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« on: November 16, 2014, 01:34:00 PM »
I've played for a little bit, and there are a few things I feel could be done to improve this game. I'll try to keep this short:
Beam weapons should be able to fire across friendly ships.
This would make beams worth the OP cost, and they would remain a "Fire Support" weapon. Beams need to be able to hit the target constantly for them to have any real effect, and a friendly ship always seems to fly near enough for my auto-fire to quit firing. This would also make the Tachyon Lance a much more attractive option for a fire support ship.
The Sector Map needs to be more readable in crowded areas.
When attempting to fly toward a major trading planet, there are usually a ton of other fleets orbiting nearby, making the task of selecting the planet itself a difficult one. I'd like to see some simple map filters that could fix this issue (Fleets, Planets, ect.). Also, is there a reason that asteroids are clickable?
The Field Repairs skill should be able to speed up CR recovery.
After the patch, a ship's CR and Hull are so closely intertwined that the Field Repairs skill seems almost useless. In most cases, your ship's hull and armor rating is going to be in better shape than the ship's CR rating, especially since taking damage lowers CR. If there was some way that Field Repairs could speed up CR regen as well, or maybe have a ship's maintenance cost halved when only hull or CR is being recovered, I think it would be better.
Trading doesn't seem dangerous enough.
Playing as a trader (to me) seemed very dull. I never really had an issue with any fleets that could catch me, and even when the bigger ones did, getting away with no casualties was never a problem. A few more "trader killer" fleets would make this a bit more entertaining.
Bounties
I get that bounties are new, and probably not completely fleshed out yet, but there are a few thoughts I'd like to throw out there to help improve them:
Bounties should hint at the composition of the target fleet. Nothing extreme, but it can be a little frustating when your bounties suddenly include three Onslaughts after you just defeated the last fleet that had only a few cruisers.
Bounties that are no longer valid shouldn't be displayed on the bounty screen. It just clogs up the screen and I find it confuses me more than it needs to.
The range of bounties in hyperspace should be displayed somehow. The game states that you can get credited for destroying ships near the system in hyperspace, yet I can never tell when close is close enough.
Keep a good spread of bounties. When your fleet is destroyed, nothing but high-end bounties is a rough grind back up.
I never know exactly how many ships do you need to destroy to get the bounty, or if a certain ship needs to be destroyed.
Finally, bounties on factions other than the pirates would be fun.
