An Ning

Boost is overused and honestly seems to make fights longer and more irritating, as enemies just boost constantly in combat. It is overused out of combat as well.. unless I am low on energy, I am almost never relying on normal engine power to get around, I'm usually boosting. What I suggest is 2 parts: the creation of an "overheat" function for boosters so that they are used more sparingly, and the implementation of an "overdrive" engine function that drains power from shields (and weapons?) in exchange for a dramatic speed increase -this would be what ships use for transit between stations when not fighting, to escape a fight, as well as to charge the jump drive (meaning you can't jump while using it, you have to slow down). This would create a system for increasing the speed of a ship in transit (while granting a "penalty" of not being able to jump away and being more vulnerable due to lack of shields), enabling systems to be a bit more expansive, with stations further apart (and pirate raids able to take place in the expanse between stations). It would also slow ship movement in combat down a bit, making combat itself "more boom and less zoom", to make the quote.

Bases are a pain in the neck to destroy even in the early game because they are so much more powerful in shield and hull compared to ships. While it's understandable, as they are stationary, large, and expensive, it makes wiping out an enemy faction tedious, time consuming, and somewhat boring (especially as destroying a station doesn't impact the faction into begging for ceasefire... if it did, then that would be different). I suggest the creation of "siege weapon" systems -large 3-6 slot weapons with devastating damage, long reload, no seeking/tracking, and no movement (only aimed down a ship's length). Such weapons would make attacking a faction's stations more efficient while being nearly impossible to use in combat against ships and requiring ships designed around handling their weight and recoil as a balance. ...not to mention... the explosions from them would just be fun -especially in asteroid fields

So I raided an enemy system... as I did, an NPC faction I had very good relations with also attacked. All but one of their ships was destroyed -the last one being severely damaged. Then, while we started hitting their station, it started attacking the exact same station -zipping around, darting in and out... and right in front of all my ships' guns... and getting itself blown up... and reducing my level with that faction by HALF. needless to say... this was incredibly annoying... would have been nice to have some way of requesting they depart, or attack a different target in order to avoid that result. Edit: That faction sent in another wave of ships and again went after the station we were attacking... now I'm at war with what was once a friendly faction....this sort of device is SORELY needed...

Allow me to preface by saying I enjoy the combat in the game. Now with that out of the way, there have been a number of times that I have jumped away from combat having taken massive amounts of damage (same for enemy ships, too), and I can't help thinking: "Man it's fortunate you can't take damage to systems"....but that... actually sounds kinda cool, in a way... The actual suggestion: System damage in combat Say there was a chat box on the lower right for crew updates... and in combat, when your ship takes hull damage, there is a chance for a system -like main thrusters, maneuvering thrusters, targeting, weapons, navigation - to go offline for 3 seconds to multiple minutes depending on how heavy the damage is and how much actual armor your craft has in its build (with ships that have no armor or light armor-to-volume ratio in the design being impacted more heavily than ships with a lot of armor-to-volume-ratio in the design). I think it would be incredibly interesting to be in a fight and see "Our engines took damage! Thrusters at 50%!", or, "That blast knocked out navigation! We need 60 seconds to get our jump drives back online!". Similarly, I'd be just elated to see, "Captain! Weapons reports we knocked out their engines! They're a sitting duck!" Suggestion second part: Crew Deaths in combat In a similar vein, I'd like to see crew able to die when the hull takes damage. I'd like my ship to limp into a system heavily damaged and running on a skeleton crew, having to take on new recruits. Something that makes taking that earlier damage meaningful, even in a small way. The notification of, "Hull breach! We just lost some crewmen!", or "That blast took out some of our gunners!", or even, "Captain, we're losing too many people, get us out of here!", would add just that much more to combat. Suggestion part 3: Option to Surrender I'd also like some way of trying to admit defeat in a fight (against human ships, of course). A way of broadcasting a surrender signal that might be accepted if you pay them off with money/cargo, might result in you being sent to the nearest system with your crew but no ship, or might result in a double-cross where they take your money and kill you anyways. I just think even being able to have that option would add more to the flavor of the game itself: Not all fights are to the death, you can try to run, or surrender to save a good ship and crew -and the NPC ships can do the same. Anyways.. those are my suggestions.

