random thoughts/suggestions about the game

the full version is in the spoiler or attachment. it exceeded the character limit, so multiple posts. copy pasted my TLDR without spoiler. my copy pasting did not carry over 1:1 so we have some weird empty lines, since it is so long i did not fix it, if you are bothered by this just use the pdf (or if pictures, jsut 4, are borken or links are weird, all should be fine in the pdf). so with that i will just say:

thx for your time space traveler

TLDR

my suggestions for things to change/tackle next, in very short:

-remove/replace 20th century tech (motorbike, tent, chainsaw, ...) - most immersion breaking
-remove weapon switch delay on paint/texture tool – time saver/QoL change
-solve the "what to do while traveling" issue – or at least search/brainstorm solutions asap

in terms of importance and significance there is nothing that comes even close to these above for a very very very long time*. Where the first two i believe are somewhat quick fixes that could potentially be a next update kind of deal to fix. The last is a general space game problem and way more complex.

Then since i am totally biased as a builder:

-improve on content delivering frameworks – QoL changes to building, poi, quest implementation etc.

a bit of a toss up in terms of priority in my mind:

-combat – more options for the player to "solve" combat situations, aka do different things
-soundscape – aka more immersion, small sounds etc.pp

and after these two the rest of course.

*Read the sections if you want to know why/more. Aka the Motorbike issue is all about immersion,not fitting scifi, not handling/gameplay/mechanic.

VERY LONG SPOILER !

Spoiler: long version part 1/4

Some random thoughts/suggestions on things i collected over the past month.



This turned out to be a lot more then i first tought/planed, since it started as like 5 pages, which i found a lot at the time, but then i added more and more ... so yeah - sry for this much pages. Turned to a project over a few month now from a "file to take some notes".



Few things i might be mentioning repeatatly in different sections, since they apply for various topics. So things overlap, althrough i tried to structure it a bit by topics, but probably failed miserably since a lot of things tie into each other and at the end i found i repeated points, but here we are. My persepective is mainly from that of someone building, so i might be totally wrong on some points or totally off the mark.



I skiped proof reading at some point, so you might find some more typos at sections i added later. Sorry in advance, but i simply want it to be done, since this turned into more and more of a time sink. To that comes english is not my mother tongue, but it should still be readable and be accetable to get my points across. At least i hope so, you will be the judge



From time to time it might come across as a bit ranty, especially the quest sections, because these could be so much better with the great storys we have – argh%~/& just thinking about these... Well i just wanted to say at the start with so much things on "what could be done better" you might think i dislike the game. I assure you quite the opposite is the case, i really enjoy building stuff, which is 99% of what i do in empyrion. A lot of the things the game does really well, thats why we come back to it again and again (like slap together sth and it flys). A bunch of people create cool content on youtube for the game which we enjoy. So yeah i like it and i simply want it to suceed and do better. I think there is still quite more potential left that can make it better. So this is what this was/is about. A big thanks to the dev's, which are still doing a great job after all these years.



Onto the jounrey to improve this game



>>>MAJOR SPOILERS in some sections, esp quest section.(other too, so be warned)

Video/Scenes/showcase/presentation/media



aka improve ways to create content for the game. Meaning overall your building is great, but fails on the way players can represent it or show it off. The building i would see as the strongest best part and working to show that would be my suggestion here. But even if not, you added the new plants and enemy AI which are great, but kinda hard to capture and represent. Ways to show off these things would benefit the game a lot.



Media/ buildprogression/timelapse stuff



Ways to better show stuff from 3rd person, setup screenshots etc. I am thinking space engineers/minecraft timelapse build videos, aka where you have one camera angle and see the build progress. Not sure if these things are done via a mod/plugin, but i wish sth similar could be done in empyrion. Your building is great and a better way to show it off would improve the media players create for your game. It's currently only shown off via the workshop, having cool build videos would add a lot, since it's such a large part of the game.

Example videos for what i mean:

space engineers:

minecraft:



what i imagine here is basiclly that the blocks placed and textures(+LCD's) are recorded in order in some form of list, since they must be recorded by the game already i would imagine you would just have to change the way this is done.

Then i could place a starter block down, run some "execute buildorder" type command or click sth. Then the game would basically build my thing after what is previously recorded, aka place the blocks+textures+LCD in some intervall. Maybe you can set the inbetween time, so this can be speed up and slowed down. But here you could then in 1st person pan around and record. Result would be sth like in the example videos.



And please add an option to stop the progression and go back a few steps and rewind basically, a bit like tape recorder/radio/music functions.



Media/ Hide Drone interface



make F6 hide the drone overlay/interface. It's basically the perfect tool to take great screenshots with your character in it, except currently it is not due to the interface/overlay being there.



Media/ 4th person shot if in a cockpit from any angle/view



any option to make this possible is fine i think. maybe make the drone work in god mode even if you are seated. It would be a good way to improve ways to take screenshots with vessels and the player inside. I know you can unlock the view with alt, but i want a totally free view option here.



Media/ 4th person (sticky) camera



warframe had some item (sticky/glue camera) you can throw anywhere to place. Then switch the view from this camera and you could still move your player around. Sth similar would be nice for empyrion. Maybe just a key to "lock" the drone so you can move the player model (assuming the drone hud hide issue is taken care of).



Media/ player poses (emotions/emoticons)



meaning letting the player model have certain predefined animations you can play/perform. this is a big part of telling storys inside a game (and the players head). Setting up screenshots and determening how a game is perceived. We have none in empyrion.

Even Mmorpg's have them and for multiplayer this adds a bit of a fun layer to mess around. So just add a few here please. This does not need to be complex stuff and involve facial expressions, but really just simple animations. Things like: dance move(s) (NPCs have the animation there already), some hello+goodbye, some sad/happy animation, some working/busy, sitting/standing/lying down, maybe some undecided (raising shoulders), etc.pp. You get the idea, this does not need to be much to start with, but anything is better then none.



This helps people who lets play your game a lot. Viewers who watch are more likely to click on their videos helping them and you. It might give rise to actual cool multiplayer stories and rp/roleplay stuff, giving a game a longer lifespan and bigger potential player base. Who knows what cool things might happen, but since we do not have sth like that we will not find out.



Media/ wilflife camera / sneaky pictures of animals/world without aggro



yes a bit out there and maybe another game, but i think at least as a thougth/suggestion worth to throw into the mix. Since i can imagine this as some side activity the player could do and could lead to nice screenshots showing off the new animal AI in the process. Could even be some iteration or variation, but i think it could fit the game. Throw this together with the posters we got. Maybe putting the pictures you took into your posters to put into your base/ship, i think this would be cool.



Player Universe impact and Liveliness - worldbuilding



This is probably one of the large sticking points gameplay wise i think. Meaning as a player i can for example have defeated millions of zirax stations, enemies and ships, but in the grandscheme of the galaxy this does not matter at all. A friendly faction military will not come to help me, friendly faction people will not talk to me differently, trader prices are the same etc. You get my point. Whatever i do in the galaxy it feels like there is zero impact no matter the action. There is nothing changing, which i think is a large part of showing player impact. Yes the galaxy is massive but even if minor sth has to be dynamic if the player tips the scales.



The other point i would think i would broadly summarize as "Does the universe feel alive". Having things change and the player having a "deciding impact" definitly adds to that. But there is more to that. Another large part is are there different things to do. Do things feel consistent/fitting, Do things feel alien etc, which depends what the resulting vision is and/or what the vibe should be.



(part of this liveliness/impact is how story/lore is presented too, but this sth i cover in quest/story/lore section)



Worldbuilding/ Extended statistiks Page/counters for things



This would not change anything gameplaywise. But would slightly get rid of the "no impact" feeling. Partially we have this via the player statistik with the death+killed counter, but i would like sth more elaborate then that. This could include simple counters for things like:

-enemies killed (sorted by faction and/or type, so you would se things like "civilians killed or combatants killed" or "Talon killed" "pirates killed" etc.)

-enemy ships destroyed

-predators killed

-(friendly) wildlife killed

-ore mined

-plants havested

-trades made

-money profit/loss via trading

-bases build

-ships/vessels lost (if your sv got destroyed)

-diseases contracted/cured (or status effects)

...

You get the direction and it could include stupid stuff like "died through fall damage" "died in own explosion". Or even better a category like strangest death and then the game would random pick a death and add a small "addon" like: "shot by zirax sniper through left eye on Akua Prime" "died through fall damage while checking the clouds on omicron" these addons could be funny things and you would just have a list with some bullets points that get automatically added.



In general i think counters are nice to extend in other areas, like trigger a quest if you reach a certain point. And even if nothing else is done with these directly in terms of gameplay it gives players a sense of achievement.



Worldbuilding/ Dynamic NPC dialogue options/lines, aka barking dialogue



Doing certain POI or quest(stages) will add a dialogue to the pool of lines you can get. Meaning at a certain progression point or for random POI's that have that marker the dialogue pool is extended/changed. Or this could trigger when reaching a certain reputation. Or when you do sth impressive, like defeat a certain POI on a homeworld of a faction.

Example for specific POI: "i heard someone raided the farr archives"

Or more generic for example doing 100 Zirax POI's could get you a line added to the random_int dialogues like "i heard someone took down 100 Zirax bases, it was big news on the holo net." or more personal "hey, you are the guy how kicked the Zirax out of a bunch of systems, i saw your face on the holo net."

A Trader or Bartender Dialogue could have a "rumors" option or a "brag about your exploits". Lines for rumors would be similar like examples above. The brag option could be something funny/mocking like "did you know i took down 100 Zirax bases." bartender: "yeah yeah, you and every guy who comes in here. After a few root beers everyone is a GREAT HERO of the galaxy ... Do you want another drink?"(could lead to option to buy drink or the bartender gets you a free drink to shut you up). Could even trigger a quest or later send bounty hunters after you that overheard the conversation if you brag a bunch of times about your exploits to bartenders. Aka after a while enemy ship pops up and you get a message pop up "we heard you took down 100 Zirax POI's. Not sure if that is true, but if so then they will pay good credits for your head. So lets see how tough you really are."[->fight starts] note that this would not be a massivly complex mission/quest, but a nice touch to add depth to the universe. The game desperatly needs these.



There could even be easter egg type events, like if i talk to random NPC and get a certain line a specific amount of times a quest or event could trigger. Etc. There are a ton of options with this to make it more engaging and worth while to talk to random NPC. I Think some quests/events should be included there somehow to give them some active element.



You get the general direction i am going with this. Currently the barking NPC dialogues feel stale to me. You read them once, maybe they are interessting the first time, but after that there is no reason to pay attention to them. I think they should have a purpose, but should be optional.



Worldbuilding/ Progress/changing POIs



there are a few iterations/ways this could be done. Either sth like vermillion did a while ago with a single base that gets unlocked if you progress in a quest. Or the other option is a "changing" poi, meaning if you leave the playfield the poi gets replaced by another version that is the next progression from the quest.



This could be a special poi from a faction. Like a stronghold/homebase type building you further unlock within a story/questchain. Or it could be a colony that you support (like doing a bunch of quests getting/doing things they need to survive and grow), which with time gets bigger and more advanced. Which would be nice if you pick a homesystem/planet. You could advance a colony to get more traders avaliable. These could be somehow marked, so the player would know "this is a progression POI" right of the bat.



These could be switching if you favor a faction on a planet too or just randomly, this way shifting territory to simulate factions fighting for land.



Maybe a faction even expands, like have "in construction" type POI's that if you do stuff for the faction on a planet or in a system these get build, maybe even after player decision/preference. Needs a weaponfactory, the faction will build one there, need a hydrofarm instead, the faction will build that out of the "in construction" poi.



I think somehow changing/switching POIs needs to happen since it would bring a lot to the table for quests and makes the universe a bit more dynamic. Could be linked with faction invasions/attacks, mentioned below.



(this is a bit different from the POI versions idea, but the POI versions could potentially add to worldbuilding too)



Worldbuilding/ Automatic POI generation/building



mentioning this more for completionists sake. I am thinking sth like the buildsets, where predetermined bigger block cubes get combined, then some random spawners+loot gets added. There are down+upsides to this and it might work well, but i think it is probably pretty hard to get a good algorythm for this that does not create crap.



Overall the best option i think would be to do an automatic "convert to ruin/wreck" poi function that can turn any existing poi into a ruin/wreck that is then spawned ingame. If you want to fully have a process run automatic, but probably needs a lot of tweaking to get evne that right with loot and such. I expand a bit on that in the POI section.



Worldbuilding/ Trader Prices discount



There could be a (very minor) global multiplier for the prices that gives you a slight discount for a faction you have very good standing with. Aka making a trader playstyle an option.

