Okay, first of all - thanks for your feedback, LOTS of great ideas, suggestions and commentaries.
Next, I'd like to make a couple of my own comments, if it helps.
1. Momentary lag on savegame - yes, it exists, but, unfortunately, we can't do much about it. It's already threaded, but it still needs time to
make a complete snapshot of all inventories, ships, scripts, etc. - and during this process world shouldn't change, or it will break system's integrity.
But we will try to improve this lag, maybe improve client's reaction to such a thing.
2. Conversation system - of course, all dialogs need editing. That's probably because we're not native english-speakers.
But we have good news - we've found an english-speaking editor, and, probably, very soon all dialogs will be much better =)
3. Right now all equipment bonuses are unbalanced. We just wanted to give players a feel of how to control cheap ships and cool endgame heavy ships. All our equipment bonuses and equipment gradation, of course, will be rebalanced.
4. About freighter =) We have a big plans for roleplay for freighters, so it needs to be a dump truck. Right now roles for this ship just aren't implemented.
Freighter shouldn't be a universal ship, it should server only one purpose - to transport goods from one point to another. And, of course, that should be a difficult task.
Just imagine: you took freighter ship, bought a LOT of cargo and then, on cruise mode, avoided all pirates and delivered goods. That's not cool.
Personally, I think, that if you took freighter, you should hire mercenaries to guard you. It can be your friend, or just some npcs.
5. Fighting and flying. Yes, it's kinda hardcore, but it's not because of some design flaws, it was made this way.
As you can see, our RPG system doesn't affect combat gameplay as much, as in usual RPGs (like Diablo), where difference between 10th level and 30th level is a chasm. For example, heavy fighter with almost no skills (except the ones needed to equip this kind of hull) has pretty good chances against the same heavy fighter, but with all of skills taken.
So, character experience still matters, but player's experience matters too. As in most action games.
6. Death penalty - is something we will implement very very soon. We just can't agree on what this penalty should be =) If you have any suggestions, feel free to share)
7. Character progression - is under development. There will be much more skills, of course, maybe even with crafting, leadership, negotiations, weapon specialities. We have great plans on that)
8. Okay, first of all - we have a big plans for mining. Right now all you can do with ore is to sell it. But it won't be like this forever. We're planning to implement some kind of crafting system. Maybe, even space station and turrets building.
Now, money rewards for quests or items are unbalanced, but we're working on it.
9. Mining missions are disaster right now. But in one of the following updates we will work on our quest system, clean and improve all quests, so this bug we will fix.
Okay, now for questions:
1. That information will be in help and pedia, but now I can tell:
Gear symbol means technical level (level items, which are sold on stations)
Swords symbol means level of enemies.
2. Better hulls are sold in systems with higher tech level.
3. Radar basic locks faster, which is useful (even essential) thing for homing missiles.
4. That's a difficult question of game balance, so I cannot promise anything =)
5. This skill only increase effect of consumables, it doesn't not have an effect of auto-heal or something =)
Perhaps, we should describe it more clearly...
6. Okay, there's a legal way: you should join order, and there will be quests about alien systems (I'm not sure, but now it's available from level 35 or something like that).
But you can always find an opened alien system (there's always an alien system, which is opened - usually the closest one to starting system). When you destroy all alien hives in alien system, system considered liberated, and all adjacent systems opens for travel.
Thanks for your feedback again, I hope we will, with your and community help of course, create a great game, which we all will enjoy very much! =)
Next, I'd like to make a couple of my own comments, if it helps.
1. Momentary lag on savegame - yes, it exists, but, unfortunately, we can't do much about it. It's already threaded, but it still needs time to
make a complete snapshot of all inventories, ships, scripts, etc. - and during this process world shouldn't change, or it will break system's integrity.
But we will try to improve this lag, maybe improve client's reaction to such a thing.
2. Conversation system - of course, all dialogs need editing. That's probably because we're not native english-speakers.
But we have good news - we've found an english-speaking editor, and, probably, very soon all dialogs will be much better =)
3. Right now all equipment bonuses are unbalanced. We just wanted to give players a feel of how to control cheap ships and cool endgame heavy ships. All our equipment bonuses and equipment gradation, of course, will be rebalanced.
4. About freighter =) We have a big plans for roleplay for freighters, so it needs to be a dump truck. Right now roles for this ship just aren't implemented.
Freighter shouldn't be a universal ship, it should server only one purpose - to transport goods from one point to another. And, of course, that should be a difficult task.
Just imagine: you took freighter ship, bought a LOT of cargo and then, on cruise mode, avoided all pirates and delivered goods. That's not cool.
Personally, I think, that if you took freighter, you should hire mercenaries to guard you. It can be your friend, or just some npcs.
5. Fighting and flying. Yes, it's kinda hardcore, but it's not because of some design flaws, it was made this way.
As you can see, our RPG system doesn't affect combat gameplay as much, as in usual RPGs (like Diablo), where difference between 10th level and 30th level is a chasm. For example, heavy fighter with almost no skills (except the ones needed to equip this kind of hull) has pretty good chances against the same heavy fighter, but with all of skills taken.
So, character experience still matters, but player's experience matters too. As in most action games.
6. Death penalty - is something we will implement very very soon. We just can't agree on what this penalty should be =) If you have any suggestions, feel free to share)
7. Character progression - is under development. There will be much more skills, of course, maybe even with crafting, leadership, negotiations, weapon specialities. We have great plans on that)
8. Okay, first of all - we have a big plans for mining. Right now all you can do with ore is to sell it. But it won't be like this forever. We're planning to implement some kind of crafting system. Maybe, even space station and turrets building.
Now, money rewards for quests or items are unbalanced, but we're working on it.
9. Mining missions are disaster right now. But in one of the following updates we will work on our quest system, clean and improve all quests, so this bug we will fix.
Okay, now for questions:
1. That information will be in help and pedia, but now I can tell:
Gear symbol means technical level (level items, which are sold on stations)
Swords symbol means level of enemies.
2. Better hulls are sold in systems with higher tech level.
3. Radar basic locks faster, which is useful (even essential) thing for homing missiles.
4. That's a difficult question of game balance, so I cannot promise anything =)
5. This skill only increase effect of consumables, it doesn't not have an effect of auto-heal or something =)
Perhaps, we should describe it more clearly...
6. Okay, there's a legal way: you should join order, and there will be quests about alien systems (I'm not sure, but now it's available from level 35 or something like that).
But you can always find an opened alien system (there's always an alien system, which is opened - usually the closest one to starting system). When you destroy all alien hives in alien system, system considered liberated, and all adjacent systems opens for travel.
Thanks for your feedback again, I hope we will, with your and community help of course, create a great game, which we all will enjoy very much! =)