The problem: Military missions -for me- are fun... but problematic. 1) You will be attacked by the enemy faction in the mission. This is expected, BUT 1a) Any act against the enemy ships drops your relations -despite them attacking you as default 1b) NOT attacking them can still get your ship destroyed, and even if you survive it, you fail the mission and get no reward 1c) Completing the mission will result in a declaration of war from the faction 2) The rewards for the mission are far outweighed by the costs 2a) Your ships and stations may be attacked by the enemy faction 2b) Any suing for peace will cost several fold what you gained form the mission reward 2c) The faction you assisted does not increase beyond "excellent" relations nor offer you any greater compensation for the war in which you are now part 2d) The faction you assisted may cease hostilities with the faction you are now at war with, without negotiating anything on your behalf The suggestion: add in a way for the player to finish the mission successfully without impacting relations to the enemy faction. The easiest way is to add the following to the mission text: "If you accept this mission, as soon as your ship(s) enter the system, our ships will activate a powerful jamming device to prevent any transmissions from exiting the system.. As long as one of our ships survives, all of theirs are destroyed, and you finish within the time frame, the enemy faction will never know of your involvement" Then, add in a code to the mission for "is number of friendly ships>0, y/n?", and "is number of enemy ships <1, y/n?" such that if both are "yes" when the mission is concluded, you complete the mission clandestinely with no faction relation penalty, and if either is "no", you take full penalty for destroying the faction's ships.

As finding weapons (be it through combat or through weapons sellers) is completely random, I'd like to be able to bring items to weapon factories and ask them to make specific types of weapons -and let THOSE have randomized stats. I know we can already bring items to factories and make weapons we have blueprints for.. but that requires that we have found the item we want already.

I didn't even know that a despawn timer had been made for dropped turrets and upgrades, so I let them sit as a marker for where I defeated enemies (as a way to find the wrecks for salvaging) and just had a bunch of rare and exceptional tier items vanish because I took too long getting to them. This wasn't an exceedingly long time... this was less than 5 minutes -you can have fights that last significantly longer than that... and items that were hard-fought-for and hard-won disappearing before you reach them is just annoying. While I can appreciate having something "clean up" the active sectors, I really think that it would be better for the game to just pack all loose items within a certain area into a container of some sort instead of just having them vanish.

Not the first time I have gotten a mission to a sector with no gates ("pirate base" section of the "missing freighter" mission set) that is in the middle of a tear in space and thus completely inaccessible... but this time did make me wonder why, even after all the updates, the game still doesn't check to make sure the area for a mission is accessible to the player. I really think this should be something the game does before making and handing out the coordinates for a mission

Tired of getting potatoes as cargo to "disguise myself as a freighter". I'm tired of dumping the cargo that is meant to be a "bonus" because it's too difficult finding a place that buys it (some bonus... it's like getting a bag of recyclables as a tip -only you have to sort them then find a place that recycles them to get the money for it) Give me some believable cargo -even if it's a small amount of it- not something that can only be sold to one type of station and only 2/3 of which ACTUALLY BUY IT ...either that, or let me launch them at enemies by jettisoning them out torpedo tubes for a laugh, at least...

Cloning pods would be one way...

I think it would be interesting to see the amount of a ship's crew drop from damage in combat (like hp below 70% or so, based on difficulty) -particularly from explosion weapons like missiles and canons (as they would be the ones to damage internal compartments when compared to chainguns or plasma guns). I think it would be fun to have to worry about losing and replacing crew outside of boarding actions and complete losses of the ship.

Yet another one: You are a new recruit into a fledgling faction that is completely obliterated save for you and your tutorial mentor -who has decided simply to try to survive in the unforgiving galaxy, but will help you to make your own decision, be it to become a wandering adventurer, or to rebuild the faction and seek vengeance/galactic domination. Lots of options.

and that would make another use for shipyards/repair yards (or even potentially scrapyards)... all of which I would enjoy because a lot of these stations seem to be there to be there, more than anything

I'd like to see some different starts and stories. Sure, they all end up doing the same thing, but I'd like some differing perspectives, such as a pirate start -you start off having just started as a pirate under your mentor, who leads you through how to build and upgrade, how to raid and smuggle, and eventually how to track down a way to stop the Xsostan because they are a nuisance to everyone. It would just add a bit of variance and I think it would be fun to see things like this.

I'd like to suggest a few things. 1) Ships unable to construct new blocks on themselves without a "construction bay", which is limited in items it can add to a ship based on its quality. 2) As this would mean the inability to replace critical components without this item, I would suggest a "distress beacon" for ships to call a craft that either acts as a mobile shipyard (for a higher price), or docks with your ship and tows it to a shipyard (also for a price) 3) I would also like to see items built on ships outside of shipyards take time to appear and come into effect (based on the size of the crew and the size of the item), rather than being instantly created