An Ning

Pirate space at the moment is kinda... lame... it's a random sector with a station and at most a few sectors around it that are "controlled" by the faction -but usually have nothing else. I suggest pirate sectors get revamped to be large areas consisting anywhere between a dozen and few hundred sectors (and stations) in size (smaller sections found inside of faction areas and larger swaths in "unclaimed" areas -like the gap between the titanium and naonite regions). This would enable things like the "rescue slaves" missions and the like to be conducted in "pirate territory" (rather than some random sector that is changed to be pirate territory), and could have the further change of sometimes rescuing people for these missions from convoys or differing size and ability, rather than from stations every time (which gets sort of bland after a while).

Another multi-segmented suggestion set. Suggestion 1: Bounty Hunting An additional capability of scanners (borrowed from Elite), scanners allow you to see if a ship/crew have a bounty. Taking them out allows you to collect the bounty from stations of the faction offering the bounty (requires a bounty hunting license from the faction whose territory you are in) Suggestion 2: Station Gossip When docked at a station, players are given a "rumors and gossip" option where the player may spend a small amount of money to loosen tongues, that may get the return of 1) No result (ex: "Your endeavors yield no fruits this time. You return to ship irritated at spending money to no gain"), 2) common knowledge (ex: "You are told that a pirate lord named SWOKS hunts in the Iron and Titanium regions"), 3) hints about upcoming events (ex: "You are told that a fleet is being dispatched to defend X,Y sector"), 4) Hints for the location a ship with a high bounty on it, 5) Hints about the location of "a treasure" (a wrecked ship with valuable cargo, an abandoned ship, a pirate trap) Suggestion 3: Shifty Missions from Solitary Stations Missions from stations where they are the only station in the system that sometimes result in a military or pirate ambush. If the player accepts the yield of the ambushers, they inform the player that the station planned the assault. The player then returns to the system and can extort or attack the station in revenge.

Delivery missions are fine, and so are "go locate this item that we need" missions. However -especially early on in the game- the "go find these" missions are incredibly daunting -because you have NO IDEA WHERE TO FIND ANYTHING (since the map is generating as you go). It would be nice -especially early on in the game- if there were missions that told you to go pick up the item a station needed, from a specific station at a specific location (in the manner they do with deliveries). As to why they would do this if they know where to get the product? Heck, say "there was a pilot strike", "we lost a freighter due to XYZ and need to hire outsiders to make up for it", "we expanded our sales and we don't have the capacity to haul it privately", or "our freighters are being raided and we need someone with greater armament" ... plenty of reasons to do it. ....and again.. missions like this -as they would be longer than straight delivery missions, could always be made more complicated/interesting by giving you the money for the items on the way there and bringing the items back -and running the possibility of having pirates jump you for the money (or try to coerce you into giving them half and saying you got raided), or a risk of a competing company/faction trying to stop you from making your delivery.

Just an idea, but I thought it might be interesting to not just have more missions like "container hacking" where you must have a hacking module to complete them, but to go a step further -where you are required to have specific module sets to take the mission (and become unable to change them until mission completion). Ex: "We require you to transfer this cargo to here. You must have a dangerous cargo license, and 2 cargo bay upgrade modules of tier 2 or better to accept this mission" It's nothing more than a passing whim, that I thought others might be able to build on and make something fun out of.

I'm fine with both -I'd also like to see "wrecker ships" driving around looking for -and advertising for- stuff to take to the scrapyard

I think it would be fun if, for raiding ships, you had the option of placing a jammer (which is always illegal, if found on a scan) on your ship which prevents them from calling for help -meaning as long as there are no witnesses in the system (that escape), your relations do not go down because no one was told of what you did.

Setting up and running an empire is fun, but I'd like to see some more "story arcs" in the galaxy to make it feel more alive. I'd like the factions to make requests of us as relations improve. Ex: -At good relation levels they ask you to clear a sector of pirates and guard it until a new station is sent in, establishing their rule over the territory -At very high relation levels you are asked to transport a public figure and keep them safe -At allied levels you are asked to assist in damaging/destroying enemy ships/stations in sectors where they both have influence I'd also like to see businesses have some mini-arcs where, for example, you are asked to "make supply ships disappear", or "drive up prices of an item", or protect/attack production stations, things of that nature. Not all of them have to be grand 20 mission chains, and not all of them have to be incredibly unique. But even just a few short sets of slightly varying mission types would make things feel more "alive" and less "random".

I agree with buffing it as you go up in building tier, but the early drone itself not so much. I would agree and ask that there be a button to toggle boost on and off instead of always having to hold it down, though.