Another option would be to have some sort of "coupon" you could use on specific traders to lower their prices up to a certain point/cap. These could be questrewards or standing rewards or things you get otherwise (special loot, aka a coupon), basically an item for being such a "great guy" towards that faction if it comes as a faction reward. The trader would have the slightly lower prices permanently. This way you could make your homesystem better to trade, but it would not incentivize exploration, so i think a global multiplier would be a better option. Plus it would tie into a trader playstyle.



These discounts could come via quests automatically too. Do x tasks for a trader then he likes you more and lowers his prices slightly.



Worldbuilding/ Call help/backup



An option to have an item (or interface) where you could call for back up from a faction you have good standing with. If items/tokens, these items could be given out as questrewards for "military" quest from that faction. If an interface it could use faction standing as payment, lowering your standing up to a point (like neutral) and you incentivice the player to do quests to raise standing again.



Something like "kill 10 Zirax bases" would get you a weak military patrol token as a quest reward for example. You could put that on your quickbar and use it to call the back up. On a planet this could get you troops via transports, drones or even a patrol vessel CV - depening on your token. In space just drones or CVs. The back up would stay in the playfield until you leave it. They could even follow you around or just "protect" the point you spawned them in. Maybe you could even make them attack sth you aim at and activate the token from your quick bar to set a target. Basically giving you a bit of backup or just distraction with assaulting a POI.

On use the token/interface would give an arrival message (like"weak military protection detail from Polaris deloyed", aka stating type used (weak/normal/strong) and faction and that it is there). If you leave the playfield you get another message that they are gone (like "your protection detail left the planet/sector xyz", aka stating that they are gone and from where).



These things could even be faction specific. Maybe only certain more combat orientied factions could get you military back up others might spawn other things (like a deployable tradeship/traderNPC/market?hydroponics ship?mining ship?medical ship? Aka things to sell certain stuff or do a certain thing).

For military these can of course only fight their faction enemys, like i could not set my polaris back up onto a polaris POI and hope for them to attack. (There could be "special" units like "ruthless mercenarys" you could get that would fight anyone.)



Worldbuilding/ faction attacks/invasions



similar to a drone attack, just a troop transport and some drones go down on a POI and attack it. These event could be mentioned before to a player automatically(like "the pirates plan to raid a Polaris Radar station in x hours/days/timeunits") or it could be over some rumor dialogue option (so event set up in a nearby/same system the player currently is) or this could be unannounced by default and the player could get some police scanner like item to get the "announcement/warning" messages when and where these happen.



Nontheless i think these still should happen anyway, so as a player you can accidentally run into such an assult while you do the same POI yourself. Maybe the rading faction even takes the POI over before you can do it. This would create some speed run type scenario.



I do not think these have to be something fancy to create "movement" in the universe, just like a base attack, maybe a bit stronger so they can potentially take the POI (calculated by the defense value of the POI). Drop some troops (on planet) and drones, maybe a CV and let the ai have a go at the poi. They could take the POI out, creating something like a ruin/wreckage or could be repelled by the defenders so everythings stays as is. If the poi regenerates it goes back to normal or could even spawn a poi from the winner there (maybe even changing the galaxy faction territory or just favored/shifting the planet poi distribution in one direction, but terretory stays the same).



The "endgoal" should be to have patrol CV fighting in the sky i think. Maybe some ground troops+tanks(hv's) would be amazing. But even if this is not as fleshed out i think this would be cool to see the factions actually fight and not just being told they are enemies.



Worldbuilding/ Faction politics/relations/traits quests



i would suggest doing a few of these with the theme of at least some of them having diplomatic ties to other factions as a topic and the relation of the factions with each other. Some would be more focused on internal factoin squables (like Zirax houses fighting for influence or Polaris managers getting on each others throats.). It would give the player the impression of being involved on a more "global"/universe/galaxy level". To that comes these quest would make the universe feel more alive.

For neutral quests this could be traders dealing with getting there wares from one faction to another, where both dislike each other. These would show the relations more indirect, aka what is the result of two factions not liking each other. Maybe you have to bribe a customs offical, maybe smuggle some wares. Maybe someone got kidnapped and you have to find a person or find out if they are even alive. Maybe a faction did a raid on a POI/settlement because they were enmies and some soldier did not come back from that and you have to find out what happened. There are tons of options to do this that shows the state of the galaxy and relations + faction traits/differences. Like ruthless Polaris trading company, great Zirax empire etc.

Some of these could just be side quests others could be faction specific longer quests chains. These do not need to be long or complex, but show off or focus on sth specific.



These quests could even alter the factions enemies/friends to show more impact if these feature a more diplomatic/political theme. For example a longer questchain where you are sent on a diplomatic errand brokering peace. result would be the peace if succesfull, but now a former friendly faction is not pleased with the new arrangement and goes hostile. So overall you could not make all friends (or you could and it would just take a lot of effort, who knows?). But there are a few options already there to do quest(chains) in that theme that would bring a lot of live to the galaxy.



Examples:

-infiltrate poi xyz (aka acess a console or even destroy said poi, maybe include a decision here into the quest)

-free prisoners (aka talk to npc prisoners in a poi, this could be combined with a decision like revenge for imprisonment, aka kill VIP)

-talk to contact (this would have to be very well written and could have some funny fetch quest attached)

-hunt for a VIP target (aka destroy a specially spawned patrol cv/sv, maybe going into some bountyhunting territory here. But would show enemies via hunting the factions enemies)



Worldbuilding/ Expansion/selling real estate to factions



these could be prompted by a quest like "polaris wants to expand in sector/planet xyz and has over a reward of abc credits if you establish 5 foreward bases". Essentially the player would place some bases down. These could have certain requirements too. Like special/specific blocks that needs to be included and the game would check.

Like "polaris wants 4 factorys" and a factory would see the game as a base with like 4 large constructors and 8 storage/cargo crates. So the player would have to have at least these blocks in the base. Another option is these could be special blocks like a mining blocks or/and some sort of crew blocks that after the polaris take over is converted to a trader or into a specific POI interaction point for the faction you sell to. Or these could be prebuild prefabs you have to place that then are switched to POIs, but having just block requirements would be cooler because the player could build stuff in his choosen style that then shows up. If he wanted he could simulate his own faction this way.



If you have placed your base you could give it to the faction to progress the quest (via core option or a console option or an interface etc). Giving over the base could already get you a small progression reward.



This way the player can throw in their stake with a faction and it feels a bit like he is building an empire without actually having an empire himself. It would adress the "player empire" issue a bit and would feel like you have an impact by literally changing the galaxy, aka establishing a faction on/in a new planet/sector. Yes it is not the "player empire" directly, but very similar so i think a good compromise if the player as multiverse company is not the vision/goal you guys have in mind and want to keep to the "single player"/lone wolf aspect of the game.



Worldbuilding/ Escort station service



Basically you could hire a small escort. This would open the gameplay up to more peacefull options (trading) or/and for you to go through dangerous sectors with them protecting you (aka probably just drawing fire). Or you could just get back up for a tough enemy/poi.



it would cost more for a stronger escort or for them to follow you further of course. This would give the player the impression "i am someone powerfull in the galaxy that can pay these fighters/drones/CV's to protect me." aka the immersion of you have an impact/power/sway in the galaxy around you.



If problems with changing playfields, this can just be in the same playfield. Even with these limitations this can be a great feature.

Please add messages "you hired a weak/medium/strong escort" when you take someone on and if you leave the playfield "your escort left."



Worldbuilding/ other stuff to do – side content



beside find a new poi, kill said poi etc. Yes main focus is fighting and survial via fighting. But the player needs to at least be able to do other things. And these other activites add depth/liveliness to the universe. So really anything is fine, as long as it is interactive world stuff.



The pirate arena was a bit of a try to do this. Yes still fighting but in a bit of other context. I am pretty sure you can do a repeatable race track with signal logic, still sth on my list of things to build. There are probably other things. But even simply setups require quite complex signal logic and are most of the time a workaround instead of establishing a gamesystem/mechanic that does this. So i would really like other things like this.



You have the carddealer gambling NPC's. Maybe look for some simple opensoruce cc0 game and add that. Maybe add different games for them or create some scifi looking game consoles.



Add a station/console/teleporter to play some holo tag type game. Aka player gets teleported in an instance to play some map where fighting npc, if death teleported back. Yes still fighting, but could have weird elements like holo/neon weapons or special enemies etc to make it different.



Reforged eden added fishing. So maybe add that or other mundane tasks. With event/counter/trackers this could give things like "biggest catch" "times nothing bit" etc.



If you expand on trading crafting things for profit could be an option. Building bigger trade ships to accomodate the progressively larger asks from your quest givers.



If you add blocks to automate production a player could set up a factory.



If you have a scrap/buyer service you could create sth that gives money for "turning in" unique blueprints. So the player would go out and hunt for different wrecks.



If you expand/add on the crew aspect. You could get things that involve crew managment or general managment. Let the player run a space Inn or other weird stuff.



Can they player collect/breed monsters and open a monster farm type base. Maybe sell these for profit.



Can you do a dance off at the club?



A galactic treasure hunt quest. Where you solve riddles and find pirate treasure.



Pure puzzle quests that require zero (or near zero) fighting. Althought again the games current state makes them hard to do, if you want to try more complex stuff and not the usual things.





You get the direction. These things could be quest chains, side quests or one off's or a brand new game mechanic. They could come form a totally different direction. You have a science fiction game. Makes things fantastic, it is fantasy after all. Maybe create things that are weird, create horror, mystery etc.

How far you wanne go here is up to you, but i think further of the standard path is good, if you look at other games like yakuza. That do totally different side content and players like it.



Worldbuilding/ Shipbroker



simply a NPC or POI that sells and maybe buys ships/vessels. He could have a predetermined list of things he sells like the prefabs or better he could offer things you have subscribed on the workshop. I think it would be a lore friendly way to implement the workshop vessels into the gameworld.



Worldbuilding/ Cave planets(caves in general)



to my knowledge full cave planets have not been done in a game. I would imagine there are a bunch of reasons for this (aka lots of problems with terrain generation). But it would be a standout feature and with the good current flora generation i can imagine looking very nice (+ throwing in some glowing plants so this looks nice).

If full cave planets do not work can we get generated caves? These could be places to find special ressources, like currently underwater is, or could be certain special biomes with stronger enemies and enviromental effects.



Worldbuilding/ faction bloat/distrinctions



this comes a bit back to the questsection "show more, tell less" and a bit to the question "what is the plan/direction" and how much of worldbuilding is actually fleshed/thought out and most importantly why is it done this way. Maybe this is internally laid/planed out by Eleon already, but from the directions taken i am not convinced here.



Most factions are just a cardboard cutouts with a blurb in the empyrionpedia in my book. The themes overlap quite a bit, like scavenging (wastelanders+pirates), militaristic (zirax+arc), archaic/tribal (farr+talon), weird alien (legacy + kriel+tesh etc.). There is probably more, but you get my point here. So my question would be what makes two of these different from each other, you could say the build style, then my next question is what function do they serve in terms of the games lore/store/mechanics. Do they drive the story in some way, do they fill a worldbuilding hole (plot hole that existed). Do they have some game mechanic that others do not have. At that point i feel it gets very muddy very fast.

Yes you can have some stuff because "it just looks cool", then this the reason it is there. If everything seems to have that function we are running into a problem.



We had the legacy as the "mysterious alien faction", since the plot progressed they became less mystery and more enemy faction. Then i feel as a new "mysterious" aliens we now got the kriel (just slightly mysterious tho, but checking the alien box) and the tesch/void/progenitor (what ever the distinction between these three is i do not even know, honestly i lost track of these – they are there i guess).

The Zirax were main enemy and Polaris more the good (or less bad) guys. With pirates as a random enemy faction / bad guys.

Now we have warlords and pirates function as sth else, what excatly that is is still unclear to me (and i am building poi's for them).

The scavengers are now the wastelanders, which are just there i guess and have the emperyopedia entry.

The arc i do not even know, since they overlap with polaris in theme/function so much. So i am still unclear what purpose they serve in the game world.

The farr is probably the most thought out in terms of lore, but other then having the text blurb i think there are no quests to expand/use the great lore that exists (i think the quest was reforged only, but i could be wrong).

In short now we have a bunch of other other players/factions, which we do not even know what the motivations there are. We only get told by the empyriopedia, but there are no quests, no substance, no distinct gameplay to back these up.

Do not get me wrong i do not dislike the new or old factions, but for example selling the "talon used to be high-tech" fact is already hard/unbelievable. Since we are only told this, we are NEVER shown this fact, which makes the story and there for worldbuilding hollow. Add a bunch of more factions there that have the same/worse problem and it gets bad.



What i wish a very very clear distinction to for the faction traits. The player needs to get a slap with a fence post style awakening what each faction does/represents/etc. And yes this needs to be shown, aka with a quest presumably.



For example:

farr+pirates(+arc)

[Assuming farr are about gold, assuming pirates are greedy for gold and daring, assuming arc are mercenaries.]

