Feedback at 100 hours - shameless suggestions

[Hoshizora]

 

Feedback at 100 hours - an overview

http://www.avorion.net/forum/index.php/topic,2802.0.html

Feedback at 100 hours - little things overlooked

http://www.avorion.net/forum/index.php/topic,2804.0.html

Feedback at 100 hours - small suggestions

http://www.avorion.net/forum/index.php/topic,2807.0.html

Feedback at 100 hours - shamless suggestions

you are here!

 

 

This is level 3 of 3 in regards to suggestions.

 

This post is for those suggestions that start with "Wouldn't it be cool if..."

 

In other words, shameless suggestions that act as if my whims are entitled to being heard.

 

I know my voice is just one in the ocean, and plenty of these have already been suggested, but I've been keeping track of my thoughts for the past 100 (non-consecutive) hours so by George I'm going to throw my two cents out there!

 

I also highly recommend gating many if not most of these suggestions behind purchases/questlines, as further described in another post here:

 

www.avorion.net/forum/index.php/topic,2801.0.html

 

• The galaxy map could be more useful if we had a small control panel at the top that would highlight places of interest. As it is, the only way I could remember research stations is by manually remembering coordinates and drawing a huge plus sign on the map. The note function just doesn't make a distinct enough marking to be useful when I"m scanning everything at once. Also, I feel like faction headquarters should get a little bit of attention - maybe show a crown or something layered beneath the map?
  
• In ship build mode > block selection menu, why not hide all the block pieces of higher tiers until you actually get those types of ores? It's a bit odd to be able to see all the way to avorion when you just started the game.
  
• In ship build mode > block selection menu, why not have a single space for 'iron edge pieces', and then while it's selected and the mouse is hovering over the ship, press a button to make it cycle through the different types of edges? I remember the block menu was really intimidating when I first saw it, and this would cut down on the number of spaces needed to show it all. New players shouldn't be worrying about glow/hologram/reflector/stone/rough stone pieces anyway until they get the basics down.
  
• Player ships can move faster than any other in the game. The logical conclusion of this is a fighting style that involves ramming into the enemies with a bow shaped like an axe! This is impossibly self-damaging with current collision physics, but it should be feasible in the lore of the game to load up on armor on the front end and have that be a viable way to enter battle!
  
• If you exceed the number of fighters your fighter bay allows for, why not store the extras in the cargo bay? To avoid exploitation, only let them transfer to the fighter bay when jumping sectors
  
• Mining upgrades are a bit underwhelming. Why not have them also increase mining yield? Better yet, they could also detect those giant 100k+ asteroids from a distance
  
• Errands on electronic bulletin boards don't reward reputation. That feels really odd... Shouldn't a delivery of cargo make the faction like me? This is also pretty much the only way to increase standing with a faction that hates you, other than parking it and twiddling your thumbs until pirates show up...
  
• I sell a lot of crap, and research a lot of crap. Once I've made that decision, I don't want to see that particular turret in my inventory anymore... why not let me right-click it and hit a button to file it away in a to-sell list or to-research list? The equipment vendor could have another option added to it to clear out the sell list, and ditto for research station.
  
• Once I made it rich, I essentially stopped mining. Why not add a button to resource depots to 'buy everything'?
  
• Docking adds to immersion, sure, but it can be a pain after a while. Why not increase the dock range, or make the act of docking and pressing F instantly freeze the ship if your velocity is under 300 m/s?
  
• You have a veritable army of artists that are making gorgeous ships for you for free. Why not feature a few in the game? They may not work with procedural generation (genius system, btw), but they could be used for single quests and the sort.
  
• Some of the civilians ships we save from pirates should also ask us to start a follow-on quest to ask us to escort them back to the nearest friendly system. Not sure just how engaging this would be considering we have hyperspace drive, but hey, it's an idea!
  
• The first distress signal a player gets shouldn't be the pirate trap, it should be legit. That will make it all the sweeter when they DO get tricked by pirates
  
• Rewards for various tasks (fending off pirates, delivery quests, resource shortage quests, saving civilians being attacked by pirates, wiping out pirates from a sector, etc) should be based on two things: 1) a reward that scales with distance to the center of the galaxy, and 2) a reward that scales with the current wealth of the player (calculated using current credits, resources, and ship value). Reason being, towards the end of the game, those rewards were completely and utterly pointless. I was so rich that they were just a drop in the bucket and not worth my time.
  
• One of the things you should unlock later in the game is a functionality in build mode: point and click at a spot, and the game will automatically fill the nearest available spaces with a random smattering of your offensive turrets. Sometimes I get caught with my pants down and I need a quick solution to respond to pirates that just warped into the system!
  
• Anything else that are added by the most popular mods in the modding community. Those are always good measuring sticks for what players want, obviously