GrimJahk

True enough... Drones could have a range limitation and be self-launching if the Bay is on an external surface.

Sounds awesome and I have plenty of patience, just offering thoughts and helping test. ;)

I just read this and it reminded me of my biggest issue around fighters... pilots... (more specifically losing them) UAVs are the solution... have a block (like above link) than manufactures combat drones that are flown by Pilots that never leave your ship. They consume resources, cost an overhead to payroll, and your pilots gain experience over time... You can have space (Drone Bay) dedicated to Drones of different varieties, Combat, Mining, and Salvaging, Combat requires Pilots, Mining drones require Miners, Salvage drones require either engineers or mechanics. Your Hanger determines how many drones you can have active at any one time, Your Drone Bay volume determines how many you have available (and how fast they are reproduced when lost)

I like it and have a thought I'm about to post that adds to it...

Sounds like a layering issue in the UI... hope one of our code warriors spots this and can suggest a fix. ;)

Thruster change hit the beta branch, (you probably already know this) I'm flying one of the older versions (7 upgrade) of this ship and LOVE it. I was able to mostly fix it by swapping out some thrusters into some of the armor volume near the front/sides. But ultimately I am chomping at the bit to see what you do next.

I'm having difficulty seeing the modules that I have installed without constantly mousing over them or swapping them out... Has anyone figured out a workaround for this?

I'd like the ability to replace all of one type of material with another without having to take my ship apart to do it... I have Titanium Generators and now have the Neonate materials to upgrade? Click from this, to that, and... Done. Currently with some of the more complex ship designs... it's a 10 minute challenge to "peel away" layers just to find stuff... Having a screen (BOM) that details what materials you currently have would be amazing! that would also make the above suggestion trivial. go to the line that shows 130^3m of Titanium Generators, click replace, select your material... and done.

I'd like to see thrusters get boosts as well at higher materials.

I'm playing the beta branch... and now that the change to thrusters is in place many of my old builds are broken... this is to be expected and I only bring that up to explain the WHY of my thinking here... With the new changes... mass of the thrusters makes more effect than surface... but now I need nearly equal mass of thrusters to engines... and that doesn't make sense... I think Thrusters need a buff in effectiveness... I should need fewer thrusters than 15% of my mass in order to be maneuverable. Before when you could stack 10x Thruster panels, the ship felt right, now I need 5x that same volume (or more) to even get close.

I spent the better part of two hours last night in the first and second ring on the map flying around looking for Laser Compressor and Laser Modulator... and found NONE... So, my question is: Are certain components located in certain areas? Or am I just having bad luck? Also, Is there a method of storing materials near a factory that is safe?

I'd like to edit the inside of a ship without having to Peel it first... A slice away function to make the ship transparent on a X, Y, or Z plane would be amazing. This way I can upgrade or replace materials without the whole select, copy, move, paste dance.

Yay a champion for change!!!

If you happen to take the time to salvage a cargo ship in a salvage yard, you should also have the rights to that cargo that drops... granted it should be random, AND heavily weighted to cheap or controlled materials.. but they should be yours do do with as you see fit.

Naonite level. Dual purpose block, allows auto-docking (to target) starting at 3KM and increases tractor range of collection of materials/modules from space (+20% range). linear scaling energy consumption per block, diminishing returns on effectiveness...

This statement confuses me... Docking is a big part of the game? (LOL Docking Simulator 3) I thought building a fleet of ships to macro manage was one of the goals of the game... if you can't macromanage them with commands like this, it will get very tedious very fast. Docking at stations and getting that last few meters next to an asteroid (in order to claim it, click it again, and sell it to the faction that has ships flying 10 KM away) has to be one of the least immersive aspects of this game. Requiring you to dedicate part of your ship structure for such a minor thing... again... this can be handled in mechanics without breaking the flow of the game...

It does make sense, but, for the expediency of coding more features, or fixing balance issues, rather than putting fine polish on existing methods... I suspect that this will remain as-is for the near future and see some attention down the road. But another aspect of this is... materials don't always get upgraded evenly... Lighter materials are sometimes kept over newer ones. Repair is a all encompassing command, not specific per module.

I would love to have a cruise control, or Sticky throttle that I could engage forward or reverse, that would allow me to point my ship in a direction and just let it keep going while I look around with turrets or fight without steering the ship... Would also like "match speed with target" to allow me to safely deal with mobile merchants...

I love the "docking procedure" thought... it would be fantastic, and could make interaction with mobile merchants easier as well... AND you can build in a "safeguard" that if hostiles are in the area, it is disabled...

+1 8)

My play style recently reminds me of how I think a Cylon Raider might fit into this universe if he went rogue... So I immediately thought I'd mention it here in case there were people that either already had some of the BSG ships already models made or want the challenge... Already saw the Gallactica, would love to see it added here for posterity. Any takers??

Beautiful!!!

When I warp into a sector, via a gate, and find: two factories, a farm, and 4 combat vessels... I should not have the ability to claim a massive asteroid and sell it to the local pirate faction.... If Sector: (has faction structure) -or- (has Gate) Then (count of massive asteroids = 0)

I see them in game and they are very expensive... (thus I assume powerful) but I have no clue how/why they work... Any pointers and/or links to examples of proper/effective use?

+1 I like this