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Please consider making smaller ships (generally) faster and more maneuverable than larger ships. I can't find the thread anymore (Found it. See below at #7, 2nd reply on that thread), but there once existed an old post here on these forums that suggested adjusting speed and maneuverability for ships by up to x2 for the smallest and x0.25 for the largest, scaling in between (I'm not sure if those numbers would work/are the best, but they're a start). These adjustments should be based on mass. Reasoning and effects on gameplay: First of all, there's the realism aspect. Yes, larger ships in reality do have the potential for higher max speeds. However, realistically speaking, they would not be able to maneuver (spin) as fast as smaller ships due to the inertial forces on the structure and crew of the craft. This does technically apply to acceleration/deceleration, too (larger is slower), but I believe this kind of already is a reality in this game, though it may still need further adjustments. Making larger ships slower and more cumbersome vs smaller ships would also give some level of utility and survivability to smaller craft. As current, larger is better in all regards except one: flying through/maneuvering around densely packed areas (ships, stations, and asteroid fields). Course, we have docking, now, so this is also largely mitigated by carrying a smaller ship with you. (Edit: Ok, I guess crew costs, too, but this is mitigated by the fact that your income should be able to support this by that stage of the game.) This would also give Independent Targeting turrets more utility/make them more useful. As current, they really only work well if you park your ship (or purposely design it to nerf its maneuverability), as turret tracking is not good enough to deal with the current high speed whipping around you often end up doing. Combat will more likely get focused in one central area vs spread out over hundreds of kms (think about going back and claiming that loot/wreckage...). It'll also look and feel more natural (vs seeing Mount Everest sized objects dancing around each other) and will be easier to keep track of. If done, top speeds for large ships would have to be nerfed despite realistically being able to achieve high speeds due to densely packed areas (ships, stations, asteroid fields). You could instead have this as a "zone" around objects/from center of sector, but in order for it to not be exploitable/cause grief, it'd have to be dynamic based on your speed, heading, and deceleration rate, which could add all sorts of overhead to game processing. As is, though, the only need for speed anymore would be getting from one side of a sector to another, and with the new docking mechanism, you could carry smaller ships with you to help mitigate this. Alternatively, even, you could lower the max speed of normal engine flight while not implementing these restrictions on boost flight. Boost would still need to have its acceleration decreased and then NPC ships would have to be smarter about its use or not use it all. (Edit) Also if done, weapon ranges may need to see some adjustments to account for larger ships being slower. IE, range scaling for weapon size may need to be increased, possibly even give everything a general increase. (Edit) An old thread with some good points and I feel much of it still applies: (Edit) Great point someone else below made: I'll add more as I think of it or other points are raised from others.

I've only read through a couple pages of threads so far and not sure if someone has suggested this or if it's been suggested directly, but I'd like to see NPCs repair their own ships/stations and even respawn some time after being destroyed. As of right now, if you hang out in one sector for too long, the frequent events can start to take their toll and wipe everything out, leaving the sector barren.

I really enjoyed this game for a long time. Two of my builds the "Infernal Charger Frigate" and the "Sector Hold Mobile Station" each received recognition as build of the week. As time went on more of my friends started to play and we formed a server to play on. At the time our best ships could handle anything the Trinium regions could throw at us with ease. We could even take on some foes in Xanion regions. We would dock our fleet and log out in Naonite space since it was relatively safe. We did this because the server was constantly running and we thought it would be best to leave our ships parked some place where the enemy strength was far too weak to endanger our ships while we were away offline. One day I was constructing turrets in this relatively safe region when 3 Head Hunter ships warped into Naonite space and wiped out my best ship in less than 2 seconds with 3 shots. A single Head Hunter ship annihilated my ships and it had an Omicron value of 91248.5 in Naonite space. After having lost everything my friends and I never played Avorion again. That was a little over a year ago. I often think about replaying Avorion again but I just cannot bring myself to do it knowing that the power balance can be that random... that I could lose an entire fleet and hours of progress within seconds despite playing it that safe. It would be nice if the regions had a built in feature to ensure random generated omicron/weaponry of ships could not manifest within regions that they clearly are too powerful for. Side Notes/Questions Unrelated: 1) Are Coaxal Guns still exclusive to larger ships? You would think that they would be exclusive to small ships instead. I don't think Star Destroyer sized ships need coaxal guns unless it was for assaulting large stations or bombarding planetary bases from outside of a planet's atmosphere. The Normandy from the Mass Effect Trilogy is a prime example of a ship that should have coaxal guns since it is nimble and evasive enough to engage in combat flight similar to the dog fighting of planes from WWII therefore needing said forward facing guns. 2) What are people's thoughts on hangar ships having base flight speeds that exceed their mother ships? How often do you wipe out a handful of ships only to notice a large subsect of the remaining pirates in the area are a good 3 minute boost away... but a lengthy 10+ minute flight for your fighters to catch up to the fray? I think an advantage the fighters should have over standard builds is top speeds that take ships by storm. Just my thought. 3) What if there were weapons specifically made for destroying/temporarily disabling integrity fields? Sure losing sections of your ship and having to repair that damage can be a pain but on the other hand there is nothing more satisfying in any craft style game than tactically blasting off key components and sections of ships (such as thrusters or guns) or putting visible holes through an enemy haul (Visible path of railgun destruction). Even if it's your own ship with all the damage and holes in it, it's great fun to show your friends in multiplayer your damage and yell, "Dudes! I'm alive. Look at my ship" as half your ship is missing and barely functional. 4) Thoughts on random voice/comm chatter of ships and fighters? During combat epic death cries from pilots or voice lines like "stay in formation" or "I'm hit!" as their tiny ships explode or even captains of ships calling "red alert" or "all hands on deck" and the like? I think it would really add to the feel of the game.

suggestion for the future when expansion of the economy system is in place. adding grades of of the base materials as refined materials could provide a good way to encourage use of shipyards, and integrate shipyards into faction economies. these would only be available by founding, modifying or editing a ship within range of a shipyard, similarly to modifing installed systems, or by ordering a ship from a shipyard. but in order to do this a player would need to have a selection of materials for making the alloy's these materials are produced with. up to xanion level. allowing the same tech level function seen in other factories to also apply to shipyards in the real world its unlikly we will ever stop using steels due to many having more useful properties than 'better' metals, and there are several versions of titanium. this could be represented as modifications to repair speed, repair cost, maintenance and many other attributes that could be used to balance rimward and coreward factions and players, and making these stations a real part of the games eventual economy and balance. and could allow for expansion of the station types with foundries that buy from resource depots and mines to make the materials. an example result of this a faction/player with a fleet of avorion ships may have ships that have a lot of power and hp, but these ships would have lower passive repair rates and cost a lot more in upkeep than those made of titanium and iron. this would also add depth to the game beyond "dash for the core". especially on harder difficulties where players like myself want to challenge a game with working balance rather than getting bored holding right click until all the things in the sector are dead from being in range of a doomwedge.