Let's have a mission where pirates raid a farr gold transport. Give some short well written expositon about hard mission if you take it on, farr love gold, pirates want to get it blablabla. (maybe give an option to get support from arc here already) Let the pirates mention this will be hard to drive this point home extra hard and farr will retalitate, but not in a way that you do belive it gets insane. Then let the player raid the gold transport. Then let the farr go hard after the player so he wishes to not have done that mission, maybe chase over multiple sectors. Let the pirates laugh about the weak player, maybe they even double cross him and leave with most of the gold, but farr chases the player because they think he has it.

Maybe give an option to get help by arc for (a lot of) credits at this point (of for the gold you stole so you end up with nothing). The magic trick will be how to resolve this whole mess in a good/satisfying way for the player. Maybe arc will spawn a fleet for him, if not you might have the farr chasers on you forever (or quite a long time, aka until they kill you). Let this mission be over the top, let it be a crazy/wild if it comes from the pirates after all.

This quest alone would show:

1.the farr will go very far for their gold^^ (i can not resist there). Aka Farr faction motivation is gold.

2.pirates are greedy (backstabing) bastards.

3.pirates do crazy stuff (the mission should be a fun ride)

4.arc are mercenaries for hire.

5.arc can get you out of impossible situations, but costs a lot.

You could have when farr engages let them hail the player, so the speech pattern of the farr could indicate medieval. So you would even be able to cover that if you wanted to.

This one mission alone would be gold in a methaphorical sense and apparently in terms of bad puns while writing this^^. The player actually experiences what three factions are about. He interacts with them, some more direct, others more indirect. Preferably there are small decisions involved too, so you would have the sense of doing stuff in the galaxy. Do similar missions a few times and at least you have some basics covered and factions have substance to them.



For the factions i would like a better distinctions overall. Few more examples how this could be done:

-Let speech pattern be a bit faction specific. Medieval/specific terms, certain syntax etc.especially with military factions/NPC's this should be a thing.

-custom figures of speech, greetings and so on: make up figures of speech for factions and/or the universe, meaning idioms. Such a minor detail will add a lot to how lively a faction is received and viewed. These could be leaned onto existing ones in our world or be completly new.

-Let missions be a bit faction specific, like themes or what/how you get as an exposition. This could even be in terms of pacing and how they are set up. Yes this could get complex fast, but would add a lot to the game.

(examples here what i mean: arc could be more like a military briefings + more straight forward missions overall. Maybe missions for arc are more about military/mercenary themes too. Pirates could leave important stuff out on mission briefings, the missions could be wilder, with more twists. In the same manner if you have decisions and deviate from the plot/mission depending on the faction the consequence should be different. Like polaris could be very by the book. Arc could be happy if the employer is happy no matter the previous mission. Pirates could only care if they get no cut/bribe in the end.

You could have distinct things in a mission of a specific faction, like in pirates mission always an option to blow stuff up or bribe/kill/enslave people.

For pacing you could have things that go slower more methodical at a start for like a more structured faction like polaris, meaning in practical terms maybe an exposition mission most of the time or the start of missions going slower. In theory meaning you would stretch certain points of the dramatic arc by design depending on the faction or do things a certain way. Like arc could always get you some after mission report, making the conclusion slower/methodical. Kriel/aliens/mysterious could leave the conclusion a bit to guess work and finish the dramatic arc/quest faster without a clear resolution others have. Pirates could throw you right into some action, basically cutting the front of the dramatic arc a bit.)

-Maybe have game mechanic's specific to a factions (like wastelanders scavenging, arc hiring escorts etc.)

-Maybe have faction specific items.

-have distinct markers for faction style that are easy to understand+imitate and tied into the lore. This way they make sense and players can build POI's more easily for that faction.(farr does this overall the best i think: they are about gold, cult and medieval stuff, which all are tied neatly into some lore package and can show in terms of style. These three things are easy to understand and show while building. No other faction can be summed up and explained so quickly with three words in my opionon and get style/direction and some general tendencies across. You can build off-style and just call "they bought this building/poi/ship" and it still works with the lore. Yes ideally you want to push the style for one direction, but building a different style here does somewhat work and does not require some elaborate explanations.)



worldbuilding/ faction blurb/style to public



On another note i would release in the public buildersleague or lore section these set rules/distinctions for the factions. What are they about, what is the build style. What are the people of this faction about, how do they fit into the galaxy. Do they have a specific game mechanic etc.pp.

(important: these info dumps should be optional and not be needed to understand/follow the main game. It should be clear from playing the game what the factions are about, the blurb will mainly be a summary with bonus info and minor details.)



Forum users might read it and think "yeah cool, lets build sth for it." they might like the style and try to do a poi. Together with changes to make poi building more acessible this might get more people into it.



Worldbuilding/ legacy "threat"/seizing the galaxy



meaning in most of the story/quests the legacy is characterized as this big bad entity that is a growing problem and major threat. In the first quest we even learn the "legacy is seizing this world". All this implies some urgency, sth needs to be done. The player needs to get active or we are all doomed. The classic hero story blurb stuff, that is all fine until it comes to your worldbuilding.



The problem with these things is that in actually nothing much is happening. Our galaxy in terms of game structure is pretty rigid or unchanging which is one problem (and needs to be addressed by better game mechanics too). The other is if the player travels the galaxy he finds a working empire/corporation xyz if he gets to its territory. To some degree that is fine, since the galaxy is a big place and there would be untouched systems where things are as usual. But for this point of the legacy being a growing threat, and the emphasis here is on sth that needs to be adressed or things go bad. Looking at these untouched systems there is the question here why the player should care and if this is even a "growing issue" like the game wants us to believe.



I think there are a few way to make this possible.



1."infected" systems outside of legacy space.

Like our starting system there could be systems where the legacy is actually seizing an entire system. This does not mean infector CV's flying aorund killing stuff (i mean could be, but not the goal actually to show growth). What i mean is system where stuff look slowly overrun. You see partially converted POI's and can guess from the setup that the legacy are at work. Yes i know abandoned POIs should be that, but i think the point needs to be driven home harder and maybe stuff that is more visibly transformed on the surface. Establish a big threat, drive points you want to make home hard. Judging from the story this is a major plot point you want to drive home hard and hit the player over the head again and again (methaphorically speaking of course ). A whole solar system is gone from the map, that is scary.



2.(multiple) quests that have this as a minor theme or just touch on it slightly.

Important here is the minor part. Contrary to what the main quest does, where every time legacy is in any way or form involved it becomes the main theme focus of a quest i want other things to be a main focus and the legacy be a minor foot note. It will make for better stories, since you have more variety and it is way scarier.



3.invasions

this does not need to be infectors, but could be small ships. Going in a system doing some damage (or looking like it). If you got the faction invasion mechanic down send a bigger defensive fleet. So things get resolved without anything changing. There could be a quest linked here too.



4.random "ambushs"

As an example i think x3 reunion did a great job at establishing the Kha'ak

faction as a galaxy threat in need of being dealt with (+later/current x-games use the same approach still i think). What they did is have in some sectors small invasion forces spawn in on the edge of visible/detection range. These were not strong groups, mostly small fighters. These would circle around, sometimes attack a stray ship or a station. Most of the time taking forever to even do some significant damage. So the player could easily deal with these. If you had faction patrols these could deal with them too. So mostly they were a nuissance, but they were there - constantly, lurking in darkness of space so to speak. Now if you went to their sectors they still had massive ships that were strong and could whipe the floor with you and of course many many more fighters that would swarm you.

I think sth similar could be done in empyrion. Have some type of small scout ships from the legacy. This could be some what weak and deal low damage (and give low/zero valuable loot), but they could show up often to harass the player and nag his mind , aka "The legacy is there and they are watching you". I think having like a random mechanic to spawn them from time to time would be good. Maybe some players might think "ah the weak legacy" and go to their worlds and get blasted to pieces. Overall i think this is a good way to eastablish the legacy presence.



Worldbuilding/ pet animals



more stuff that can fit into this category and can be spawned as your favorite pet "fluffy" in a station



aka most things we got are big mean looking monsters, which is fine, but i would like a bit more smaller variants of stuff. For pet's i currently would probably only consider the small spiders+scorpions if i would want to place sth like this in a POI or space ship as a flavor thing.





POI stuff



to sum it up: it is painful/tedious, quite one dimensional and lacks fun stuff to play around with currently. Fix all these and you are golden – yes easier said then done.



POI/ organic building elements



(organic in the sense of alien goo, smoth curves and insect stuff)

there are a bunch of organic factions (legacy, kriel) and otherwise poi's where some sort of hive or creatures rule supreme. But most/all deco elements we have are tailored to spaceships/metal/tech. For the player this is fine, but for building POI's there desperatly need to be some elements to make them look good or add small detail.

I am not saying you can not currently do organic poi's, but spawn pads look out of place and most deco elements too. Similar the loot crates. I would wish for some options in that department.



For example: alien/organic looking cargo boxes, tech deco, general deco, elevator, lights , etc.



POI/ organic spawn pad



some sort of organic spawn pads for the organic poi's races.



Idea:

something like a (flat) tree stump mixed with a pizza with a fat pizza like boarder/crust. And some circular like structure in the middle circle like the tree age rings. Spawn animation could be some alien goo splash effect instead of the blue teleporter. I imagine sth like the effect from a water drop falling into water. Probably leave the general shape of the pad, aka a circle mixed with a cross so the outlines look similar and the player can recognize "this is a spawn pad".



I am thinking sth looking like this at the top section in term of structure: https://i.etsystatic.com/31028768/r/il/10d5ae/3262385407/il_1588xN.3262385407_5gjc.jpg

(cut the top section, add your cross shape outside, some alien goo texture/look and we are done with a solid looking alien spawn pad)



POI/ save with docked sv/hv



this should be pretty clear from the heading i think. Most of the time i like building smallish vessels out of blocks. I think this gives poi's more charm, aka there are things happening there. Having the option to save an hv/sv with it would be cool and the player could take these over. Meaning it would open up more options to the scavenger route/gameplay.



POI/ enviromental effect / room effects



poison gas room, burning room etc. You get the idea. + some way to configure these things, intensity, type etc. This could be done over a ventilator/device type. So you could have a puzzle to destroy the device before the players gets killed by the enviromental effects. Or you can make the device unaccesable so the player would have to deal with that effect via changing armor mods or meds.



POI/ (enviromental) effect block



very similar like the above, but just block that has the 1 block radius where the effect is there. I could set temperature or radiation to my liking and place this. Like creating a hot path the player will aim to avoid and take a different route.



POI/ Visual effect type blocks



effect type blocks, that gets removed/destroyed if the block is gone. The idea is blocks that can add for example smoke to a chimney or broken pipe, a spark effect to a generator room, a fire etc. These could be basic things, but would make some poi's make feel more alive and lived in. I am well aware that you can technically do this with decal blocks already, but sth a bit easier to use would be nice and that saves with a build on the workshop. combined with some poi enviromental effects this could be great as an indicator. Example: fire -> room has high temperature, aka danger

Things that can either show sth to the player or make the poi come alive would be cool.

Make these able to respond to signal and you have a nice way to work that into a poi, aka player turn things on -> effects happen.

These visual effect blocks not only be visual a poison cloud could actually poison the player if he walks through, same with fire it could burn the player.



(sidenote: or/and we could have blocks that add holo advertisments stuff, for example like an add for root beer. So this quest would at least somewhat make sense and fit into the universe )



POI/ Sound effect blocks



quite simple have a block that can produce a sound. Make this work with signals too. These could be generic sounds like:

some metal piece falling down

some alien unintelligible speech

a metal grid opening or swinging

machine sounds

scifi energy sounds

horror sounds (screams, screeches, wet sticky alien goo sound etc)

etc.



The player could activate stuff and then get a feedback. Or you could gide the player via these to a point or signal danger via a monster/danger indicating sound.



POI/ sv/small CV ships landing/flying around



pretty sure this could be done quite easily i would imagine and can give some life to the planet/universe. The idea is to have a block like drone spawners that designate a landing pad+area. There the sv/cv's land shortly (fancy version would be to have NPC's do stuff with animations if ship lands, but not even needed). After a short while the ship starts and then flys around again, maybe to another poi, maybe they just fly in a random pattern until they land again or just despawn after a distance.

This could mark a pad+area as non useable for parking by the playing like giving a message "transport docking area, parking not permitted". Another option could be to have some consequence for the player is he parks there, like lowering reputation when he is there and a transport wants to land or if the parking ship has guns it shoots the player ships etc. Or it simply does not come.

Having more traffic on planets and on stations in space would be cool. I would imagine pathing is not such a pain if they just land/park straight up and then fly away and maybe despawn. Plus for a more pirate route the player would have the option to destroy these vessel and pirate.

(if these are sv's we would need big crew block so the vessels look like a pilot is there. Or this could just be 3d models like drones and troop transporters.)



if you have progression poi's these could indicate how advanced the poi is too. Like more air traffic means you have helped the poi out a lot. Maybe even bigger ships landing etc.



