I bought this amazing game recently and played it a lot.
I love it but since the beginning something feels weird to me.
I think it's weird because in most sci-fi universes, most of the time, ships travel alone.
There are number of examples, in star wars, star trek, stargate, battlestar galactica, and so much more, many protagonists travel alone. Bounty hunters (Boba Fett ?), lone smugglers (han solo ?), merchants, etc...
On the occasion, ships are temporary put together for a purpose like waging a war, defending a planet or exploring a distant distress signal And some fleets are of course permanent, battlestar galactica again, Wake, etc...
Now i'm not saying you should not be able to have a fleet or fleet should disapear from the game, not at all ! the current fleet mechanics are amazing !
I'm saying there should be a LOT more lone ships.
The game would benefit of encouraging the player to choose between fleet or solo ship. Now i know it is possible today in the game, but let's face it, you cannot do a lot with one tiny ship, and if you want to play Boba Fett, well you'll have trouble defeating the enemy fleet alone
. Again if you want to travel anywhere, you need a tanker, so two ships (and thats a fleet !) etc...
This would require some adjustments, in the form of diverse bonuses when in solo mode :
- massive decrease of fuel utilisation (which would be balanced by the lack of cargo space)
- ridiculously low radar signature
- massive bonus to ordnance points to fully customize your ship.
- ...
And some new rules :
- You cannot salvage a ship and add it to your fleet.
- You could change from solo to fleet mode when on a colony but you'd loose all your bonuses and would have to refit your ships
- You could change from fleet to solo mode when on a colony but you'd have to sell all your other ships !
- ...
This would enable other mission types from contractors :
- get right inside a fleet, dock on the flagship, assassinate the leader and escape.
- get right inside a fleet, and sabotage the fuel tankers.
- get right inside a fleet, and upload a virus or retrieve information for your contractor.
- go in orbit of a base/planet and upload a virus or retrieve information for your contractor.
- ...
these would not involve a lot of user action but could be only text missions with percentages.
I know its a lot and probably won't be a priority ever
but i thought of it and wanted to share...
Imagine how great it would feel to approach a big pirate fleet, dock on a cruiser with your tiny heavily modified kite without being spotted, assassinate the pirate leader and leave unharmed while the fleet ships turns against one another
Thanks for this game
Sorry for my bad english.