Jager14

Long time since I've been on! Twerk has gotten big lol. Can confirm. Am pirate in most space games. Reputation sometimes means more than even money, cause it means you aren't a pussy pirate and actually kill things (I will admit that I only get lucky from time to time)

(Scroll to bottom for tl;dr, but I insist you read this if you're interested. It's a bit complex and hard to explain)
This might not be a good idea, but I was thinking: maybe we make tech trees and planet/ore types invisible and unpresented to players in the beginning. Make it so players only start with the basics (electronics, basic hydrogen/solar power, etc.) and canmt necessarily see what the next level of materials is. Now WAIT, hear me out, I'll explain lol
 
In human society, since its very root beginnings, knowledge has been one of the most effective tools and deadliest of weapons. Groups with superior technology and knowledge, when they use it with proper economy, will have a distinct advantage. We should have a dynamic like this in DU where, to an extent, science and technology aren't an on rails "kill deer to gain XP to build laser turrets".
 
We could make specific devices focused on research and skills/specializations where players focus on science (like weapons/armor research, ship systems, material: keep it relatively simple, but also seperate). As players explore the universe, digging up strange ore, testing weapons in combat, maybe mixing material, they unlock tech and knowledge specifically related to what they are testing or researching.
 
An example: Let's say you're a small exploration team. You have your marine, your captain, your engineer (maybe a doctor), and a research specialist. You set down on an alien planet after parking your ship in orbit and begin scanning the surface for composition of the ground and atmosphere, while your marine maybe scouts around for ruins or something (probably later in the development time). Your scanner gives you the location of a deposit of unknown material nearby, so you and your research spec. Go over there and dig some up. After you return to the ship, he takes that sample you dug up and puts it into an atomic scanner or something, and then that's how you figure out what the Spice (just a random example) is. You then go back down and dig up some more to take back with you to sell to a material institute for study, and a few days later, maybe it's being used as a more efficient ship fuel or something, idk lol.
 
Now why do I think this should be a thing? Because it simply, encourages emergent roles in research, exploration, and prospecting. When everybody knows what planets hold for them or what they look like, less people will be inclined to spend resources in getting to them. Empires stagnate because they go for a specific thing (like the top tier resource) and then that's it. Technology when it's on rails loses it's sense of discovery. When everybody is able to know everything, it lessens the need for cooperation. When the universe is, to an extent, a big question mark, big groups will be more inclined to continue exploring, colonizing, and whatnot.
 
I have dozens of examples of how this would add a lot of depth to this type of game, things like keeping what you know a secret, research business that make money on doing research and experiments for the highest bidder, having people who specialize in SCIENCE tm being a type of role that is sought after, etc. etc. it also offer upward mobility (you have a monoploy in steel in a system, suddenly somebody discovers, idk, adamantite in another. There a california gold rush type run to colonize the source and suddenly, you're ebing run out of business because admantite is the new rage. A new monopoly takes your place...unless you capitalize on the step forward in tech).
 
Tl;DR make us do science and earn tech, actually having to go out and seek it/research it.
 
Thanks guys, sorry this was a long one

I want to be space captain cook

Or being able to name planets or systems you discover (within reason lol). But also think of the stories that would be generated. Like that one time Adventurer Bob went to go find Iron on Planet Y and stumbled into a huge vein of gold or something, causing a literal gold rush lol (as an example). Or when Explorer Jane accidently discovered anti-matter while flying through a nebula or something lol. Being a good explorer should be dangerous and arduous, yes, but it should pay off, and have some mystery, like it did for our ancestors and today and probably in the future.

Yes, I can't see anything wrong with your idea.

Lol, space TSA. Fondling your no-no areas...IN SPACE

Hi everyone! First post here (been lurking here for a week or so, my gf and I have been very interested in the game) and I just wanted to put some ideas I had out there from what I've been reading. Please feel free to correct me or tell me if I've made a mistake . Also, I'm posting this from my mobile, so if my sentence structure is hard to understand, feel free to tell me and I'll make it better.
 
Tying in with the title I posted, I was curious if perhaps instead of relying on stargates to "walk" from one planet to another as primary transportation, perhaps it becomes a lot more expensive and less viable for most small orgs, companies, and solo players to use. I feel like it could creat a niche for things like ferrying, shipping, and cruising companies, where players pay a relatively small price to hitch a ride or small businesses can pay to have another group ship their product, worrying less about developing their own ships, hiring crew, and providing protection.
 
I'll describe it a little more; let's say you're a commercial faction that specializes in commercial shipbuilding or whatnot. Your customers are usually large organizations and guilds, as they're the only ones who can usually afford your designs in large enough quantities to make a significant profit. How you could expand your profit may be to, for instance, open a ferrying company. You build ships specialized in carrying passenger, freight, and maybe land vehicles (I'd love it to be like the Washington state system, where passengers could drive on and then get out and walk into the passenger bay). They'd pay your company for a one way or two way ticket and in turn, you take them to whatever planets you plan on your route. You make profit (if enough passenger pay) and they get a relatively cheap ride away from the spawn planet or wherever.
 
I feel like stargates, if they were too cheap or readily available, might take away the oppurtunity for this mechanice or system, which I feel takes away some of the realism or rather RP feel. IRL people relied on ships to take them all over the world, and I feel like that should be the way in the beginning of DU as well, maybe with FTL barring extreme time.
 
I'm tired and cannot brain but I hope that makes sense