Hello Forum - This is an Awesome little game, and my suggestions

[Psychophobe]

(Please don't take the "little" as a derogatory reference, it isn't, but saying what an awesome game sounds a bit too fanboy-ish for someone whose played 3 hours of it!)

Hi,
New poster, obviously, and really liked the game, I got version 0.98 just earlier on today. Been playing it pretty much since.

I have read the other suggestion posts in the forum, many of the points are a bit beyond my game experience, but some things I'd like to suggest myself:

1) Ship Fuel, near the start of the game I found I was on ~10% fuel and with b100 but a full tank cost me b226, and I couldn't fill up - so could the fuel  refill / hull repair process -IF THE MONEY IS LESS THAN 100% required- just do the percentage I can afford, for example I could then purchase ~45% fuel which I can use to go out mine some ore and then buy some more ?

2) Key bindings. (I'm pretty sure you know this one already, but) To change key bindings, I enter the new keys, but then it disallows it due to the key already being assigned. So.... I then found the key and reassigned but then It wouldn't accept me reassigning to an unmarked key (f-->g). just in case by some sort of crazy you guys don't know about this, but I'm sure you do! (fixed it via XML editing now)

3) I was surprised to find that on the Skills tree - by clicking on a skill upgraded it, and by clicking to explore the skill tree I added various upgrades "accidentally", this isn't too serious as yet but perhaps could be shaped that one click highlights the skill button (perhaps adding more highlighted information) and then a second click [not a double click] confirms purchase?

4) I've seen people mentioning they want a "pause" button, which indeed would be hard to do. I personally like the fact the game can't be paused too easily, a bit more immersive. But i'm aware things happen in The Real World that need attention (family, pets, etc)  perhaps how about an addon [disposable?] which can be purchased that would - for a cost - automatically turn the ship around, and autopilot back to the nearest home space station (or (warpgate then station?)? Possibly killed en route, that's a small risk (? % ?), but at least you get out alive while you deal with that overflowing bath and cat shit on the floor. Autopilot being just a touch faster than other ships so that chance of death en-route is smaller.

5) Following on from 4, if the game can not "freeze" when viewing information (maps / journal / skills etc), can the information be somewhat more transparent so i can see what's going on while I try and navigate my way out the system? It is odd how pirates don't attack me UNTIL I look at my map!!

6) In the fullness of time, voice acting for the dialogue would be awesome, as some of the dialogue is really fun and almost sideways pokes fun at the game and quests :-D

7) Some on here have discussed having different hanger images for different space stations (a bit like Freespace2 , remember that?) , how about a compromise, that in the hanger you can see the ship you flew in with? AS in, the "hanger" button shows a 3D render of the ship hull anyway, so you can just use that system to "place" the ship in a isometric location in the background image, would connect the player with the background image and could be classy

I noticed when I was on a quest to give 25 electronic circuits to some space station that when I arrived at the station they already had 10 circuits and i could buy them, (I didn't try it at the time) but couldn't I buy them from the station and then just sell them back to them? So make that when one of these missions is running that the chosen station NEVER stocks the chosen things they're running short of. They gave me b10k for 25.

9) When docking at a space station, my ship often accelerates into the station at a speed that would otherwise cause significant phyical/shield damage, when you press [F] to dock at a space station, perhaps set the max movement speed to something like 20% full speed as it's odd seeing the ship actually accelerating into the mothership's hull!

10) The sun, firstly, can you make them bigger? And secondly, can it be that nearing the sun of each system, depletes all energy values of the ships, so that if I move towards the sun, first my shield (and any energy weapons) gets drained and then after that, when I'm fairly close, so say just half a screens wide from the yellow fire, that it gradually depletes the physical hull as well?

11) What about default for collecting "dropped" crates to pick up everything unless this overloads the cargo hold, in which case bring up the current choice screen?

