Hi Histidine!
What's next for the mod?
Do you have any current plans, new mechanics, or something similar in mind?
(Btw very pleased to play your mod, excellent work)
Hi and thanks!
The immediate next update will bring NPC invasions into the new ground battle mechanic, and do a bunch of other smaller changes.
After that, I haven't decided what big-ticket item I want to do next. A detailed diplomacy system (with things like player bargaining directly with the factions) is one of the candidates, but it seems really complicated right now, and I may wait to see what Alex does with late game colonies.
I might just put that stuff off and clean up the smaller things on that long list of ideas that me or others have come up with over the years)
Perhaps instead of dealing with a better/more complex diplomacy system (which is sorely needed, but seems like something Alex gonna deal with eventually anyway), you could adapt the ground battle mechanic into just normal raid system, so stealing stuff has a more in-depth feel. But then again, procedure-generating random "smallish" map "mazes" for raids could have issues attempting to assign more localized defenses using the abstract planetary defense stats (how much of any part of the defenses is assigned to one industry might be prioritized by importance of industry, which game already basically does, but assigning custom levels of defenses to one-off raid quests that aren't against faction owning planet might be hard to determine how much defense to use). But using the security codes option to skip part of the "maze" would be cool (and/or player or officer can use certain random skills to get around certain obstacles, like Electronic warfare gives a chance of hacking anyway but you might get caught, while Helmsmanship reduces pre-mission detection so raid not on high alert when player "arrives," etc.).
Then again, maybe just allowing a player to raid a planet (with caps for max amount gained without rep loss or something) but skip fighting space station battle if fleet has small sensor profile AND/OR isn't too big might be faster and easier... although without some sort of alternative mini-game, skipping space station battle would effectively neuter a significant portion of the game experience (hence why caps are suggested).
Mostly just want an actual use for buying security codes option (which, unrelated, seem weirdly underpriced most of the time. Be cool to sometimes have the underpriced security codes sometimes backfire on player, but overpriced backfires generate a mission to track down the wretched scum that sold you bum codes).
Edit: Thought of this after posting, but seems better to add here than repost. Alternatively, you could try expanding bounty system to more include player as a possible bounty, which seems right now to only to generate bounty hunters to hunt player after failing certain missions or not repaying loans. Basically, bounty hunters would be a bridge between player's low faction rep levels; so before having vengeance fleets spawn, factions that don't like you can put a bounty on you. Would be cool to see a more centralized bounty listing that you can climb up or down on (a la Big Shots TV show from Cowboy Bebop), but conversely whatever bounties that are generated by contacts give MUCH more rep for faction (since bounty generating system is weird, tiered generation so player always has a challenge). Dunno how much of a memory issue would result from maintaining a bounty list (prolly no more than Top 10 or Top 20, 100 bounties plus fleets to keep track of might be a real memory hog).