First off, I absolutely love this game. It's like Elite and Minecraft produced a beautiful, beautiful child while Starbound watched. And it's just in early access. I can't wait to see where this game is going to go.
After a couple of weeks of play, here are some 'quality of life' suggestions I would love to see, in no particular order.
- I love the notes you can leave on sectors. I would like to be able to pull up a list of all of those notes, click on the one you want to go to and immediately have the galaxy map be centered on the sector that note is attached to. I've got a lot of notes scattered in a wide area within the core and I'd love to be able to see all my notes in a list at a glance.
- Trading system upgrade is awesome, but I think it needs a couple of tweaks to be even better:
-- In the 'sell' tab, it shows the stock of the station, not the stock of your ship. While I like to see how much the station has, I would also like to see how much I have in my cargo at a glance, in an extra column.
-- Since the idea is that data is saved from X number of systems you previously visited, it would be very nice if you could see the stock of all stations you've previously visited the sector of. There are many times I warp from system A to system B, and it turns out system B sells something system A needs, but I didn't check the specific station in system A to see how much they needed. Admittedly, this might be a bit 'overpowered' for trading, but it's a matter of convenience, as it would save the time jumping back to system A to see how much they need.
- I would love to have the ability to tag cargo in my hold as being important. Or, if you feel like implementing a bit more than that, even have a column for custom text input, so I could label some things as 'for turrets' and other things as 'sell this', stuff like that. I've often been flying around with a cargo full of random things that I got out of salvage or whatever that I need to sell off, but it's difficult sometimes to remember which items I'm saving for making turrets and whatnot. Being able to see at a glance what I've marked as important would be great.
-- Similarly, the ability to mark upgrades and turrets in your inventory as favorites would be great too.
- I would like to be able to select turrets in build mode with a form of left mouse click instead of needing to use the specific targeting button. My suggestion is that you can use a modifier key. A normal left click will select the block itself, but if you shift+click, it selects the turret that you're moused over.
- Have the last color that you selected in build mode persist into subsequent build mode sessions. I've placed so many blocks on accident with the default color and had to undo and then select the color I wanted again. #firstworldproblems for sure!
- The camera in this game is... odd. I wish I could zoom in more on my ship - ideally, I'd love to play in a first person mode. How about a 'camera block'? Whichever block is the camera is where you look out of on the ship. You could start out with only allowing one camera block on the ship, but then maybe later on, add functionality so that you can attach several, and use a hotkey to cycle between them. Camera blocks could be rotated, so that you could have your main camera facing out of the front of the ship, and another camera facing up from the top of your ship, etc.
- Ability to instantly flip between 'viewing full sector' RPG mode and being zoomed in all the way on your ship with one button. As it is, zooming all the way out takes several scrolls of the mouse and then I gotta scroll up a bunch to get back in. Very much a #firstworldproblems thing, but it would be very nice to be able to instantly zoom all the way in and out by toggling a key.
- Please increase the distance required to dock to a station. I know that's not realistic, but... even if it would require some kind of upgrade that I have to slot, or a very expensive block that I have to put on my ship, I would love to have it. The docking distance is so small that it's so very easy to ram into the station even with extreme brake thrust, and larger ships can easily clip the station just from turning in place even if they're at maximum docking distance.
-- This problem may, I think, be a consequence of the odd camera I mentioned above. I suspect that if we could put camera blocks, the docking problem wouldn't be nearly as frustrating.
- A simple notepad integrated into the game, similar to the notes you can leave on sectors. I've been using Google Keep in a Steam browser to keep track of things - having a notepad right in the game itself would rule. Ideally it could be pinned to the main HUD so you can see it all the time in a corner.
- Omicron value on turret tooltips.
- Visible countdown in the HUD for how long it's going to take to calculate a jump path to another sector. This may not be doable because I suspect that the jump calculation might be tied to the time it takes to load the sector, so I understand if this can't be reliably implemented.
