As usual, looks great Alex
Perhaps the tease is something to do with the fact that we now have persistent NPC's with roles/memories and <stuff>... Hmm I wonder where this could also be useful...
Anyways, one thing I would really like to see possible is the ability to chain missions into an arc, and have the availability of missions in an arc dynamic/deterministic so that performance in previous missions affects the availability and content of subsequent missions.
e.g. a structure something like:
- Event: Pirate attack on [outpost]
- Mission 1: Transport [goods] to [outpost]
- If completed within 20 days, make Mission 2 available, else straight to Mission 3
- Mission 2: Collect and bring [weapons/ships/supplies] to [outpost]
- Mission 3: Track down and destroy responsible pirate
- [Mission dialog loads to custom battle]
- If Mission 2 was completed then a small number of AI-controlled friendly ships joins the fight
- If Mission 2 was completed and no AI-controlled friendly ships were destroyed then receive [greater reward]
A simplistic example (and you have probably already considered most of it), but I think the notion of 'missions' could fairly easily become 'story arcs' with a lot of depth, similar in the way that EV Override and EV Nova had numerous large story arcs to be discovered and experienced.
And, then there could be mods that consist entirely of new missions/story arcs to add to the game and/or other mods