Forums » Suggestions
Initial Suggestions
First off, let me say that I have been really enjoying VO and the community here. I've been playing for about a week. I do have some long-winded suggestions. Apologies in advance. Don't take these suggestions as complaints, but rather me trying to give back to the game and help it to live to it's full potential (which I think is huge).
VO could borrow a couple of cool things from Freespace 2. In that game, the ships have shields. I know this has been brought up a million times but I think it'd be a really good idea. They would recharge slowly (say 1% every 5-15 seconds depending on the type of shields) so they wouldn't affect pvp that much. In the course of a fight, your shields wouldn't recharge significantly. Armor would have to be made less effective so all the ships wouldn't be nearly indestructible or anything.
I really like the idea of breaking the shields into 4 zones. If someone shot you from behind, only your aft shields would diminish. The arrow keys on the keyboard would strengthen front, aft, left, and right shields as necessary. This is useful if making a frontal attack. You can divert all power to the forward shields and they'd be more effective, or if you were retreating you could divert power to the aft shields. Then there would be one key that equalizes them.
Freespace also allows you to divert power to different main systems; engines, weapons, and shields. This is done using the 6 keys above the arrows on the keyboard. It's just very useful and cool in a combat situation, borrowing power from weapons in a retreat, etc... It gives you some extra control and adds an extra dynamic to combat.
I also think the game would really benefit from allowing ownership of bases of some sort. I'm sure this has been mentioned before but I really think it would create a goal for players and enhance the fun of the game. Maybe not bases for individual players, but there are more than enough sectors for guilds to perhaps create customizable stations. Other guilds could attack these stations and capture them for themselves or simply destroy them. You could create defense bots or station defense systems to help in the defense of your station. This would obviously be completely separate from the existing stations which would remain static and indestructible. These guild bases could participate in commerce and could have different inventories just like normal stations, only customizable. This is a big suggestion and I know it'd be a huge programming project, but I really think it'd be worth it.
This base system would give the game a sense of purpose and direction; the defense and maintaining of an important multiplayer station that you are a vital part of. Without you logging on, your base could be captured or destroyed. It would bring the game to a different level and help to get rid of the work-in-progress feel VO seems to still have. Other suggestions in the suggestions forum sticky that I like are: board ships in flight, countermeasures, direction indicator, hourly pricing, simultaneous missions, planet landings, hiding from radar behind objects. There are a lot of great ideas in this forum that'd help to really make VO feel more finished. I think the idea of base stations is the biggest and alone would serve that purpose.
VO could borrow a couple of cool things from Freespace 2. In that game, the ships have shields. I know this has been brought up a million times but I think it'd be a really good idea. They would recharge slowly (say 1% every 5-15 seconds depending on the type of shields) so they wouldn't affect pvp that much. In the course of a fight, your shields wouldn't recharge significantly. Armor would have to be made less effective so all the ships wouldn't be nearly indestructible or anything.
I really like the idea of breaking the shields into 4 zones. If someone shot you from behind, only your aft shields would diminish. The arrow keys on the keyboard would strengthen front, aft, left, and right shields as necessary. This is useful if making a frontal attack. You can divert all power to the forward shields and they'd be more effective, or if you were retreating you could divert power to the aft shields. Then there would be one key that equalizes them.
Freespace also allows you to divert power to different main systems; engines, weapons, and shields. This is done using the 6 keys above the arrows on the keyboard. It's just very useful and cool in a combat situation, borrowing power from weapons in a retreat, etc... It gives you some extra control and adds an extra dynamic to combat.
I also think the game would really benefit from allowing ownership of bases of some sort. I'm sure this has been mentioned before but I really think it would create a goal for players and enhance the fun of the game. Maybe not bases for individual players, but there are more than enough sectors for guilds to perhaps create customizable stations. Other guilds could attack these stations and capture them for themselves or simply destroy them. You could create defense bots or station defense systems to help in the defense of your station. This would obviously be completely separate from the existing stations which would remain static and indestructible. These guild bases could participate in commerce and could have different inventories just like normal stations, only customizable. This is a big suggestion and I know it'd be a huge programming project, but I really think it'd be worth it.
This base system would give the game a sense of purpose and direction; the defense and maintaining of an important multiplayer station that you are a vital part of. Without you logging on, your base could be captured or destroyed. It would bring the game to a different level and help to get rid of the work-in-progress feel VO seems to still have. Other suggestions in the suggestions forum sticky that I like are: board ships in flight, countermeasures, direction indicator, hourly pricing, simultaneous missions, planet landings, hiding from radar behind objects. There are a lot of great ideas in this forum that'd help to really make VO feel more finished. I think the idea of base stations is the biggest and alone would serve that purpose.
You are right when you say ALL of these have been discussed before, and at great length, I might add. Use the search engine to find the proper threads, read them all, and post your ideas there, if you consider it proper.
Welcome to the game, glad you're enjoying it :). We're working towards player-owned stations, along with capital ships and other content, but there's still a number of hurdles before we can do that (or, at least, do it properly).
The shields thing has been discussed a lot.. I understand the merits of the idea, I played Tie Fighter and such as much as the rest (LucasArts X-Wing is the earliest use of the shields thing that I can recall.. I can't remember if Wing Commander had that). But, for the moment, we won't be going in that direction. We will, however, be evaluating a somewhat different system in the not-too-distant future, the details of which will be posted on here when they're more fully defined.
The shields thing has been discussed a lot.. I understand the merits of the idea, I played Tie Fighter and such as much as the rest (LucasArts X-Wing is the earliest use of the shields thing that I can recall.. I can't remember if Wing Commander had that). But, for the moment, we won't be going in that direction. We will, however, be evaluating a somewhat different system in the not-too-distant future, the details of which will be posted on here when they're more fully defined.
The shield option thingy is certainly something I would Cheer up to. Together with additional plating (Armor). It would benefit lower level players in order to get an even chance at least against a better oponent.
For Incarnate, u should really take a look at the old Privateer from the Wing Commander series, its up for grabs on the net these days (legal). Just to give you guyz an idea, heck, Microsoft took the whole game, redid it and called it Freelancer (even the caracter looks alike).
http://www.gamershell.com/download_8536.shtml
Its privateer for ye (sorry, cant do that link behind a text thingy).
For Incarnate, u should really take a look at the old Privateer from the Wing Commander series, its up for grabs on the net these days (legal). Just to give you guyz an idea, heck, Microsoft took the whole game, redid it and called it Freelancer (even the caracter looks alike).
http://www.gamershell.com/download_8536.shtml
Its privateer for ye (sorry, cant do that link behind a text thingy).