- Ability to turn off engine particles. I have a ton of engines on my ship and whenever I jump to another sector, it brings the FPS on my beefy gaming machine to a worryingly screeching halt for a bit because it's loading so many particles at once. I've also noticed that if you have engines that are really wide and/or tall, there's extreme video lag when you're flying around normally, but I suspect that particular issue is a bug. I tried bolting hulls to the back of my engines to hide the particles, but the particles still appear when jumping.
- Ability to turn off the shield generator visuals that show around the ship. The shield kind of warps the viewing area around the ship and can be confusing when moving very close to something.
- Upgrade item or very expensive block that allows sucking in loot from larger distances. Maybe even bake it into computer cores or some other tech block? It would likely be an extremely small amount per unit and require more energy (basically a tractor beam sort of thing), but I'd be happy to have it.
- The concept of the mining system upgrade is good, but even on legendary verisons, the distance is extremely small to the point of being useless. I think the mining system should give you the ability to see, in the galaxy map, nearby sectors that have the mineral that corresponds to the material level of the mining upgrade. I suggest either re-coloring the mass signature/energy dot, or putting a bit of a glowing aura that matches the color of the mineral on the sector. The quality of the mining system would affect what sectors it lights up as well. If you have a common system, it'll show you sectors that have tiny asteroids of that kind of ore. But as you get higher level, so to speak, you don't care about those tiny asteroids. So the higher quality upgrades should only show you sectors that have really big asteroids in them. A legendary mining upgrade would only light up sectors that had one of those giant 100,000+ ore asteroids in it.
-- For balance reasons, I could see this upgrade requiring a ludicrous amount of power that rises with the quality of the upgrade, and it takes some amount of seconds to get readings, similar to jump calculations - if my understanding of the game is correct, you'd have to generate all the undiscovered sectors around you in order to know whether or not there were asteroids there, so I could see needing a considerable timer on such a feature.
That was quite a list... I think there are other things I would like to see, so I will add to this thread as I think of them!
Suggestion
technitaur
First off, I absolutely love this game. It's like Elite and Minecraft produced a beautiful, beautiful child while Starbound watched. And it's just in early access. I can't wait to see where this game is going to go.
After a couple of weeks of play, here are some 'quality of life' suggestions I would love to see, in no particular order.
- I love the notes you can leave on sectors. I would like to be able to pull up a list of all of those notes, click on the one you want to go to and immediately have the galaxy map be centered on the sector that note is attached to. I've got a lot of notes scattered in a wide area within the core and I'd love to be able to see all my notes in a list at a glance.
- Trading system upgrade is awesome, but I think it needs a couple of tweaks to be even better:
-- In the 'sell' tab, it shows the stock of the station, not the stock of your ship. While I like to see how much the station has, I would also like to see how much I have in my cargo at a glance, in an extra column.
-- Since the idea is that data is saved from X number of systems you previously visited, it would be very nice if you could see the stock of all stations you've previously visited the sector of. There are many times I warp from system A to system B, and it turns out system B sells something system A needs, but I didn't check the specific station in system A to see how much they needed. Admittedly, this might be a bit 'overpowered' for trading, but it's a matter of convenience, as it would save the time jumping back to system A to see how much they need.
- I would love to have the ability to tag cargo in my hold as being important. Or, if you feel like implementing a bit more than that, even have a column for custom text input, so I could label some things as 'for turrets' and other things as 'sell this', stuff like that. I've often been flying around with a cargo full of random things that I got out of salvage or whatever that I need to sell off, but it's difficult sometimes to remember which items I'm saving for making turrets and whatnot. Being able to see at a glance what I've marked as important would be great.
-- Similarly, the ability to mark upgrades and turrets in your inventory as favorites would be great too.
- I would like to be able to select turrets in build mode with a form of left mouse click instead of needing to use the specific targeting button. My suggestion is that you can use a modifier key. A normal left click will select the block itself, but if you shift+click, it selects the turret that you're moused over.