POI/ scrapping service



this could be a coupon/token you get from a quest to use on a core you are at or something like a station service where you select an owned station/vessel to scrap over something like the owernship/registry list. They could even take a ridicoulus cut, like 50%.

It could function over a scrapper block to place that then leave the playfield or something like a repairbay field starts and you get the ressources or the ressources are spawned there and you have to pick them up. The most awesome thing would be a small animation of course, scrapper drones maybe or a scrappes ship coming, dropping drones. The scrapping starts (NPCs wandering around with some welding things) and after a while the thing is gone or nearly gone for respawn purposes. You get the ressources or have to get them from somewhere. It does not matter how this is done, but if this would be a great thing.



POI/ Restore any sv/hv/cv to flyable state



the option to capture any vessel/wreck you find and take it with you as a new ship would be cool. I know the games limitations, just saying it would be awesome. Like a quest ship/location, take it over and fly away. Liking a patrol vessel, take it over fly away, Liking a wreckage cv, take it over and fly away.



IMPORTANT: i think that main issue is NOT that this not possible, but that it is to unclear/muddy what is a "working" cv and what is just a base. The game logic is simply not consistent. I am not sure this is even solvable other then making anything flyable at this point. Let me explain what i mean here:

If i have a patrol vessel, it flys around like a cv, it has blocks like a cv, why can i not fly it. Similar a CV shaped thing at a base is part of the base, but it looks like a cv, might even work but why can it not. A quest/wreck location might look like a cv, float in space like a cv, have cv parts, but is not a flyable cv. Yes the reason is game architecture/code and yes you can check in the p-menu and have map symbols etc, but my point is from a purely game logic point of view, what we get know as a CV (aka ship shaped big block vessel with thrusters) and what is not are the same things here. There is no clear distinction, if that is even possible to do and how is another whole other question.

This problem shows by new players being confused which CV's they can takeover and which not. In the game world/lore/Story there is no distinction between a wreck, which is a BA or a CV wreck.

We suspend disbelief by playing and using the rules the game presents to us. The "what is a CV" is part of that, but each time we are infront of a CV we are thrown right out of this imaginary world. Fixing the "fly anything"-issue i think would have a big positive impact in terms of gameplay.



POI/ Asteroid blocks on planets border or filler blocks SI + above ground



make filler blocks support SI and to be able to use them above ground. Or make asteroid blocks be able to create an even/no border to outside terrain without the gap. You currently can only raise the blocks to avoid this gap, but then you have a platform. Making building with asteroidblocks on a planet poi possible, but use some workarounds.

See picture asteroid_ground_offset




POI/ Dedicated POI testing scenario/interface



a simple scenario like the base attack one, but with a selection before where you can put in the build form your blueprint list or subscribed ones. The select poi/cv you want to test (or multiple?) gets selected and placed into that scenario automatically. Then start the scenario there you start near the poi/cv, have maybe like in creative a list with usefull console commands or a tank/sv/cv to get going.

The main idea is that you could put a poi/CV on the workshop and people can test it to their hearts content easily with the scenario. Or if they have problems with a poi run it a bunch of times or do other weird stuff, who knows.

What this would do is first make it easier to test poi early with more people. I Think overall chances are more people would get into poi building too, more people would generate ideas/layout/puzzeles to be used in poi's. Overall it would be great quality testing and idea generation in my book and overall a plus to have a "game mode" like this.



Could be a console command in creative to switch POI to "active/hot" too for testing. Really anything that makes building POI's more acessible for a bunch of people is fine.



POI/ Anything that makes poi building easier



really anything to make things better is a plus here. From interface improvements to convieniences to easier testing etc. For example:

-a display/mark option for the alien caches you place. So you can check how many and where you placed which types. Think x-ray vision type stuff

-easier option to test your poi (see extra point)

-display multiple/all areas indicators of spawners

-way so spawners show what creature is set from further away (like replace red person with the creature model simplyfied)

-quick option to show signals linked to a certain sensor

-improved airtight display, show airsections or show where breaches are (pretty sure this was done in the latest update, so scratch this)

-some way to check trader wares in creative/building mode

-way to show overlap in trader wares of a poi

-option/button to create a ruin poi with an algorythm, this can be random, but would be a hughe improvement. (see extra point)

-show/highlight certain blocks, a bit like xray mode, used to check distribution. Could be used for loot, spawner, o2 station distribution etc. Or could be used to highlight cargo extensions on normal builds to see where to extend them if possible.

-preset mechanics/puzzles/tasks i can setup with 1-2 mouse clicks (like arena, racing etc.)

-different color tools clearer interface (you can currently have a color tool in each hotkey that has a different texture/color/symbol selected and switch between them to paint. Leave this feature in, make it better acessible and easy to see which tool has what color/texture/symbol selected)

-larger item stacks in creative/item menu. There is zero reason to make them low

-any improvements to texture tool interface/useability pay out big time

....



POI/ instant weapon/hotkey switchting in creative



This is part of making poi building easier and was first there above between the other points, but is such an important point that i feel it needs more elaboration. This is like such a big deal and underrated QoL change that would speed up and improve building overall it is insane.



I do not want to do the math (because it will bring tears to your eyes), but needs to be touched on to understand the severity of the issue. Weapon switching is about 0.5 seconds. I must admit i do not know the excat value, but there is a time/delay involved, let's assume 0.5, i think it is a reasonable assumption.

Now when switching to a weapon you see the animation of it "being taken out", during that time you are locked into that action. Meaning you can not click. This includes switching to the paint/texture tool and this includes switching from the paint/texture tool back to a block/device. Switching from Texture tool to a block/device has no animation, but you still have the delay. Switching between blocks/devices is instant, meaning i can directly switch and place the block/device, depending on how fast i can move my fingers to push the buttons. But going from any block/device to your texture tool or from it to a block/device. Now i admit we have gotten used to this delay and sometimes you think what/how you want to paint so if there is or is not delay would not matter. But for the sake of my train of thought and argument, let's make some simple assumptions here.



Lets say we have to switch 500 times. This will be 4 minutes alone you spend "just switching your texture gun. Now you could say switching 500 times is a lot and i would say you switch WAY more.



Assuming you paint/highlight things while building you do a few switches. Here you spend not just the 0.5 seconds, but you spend 1 second "locked in animation" while switching from a block to your texture tool. Since selection of the hotkey with the texture gun gets you the 0.5 seconds and going to your block again gives you the break/delay again.



To put these numbers into perspective a smallish build alone has around 500-1000 blocks (sparrow Cv around 700). With small POIs more around 2000+ blocks(size class 3/4ish). Lets say 1000 blocks for our calculation, maybe we texture each block one time (it is usally way more, assuming we do not build a solid box) and we switch our gun for some reason every secound time, which again is not much and the amount we do switches is probably more. So you get easily into the 500 switching, aka "4 minutes time wasted" range.



At this point you might say "wait a minute i work with just one texture tool, so i do not need to switch". Then my question would be can you select a new texture/symbol/color in/under 0.5 seconds each time. Aka do you have lower delay then switching to a new texture/color/symbol. A reasonable assumption is not - so you spend the same/similar(or probably more) amount of time selecting textures/colors/symbol that i would solve with switching tools. I think working with multiple texture/color tools in hotkeys is currently the fastest way to work. But no matter how you work and what you do you switch tools and this quite often without noticing anyway. Or you waste more time selecting colors/textures on the same tool. No matter what the case really, fact is as it currently stands this "switching delay" is a big useless time sink.



Keep in mind that this example was for a small build, the numbers in reality are probably much higher ... let's just not think about this more ...



Think motorbike/20th century tech for building, that is the amount of impact this change would have. Only difference it would be visually not as visible.



POI/ ruin POI command/algorythm



the idea here is to have a command to run and play around with until i get a shape/setup that i like then change it for the poi/wreckage so it is a poi/wreck (adding lootm spawner, making changes etc manually). There are currently two fractions (wastelanders+pirates) not counting the wreckages/graveyards/abadoned stuff where this would be incredible usefull just to sketch out intial ideas and throw around different setups without much time. Ruined stuff is a pain to build due to the asymmetrical character and rust texture. This would make work faster+easier. Yes in a last iteration this could be automed poi generation, aka remove certain devices/loot and make a great ruin from the start with just a command so the game could grab any random poi and make it show up as a cool ruin/wreck – but let me stress this, it does not need to be that to be a very very usefull tool.



this does not need to be a super advanced algorythm that when executed creates the perfect ruin/wreck poi. It can just be a console command to remove a random number/percentage of blocks and replace a random number/percentage with truss blocks with a distribution pattern that clusters a bit. Both these block numbers/percentages you could determine in the command sth like:

ruin Idnumber %removed %truss

(or add it to prefab command)

when advanced you could add options to tweak/adjust the random distrubution pattern, aka do i want all removed/replaced blocks in clusters, how much spread is there etc.



If you want to make it fancy add a third option replace some fitting block with damaged blocks option. More fancy to add random rust decal/texture to blocks or add damage values to blocks. But again just having a command that removes random blocks and replaces some with truss would be a big deal.



POI/ Hacking/lockpicking



at least sth that you should consider is having some (maybe optional via options menu) hacking/lockpicking mechanic. It is scifi and i think some hacking is part of the package there. The door code problem could be prevented there too, but a slightly different issue (see below).



In terms of hacking/lockpicking there are tons of games with different versions/approaches to this. So many options to choose from + it would add some different type of interactions to POI's. So in my book a plus, but i can see why would not want this, since it is some kind of (mandatory) busy work for the player.



A hacking interface/mechanic i would find quite nice to use sometimes in POI's. Currently sth like that is not ingame and only doable via some weird workaround, like the hacking stallites in project eden for example. Aka needing lots of space and is always the same for the specific poi.



POI/ the door code problem



aka ways to display/hint at door codes are suboptimal. Meaning either letters/numbers on a wall, which if we are being honest makes most of the time no sense. You can do a LCD with text, which is okayish, but has no translation if someone plays in another language so takes away from the immersion. Or you can have a quest/dialogue, but then you have to setup a quest each time, which not every poi needs. Or use tokens, which require setup too. So in short i would love some other quick+simple solutions for this that fits into the world.



We have gotten the PDAsingle item, which is great and perfect for this. Expend the interface there so i can just type in a door code or/and a small code section/text that saves with the POI. Then i can put my code there, the player finds this, clicks on it, gets displayed the code and can use it on a door. It is more fitting for the world, since it (somewhat) makes sense that someone would lose a PDA with a code in it.

If i can just input a code this could have some "overlay"presets i could choose for a different faction, maybe some book/scroll type for tribal on their thing too. So if the player opens it he gets a screen a bit similar to this below. Ideally it would be a floating LCD, but could be some opo up window too.

Content/design would be some boarder/LCD/deco stuff and text and a code highlighted. Just make the text some alien unintelligable/readable symbols for all and they are useable all the time. If i build the poi i just pick my style and put in the code. And the player has a good looking screen with obvious code display and not just some pop up box.



Or it could just be some security card overlay/screen similarish to this below






For a ancient/tribal thing maybe a stoneplate or parchment. Just add something similar like the PDA for tribals and we are golden. book+scroll type overlay stuff.



Having a hacking option would open more routes for the player and maybe you could have an option to use a console for hacking etc. But again the PDAsingle item i think is fine for what it should/can do already here.



POI/ Traps



anything is better then nothing here. Things that change the "find enemy and kill", "find next enemy and kill", "find core and kill". Aka dedicated trap blocks, meaning blocks that "do things to the player".



Examples:

1.electric fences/fields

a block i can place that has some enery/electric type or field/grid. If the players walks through he gets a debuff/damage/disadvantage. So it is better to disable, but with good armor/boots you could ignore it. Ideally have an option to tweak the strength of this trap please, so it is not always the same + a visiual indicator to the player how strong it is (like more electric sparks or some loading bar(lights on some tech boarder). Have small options for the block, like doors, meaning at border, in middle, slope and round. I could do electric fences or just block or make a section harder. Make these respond to signal and create signal and you can do great traps that shock the player

visually+mechanic i am thinkinh sth like this (starcrawlers game):

https://images.gamewatcherstatic.com/news/image/1/72/1761/index_0037428.jpg

2.dislocation/push traps

this could come in multiple version (a bit like the effect if you run through an elevator and get slowed down currently, just wayyy stronger):

2.a trampolin/fling trap

One sth like a jumppad/fling trap. You can transport the player up with this or do some "jumping" puzzle etc. Could look like some spawn pad with scifi/energy vortex

in terms of Mechanic Sth like this (spring trap from orcs must die game):

https://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/orcs-must-die-2/6/62/SpringTrap.jpg

for visual i am thinking like xcom1 the alien elevators:



2.b push/barrier/field traps

here i am thinking you could have a barrier that is either a solid wall or sth with slight resistance the player can push into (like walking in some alien goo effect), but gets pushed back out. Ideally i could tweak the resistance. These of course need proper visual indicator of where the field ends/startes. But you could do quests/taskes of disabling field to open a path. Free people from a force field. If you have slight push back you can do tasks where the player has to run into the field to reach a point and quickly do stuff before he is pushed back etc.

