bdole92

I would like to second this notion, i believe the game would be improved by the weapons being built along the same line as everything else, namely multi-block voxels

I don't know if anything has been said along these lines, but something i would really like to see in the game is a diversity of propulsion methods. By that i mean that different propulsion methods that have different benefits and drawbacks, and can drastically change the design of the ships they are used in. Obviously to get around at any reasonable speed any method will have to be suitably "science-fictioned" but there are a lot of real life methods to draw inspiration from, including Nuclear Thermal, Ion, Chemical engines of various flavours, and my favorite Solar Sails. The reason that i think having different propulsion methods available to the players would be a good design choice is because it adds an additional element of decision making whenever you start to build a space ship. Is your ship Nuclear Thermal? Great, you can combine your power source with your engine! Are you building a Solar Sail probe to fly around and collect data for you? Better make sure you pack enough Solar panels/RTGs! Every time you add a meaningful decision making point, you improve player experience and, given the games very builder-friendly nature, i think a diversity of propulsion options would do just that.

The game is so far from even the earliest of early access that nothing you see represents anything close to the final product. I would pay much more attention to the dev blogs, since they showcase the direction in which the devs intend to take the game, which matters much more at this stage in development

Arkifaction, in my opinion, isn't something that should be achievable by individual people. It should require the coordinated effort of at least a medium sized organization, and represent a significant investment in resources. Otherwise, it becomes trivial. In a multiplayer format like a large MMO the benefits, which are great, must be outweighed by proportionally heavy costs

I could see multi-crewed being used in the early game for transports, but i maintain my opinion most players would rather pilot their own ships, all other things being equal. I think if the devs want to see multi-crewed ships being used effectively, they are going to have to pay close attention to the subsystems like wiring, power, weapons etc, and make sure they are sufficiently complex. From an RP perspective multi-crewed ships are really, really cool, but a lot of players have a tough time getting out of the command seat Edit: I also think one of the largest drivers behind multi-crew ships will end up being player organizations. I think players will be much more likely to give up command of their own ships if its in the context of say, a large war between two rival organizations, and fielding medium to large ships was an important part of the war effort

While i appreciate the idea of multi-crew ships and think they are really interesting, at least in the beginning i think a lot of players will opt for single-seat ships due to their relative ease of use. The problem with multi-crew ships in this setting is that in order for the extra crew members to enjoy not being in the commanders seat, the ship has to be sufficiently complex that extra crew members actually have meaningful jobs to do. While i think this probably will happen eventually, i wouldn't be surprised if it took some time for the game to reach that point, due to the complex scripting and voxel-building inherent to the game. One application where i think multi-role crews could come into play is in large, nomad ships, or Enterprise-style deep space exploration. If you had a bunch of people who got together and said "We are going to build a fantastically complex ship, and then fly out and explore as many solar systems as we can", a la Star Trek, then having someone who actually understands the ridiculously complex engineering subsystems you've built would be really, really important

I think a natural reaction to this would be for explorers to carry small relay satellites with them. Basically a trash can with a solar panel and transmitter/receiver glued to it. I like the idea, but i think the capabilities of a relay station should be based on how many supporting blocks are connected to it. Want a shitty, 10km relay signal? Thats just a transmitter+reciever+powersource. Want to communicate with someone the next star system over? Your going to need a biiiig dish for that. The benefit of this is that communicators don't fall into discrete classes, but their capabilities can be scaled based upon the need of the creator. The downside is that its a bit more complex, but i think its something people could wrap their heads around pretty easily. Also, depending on the type of technology used for communication, ground based communicators should have a penalty talking to far-flung regions. Punching any kind of signal through the atmosphere is usually more inefficient than originating that signal in orbit. It also occurs to me that this could really impact pvp on a large scale, since targeting enemy communications could actually be a really effective way of disrupting their organization and capability to muster a response in time.

Whats really interesting to me is that things like missiles will probably be player constructs. Its basically just explosive block, fuel block, engine block at the simplest, but i think there could be a lot of room for player tinkering and innovation, especially with targeting systems and the like. And if you have missiles, you have to have point defense, which would probably be something like a small, rapid fire gun, maybe even a flak type gun, with a "shoot fast moving things and try to predict their approach vector" script plugged in. The possibilities are incredible! On a slightly related topic, do we know what kind of defensive systems are in the game, like armor and shields?

I really want to see planetary cartography as a fleshed out mechanic. I love the idea of tailoring my ship for planetary surface scans, flying around a planet a bunch, and at the end of it having a detailed surface map that points out geological features, man made constructs, and even potentially resource hotspots. With the games scripting and building system though i bet you could design a satellite to do the same thing, depending on the orbital mechanics involved. Attach a "mapping" unit, upload an "orbiting" script, tell it to do X number of rotations around the planet and then stop and then go collect it. Thats my hope at least, but i'm a cartography nerd

Don't think there are ship classes. Its all just a collection of voxels, elements, and scripts. You can call it whatever ya like, but i assume that general guidelines will be created by the community at some point as to differentiate ships of various sizes and capabilities

It would be really interesting from an economics and political standpoint. When claiming territory now you have to take into account how well you can actually grow stuff on the land you own, and whether or not you will have to trade outside of your Organization/compound to sustain yourself, and would add a lot of strategy and choice when it came to things like sieges

A lot of these mechanics haven't been revealed yet, but i really hope you can do these sorts of things! I want a garden with a waterfall on my deathstar, damnit!

In the very early game, yeah you are probably right. However, it can be assumed that the devs intend for the overall level of tech available to the players to increase as time goes on, up to a certain point, so i think its entirely possible that some time after launch a relatively small, dedicated crew could embark on some serious exploration, but doing so will be a suitably epic journey. Hopefully the devs will provide us with ample opportunity to explore in the starting solar system, so we aren't prevented from experience that side of the gameplay right from launch. Of course, its still pretty early so nobody really knows too terribly much about a lot of the game mechanics

I am really, really glad that you can't drop asteroids on peoples bases. The ease with which people could fling asteroids at each other would make it extremely difficult to build anything reasonably large and not have it ground into space dust within a few days. Obviously its less realistic, but oh man is that a good gameplay decision

I would be really surprised if all of these forms of player to player payments didn't find their way into the game. Courier contracts in particular will, in my opinion, probably end up being one of the most common. The way they described the market system, far flung outposts might have to rely really heavily on traders in order to get regular shipments of anything they can't manufacture for themselves, which is a fantastic way of driving player interactions