect that the Itani would go for high armour but not very manouverable ships. The Serco might have the best... umm... something else and the independents would just be able to outrun everyone in their weak ships. But it wouldn't prevent someone from getting everything if they felt so inclined... or really wanted that extra edge.
2) The shopping excursion means death becomes a real pain. Think about it. You spend three hours shopping just to buy the right bits and pieces for your ship, going back and forth between stations all across the galaxy... only to be blown to bits a few minutes later (or even blown up while you're on your excursion). It ultimately means that the customised ships are going to be owned by the good fighters who can keep them alive and most of us are going to be happy cruising around in the "standard" versions. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing personally but there might be some here who are against that.
At the moment, the game just lacks that "feeling of ownership" for me. I'm not in "my" ship that I've spent time and money customising. I'm just in "a" ship which if I get killed, hey, I can just buy it back again at the nearest barracks station.
There's a great (and free) online game called TDZK ( http://www.tdzk.net ) which takes customisation to a whole new level. It's got the complex bits for those who really enjoy that sort of thing but even if you aren't that into custom desiging, you can ignore most of that and build a reasonable ship regardless. Traders are just a matter of buying as many cargo holds (for hauling more cargo) and engines (for speed) as you can. Fighters are hideously complex though if you don't have a guild / clan / mentor to give you a hand. Even then, posting in their forum usually gets you some great advice. It's also got EMP, shields, port/station raiding and over 100 weapons to pick and choose from. It's not twitch-based (instead relying on player levels and dice-rolls) and while I think it's maybe a bit too complex, it's certainly got a lot of ideas to offer.
I say ditch the entire concept of Ship MkI's and II's, take out all the different "well, the MkI is just shitty, the MkII is just as shitty but has more armour and the MkIII - Well, why would you want to use anything else?" and replace them with armour upgrades (which add mass and slow you down accordingly), different engines, spoilers, computer chips, body kits... the whole bit. At the moment I feel like I'm "playing in someone elses ship". I'm not buying my own ship and saying "Now Scotty, can you tweak the engines to give me a bit more thrust? I know there'll be a drop in overall speed but I'm willing to pay that price" - in a sense crafting my very own "Millenium Falcon" - I'm instead being forced to buy a ship which I seemingly can't do anything with. At all. Beyond pick the weapons.
It's not going to make the game too complex for a number of reasons. Firstly, your base ships are still going to be "reasonable" in and of themselves (or should be balanced with a leaning that way) and still adequately able to carry out the tasks they were primarily designed for. Secondly, the community is always going to be on hand to offer a myriad of suggestions for "what works best". Join a clan and I'm sure they'll gladly hand over their plans for "the best quick-attack fighter" or "the best manouverable fighter". Thirdly, if someone wants to take a ship designed for trading and turn it into a bomber, then who cares?
It's no different to people taking a Hyundai and adding a full body kit and spoilers. I mean, on one hand, it's still a Hyundai. On the other, it's their Hyundai and they can do with it what they wish (even if the end result does look completely daft). By point one above, your base Hyundai is still going to be a capable run-about with infiniboost. Point two means that if someone finds out the best way to sup-up the Hyundai to make it a decent fighter, you'll hear about it. Point three means hey, if they turn the Hyundai scout ship into a capable fighter, good luck to 'em I say.
.. and finally, the Lambourghini is still going to completely PWN your stupid little Hyundai no matter how many spoilers and roof vents you put on the damn thing. Your tricked out version might give the Lamb a run for its money - certainly if the Lamb is in the hands of an incompetent pilot - but in the hands of equal pilots, you're screwed.
There are two downsides to all this customisation though.
1) One would presume the current tactic of certain upgrades at certain stations would be kept. That'd mean that to get the best "widget", you might have to venture into Serco territory. Maybe the Itani have the best armour upgrades? Maybe the independents have the best engines? To get the best of everything, you'd need to do some pretty crafty faction management. That means the races become more diverse. It also means you could reasonably expect that the Itani would go for high armour but not very manouverable ships. The Serco might have the best... umm... something else and the independents would just be able to outrun everyone in their weak ships. But it wouldn't prevent someone from getting everything if they felt so inclined... or really wanted that extra edge.
2) The shopping excursion means death becomes a real pain. Think about it. You spend three hours shopping just to buy the right bits and pieces for your ship, going back and forth between stations all across the galaxy... only to be blown to bits a few minutes later (or even blown up while you're on your excursion). It ultimately means that the customised ships are going to be owned by the good fighters who can keep them alive and most of us are going to be happy cruising around in the "standard" versions. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing personally but there might be some here who are against that.
At the moment, the game just lacks that "feeling of ownership" for me. I'm not in "my" ship that I've spent time and money customising. I'm just in "a" ship which if I get killed, hey, I can just buy it back again at the nearest barracks station.
There's a great (and free) online game called TDZK ( http://www.tdzk.net ) which takes customisation to a whole new level. It's got the complex bits for those who really enjoy that sort of thing but even if you aren't that into custom desiging, you can ignore most of that and build a reasonable ship regardless. Traders are just a matter of buying as many cargo holds (for hauling more cargo) and engines (for speed) as you can. Fighters are hideously complex though if you don't have a guild / clan / mentor to give you a hand. Even then, posting in their forum usually gets you some great advice. It's also got EMP, shields, port/station raiding and over 100 weapons to pick and choose from. It's not twitch-based (instead relying on player levels and dice-rolls) and while I think it's maybe a bit too complex, it's certainly got a lot of ideas to offer.
ok, here is the thing. while custamization is good, having 3 different engins with 3 dracticly different operational modes is too much.
the difference between engins would be too grate and honestly the differences boarder on too extreem for ingame justification. After all how exactly would a ship fly in space in the way that a modern fighter jet does? And yes i realize other games have starships operate that way, but they don't also have ships operate in the enerta based way that VO does. What i'm saying is you can't have it both ways. In VO ships have enerta and operate reasonably similarly to the way an actual spacecraft would, so to have some ships operate like jety planes would defy that aspect of the setting.
also there is the issue of the diferent engins interacting with one another. How exactly is a jet-like ship supposed to engage a helecopter-like ship. The way they move is so different that cross engin engagment would either be extreemly difficult or strongly favor one of the engins over the others. And that is a balance issue.
the difference between engins would be too grate and honestly the differences boarder on too extreem for ingame justification. After all how exactly would a ship fly in space in the way that a modern fighter jet does? And yes i realize other games have starships operate that way, but they don't also have ships operate in the enerta based way that VO does. What i'm saying is you can't have it both ways. In VO ships have enerta and operate reasonably similarly to the way an actual spacecraft would, so to have some ships operate like jety planes would defy that aspect of the setting.
also there is the issue of the diferent engins interacting with one another. How exactly is a jet-like ship supposed to engage a helecopter-like ship. The way they move is so different that cross engin engagment would either be extreemly difficult or strongly favor one of the engins over the others. And that is a balance issue.