I can reate fall quests, where the player gets stopped by those field if they have slight resistance.

You could fling the player around and so on.

I think there some options for this to be interesting.

Visual in terms of some energy field, like the xcom1 elevator. Just add some transparent effect and i think this is fine. Could even has "anker" points, so if i place the field trap visible the player could shoot/disable it. Or i can put it behind a wall and it would go through.

3."pendulum" trap

this could be some energy bolt spitting block, the energy bolt would hit the player for dmg or other badly harmful effect. Travel in a straight line until it hits a wall. It could be some energy arc that is traveling or other pendulum creating effect/thing. Sth that creates an opening and a way for the player to "catch" said opening if he does not want to get hit.

Ideally i could set/tweak the intervall, bit like the blinking,delay,length from the light block and speed that thing travel and this way the opening we get. Of course an actual pendulum block for ancient ruins would be nice too, but i think for scifi poi's some energy orb spitter/arc is more fitting.

If you give us the option to adjust speed to a degree this could be combined with the poisondart+moving projectile trap in one block, since the same block could be used for both things.

For Creating sth like this just in scifi (skyrim, axe trap):

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b5/8a/bf/b58abfed750f4c00eb958df4972cca34.jpg

4.holding traps

think something like a bear trap just in scifi. This could work like a tile if the player walks into he is paralyze in terms of movement. You can still look around, switch weapons+shoot. Options could be either timed or he needs to free himself, by for example shooting/disabling the trap (shoot or interact).

The trap itself could be some scifi forcefield thing. It could be some alien bug. It could be weird alien vines/plants coming out of the ground etc. Aka Sth that makes sense in the world/poi to hold the player.

5.poisondart/wall traps

a block you can place that spits out stuff, can take signals and create them. Bit overlap with the pendulum trap and could maybe archived by one block type if sufficient functions.

5a.moving projectile

For poisondarts this would be hard to do, since they move a bit faster, but think sth like a poison blob spitter type trap for tribal/ruins and energy blob spitter type trap for tech POIs. Or better sth where we can color the blob/projectile. This projectile would have hit detection, so if the player touches it he get an effect/results from it. Like pendulum trap, just faster so you have to have certain armor mods equiped here to rush through if even possible.

5b.beam like poisondart/wall trap

For ancient ruins this could indeed be spitting poison darts, that the player could not avoid. If he steps into the tile the trap covers he gets hit. For tech ruins i imagine some very big energy beam coming out of a block, think dragonball kamehameha. This energy beam should cover the whole square, add some visual energy stuff, make it a bit see through and done. Maybe sth like the thruster effect with got, just longer.

The player could walk through these type of traps, but with severe drawbacks, like armor degredation, health missing etc. So this will generally be set up to avoid.

The range of these could be until the trap hits a wall or create some "end" block, could even be a 2nd trap block of same type. This could in case of energy beams even slowly dmg blocks. Like if stuff is in the way this trap could create a removal effect like boom blocks, but visual more fitting and slow not instant. They could be sth that "burns" through blocks, maybe even hull blocks in case they need a "cachter/end" block to stop the beam. You could create some nice puzzles with these.

6.mine trap

some kind of mine or area of effect type device i can place. If the player walks into/onto that he gets damaged or status effects, could even be a stun field etc. There must be a way to disable these, maybe by shooting (if this covers a larger area) or just simple interaction if the player can get close to these.

7.fall trap

think sth like stones lying in a net that you can shoot that then fall down and crush what is below. Now lets create the equivalent in scifi. Again like most before it helps if we retain the mechanic, meaning this could be sth the player can shoot to activate or could be triggered (like pendulum/poisondart traps) that then trigger and create a damage effect underneath. There does not need to be physical objects falling down. This could be energy obs/pulses because we claim scifi. So we need sth that can be placed on the ceiling and can be "shot" down (aka triggered somehow) and damage things below. Again similar to pendulum/poisondart/beam/wall this could be one block achiving multiple uses if done correctly. But we could go classic here and have just some sort of steel beams for construction or some scifi light fixture (aka scifi chandelier) you can shoot down. You could potentially improve the block/build mechanic and achive this with structural integrity, aka block falling actually crushing things. But i think for gameplay having overall distinct/recognizable trap blocks is a better way to go to improve combat/interactive gameplay.

8.laser tripwire

not specifically a trap this one, but very much sth that can flow well with the other stuff. Meaning a sort of laser that is visible by the player. He can avoid it by either jumping over it or sneaking below it. So it should be in the middle of the block like the current sensors, but it should just be one line, not detect the whole block. You could have nice agent like typ "sneak through" lasers sections with this. Make multiple version with this and we have a nice build set.

Versions needed:

-laser in the middle (2x side openings)

-laser on the side (larger opening)

-3 lasers in a row (full block)

-2lasers to one side (side opening)

-2lasers each side (middle opening)

make these laser colerable and take+create signals and we are golden



Very important: All trap blocks shoud be somewhat distinct/recognizable. Meaning after the player has encountered the block a first time, he will know to avoid it and/or use it and/or search a different path/solution in the future and/or look if the trap can be disabeled.

All traps need to be able to create and receive signals. If you have somesort of hit recognition, then signal creation/trigger could depend on that otherwise just "if on trigger signal".



And important too traps need to fit in our main styles of ancient/tribal/tomb, tech and alien/organic. So either different versions/models or one model that can be used in multiple without looking out of place.



POI/ options to disable/incapacitate/debuff/kill enemies



In the current state of the game your only option to get rid of an enemy once he is spawned is to either kill him yourself directly or let a turret kill him (from a vessel or if you taken over the POI). We desperatly need more options here since it would improve POI gameplay by alot. Meaning if a player has multiple ways to solve a situation POIs are more fun to do, even if you find the same POI again.



These could in general done over enviromental stuff. Meaning for example like the classic barrel you shoot or it could be some traps, that you can make/wait until an enemy walks into. Or just stuff that is part of the poi, like a broken pipe leaking sth that causes the effect. Or traps/things the player deploys for a more "set-up/prepared" type of playstyle. There are multiple ways to solve the problem of offering different paths/options for a player to deal with an enemy.



Some ideas here:

1.options for debuffs

some enemies are quite tough or hit hard so give us some options to give them debuffs. These could be things like reduced armor or reduced aim. Maybe i destroyed sth and it creats a smoke field to make aiming harder or an acid cloud that eats your armor.

There could be guns that apply debuffs or things you throw. These could be traps that apply debuffs and you can activate while an enemy is in the activation area.

2.options for damage

think the classic oil puddle you can light on fire while an enemy stands in it. Or the very classic explody barrel you shoot and stuff next to it goes boom. Give us options to deal small and even big damage, aka even kill, enemies. Options to set/hack turrets so they work for the player count into this category too.

3.options to stun/disable

think sleeping gas or electric fields that can either take an enemies out for a set amount of time or as long as this effect is on/active. I think doing that over trap effect or enviromental things like barrels or vents that put sleeping gas in a room would be my way to go, but you could have weapons/throwing stuff to do the job too, aka stun guns or grenades.



SIDENOTE: I personally would love to see sth similarish for (space) pois, meaning if i break an o2 sealed room enemies would suffer(if they have no suit), or cook or radiate enemies to clear a room. But i think how space POI gameplay currently works out i am aware this will make them even more trivial as dungeons on the interior. And lots of POIs would need a rework, together with pathing of the AI probably.

So this section is not meant for "let the enviroment like rad+temperature effect NPCs", instead i mean explicitly new effects you can apply specifically for the tasks stated above.



POI/ Field/Area indicators



meaning if i want to signal to a player for exampale where a motionsensor starts there is no good way to do this 3d other with a bunch of LCDs. So maybe an option on the motionsensor to make the area visible to the player with a field type effect. Or some extra block that can mark an area with a scifi effect field. You could use that for building to simulate certain stuff or do some stealth type mission/poi with this. Probably very low priority, since it can technically done with LCD's in a decent way, but using LCD's is a workaround to sth that is actually missing.



POI/ Faction Player/friendly and neutral



a forced friendly faction for POI's to use. Enable option to use a friendly/player faction in the spawn pad drop down.

Meaning if the players does a task in a poi he could get back up. These spawns would always be on your side and have your relations, aka fight stuff in the poi with you.

+ please add some neutral option too. Meaning a creating/spawning NPC's that are not on your side and not on the enemies. (aka sth like making robots "inactive")



POI/ Switching factions on an active spawner/block/turret



i mentioned this already for the turret somewhere. But the option to change the factions via a lever/interface/hacking etc. Would be great and create better poi interactions.

For example you fight through some evil robots till you reach the controlling computer and then changing their programming to friendly or just neutral so they ignore you.



POI/ device to disable jetpack



some block/device/machine to disable the player jetpack in a POI. Similar to other things proposed above this could be set up so the player could see/reach/destroy said block to free himself of the restriction. Giving option for itself some puzzle/task or enabling other jump/run tasks, that with a jetpack are just laughable.



POI/ mobs+gravity+holes+space



yeah this combination does not give you a reason to fight. Enemies can just fall away from you. Combined with the space poi problem (see Misc), meaning your ship weapons when attacking probably ripped some holes, you take away a lot of reason's to do these.



POI/ gravity gen funtions



make one gravity generator affect one build or better some options to change it how you like. Or if i need to use multiple grav generators an option to limit them at 1 G (standard gravity). Having the higher gravity from overlapping grav generators is currently sadly mostly an annoyance.



It could be sth nice that can could be worked with in POI. i remember someone building a gravity cannon, not sure if still possible, or you could build jump puzzles with that, where making you lighter by disabling grav generators is an objective. But only if we would have any option to disable/disuade the player from using the jetpack. Since we can not do that currently the way these function currently are mostly a pain.

You need the 2x2x2 space in some intervalls, reserving space, overlapping sections cause higher gravity so you do want to avoid that, making correct spacing a must. The player could just use a jetpack or the gravity generator can be blown up by the attack, making it useless anyway.



What i would like is options:

-one grav generator should be able to cover one POI, or if not possible option to make standard gravity (1 G) everywhere somehow even in overlapping sections of grav generators

-have an option to change radius + display range, exactly like the motionsensor and spawner range adjustments. You could have a check box" make grav range cube". You can technically achieve sth like that with motionsensors, aka limiting grav to 1 block areas, but then we have the multiplayer problem, so i would love an actual function for this.

-leave the stacking grav in somehow. I like the function and you can do some interessting things with it, if intenional. Combined with the option above (+area indicators) you could do weird parkours where grav suddenly gets strong in certain tiles and the player has to think how to solve this (going around or through or doing a puzzle)



POI/ water+lava



1.make the blocks behave like the actual thing, not just visual. Meaning swimming in water blocks and having to spend o2 and so on.(for traps+puzzles etc.)

2.Have on POIs as an option to set the water/sea level for the POI, similar to ground offset. For example in morrowind you could in interior cells (seperate playfields) set the waterlevel and build like underwatercaves etc.

For empyrion i would like sth similar. I set a water level and the cut out terrain section has water in it to that point. Yes this would have to be set according to the ground level and if dug out completly it would probably look stupid and not solve existing issues. Obviously water physics etc would be the best, but even with out a flow mechanic just setting a local sea level for the poi where the player would have to actual swim this would be a great solution to incorporate this into poi on the ground and poi building in general.

3.option to use seperate water block from the set sea level of the poi that behaves like water, like we got now (example scenario i am thinking of: let a reservior explode above ground on a poi if the player triggers it, it will flood some parts changing the layout of the poi)



POI/ versions of the same POI



The general idea is that you have different versions of the same POI. From the outside they look the same, but mabe one has a large basement, the other one not. One has togher enemies, another has monsters, because a cargo crate with them broke and infected the POI. There are different storys there and potentially the player has to approach these differently. I did this with different interior, but this could potentially be just spawners that change.



If a POI spawns the game would roll if it spawns A/B or C version. So even if you see a secound abandoned x, it could be a different internal layout and enemies/spawns you have.



I think the main problem with this it that it is A LOT of work to do a few versions for each poi. A potential compromise that would be similarish could be to have an option on spawners that you can check like ([x] dynamic spawn). If this is checked then the game would roll a random number and distribution. So x amount/percentage of dynamic spawners of a poi would be activaed and then pick some dynamic spawners at random too and you would get different spawns. Problem here would be loot would not be dynamic, so sometimes the poi would be harder. Potentail solution could be to have a fixed dynamic spawn amount you could save with the poi blueprint. So just which/where spawners are active could be different, but the difficulty would roughly be the same. Like i save my POI with dynamic spawn count 3 and have 6 spawners with dynamic spawn box checked build in. So each time the POI is found it has 3 of these 6 dynamic spawners active, which these are is determined at random. So the POI would change tiny bit each time.

