Some ideas (GUI, autopilot, map system, customization)

[Barghest]

Hello Forum,

I just found this awesome game yesterday and tried it for a couple of hours and hat a lot of fun playing solo and with a friend in MP later on.

My ideas/suggestions:
- GUI: Dispose of the Cargo Menu after using the grabber. It is often a combat situation (as there are many pirates around) and though I want to grab the loot, I do not want to loose control over the fight. I could always inspect the cargo later in the inventory - you could even put the cargo crate in the inventory that can be opened later.

- Map System: If I plot a course I want to be able to plot it from station to station. The separation of the system and the galactic map makes not too much sense from that standpoint. So why not make it zoomable to a station level?

- Autopilot: The hotkey is X as I understand it. I think the autopilot could take some time to calculate a route and then you see some lines where it wants to go - that way you can more easily turn it off, when it is on a collision course or heading directly in the sun!

- Customization: Spaceships and avatars need more options for that (especially important in MP). Why not tint the color parts of the ships? Or even show the upgrades like bigger fuel tanks aso. like already done with the weapons?

- Asteroids: Is it possible to make them moving around a little? Like orbiting the central sun, etc? That way it would be more rewarding to mine and not just stand there waiting for the energy to come back.

- Pilot chatter: Like in Freelancer the pilots could use some messaging system where they announce where they are going, if they are landing, if they are being attacked and so on. That way the universe would feel more alive. Same goes for docking and taking off - some kind of station approval that makes you maybe wait in line (again like in Freelancer )

- Multiplayer/Player Interaction: In the station menu, players should be able to interact with each other. Like both being in the lobby and then both clicking on each other to hail and then trade/exchange things like in the shop.

- Multiplayer/Grouping: Players should be able to build a group and then maybe even fly in formation so the experience is more rewarding than just playing alongside each other.

- Trading: The prices seem to rise and fall crazily random. So I buy stuff at a station when it is low and put in the cargo hold of the station and sell when its high. What is the point of that? I mean should it not be more rewarding to actually travel and defend your stuff?

-Trading/Items: I think there are way too few different commodities. You can make it more rewarding to deliver stuff to far away systems if there is a felt need for that item (eg. it cannot be produced there).

-Trading ships: There are too few trading ships hulls as far as I have seen. More variety would be nice! Even maybe different versions of the same model (older version, newer version). That way you would not have to model too many new ships and still can have advantages/disadvantages of older/newer models.

Just a few of my first suggestions from a point of playing 8-10 hours. Hope some of the points are interesting for you. I really was surprised at the very good quality of the game seing it only costs 10$. You have done an amazing job so far and I am glad I stumbled on this "little" pearl of a game

Cheers,
Barghest

[Lurler]

Hello and welcome to the the forums!

To comment on a few of  your ideas,
GUI - actually you can simply press [F] again and you will automatically grab everything, it literally takes a fraction of a second. Could be executed even during combat.
Customization - totally agree with you. For avatars we will be adding more options and for ships we actually do plan to have the ability to recolor them, however since there are so much other important stuff to do we simply can't say when we will be able to get to it Definitely not before the release of the full version, though.
Pilot chatter - again, it's something we would love to do, but it requires to implement some kind of notification system, we will also use it for "galactic news" and other types of messages, but no one knows when we will get to in, there are a lot of other things planned first

But in general, it is only an alpha version, there is definitely going to be a lot of stuff coming to the game! Stay tuned and check our blog from time to time

[Barghest]

Hello Lurler,

thanks for your reply. I hope this game will grow and the community will start to develop and grow as well. I am eagerly waiting for the next update! Did I say that you did an amazing job for an alpha?

Cheers,
Barghest

[Lurler]

thanks for your reply. I hope this game will grow and the community will start to develop and grow as well. I am eagerly waiting for the next update! Did I say that you did an amazing job for an alpha?

Thank you for the kind words

And yes, I'm sure as soon as we properly release the game on Steam there will be a lot of people joining our community and contributing both their opinions and most importantly new mods.

[Barghest]

Hi Lurler,

you might be mistaken with the Grappler GUI not interfering. True everything is taken and it is closed with [F] but only if the cargo is not full. Then it stays open and interfers with combat. Maybe it should close anyways when the player presses [F] again.

Just my 3cents!

Cheers!

[Lurler]

Ah, that's what you mean. In such case it is possible to press [Esc] to close the menu.