So i've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a while now, I've never liked the whole CPU thing.. mostly because it makes no good sense to me. Just seems like a way to limit how many blocks you can have... which you can just turn off. So I came up with an alternative reason for having CPU cores and upgrades. This is just an example but will take some explaining. Tiered CPU's Basic Core, Core (1 slot), Advanced core (2 slot), Quantum Core (3 Slot). Slots are upgrade slots that fit role specific programs? (haven't thought of a good name for it) Combat, Mining & Production and Exploration and recon. Combat +5 to DPS of all weapons - 5 to shields Allows you to place more exotic and powerful weapons, Threat assessment (how tough is that ship, should I fight or run) Mining and Production +5 to Scanner Range - 5 to Weapons Allows you to place mining and salvage turrets that can auto harvest. Allows you to program what items get automatically transferred to what storage medium. Exploration and Recon +5 to shields -5 to Scanner Range allows you to place a longer range warp drive. Friend or foe radar detection The idea being that each program added to a core will balance out when all 3 are added, but also allows you to have new features pertaining to what program you have added to your core. It would work much like suite bonuses do but for the ship itself. would be great for creating roles specific vessels. To upgrade a core to the next level you would need to attain an increasingly rare Item. Furthermore I would suggest that your cpu extenders unlock new features pertaining to each core. i.e. Mining and Production: tier 2 could add automatic production of items to set limits tier 3 could auto refill your docked ships with fuel, o2 and ammo. etc Exploration & recon Tier 4 could have an unlock for a cloaking device. To me this makes more sense than the cpu system we currently have that merely limits blocks and how many lights you can have on a ship. This idea really just adresses capital ships, but similar things could be done for SV's Bases and Hv's.