I think doing sth like this is totally possible and would add a bit movement to the universe and make things seem more lively.



i did sth like that a while back with two dropbases and a+b+c versions and totally forgot about this idea. Someone suggested this in the "what makes a good POI" thread today and tought it would at least be a nice idea to consider.



(sidenote: Sth like activating certain spawners you can technically do with signals and set/reset already, set certain motionsensors depending on the player path that turn a pattern of spawners on/off. But if the player always goes the same way the spawns would be the same, so more a "workaround" then really a different POI.)



POI/ scripted events, forced ai movement



probably part of quests and worldbuilding too. As the heading suggests a way to force a certain action/movement from the AI. It could be a much more powerful tool/mechanic, but alone a way to force movement in/at a point is big.(could include forced animations too, which would be great)



This means if we would have trap blocks i could make the enemy walk there from time to time. If we have quest where an NPC walks away we could actually have the NPC walk away. If we want to create a certain scene in a POI, like people unloading stuff we could have them walk from box to box. It does not matter if there is no interaction, but just people actually walking where you want them would be big. Making NPCs walk on walkways without falling off would be a thing. If we could force animations i could have enemies kneeling behind cover in waiting for the player. I could set up sneak levels/POIs with this.



there are probably newer/better solutions for this now. But the one i know as an example is the old morrowind that solved this forced walking issue with some sort of rail system. Meaning you could set up "paths" that the NPCs would use if your dungeon/POI is spawned. So i could make someone walk from a bookshelf to a table and back if he was thinking about something. Or go to a market stall or sth else.

There were/are certainly issues with this solution, but i would imagine having sth very similar in empyrion could workd.



I imagine you could set up an "allowed" area for NPC's with a similar visual indication like spawn area/motion sensors currently have. Important it would need a bit more functionallity for make stuff like setting up loops or T-junctions or other more complex paths possible.

It would just be for walking, so there is maybe a better solution for that, since i think it would be cool to have NPCs take like shooting positions or force a working/busy animation for an NPC that should be repairing sth.

VERY LONG SPOILER !

 

VERY LONG SPOILER !

Spoiler: long version part 2/4

Combat



stuff involving runing around with a gun and shooting things.



Combat/ more enemy variants in terms of mechanic and fitting theme



in terms of models sth like pirate looking npcs/enemies as an obvious example. But even for the existing ones i would love a bit more weird/alien looking things/creatures to bring a bit variety to the table. Lets have creatures with multiple legs, floating npcs, big eyeballs, tentacles, insectstype things etc pp the sky is the limit here. This would emphasize you are in an alien world and lost. Just go wild in the border of your set worldbuilding framework.



Examples of mechanic:

1. enemies with shields you have to engage from the back/side/above. Like tribal warriors with shields that rush you and either low tier weapons have no or a very low effect. Aka they have ridiculus armor from the front. Same could be done with robots or other energy shield type tech enemies.

2. Enemies that explode. The classic rush the palyer and explode and damage him. Like bugs/spiders with a big back bubble. Maybe you could even shot it to make them explode earlier. These could spread small enviromental puddles too, like small fires or acid puddles.

3. Spawner type enemies, like a brood mother type enemy. They are tough and can move maybe slower but spit out smaller critters. So you have to prioritize which to kill first. Could be combined with the explody/rush type enemy.

4. Enviromental/atmospher converter type enemies. The idea is to have more of a (only or mostly) stationary enemy type i can place in a room. This would add a harmfull enviromental effet to the room and player. Maybe the enemy is behind a corner and the player has to fight through different mobs to get to it, just getting the feeling that the threat is there due to the envorimental effect. Other nice option would be to have the player see the atmospher enemy, but he has to do some puzzle to get to it and turn it "off" aka kill it. These could have a certain cloud area around them too.

5. fall type enemies, meaning some sort of alien thing that is stuck to the ceiling if the player walks below he gets hit or the things falls down in melee range for low dmg and starts attacking the player in melee. You could spot these from far away and shot them down, then they fall down and come runing at you. I am thinking maybe alien bats. Or some weird lizard or organic things with shells/armor type wings. So it makes sense that if you shoot them they just fall down, but not take much dmg and you have to kill them while they are chargin/runing at you.

6. aura type enemies. Aka things that either have auras to buff friends are things that harm you if you come close. Bit similar to the enviromental/atmospheric enemies, but more mobile and more of an elite/boss type.



Examples of types:

A.spirit/ghost/energy

i am thinking energy blob/ghost. Or call it plasma being or sth else. This could just be floationg ball of light which bobs/moves/jiggles up and down to show they are somewhat intelligent or they could have some other elaborate theme+form, maybe a human with parts as energy/transparent etc. Add some lore and you are done.

Thinking sth likere these in terms of looks, just not as annoying (ice wraith - skyrim):

https://www.capsulecomputers.com.au...lder-scrolls-skyrim-ice-wraith-screenshot.jpg

B.cyborgs(humanish+robot)

it is highly unlikely that you will not find a mix of machine with sentient life forms in someway. So i think these should be some enemy type/model.

C.Xenobots(robots+monsters)

again bit like cyborgs, but these could be robots looking like machines, like horizon zero dawn, or just part machine. Maybe a lab experiment gone wrong or the some faction needed help in a war?

sth like this but more scary and horror:

://c4.wallpaperflare.com/wallpaper/709/866/509/mechanical-frog-amphibian-frog-bullfrog-wallpaper-preview.jpg

maybe in this direction? you can never go wrong with a classic https:/

/i.pinimg.com/236x/21/39/97/2139978a57fdcd2c62b17fa6f1fff8e5.jpg?nii=t

D.wild/weird floating monsters

this could be the classic floating eye ball or sth totally out of the left field. It could have multiple arms like some hindu godess. It could be fairly simple and just some jellyfish floating in space too. You do not have to reinvent the wheel to make these work and unique.

maybe sth in this direction:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d7/e1/41/d7e141a0e438d3f6059a2e4379e50a33.jpg

E.space snakes

you have the movie, make a space snake that can go on a space ship. There could be some funny reference quest with this too.

Like a snake with scorpion tail. Or give it multiple tails or arms for some snake people. The mouth could be massive with teeth to drive the horror home. I think there is some potential here. Or again these could just be normal snakes to to work that have a bit of scifi texture. (or maybe massive in szie but normal snakes?^^)

F:chimeras (different animals/monsters mixed)

some scientest went crazy, well you got a big galaxy who does not say this can not happen. Mix some of what you go together or create your own chimera's.

G.zero threat enemies – space cattle and dogs

like the walking slimes. Sth that is friendly most/all of the time and just a funny little thing. This could be a fluffy animal type thing or sth generic/classic like the slimes already. In the galaxy there would be domestic and farm animals of some kind.



Combat/ Enemy visual light indicators



in general would improve scifi feel and gameplay mechanics.



a attack animations:

Just have light effects to go with the attack or spin up animations of attacks to make when hits/attacks are coming more obvious.

For tech type enemies this could be actually lights or sparks/discharges or other glowing things to create light, LCD display overlays etc.

For creatures/monsters this could be weird luminescent alient effects. Glowing eyes, smoke, liquid etc. Glowing veins getting brither etc pp.



b general light indicators:

part of the gameplay is at night and yes there should be "stealth" type enemies, meaning in terms of gameplay currently that they are dark textured and at night you can not see them easily/normaly. But most other enemies should have some sort of indicator that they are there. This would emphasize the horror feeling, for example you just see the some luminescenz of a creature and know it lurks around you. Or some type of nightvision/aiming goggles glow from a tech enemy.

Plus it would push the alien feel of the world/setting. Currently quite a lot of enemies are just dark at night, which might be "realistic", but is bad for gameplay and you are in a scifi world, so yeah ...



Combat/ Armor debuff



i would imganie if some alien bug spits at me i get acid that slowly eats/lowers my armor rating. So either a stacking armor debuff that gets higher/worse if i get hit more or different severity would be nice. After a time my scifi magic repairs the armor (aka nanomolecular assemblers drawing ambient energy to restore quantum particles in my reinforced armor absorbtion plating –> space magic is happening)



Combat/ armor shields / boosts



armor mods/boost that generate a shield. This could run on stamina or some other balancing mechanic. But since everything else has a shield why not the player?

Add some honeycomb like helmet/vision overlay if you have this equiped, together with a hit effect this could be pretty neat. Yes if you have a good high end shield you can walk through low level stuff, but this is how it should be.

You could balance this to only block certain stuff too or just have the shield directional.



Combat/ Leaning around corners



not much to say here really. Would like to see this, especially since some enemies hit very hard.



Combat/ Stealth



on my wishlist, but well aware that this is probably not going to happen. But in terms of changing up gameplay and giving the player more options on how to do things this would be big.



Combat/ space drugs/stims



aka combat tims, meaning consumable items that offer a temporary boost or even special effect, with big draw backs. For example some sort of "tank drug" could increase your armor/dmg resitance by a lot for a short time, but make you really slow, maybe even adding another sideffect if time runs out. The bad effect could be really bad, like organ failure etc. Think similar like buff food with pros+cons or like drugs in Rimworld.

All the effects no matter if positive could have screen overlay effects, like the losing oxygen we currently have.

Effects could even be stackable for sth like creating a ridiculous "super soldier" for a short time, until you crash and die. But over the top stuff could be quite fun to play around with here.



Ideas for negative side effects:



a.burning up

you constantly suffer sth like a heatstroke, aka overheating. So you have to carry and consume cooling items to counter that. Like chugging a water bottle every x secounds. Otherwise you either die or have severy bad effects and then die.



b.venting/burning oxygen

either you are hyperventilating or sth it up with your metabolism. So your suit needs to do cooling/heating via burning/venting oxygen. Why/how excatly could be space magic. But this side effect would drain your oxygen faster. Putting you on a timer or making you carry o2 bottles



c.food cravings

this could be some sort of after effect that kicks in if the buff form the drug runs out. You food bar would be completly drained and you suffer food cravings. Putting you on a timer or make you carry a snack.



d.decrase stats

This could do sth simple like decrase armor or mobility etc. Just lower the base stats to make up for a benefit you gain.



e. tremble/shakes

just screen shake making it hard to aim. The positive effect could be movement related where aiming is not such a big deal or this could be an after effct.



f.change vision

sth similar to x-ray/heat/night vision, just really bad, making navigating a pain. Like weird colors or very bright, like the eyes got over sensitive etc.



g.brain switch/impairment

switches the left+right and up+down when piloting. Or in some other way messing with piloting vehicles.



Ideas for positive effects:



1.increased stats

like better armor, better mobility, sprint, jetpack etc. Like tank or mobility enhancing pills/drugs.



2.x-ray/heat/night vision

Gives you shortly the ability to see better. Like detecting enemies behind walls etc. This could be block specific like detections spawners or sth like that. No spawn pad spawners could just be viewed a shapeless blobs.



3."light bones"

lower gravity by a certain amount just for the player. Could be usefull to get to secrets if you do not have a booster equiped or could be a fun gimick in multiplayer i imagine if people chug this drug and become floating helium ballons.



4.hyper state

speed up animations by a factor, so player could do things like switch weapons+reload faster.



5.brain stimulation aka "pilot drug"

improves reactions somehow, giving you a slith bonus to piloting a vessel. This could be better response (like adding a few RCS) or a faster max speed.



6.temporary genius

if we ever get some social interactions or tech thing where stats matter the player could go into some "genius overdrive mode". Giving him a bonus on these things for a short time.



Idea for special effect:



port the player to an instance for a "bad trip" experience. This could trigger a seperate quest or just some scenario like attacker vs defender where you are thrown into some fight or weird maze or whatever fits. Could even involve loot or things you could only get there.



(Sidenote: the main quest sigma fulcrum already mentions the drug called Tril. Make this an actuall item in the game if this is mentioned.)



Combat/ decoys



sth that you throw/place and is maybe a player/person/soldier hologramm. If i am crouched behind low cover i could place it and it would draw fire shortly so i can run away. The enemy would target the decoy for a short time, like 1-3 shots/seconds.

This would mean you could have some tactics in combat, like come out of an elevator, place decoy and search for cover in the new room or rush enemies, while they are distracted.



Combat/ grenades and deployables



mostly for throwing grenades, like flashbang, smoke etc. but i think having sth that you place down, like smoke screen could work too. Maybe a deployable energy shield, that can take a few shots before it breaks.



This could be deployable/throwable utility items too, like plattforms to aid you in jumping puzzles or sth like ropes/hooks to get to high places.



It could be temporary support, like an NPC that attacks enemies and follows you for a short time.



Quests/Story/Lore



aka mostly show more, tell less.



WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead !!!!!!!!!!