- Have the last color that you selected in build mode persist into subsequent build mode sessions. I've placed so many blocks on accident with the default color and had to undo and then select the color I wanted again. #firstworldproblems for sure!
- The camera in this game is... odd. I wish I could zoom in more on my ship - ideally, I'd love to play in a first person mode. How about a 'camera block'? Whichever block is the camera is where you look out of on the ship. You could start out with only allowing one camera block on the ship, but then maybe later on, add functionality so that you can attach several, and use a hotkey to cycle between them. Camera blocks could be rotated, so that you could have your main camera facing out of the front of the ship, and another camera facing up from the top of your ship, etc.
- Ability to instantly flip between 'viewing full sector' RPG mode and being zoomed in all the way on your ship with one button. As it is, zooming all the way out takes several scrolls of the mouse and then I gotta scroll up a bunch to get back in. Very much a #firstworldproblems thing, but it would be very nice to be able to instantly zoom all the way in and out by toggling a key.
- Please increase the distance required to dock to a station. I know that's not realistic, but... even if it would require some kind of upgrade that I have to slot, or a very expensive block that I have to put on my ship, I would love to have it. The docking distance is so small that it's so very easy to ram into the station even with extreme brake thrust, and larger ships can easily clip the station just from turning in place even if they're at maximum docking distance.
-- This problem may, I think, be a consequence of the odd camera I mentioned above. I suspect that if we could put camera blocks, the docking problem wouldn't be nearly as frustrating.
- A simple notepad integrated into the game, similar to the notes you can leave on sectors. I've been using Google Keep in a Steam browser to keep track of things - having a notepad right in the game itself would rule. Ideally it could be pinned to the main HUD so you can see it all the time in a corner.
- Omicron value on turret tooltips.
- Visible countdown in the HUD for how long it's going to take to calculate a jump path to another sector. This may not be doable because I suspect that the jump calculation might be tied to the time it takes to load the sector, so I understand if this can't be reliably implemented.
- Ability to turn off engine particles. I have a ton of engines on my ship and whenever I jump to another sector, it brings the FPS on my beefy gaming machine to a worryingly screeching halt for a bit because it's loading so many particles at once. I've also noticed that if you have engines that are really wide and/or tall, there's extreme video lag when you're flying around normally, but I suspect that particular issue is a bug. I tried bolting hulls to the back of my engines to hide the particles, but the particles still appear when jumping.
- Ability to turn off the shield generator visuals that show around the ship. The shield kind of warps the viewing area around the ship and can be confusing when moving very close to something.
- Upgrade item or very expensive block that allows sucking in loot from larger distances. Maybe even bake it into computer cores or some other tech block? It would likely be an extremely small amount per unit and require more energy (basically a tractor beam sort of thing), but I'd be happy to have it.
- The concept of the mining system upgrade is good, but even on legendary verisons, the distance is extremely small to the point of being useless. I think the mining system should give you the ability to see, in the galaxy map, nearby sectors that have the mineral that corresponds to the material level of the mining upgrade. I suggest either re-coloring the mass signature/energy dot, or putting a bit of a glowing aura that matches the color of the mineral on the sector. The quality of the mining system would affect what sectors it lights up as well. If you have a common system, it'll show you sectors that have tiny asteroids of that kind of ore. But as you get higher level, so to speak, you don't care about those tiny asteroids. So the higher quality upgrades should only show you sectors that have really big asteroids in them. A legendary mining upgrade would only light up sectors that had one of those giant 100,000+ ore asteroids in it.
-- For balance reasons, I could see this upgrade requiring a ludicrous amount of power that rises with the quality of the upgrade, and it takes some amount of seconds to get readings, similar to jump calculations - if my understanding of the game is correct, you'd have to generate all the undiscovered sectors around you in order to know whether or not there were asteroids there, so I could see needing a considerable timer on such a feature.
That was quite a list... I think there are other things I would like to see, so I will add to this thread as I think of them!
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