These are some things that I've been thinking about for a fairly long time. Many aspects of it have been discussed before, but I feel the urge to suggest it anyways.

Is it just me, or do all the ships seem to be a bit too funcionally similar? I'm not saying that the ship setups as they are aren't fun to play around with, but there's a lot of uniqueness missing.

Right now, a ship's system is incredibly simple. Battery port, large port(s), and small port(s). All ships have only one battery port, and anywhere from one small port to three small and two large ports. In any of these ports, you can place pretty much whatever the heck you want in one, as long as it corresponds large or small. All battery ports on all ships are identical.

Well, I could go on and on about what I think is wrong with this, but I'll spare you all the reading. So instead, I'll just start with my suggestions.

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What if all the ports on the ships became much more specialized? Instead of just small/large ports, we had mine ports, small laser ports, missile/rocket ports, large laser ports, turret ports, mining beam ports, bomb ports, so on and so forth. So something like the cent would only be able to have small lasers, whereas the vulture would have room on for missiles/rockets as well as lasers. Perhaps certain variants of the cent would be able to carry a payload. A ship like the Behemoth would retain its ability to lay mines, whereas the warthog would not have that capability.

Larger ships would gain abilities that smaller ships do not have, such as either multiple battery ports, or the ability to carry heavier/larger batteries than the fighters have. I think a larger ship would have a much more potent energy system. Its a bit silly that a Ragnarok would have the same energy capacity as a Centurion.

Larger ships would be able to carry REAL turreted weapons - such as the Wraith. And they would be able to carry different types of turreted weapons. A Behemoth would have a much more formidable turret system than say, a Hornet.
[See: Rear Defense Turrets- http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/1001 ]

Another thing I would like to see: actual mining ships. Watching a Centaur or Ragnarok mine is a bit out of place. Make something that has mineral intakes on the front end of it. Something that looks like its actually mining. I would go so far as to say take away the ability of all the current ships to mine, and let only the very specific mining ships mine (with a few exceptions, of course).

Also, generally speaking - the larger the ship, the more ammo it should be able to carry. The Rag should be armed to the teeth with missiles and junk.

This is just a very rough mockup of some new ship system suggestions, but the idea is the same - make the abilities of the ships less general. This would obviously take some time to balance everything out, but it would totally be worth it. The ships are just too blasted simple right now.

Yes.

Similar thread: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/10585

Edit: First step, I think, would be re-implementing engines.

Edit2: In my post in that topic, it was before the moth got nerfed. Ignore that.

Nice - you and I think alike, Harry Seldon.

I'm not so sure about the engines - maybe some addons that would mess around with the ship's engine, but I think a ship's engine should remain its own (they would, of course differ between makes).

I was thinking, how the game is now - changes like these really wouldn't be all that drastic. The sooner they're added, the better, because the ships are pretty good how they are. There would, of course, need to be some tweaking as far as mines/missiles/rockets/turrets go...

I was thinking something like this:

Centurion - Primarily a very quick but fragile small laser fighter. It would have a couple of makes that allow it to carry a small payload (2-4 rockets, maybe). Battery system would remain unchanged. Sold more towards Itani space.

Vulture - A beefed up version of the Cent - all makes can carry a payload of at least 6 rockets. More advanced makes carrying up to around 10 rockets, maybe. Battery system would remain unchanged. Sold more towards Serco space.

Warthog - Not too many changes here. It would generally be a heavy fighter - capable of carrying heavier weapons as well as lighter ones - large rockets and gattling cannons, but no mines or turrets. A nice flexible craft - sold at most stations.

Wraith - Also not too many changes, except the ability to carry real turrets. Maybe a couple of light ones that auto-fire at any nearby hostile vessel. Sold more towards Itani space.

Hornet - Basically a heavy fighter. Lots of forward-firing weapons, but nothing really heavy. Maybe a light turret on the rear in some models.

Centaur - Almost no forward-firing weapons. Maybe some light rockets and lasers, but would have a few real turrets. Basically a moderately defended trading craft capable of discouraging chasers. Could lay mines. Heavier makes would have two battery ports (or a large battery port). A great ship to make trade runs without outside help. Sold at most stations.

Behemoth - Basically no forward firing. Would hold one or two heavy turrets. Capable of laying a lot of mines (more mines = less cargo space) Very slow - designed to be flown in a convoy with defenders. Large battery system. Sold at most stations.