Quest/ make a person change to a horror in front of the player



this could be done over a flickering screen(fade out+fade in) where the player is paralyzed and an npc changes, aka model gets switched while the screen is blurry. This could be a questgiver you then have to fight or sth other like a flash back or recording you see via a decal (aka rendering out a sequence you then show). No matter how this is done, but it NEEDS to be shown directly.

this desperatly needs to happen to drive the leagcy plot/threat/point home in my opinion and make them not just some random "big bad/threat" story you follow. The threat is so real every NPC can change to a horrific monster. The player needs to understand this and the best and only way is to show these stakes.



Personally i think the best way would be over a quest where a NPC (you preferably get attached to) changes later on.

Either some questline searching for the cure and you are to late for the npc, but get infected yourself and basically see your future fate there, but by a miracle find a crazy scientist with a cure.

Other option would be some quest that ties into the leagcy somehow, either by directly involving them as a topic (aka "investigate more about the legacy" and some npc sends you places) or some other topic quest where you stumble onto the legacy as a sidetopic (aka in very short"we investigates some cargo crates from the smuggler we tracked. I think i have contracted some desease. ARRRG" -> changes to horror).



Since we have the illmarien quest, probably the 2nd option with an unreleated quest you then stumble into the legacy would be more fitting. Sth that comes after the illmarien quest.

at the cryo lab the prisoner technically turns there too, but here the player has zero connection to this guy he just met, so i think it would be a very bad way to do this. And he short not turn there because it is so early in the story (see point below).



Yes at the UCH base later you have the guy change near you, but this is set up very badly in general and not what i want.

For one, i(player + player character) have zero emotinal attachment to any UCH personal in general due to how bad this connection to UCH is established in the quests and specifically to this dude. Who is this even, i met him in this quest the first time i think, why should the player character care.

Two, you do not see it directly it is behind a corner text box + spawn in stuff. Yes game mechanic limitations bla, but my point here stands. Show this front center with some effect.

Three, at this point you heard so much about legacy this and that and fought tons of **** that the mystery is gone that this turning into a horror should hold and reveal. This is a general problem of how the mystery is handeled too. For example i think the point of where the monsters come from is never really driven home hard.



So pleaaase make this happen it will add a lot to the stakes and build the universe.



Quest/Tales of the Past – prisoner fate – mystery progression



recently replayed the (old) tales of the past and thought about the legacy/mystery progression there. Since the quest is very very early into the game the prisoner should kill himself because he is infected, not turn into a horror. From the dialogue it is not excatly clear what happens, but i think it should absolutly be.



You could assume he turned or he could just droped dead. But i think the best way to do this is would be to let the prisoner take his life, smashing his head or having a weapon somehow. IDA should comment on this sth like "This was strange, he just killed himself and where did he get the pistol?"

the player will ask himself how he got a weapon and even if this will not get answered IDA stating this openly will make this more normal. (maybe the prisoner thought of this possible outcome and got one?) The fact that he killed himself before the infection could take over send a buhch of questionmarks to the player, mainly why, what is so horrible etc.

So this is a good way to hold the mystery longer and further make it deeper. You later take on the illmarien.

Even after the lab from the scientist log or after the illmarien the player will already suspect/know that the horrors are people. But then there will be the reveal/twist that these are infact people that turned with a quest where he gets to show that.

So the general progression is:

1.sth bad/mysterious is going on

2.fighting a bunch hideous monsters

3.oh no - these are/were actual people

for the cryo lab to fit in this progression you do not want to reveal to much early. So having the prisoner not turn there and die by another way is a must. To make this point clear IDA should tell the player how the prisoner died so this is absolutly crystal clear. (best way would be to show in a cutsequence/animation, but we are not there,so tell it is)



And find a way to have the body of the prisoner there at the lab after he is dead.



Quest/ option to kill NPC + show body



some option to spawn dead NPC bodys basically. This is a bit different then the "how to expand on horror section below" and the "show dead body ask". Since for this one in a quest you should have the option to (via command/console/script forced) kill an NPC that then lies in front of the player. It will make for better stories and should be possible during and after a dialogue. Maybe someone got assassinated in front of your eyes and you want to find out why/how and search for clues- could start some nice quest. Maybe they are unconsicous in the quest and you can search there body etc. There multiple are multiple ways this could be a very usefull tool.



Quest/ Tales of Tash – additional info/infodumps in general



the pads you find in the lockers/crates/etc is a very good way of handling additional info i think. Together with the pda to save/store these to reread, makes sense lore wise and is not overbearing. The only thing that must change here is the interface. The way the current system interupts gameplay is not good.



In the best case have an option somewhere to toggle (like at the pda section where infodumpbs/lore goes), that hese datapads should be displayed when found or just a quick pop-up message.

I think just having a bottom message pop up with sth like "you found a new datafragment for [story/theme name here]", while you continue what you did is the best way to solve this. In the pda you then should have a marker that shows what is new/unread. These items should not stop you gameplay unless you want them too. This is sth the player should decide, maybe have a question at the first datapad here that set the option first with the decision to change it later in the pda yourself if you change your mind.



Current overall solution is nice, but clunky interface interrupts gameplay to much if you do not want them right this moment.



Quest/ Questdecisions - Branching quests and failstates



both of these need to happen (more). Meaning there need to be option for "if the player fails" and there need to be decisions you can do, even if these decisions are minor at first, like to you want to go to poi A or poi B.



Sth like the root beer formula via platinum bar is a nice touch and a good start, but we need more of this with consequences. I can not remember if the questgiver commented on my decision on there, maybe he does not know. But i think the overall decision on that point should come back to the player. I am meaning not just making the pirate faction angry, but in the form of story. Maybe someone heard later how you solved it and comments on it or better changes what quest/route you go depending on what you picked.



In the end these should change the quest by a lot i think, meaning the way and how the quest feels. For example go rambo and assault a poi or get the same result via a diplomatic quest chain that has you run around talking (+maybe fetching stuff) to people. Both of these routes should involve a few stages that take you on a different journey here and maybe the result is not even the same after them.



Personaly i really would love to have sth like 2 main quest chains, each being friends/friendly with one set of factions. So there would be a "good guy"-route and a "bad guy"-route. At some point you betray/sell out whatever questgiver you had and switch over to the bad guy route or a decision quest involves some player action that spits a main route.

These routes could have certain points where you could switch routes. Like if i betray my "bad guy" questgiver on a critical decision i will change sides automatically and be on the "good guy"-route again. People have played and are playing the start so many times that i think this would be a great addition. With the current quest interface/structe i think this would be possible.



(sidenote: i mention this later in item recovery, but a way for the game to recognize if i have item A or item B on me and depending on that to give the dialogue and progress the quest. Add to that an option to check for quest stages or these items on POIs (aka on doors or via signals). Not sure how/if this is done already, i would imagine it is somehow. Meaning if a player finds a POI for a quest, we would want a way to check if quest stage is reached internally (via signal logic), aka if it is open. If not the game should have a default message like "This place looks currently closed, but you have a sneaking suspicion fate might guide you here later." (for a lore friendly way) you could put below in brackets sth like:

[This is part of a quest and can only be acessed later.]

if all this is already possible/done, then good. I did not check what happens if i like for example go to the illmarien earlier and knock on the door.)



Quest/ instanced area quests, why not used?



I think Taelyn mentioned that these are doable somewhere. So why are they not used, either in the main quest or in a side quest if multiplayer is an issue. I do not understand this???



For a sidequest i can imagine this as a small game or training, where you get ported onto a holo deck type structure to fight enemies. Maybe even get points and then prices if a game type quest.

Another option would be some flashback onto the titan if in the main quest. This would be waaaaaaay better then the text boxes.

Another idea for a quest could involve either a dream/drug sequenze. This could be a funny over the top sidequest, aka involve weird scifi ****.

Maybe the player has a weird reaction to a medic thing, gets into the instance and does things, after being back the doc say "oh you where gone there for the secound. Must be some incompatibiltiy of your species with the our procedure. Let me see... Hm - now your gene code should be fixed and this will not happen again in the future" aka doctor alters your genetic code.

Another option could be you get a weird alien drink in a bar and go on a trip. Then this could even be a repeatable instance / mini quest.

There are tons of options to play around with this to add depth to the universe and get rid or the some text boxes type questing.



Quest/ Spawn pad lore



pretty sure this is never explained how/why this works like it does. I am all for "works because scifi" aka space magic, but still there needs to be some rime or reason. If someone asks you have to pull sth out of the hat that fits like "advanced molucar conversion technology" and then there is maybe a datapad where a short story ties into that and better a facility that researches this or maybe a storage facilty etc. At least after the 100th spawn pad the thought will pop into the players mind "where do these spawned in enemies come from". This question needs to be answered somehow.



This needs to be dealt with for all factions. It does not matter what the answer is and how this is dealt with. The best solution would be to show as always.

Maybe there is a sidequest that deals with this, sending the player into some research facility. Maybe it is done via breaking the third wall, aka the player goes bonker after the titan incident, aka things just "look" like they spawn out of nothing.

Maybe the spawn pad itself is a molecular assembler, then we could have some gene pool type facility and some funny quest with clones where this process goes wrong or you have to find gene samples etc.

Again tones of options to solve this.



(The Zirax cloning facility i built a while back was a bit of a tongue and cheek way to answer that. Aka clones getting send out in a style of "one rifle and salami per person. Minigun zirax please to the left teleportation pad." at least how i imagine this is going. )



Quest/ no impact quest



there need to quests where the players actions intentionally change nothing on the outcome because things are too big or beyond him. The galaxy is a big place, each faction itself is a massive force and you are just a lone survivor. This point will be driven home by quests where you try but ultimatly archive nothing to change the outcome.



Another part of this could be smaller no win quests, where the player is stuck between two obviously bad decisions. To show the galaxy is a cruel place where horros are to be found (the methaphorical ones and the walking kind too).



For the rewards of these it is still important that the player walks away with sth. So he should still get sth out of this, so these are at least somewhat worth doing. But the rewards might come to you in a different way. Maybe the questgiver is killed you find the item on his body. A station exploded and you search the scraps or some questgiver is unhappy, but still true to their word to get you the reward but unhappy so you get negative rep (here the thing you get might be sth better then usual to make up the difference).



Examples of this could be:

(important is the player actually sees the failed outcome, things go boom, people vanish, a faction invades, receiving "bad" rewards etc.)

-stopping a bombing, maybe with a preface like uncovering a plot from a smuggeled crate etc. In the end the station still gets destroyed by the bombing, aka quest actives boom blocks

-diplomatic mission you are send to broker peace or a treaty. You are ambushed. Then go back to quest giver, he tells you he receives kidnapping/assassination threats. Enemies attack questgivers location. You fight them off. Meanwhile questgiver npc is gone if you come back. Maybe message "blood on the floor indicates whoever send the messages stayed true to their word and eliminated xyz." aka maybe hinting there are foces at work inside the faction that do not want this to happen and eliminated the questgiver. Aka result is beyond player.

-(smaller no win quest example) quest is to find missing person. You investigate (could be multiple stages + a mystery), then find out missing person got injured pretty badly. Maybe a soldier missing you have to find or sth other. To save said missing person he got converted to cyborg type or some AI. Your option is to kill the AI/cyborg and report or just go back and report saying you left him alive. If you kill the AI/cybord the questgiver is unhappy telling you off, if you do not kill him he is unhappy too. So either way the player is in a no win situation here. Both times he still would give a quest reward, but negative faction rep to drive that point home.

1."how reprehensible this is no way to live. Polaris will hear of your murderous actions." (if you let live)

2."how could you just kill him. I told you to find xyz not eliminate him. Screw you - here is your reward, but my friends will hear of this."(if you kill him)



Quest/ no Xth tutorial/start version/iteration



i do understand that the game start is important, but having the same time invested in other things might be better. Like more side quests or the main quest or changing the motorbike or other/new game mechanics.

Yes the small fetch quest we can get now are great, but i feel your/Eleon's focus is a bit to much on this starting part. I can not remember how many times the start was changed. Yes the new start is better, it is well done and a very good addition to the game do not get me wrong.

But ask yourself is it so much better compared to the last one that the time investment here was worth it? To be honest here i do not know if i would say yes without even knowing excatly what time went into it.

So yes it is admirable that you want to improve that part, but there are other parts that need work as badly or more then the game start in my opinion. If the rest is solid a player will overlock some not so good tutorial/start. You are a small team, so i get you have to pick on what gets improved and what not, but i think picking the tutorial/start over and over is a bad move.

(and not changing/adressing things like the motorbike/20th century tech probably even worse... see the section)



Quest/ playdialogue box/decision/click



clickable dialogue boxes should always be player "actions" (action used as a broad term here like doing sth, asking sth aka things the player becomes active), never ever should these be sth else like NPC doing asking,saying things.



