Post by Perez on Jan 7, 2014 2:47:58 GMT 10
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Hey up!
Here I am once again to share some ideas I've come up with in the last couple of days. Let's just get to it straight away, shall we?
PARTS & UTILITIES
Jammer(?):
You know those wide, large Golf leveled ships hovering in space, covered in missile launchers, waiting for a player-module decked with precious griders, thrusters and weaponry to pass by, don't you? I know them very well, I can tell you that ... So, I figured a jammer or a drop jammer -- whatever it's called -- would be a tactical utility to attach to your ship.
The jammer's function would be to (1) add minor stealth the player's ship so enemy shuttles will be less likely to notice him. This could be useful trying to escape a battlefield surrounded with hostiles -- unless you've already lost the part in a showdown. The other purpose of this utility would be (2) to prevent missiles targeting the player. I thought this would be a good addition to it. The downside, though: The alpha level jammer can only cancel missiles' homing at alpha level. The beta level jammer would affect beta level missiles and below. Ectetera, ectetera. You get the idea.
I figure the jammer should be 1x1 like most of the other weapons and schtuffs.
Droid:
Notice that this is an updated edition of the extra AI/Player-module mentioned back in "Got time for ideas".
Droids! Yes! Let's call them droids. Sounds better in my opinion. They fly around supporting you, waiting for your command, which could be targeting an enemy ship or mining an asteroid by simply pressing the droid and dragging an arrow at the desired target. You can select it's mode from either being:
- Assistance(firing by your side)
- Offensive(opening fire any enemy shuttle within its range)
- Defensive(firing at any nearby aggressive ships)
- Miner(attacks any nearby asteroid/attacks the asteroid the player is targeting)
This is the AI version of it. There could be a second player version of it, too. Assign the buttons for firing and steering to either the keyboard or a controller(maybe even a joystick?), and player two has gained power over the little buddy by your side.
To make the droids look different from the players ship, instead of a heart, there's a circle in the middle to tell them apart. Just in case if you'd happen to lose track of which is what. It'd be as big as the player's module is -- 1x1.
Droid Stations:
Yeah, I was thinking that starting off with a droid is kind of OP, so I figured that there should be a stations for this. They're like factories, but instead of FAC marked on the station, it could be DRD. And perhaps make a different design to the station so it doesn't look too similar to the factory.
On the map they're seen as DX(X being any letter from A-K). They'd be quite rare, because of the good assistance one could get from a droid.
Radar:
Are you scared of colliding into sudden hostiles appearing out of nowhere, only to lose the parts you've been working so hard on getting? Well, worry no more, 'cause the radar will help you see enemies that one normally wouldn't be able to see. It's like a third eye.
Pointing a maximum of 5 arrows at the nearest shuttles around you within a certain radius. The arrows have a colour to show what level the nearby ships are. A 1x1 utility this one as well.
Enemy vessels carrying the jammer is not targeted by an arrow.
FEATURES
Levels & EXP:
I'm not talking about alpha, beta, foxtrot and kilo levels now, I'm talking about EXP levels, like you see in MMOs. Destroy the parts to gain EXP, but only when they're attached to a module except your own. Different parts in different phases result in balanced EXP drop. For example:
Alpha Grider = 1-2 EXP
Charlie Laser = 6-7 EXP
Kilo Chrono Gear = 103 EXP
Charlie Laser = 6-7 EXP
Kilo Chrono Gear = 103 EXP
Not so sure if this is very balanced ... However, first you start off in level 1. At this level you'll only be able to attach alpha level parts. At level 2 you'll have access to beta level attachments, and so forth. This would create more of a/the RPG feel to it (unsure at this moment if the game is a somewhat RPG), and forcing the player to continue to develop on the current level, as well as adding a tad bit of challenge to the game, 'cause we all love that, don't we? This is just the main concept of the idea.
Classes:
Not entirely sure if this is necessary, but I'm gonna put it in here anyway. So, if your ship is a small, light, quickie, the information within the module will make it a fighter/explorer class. If it's medium size, bulky and averagely quick, the module would display something like a tank/slow/miner fighter class. And if it's a large, slow cruiser, it'd be a tank/bulldozer/cruiser/cargo ship class or something. And compared to the class, the ship can have an increasing max amount of ally droids nearby. Like, for example, a cruiser class would have a maximum of 4 droids at a time. A smaller would have a maximum of 1 droid, and ectetera.
Extra Stats:
I personally like seeing lots stats of a ship I've just constructed, even though I might not understand them all. A speed'o'meter would be nice, though! I like ramming ships and asteroids, but even though the damage of a ramming spike is determined by how many meters in a second you travel (x/m/s(x=dmg output)), I'm still not sure whether I'll do large or extreme amounts of damage to an entity. This is the main reason to why I would like to see more stats of the ship. Maybe repulsion and thruster output could be something to put in here, if it ever were to be done?
Achievements:
I know about one achievement in this game, and that is to find the three beacons scattered across space. But this is the only one I know of. Perhaps getting to Kilo level is an achievement, too, but still. Down below I've come up with a few achievements that could be implemented if possible.
"Mass Rammer" - Destroy a guardian by only ramming it.
"Warrior" - Destroy 5 guardians, destroy 10 guardians, ectetera.
"Space Pirate" - Destroy 100 ships.
"Deadly Weaponry" - Inflict up to 0/100'000 damage.
"Beacons!" - Discover the first, the second and the third beacon.
"Sturdy" - Receive up to 0/10'000 damage.
"First step to miner!" - Mine an asteroid.
"Worthy Materials" - Find Iron Ore.
"Fortunes!" - Find Silicate.
"Merchant" - Scrap 100 parts.
"Rich!" - Earn 1'000 credits.
"Richer!" - Earn 10'000 credits.
"Richest!" - Earn 100'000 credits.
"Factories have it all" - Buy something from a factory.
"Stay Fresh" - Repair at a repair station.
"Upgrade!" - Upgrade a part.
"BFF" - Purchase a droid.
Random achievements in wrong order. Just put the names in the for fun's sake.
More Minerals:
How about some more minerals? It could be something random, like ashcrystals or obsidian, sold at an average price. Nothing more to say about this one.
3D Mechanic:
Not necessary at all, but just for viewing preferences.
More Settings:
As much as I love this game, I'm constantly bothered by lag issues, mostly appearing once I fire my guns or use my thrusters. It's usually good FPS, but it starts lagging once hostiles are nearby. I've tried going fullscreen and then pressing twice to reduce the resolution, and it helps, but not as much. It'd be nice with some settings to turn off the animation, perhaps load entities from a shorter distance. Just some more optimization settings would be nice.
That's all I have for now. I might -- as said -- come up with more stuff in the future. Thanks for reading!
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- Cpt. Perez
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