Some Extra Plus Points:

a) I really enjoy the "new" control style of mouse for weapons focus.

b) As said above, I really enjoyed some of the scripted dialogue. Excellent. 

c) Voice overs would be a charm.

d) Graphics are pretty sweetly done as well

Some Questions:

i) I see traders appearing, disappearing on my Deck screen when in  a space port - would it be possible to trade with them? They never have anything unique to say or do, and they're only there for a few seconds at a time. Perhaps trade items with them or some other interaction? *perhaps this happens already but I've not found it? 

ii) Is it possible to harvest junk flying around, like derelict space station (and parts thereof) that float about, can I harvest any of these, for perhaps small amounts of "electronics", etc?

Afterthought:
iii) You may already have this but What about having a weapon or device that can "grab/hold" and move objects such as throwing asteroids at enemy ships?

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These are just some ideas, I think I've not repeated what others have suggested but sorry if so, and sorry this is a little bit of an epic read!!

Cheers though, this is a fun game and actually quite frustrating when I die!!!!

[Lurler]

Good day and welcome to the forums.

I'm glad you like the game

To answer some of your questions:
1. Good idea, will be implemented in the next release.
2. Hm, can you please elaborate on that? I am not entirely sure what you mean.
4. We actually plan to have pause for singleplayer eventually.
6. Alas, it would be too expensive. Simply not possible for indies and with a such a huge scope as VoidExpanse. But we'd love to do it of course.
7. We plan to have different pictures for the stations eventually, it's just not a priority at the moment.
10. Actually it already does that. If you are near the sun you will start taking radiation damage to your ship.
i. for now they are just for decorations
ii. it's in the plans, yes. Salvaging.
iii. hm, it's a neat idea. We will have to investigate this to see if it's possible.

[Psychophobe]

Good day and welcome to the forums.

I'm glad you like the game

To answer some of your questions:
1. Good idea, will be implemented in the next release.
2. Hm, can you please elaborate on that? I am not entirely sure what you mean.
4. We actually plan to have pause for singleplayer eventually.
6. Alas, it would be too expensive. Simply not possible for indies and with a such a huge scope as VoidExpanse. But we'd love to do it of course.
7. We plan to have different pictures for the stations eventually, it's just not a priority at the moment.
10. Actually it already does that. If you are near the sun you will start taking radiation damage to your ship.
i. for now they are just for decorations
ii. it's in the plans, yes. Salvaging.
iii. hm, it's a neat idea. We will have to investigate this to see if it's possible.

2) I was in the control panel, setting key bindings and moving my default WASD config one key to the right (because in FPS games, A is jump and Z is crouch for me , but, for instance, it would not save F as "turn right" because F was already bound as "interact with object"-key, Likewise I couldn't move the F key because the key I was going to save that as (I forget which) was also already bound to another action,

All it is, is that already bound key actions are taking precedent over newly-bound key actions, and that just needs to be flipped,

6) I do realise that professional voice acting is a big effort, although after my original post, I thought (reading Forum topics here for an hour or so) that there may well be a concept of Fan-based voice acting? Obviously that would take quite some PR effort but for the dedicated fans, or perhaps in return for something, a unique tool/ability/action/game event, or just for the fun of it and saying to their friends "hey look, hear that, that's me!" 

10. After some more playing I did indeed notice that my ship was "burnt" by the sun but only when extremely close to it, so it may be more engaging experience/danger if the damage factors where on the same scale as the graphical changes , so when you see the space "ripple" effect, that point onwards the hull / energy will deplete.

Also, there seem to be often pirates hanging around the sun, if this is a common thing, it would be fun to make the sun effect missile /autocannon gravity, and divert physical shots, hahaha- perhaps with the right sized sun and the right distance/angled weapon shot you could orbit a missile around the sun, :-D !!

Also to underline, interacting with spaceship visiting traders - trading with them or buy trade route information would be very awesome and again, more engaging with the game.

Cheers