WARS ARE BORING! Sure you get to fight, but they're like the main storyline of Skyrim: it doesn't feel like there's actually anything happening until you make it happen yourself -and anything you ACTUALLY do feels like it doesn't actually matter. I had an idea that I thought might spice up wars a bit: If you discover two sides fighting, and assist one against the other (or are allied with a faction that goes to war against another), that faction's stations may give mission requests for said war. ex: 1) Distract enemy forces: "We need the enemy reinforcement flotillas distracted so we can launch a surprise attack. Go to sector X, Y, and engage the defensive unite there. Destroy them, and the first X waves of reinforcements they call. That should divert enough reinforcements for us to make a successful strike" 2) Soften Sector defenses: "In X minutes, we will be launching a raid at sector X, Y. We want you to go in ahead of us and take out as many enemy ships as you can. A bounty will be paid for each craft you destroy before our arrival. 4) Station raid: "We will launch a raid into sector X,Y in X minutes. Get to the sector ahead of us and engage system defenses. When our forces arrive, you are to divert and destroy X station in the sector." 3) Merchant Fleet Raid: "A convoy of well-guarded enemy freighters is heading to X, Y sector. They are carrying materials for the production of military ships and weapons. We want the freighters destroyed." 4) Hit economy: "We want to remove our opponent's ability to purchase weapons and pay for crews. Destroy merchant and mining ships operating in the following sectors: X1Y1, X2Y2, X3Y3, X4Y4." 5) Scout enemy sectors: "We need you to gather information in the following enemy sectors: X1Y1, X2Y2, X3Y3, X4Y4. Bring a fast ship, we expect they will have some tough defenses present" 6) Escort convoy: "We have a convoy of important war material that must reach sector X,Y safely. Meet the convoy at these coordinates and travel with it to ensure its arrival. A fee will be deducted for each ship in the convoy that is lost" 7) Destroy gathering forces: "Our opponents are gathering a fleet to launch a surprise strike at our capital sector. Go to sector X, Y and destroy X ships to disrupt their plans" 8 ) Defend system from incoming raid "An enemy scout unit briefly entered the system at coordinates X, Y. We anticipate a strike force arriving there soon. We will offer you X amount to go there and assist in the sector's defense." 9 ) Attend Treaty: "After our successes in the fight, our opponents are finally suing for peace. They are offering to include you in the return to peaceful terms if you attend the treaty signing. This is entirely optional and not a paid request. You are welcome to attend, but keep your gun crews awake."

The "unoccupied systems" thing was the basis of the "ships try to extort you if they see you" idea. If no one is there, you can start mining, but if a miner or freighter from that faction shows up and gets close enough to scan, they may message and say, "give me some money and I will go away quietly. Refuse and I call a system patrol"

Currently, mission data is placed in the same place as the stats of a ship being built, and BOTH sets of text show, making both of them illegible. Hide mission data in the build menu, or move/allow players to click and drag a window with the ship data in the build menu, so that they can read it.

Something I was thinking of when I added on my 16th addition to my mining ship while out mining naonite: It's one thing to repair a damaged or destroyed section of the ship (though even then I think that you should only be able to repair to a certain point when out of dock). It's another to essentially build a completely different ship in the middle of an asteroid field instantly. I think the idea of requiring ships to have a subsystem and facility on board for producing ship parts while out of a shipyard or repair dock's range would be worth considering.

Pirate raids are fun, but after the thousandth time of pirates showing up with 3 underpowered craft and getting absolutely blasted by frigates in the system, one wonders how they make a profit doing this -let alone have the manpower to continue it. Not to mention... it gets a bit monotonous and boring. "Oh hey, pirates are raiding the sector... do I even want to bother running all the way over there just to blow up 3 weak guys?" I suggest a few different types of pirate raid to both make the galaxy seem livelier, and make things less monotonous for the player Raid 1) The standard raid that we have now: a few weak ships show up to cause some damage and check system defenses Raid 2) A less-standard raid where a large tanky pirate ship (high HP, but low firepower) shows up in a system to draw off system defenders. As they fight, a second wave of pirates show up in-system and start hitting stations (who call for help from anyone in system, as the defenders are dealing with the big ships). If the stations go below a certain HP percentage, they declare surrender and the pirates flee "having grabbed their loot" -and driving up prices for the player to buy (and pushing down prices for the player to sell) in an effort to make up for the losses. Raid 3) An actual system raid of multiple waves of strong pirate craft where the pirates have the goal of wiping out system defenses and raiding/capturing stations -turning the system into a hazard zone and (during the hazard period) driving up prices for the player to sell to the system (and driving down prices for the player to buy from them).

Clicking and dragging gets irritating. Please allow us to simply double click items -or mouse over them and hit 1-5 to have them enter a corresponding slot, or, as suggested below, click 5 items in our inventory and hit "enter" to have them automatically put in and "researched".

I think it would be interesting to see and grant not only some more variety to the stations themselves, but also some flavor to the galaxy, seeing "small shipyards" that can't build space stations (or some similar limiting factor), or "small equipment docks" that don't have as many items for sale, signifying that a sector has been established and is growing, but hasn't fully come to fruition yet. Maybe it's just me, but I think this would be cool to see.

