What if comets containing a new rare ore could pass through systems? It would make sense to make this event very rare, and you could just mine it like an asteroid. It be kinda cool to see a large comet passing through empty sectors.

Another idea... how about a supernova that goes off in the background occasionally? For about half an hour you could see a cool giant flash. If the jump looks cool, supernovae would look awesome.

Both of these would need time incorporated into the program. Time alone would be interesting for the game.

yes.

I like it, and suspect the Devs have already similar ideas, but for the moment eye-candy is being piled up at the back of the design queue.

Beyond eye candy (not sure if adding in a moving roid is easy or not. They spin already, but that may be different and then there's the whole "have to jump to leave a sector thing"...), i think a new ore (crafting incoming!) with greater value and much much fewer incidences of existance... would be great.

I like the comet idea. In other areas, we've always wanted a more diverse range of realistic astronomical phenomena. A red giant that takes up half your view, locations on the outer rim or upper plane of the galaxy showing different star distributions, etc. Haven't had the time though.

I remember the first thread on Ion Storms... way back before they even existed ingame :D Let me find it... ah. http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/1265?page=1

I'm annotating out of context bits for post-alpha players and bumping it now. :)

EDIT: ack. Wrong thread :P I'll find the right one and link it.

EDIT²: AHA! http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/1575 Found it!