Marauder - Courier ship. Very fast, no heavy weapons - maybe one or two light turrets on some makes, but generally used for really quick trips to do some oddjobs around the universe. Light armor. Some makes would be more designed for combat, capable of some heavier energy weapons and medium rockets. Sold around UIT space.

Valkyrie - Similar to the cent, only bigger, a bit less maneuverable, faster turbo, and capable of carrying somewhat heavier lasers and a bigger payload. One variant would be an _extremely_ fast scout ship with no offensive/defensive capabilities (or maybe one laser).

Prometheus - A mini cap-ship. Slower than it currently is, more armor, but setup with a lot of mean, nasty turrets and some heavy payloads. This baby can hold all kinds of weapons, but its a big target. Has more battery slots (or heavier batteries). Lighter models are designed for solo combat, but heavier ones should probably bring along friends.

Ragnarok - Lots of heavy energy weapons up front and lots of medium/heavy rockets. Maybe a couple light turrets for defense, but this ship is designed as a bomber. Maybe the only ship currently in-game capable of holding something like the Avalon. Not generally a solo ship - needs to be defended by light fighters. Large battery capacity.

Raptor - Sort-of a UIT-space version of the Valkyrie. Less armed, but more maneuverable. Popular with the pirates... :)

Atlas - I'm not so sure about this one. Maybe something similar to the Wraith, but sold more around UIT / Serco space...? Probably a tad bit slower and better armored than the Wraith.

••Certain makes of the Wraith, Centaur, and maybe even the Behemoth would be capable of mining.

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Those are just some of the things I had in mind.

You could even go so far as to have weapons specific to a certain ship. Some kind of advanced tracking missile on the valk - and some special kind of beam or turret on the prom. Optional, of course - or made available through some kind of mission or special act (think CtC).

... Woah. Nice.

I heartily agree with the above, with the possible exceptions of making the Prom even more beefy and the last sentence about ship-specific weapons.

Not at all. I think the Prometheus is actually one of the ships that would fit in the role of a corvette, with the alterations Doukutsu suggested, also the implied size increase.

Yeah. I like Doukutsu's ideas. especially the one about the Prometheus - make it larger - more "corvette"-like, and less maneuverable with more armor. It will need defenders to avoid death by seekers.

I'd like the ideas even better if we could customize the engines & weapons & stuff thru a crafting interface, but, walk before run, I get it.

Actually, the Prometheus looks better as a fighter than a corvette. It would need to be completely remodeled because it doesn't have detail in the right places to be a large ship.

/me hopes this doesn't turn into a prom thread. I agree CrippledPidgeon. There would actually have to be some remodeling done on a lot of these ships to fit the description.

But, in accordance with http://www.vendetta-online.com/h/universe_ships.html , I really feel that the make of the ship that you buy, as well as the weapons you put on it would effect the outward appearance of the ship. Buying a some turrets would have those turrets show up on certain places on your ship... missile/rocket silos would appear... mineral collection ports, etc.

Redoing the ship ports could take a lot of work, but I really think the devs should make something like this a priority. Shape has stated this before, and I agree with him: you come out with a new, better weapon or ship - everyone is excited for a while, then everybody buys it, then it gets old and everybody goes back to what they were doing before.

It kinda hurts to say it, but a lot of missions - like the pirating mission are fun for exactly one time. If you can make the everyday tasks more enjoyable, that is what will keep people playing. I think a slightly more tactical style of gameplay is one step towards that. Some Hive Hunt missions would require you to use a bomber instead of the usual light fighter. Some trading missions would be almost impossible without a fast courier ship, etc.

EDIT - as an added bonus, micro-balancing would be less of an issue, since each ship's role is not the same. You would be balancing the ability of that ship to fulfill its function rather than 1v1 capabilities.

first off i don't share Doukutsu's view of the roles of a number of ships. but i don't think that's as inportant as the issue of whether ships should be more specialised or more modular.

now i'm all for clear roles for different ships, but to be perfectly honest i don't see the added port types adding anything to the game. i'd rather see some ship varients with built in sytems. for example a missile vult, may come with 1 S port, and a built in Gemini missile launcher that has 4 extera missiles and is 50kg lighter than one put on a normal vult.

the idea is rather than make every ship be pidenholed into a specific role, keep the basic "stock" varients, and then add advanced variants which gain benefits from the fact that they are specialised.

also because the specialised variants have static inpruvments they will be easier to balance.

and finaly the only fighter sized ships that should have any actual turets at all are the moth (if it sacraficed some cargo space to get it) and the prom.