"The class of systems I wrote of initially" definitely DO have interstellar trade and interstellar transport -THEY ARE WORLDS COLONIZED BY INTERSTELLAR CRAFT INSIDE THE FACTION SPACE OF A GALAXY-SPANNING INTERSTELLAR EMPIRE! By definition they have access to interstellar travel and trade! Do you make a living off of irrelevant comparisons and off-topic arguments or something? The point is that Earth -with no interstellar spacecraft, no advanced knowledge of space-faring, no incredibly advanced culture or society, no interstellar trade, and no part in an interstellar empire, has SOMETHING in its orbit. Therefore, a planet that HAS those things should LIKEWISE have at least SOMETHING in orbit. It's one thing if it's a random planet with lights in unclaimed space, but if it's a planet with large enough cities to be seen from orbit, in space patrolled by and passed through with interstellar vehicles, belonging to an interstellar empire, and having access to interstellar trade... there should be SOMETHING in the solar system for access to stated trade and vehicles.

"Backwater Earth" doesn't have interstellar travel or inter-galactic trade partners.... and despite having no trade in space it STILL has a space station in orbit the size of a football field.

You know how if Russia suddenly deployed an oil rig in New York Harbor, the US would get kinda mad? And how if Italy decided one day to send people to start digging up Athens, Greece would not be happy about it? Why does no one in the galaxy get upset when an unaffiliated ship -or fleet of ships- shows up in a sector they control and starts sucking all the useful resources from it? Suggestion: Implement "mining permits" with factions (naturally, you would start the game with "iron" and "titanium" permits for the faction you start in). You pay a faction for a permit to mine materials from their space, and as long as you possess a permit for that faction, you can mine in their space and they won't care (how much they like you impacts what material permits they are willing to sell and how much they cost). What they would do: -Mining without a permit would cause the faction that controls the area to become angry with you (so no one cares what you mine in uncontrolled sectors), or causes the ships nearby to extort you (taking resources you have mined in exchange for not calling you out) -If you do something to lose standing with a faction, you can have permits revoked and lose the rights to mine some or all materials from a faction's controlled space. -Allying with a faction automatically enables all mining permits to open for that faction -Declaring war with a faction automatically cancels all permits with a faction -"mine" commands from the galactic map would have the ship automatically limit harvested materials to its licenses -telling a pilot to mine an area that they don't have a permit for would result in the pilot reminding you they don't have a permit, and the player deciding whether to "mine anyways" (at an increased risk of attack), or "cancel order" and go somewhere else to mine. -telling a pilot to mine an area that straddles multiple factions (with imbalanced permits) would result in "reduced yields", as the pilot would be mining only the area they have the most permits for (or, if that is too complex, the pilot just asks you to choose a faction to mine from and you get reduced yields because they mine from a smaller area)

Earth also doesn't have interstellar travel. Any world "colonized" by a space-faring galaxy-spanning empire would have stations present for the colony (and its respective empire) to use. Seeing worlds with planet-sized cities that have no stations around is a bit immersion-breaking (you might be able to say that the backwater world with a few hundred thousand people trying to get a colony started won't have much in space, but don't tell me that there is a world of 10 billion inhabitants -that have access to power- and they don't have a single shipyard, repair dock, resource platform, or interstellar trade hub)

I wouldn't want to REMOVE the boxes, but I'd definitely go for making them smaller -or making them scale with the size of the dock.

It's nice to loot them from enemy ships... but if I don't use them often, my torpedo bay fills up -and I can't delete them or dump them. Would be nice if I could sell them to equipment docks (which sell them to players anyways) or at military installations to at least make a bit of money from them.

Ah. Sorry, I misunderstood.

What I meant in 3 and 4 is sort of like this: After destruction, during Swoks' respawn timer, things you will see pilots saying: -Did you hear? Swoks is gone! Someone actually beat him! -Someone defeated Swoks? What would someone who can do that be like? -What kind of idiot would fight Swoks? And what kind of ship did he use to win? - With Swoks gone, I can finally explore again! After his timer ends you can see pilots saying: -Maybe Swoks died and someone took his name. Or maybe... Swoks can't die. -Exploring empty sectors is off the table with Swoks around. -Are you sure? How can Swoks be back? Wasn't he killed? -Whoever said they beat Swoks was a liar! He jumped me while I was mining. Took almost everything I had.

Then why do NPCs not need to boost? Is it just to make them easier targets?

Okay, so Swoks is a "pirate king" that all in the iron and titanium sectors fear...so why does no one acknowledge when he's killed -or when he comes back? And why does beating him have no result from factions? My suggestion is beating Swoks should: 1) Have a faction territory he was near pay you a bounty for him (faction claiming the nearest civilized sector) 2) Gain some rep with faction territory he was near (factions of the stations in the nearest civilized sectot) 3) Have ships acknowledge his destruction (in convos and when "talking" to each other) 4) Have people question his destruction when he comes back