If a player clicks a dialogue box he makes a decision, by clicking. It does not matter if there are two options or just one and the one is just "tell me more please". There is a decision involved by doing the click, which makes for better gameplay if the thing he clicks signals an actual action from him. Even if the whole questchain is scripted and predetermined and you have an illusion of choice – it does not matter (like the Knight of the old republic games and swtor for examples to show this).



So if you put in these clickable dialogue boxes things that is not a player action (like NPC dialogue, see example), you take away any choice. Imagine watching a movie that suddenly stops with a pop up: [Bert is entering the Saloon].You would think wtf is going on. The question is why is this pop up there, why is this fictional movie world not working. Is Bert not a character there and should he not "function/live" on his own. Why do i have any say here. The watcher/player gets yanked right out of his experience.

You could do this if you absolutly want to drive point home involving the 4th wall, human condition etc. but this needs to happen intentionally, here it just seems random/misplaced. Since you have a PC game wanting the player to dive into your (science) fanatsy world and having a good experience, then having dialogue boxes with player actions is the route to go. Stick with the classic/proven stuff that works and do this well.



example (sky guys bar quest dialogue):



(there might be more examples of this, but this was one i saw+did recently. At the time i was first wondering, if there was a typo and if it should not be "You promised me a beer." instead of the "i promised you a beer." until i realised why it was phrased so weirdly.)



Quests/ specific story ones



Tales of the past + crashed bird

-totally fine/solid i think story wise. Main focus is finding your crew. The cryo/legacy part is more sth you stumble/touch shortly on, which i think ties into them okay to spark some mystery, but not being a main focus.

-still the plot hole with why the cryo/ancient tower is not found+destroyed in the first place probably unavoidable and a bit of a big issue. But besides that a good start.

-i think during this was when the scientist mentioned his science camp nearby. Pretty sure this poi does not exist/spawn. So again only tall tales -> show not tell.

-minor point with the UCH mystery/plot you(the player character) are listed as security chief/personal, but refered to as commander for the rest. Does the title fit or why is this different? In my mind a commander would be higher in standing then some security personal, even the chief. Another thing that i found strange here if you are the security chief you would be briefed on ALL things releated to that. So a bunch of marines comming on board you would know (maybe not why, but that they are there, maybe even their weapons/equipment, because these things are related to security). In the quest all these facts are relayed to the player character as if new, but they should not be if security chief was your job. If that is the case we need to play the "lost memory due to crash"-card. But this card is never played to my knowledge.

-if security chief is the reason why you are the guy for the job (aka the "go into infested hell hole and kick butt"- type of job) then this needs to be emphasized a bit more. IDA could drop lines like "just like the training they let you go through on xyz UHC training facility." or if IDA can obviously remember stuff from the past (see murky christmas opening) then IDA could drop lines like "remeber the mission on xyz where this and that happened." this would establish the player character as capable. Currently i would think i could have been a pencil pusher security chief filling out and signing forms more then being "the action guy". So drive that plot point harder if it is one, with which how the quests are going i would assume it is.



Totally overpowered

-whats the motivation here. This feels a bit like a random side quest, aka "If you buy a beer and sit at a bar said random quest will start". The club part is fine, meaning learning about your crew. But the start seems to be totally random and the beer story is a bit all over the place and feels a bit unfitting. The main problem i think this does not represent/show the factions or bring the story foreward in any significant way. Imagine this being cut and going right to the ancient revelations quest, then literally nothing would change. There is no new information that plays any role later.

-the brewery has turrets, that do not fire on enemies attacking it. Makes no sense. Remove the turret if they do nothing.

-Why the pirates steal the formula is a bit of a mystery to me. Yes they say they got a job for it, but the worth of the beer formula is not shown or established before hand. The player is digging up or looting gold bars for godsake, but the pirates take a forumla of a beer that is so famous the player has NEVER heard of it before. Let that fact sink in for a secound.

(i think it is said to be a new formula, but then again the worth of the beer label and famousness of these guys is not sufficiently established before hand for me to believe that and to make a good story)

-the player gets promised a life long beer supply or free stock of beer for the quest. Since i completed the quest i would assume that this is something i would receive in some way or another. Do it, give the player the things you promise him and tell him about. For example make a storage room that opens with a bunch of beer for the player to loot. Or make a trader with a special item that has zero resell value and costs zero credits and is a special beer a trader stocks that the player can get. If it is an issue of acess, then grant acess to an area for the trader after the player has done the quest so you can limit acess or solve it over a token door key. This is a major problem in terms of worldbuilding. If you tell the player things like "there is a pirate base there", then there needs to be a pirate base there. If you tell him "we get you x items", then he needs to get x items.



ancient revelations

-why do i as the player even do this mission in the first place motivation wise? From the story you are searching for your crew/ship/UCHguys not the legacy. Yes legacy was a part on the cryo/ancient tower quest, but it was merely a side quest and hinted at. I see no reason why you would do this one. Agent Kezzel had nothing to offer, and the club inferno lead was mostly a bust. So why would you say "oh, yes you are missing a ship. Let my search for it for no reason at all."

-why has the controll station of the minefield nearby infection, aka alien blocks to show infection?

-mark first entry point by IDA for the illmarien, yes it is in the middle, but still would be nice to have a marker there

-according to quest log at end, 500 days searching for habitable worlds, but they are right next to omicron/akua, and only traveled 20 days back or further (unclear form the logs)

-why does Agent Kezzel say goodbye with "May the voices of the past protect you, friend." was this not a talon saying/greeting if i remember correctly. Why is a tech/scifi race slash civilised person using that. There might be some worldbuildling aspect that might be the reason this is used here and hinted at, but at the time it seems really out of place. At this point it seems simply wrong. If this should be some kind of hint i do not get it and it is never referenced after to my knowledge.



Uncertain outcomes

-again player+character motivation, why would you take this in the first place. You are searching for your crew still. After the illmarien agent kezzel has proven even more unreliable, since this mission did nothing for you, only involve you into some galactic mess you really want nothing to do with.

-why would they pick you? you are part of an intergalactic invasion force (at least from the titan logs this is what the UCH were planing). So GLAD should on paper fight against threats excatly like you, assuming they are a galactic defense force. Yes UCH enemies were the Zirax, but UCH did not distingish judging from the logs, just seeing "enemy aliens". So there is actually a reason GLAD should hunt you down to kill you, not recruit you. (at least at this point in the story, i know this is later revealed, but here is seems very strange/unlogical.)

-is the player some genetically altered super soldier freak and everyone knows it except him. Maybe i missed that part in the packstory? because I do not get it, but this seems to be the only logical explanation why you would be picked for every dangerous mission where there would be obviously wayyy better choices for personal.

-at the planet remanant IDA comments that Talon+Zirax have a history and proof is hidden below. You are told this already before and i think it is hinted too at some point in previous quests (Tales of the past). I could be wrong, but for me this seems like the player should know this already by that point. Maybe phrase it a bit differently that it does not sound like new info. Fine if IDA recaps some stuff, but then it should be presented this way (as a recap not as if new info).

-overall this mission feels very forced and like an info dump. Like the player must learn about talon/zirax, but storywise this makes zero sense at this point.

-why would the player give weapon shematics to someone he does not even know at the end? - makes zero sense.



Meet GLAD

-the quest info to search the system does NOT work, then why add this info there? Cut it and add later if you can be sure it functions.

-again the question here must be asked, why would the player and character of the player meet GLAD with the info he has. He gave them the weapons, so maybe you would want to follow up with that, but even that is barely a reason to go. There is nothing that indicates these GLAD guys have any info about your crew or are able to be help you from what you know before hand.

-suddenly we know it is mercer junior by some mysterious reason. How does the player know this (beside reading the header text of the dialogue box who is speaking)? I guess he could look like mercer, but we get no comment here, just "ah mercer junior". Did we meet before? Maybe i missed sth here before hand, but this seemed very out of the blue.

-the "reunion" with the rest of the crew fleet is very anti-climatic to put it lightly... (i would call it not existent)

-This technically resolves most of the "player searching UCH crew" motivation, but in such a bad way it is mindboggling. Everything is told to us. Let them have a reunion party or do sth or what ever. This whole "meet glad"-mission feels like a big info dump, it is horrible.

-you become stranded in an alien galaxy, so far you know you can not get home, maybe never going home. the dad of mercer junior is responsible. Maybe mercer junior knew stuff, his father was basically black ops – is he too black ops or a spy? Has he told you the truth? You do not know. But you have zero grudges/suspicons against the guy? Really? (i know again, this comes later, but again at this point in the story from what we the player and the player character knows it makes no sense to trust this guy and act like we do.)

-they/GLAD send you into the illmarien, an alien infested hell hole. They send you into the asteroid/mine base, again an alien infested hell hole. They did all that instead of picking an experienced agent that is longer then one year in this galaxy, another agent that knows the place and knows the stakes (and probably has better equipment since he would be funded by a whole freaking (secret?) organization). The best pick for them was "the rookie", aka you. A guy who knew not what he was getting into, had zero clue, bad equipment etc. pp. They rope you into their stuff against your will and without you knowing at first. Against all odds you come out alive and well. After all that it's just "yes i am your agent now, give me a task." excuse me, wtf is going on here. Give us an option to punch mercer junior in the face and walk out of there and level this place with our guns. These people are not your friends anymore (you never felt any connection in the first place, because it was story wise badly established anyway, but even if it were it would be high time to reevaluate your priorities at this point). Even if the player character would see the legacy as a main threat at this point, i see no reason why i would join them or do what they ask. Do justify their actions with "because secrecy", it is not a sufficient argument to clearly make incompetent/insane/unresponsible decisions.

(yes agian you blow up the place later, but for different reasons and again with what we know and have done up to this point the actions we take make zero sense.)



Sigma Fulcrum

-the first trader flavor dialogues already are way better written then all your quests, not as stiff

-give us the head of Yarod to carry around as an actual item you have to have in your inventory while uploading and maybe have later. Could even be a nice block to decorate my ship with

-fix the ending that is locking you inconversation so you fly by the station without any option to stop without ending the quest conversation. This was an issue already a long time ago, why is this not fixed?

-i like the station and quest for itself. But for the overall story again, i question the decision making of GLAD sending unqualified personal (the player) into that situation. Makes no sense.

-again if you mention the drug, make an item that the player can get/find. If i remember correctly the drug is used/there at the station. So make it so it is actually there and not just a thing the player gets told. This could be a one time thing/item exclusive to the station. (and could say so in the item description "a rare experimental drug only produced at sigma fulcrum"). Again worldbuilding/consitency blabla you know the drill



Unexpected allies

-you are enticed here with more info about the Zirax/Talon to even take this quest. Again motivation, why would the player character do this. Since the player is now totally a GLAD agent this somewhat makes sense, but if we want to make a coherent story then that before made no sense and really there is not much reason for a standed UCH commander lost in space to really give a damm.

-info about the zirax tesch expedition is great, but again you are just telling the player

-the pyramid site had only monsters in it. If i remember correctly the reason why i was send down there and the Zirax lady could not get them herself was sth about secrecy and no one knowing about her involvement. Well if i do not meet any Zirax in the POI this reason holds no water...

(if you say "the Zirax are scanning the sector and i can not go there unless they would find out about my involvement, so please fetch xyz for me" then fine, but i do not remember getting that justification or i did and forgot)

-imperial academy is mentioned in dialogue, aka this needs to be a unique building that actually exists on the zirax homeworld

-keeper of the archive eyes i would leave open during the whole conversation, but could have been a bug. They closed after the first line.

-again there is no fail state to not destroy the 10 zirax or let them destroy the archive etc. Even tho is is present as such in the quest.

-player tells the ambassador after the archive he has a "pressing mission", but to be honest it does not feel like it. It feels more like a side quest specifically set up to shove more talon/zirax/legacy lore up the players throat to be honest at that point when you come back from the archive.

-the "fully automated vessel" of the ambassador lady has 2 zirax civilians on board, should there not only be robots, i am pretty sure the ambassador specifically said sth like that when you first meet her. Sth about secrecy and for that reason having a fully automated vessel



Wins and Losses

-okay now we are suddenly suspicous of mercer, so why not before. This makes zero sense if combined with the notion of before aka "we are now a GLAD agent and do whatever they tell us".

-THIS seems like such a perfect setup to split the quest and include a player decisions that matters here. Do we tell mercer the truth or lie to him, such a classic decision here. This could change questline chapter 10 wins and loses completly for the short time and lead to a similarish end so quest chapter 11(or 12 respectevly) could connect on a common ending no matter what you do or even further quests could be affted by this (could be a total split in two different quest chains or in later quests you slighty change or just reference depending on what you did here). This would be so cool, but sadly does not happen.

-we need walking away/removing of npc's for this quest badly. It would add so much more if palant went her way and you the other.

-if security is offline at glad hideout i would actually set a signal that sets the alien turrets on the inside at least to offline so they look offline too to go with the quest

-felt very satisfiying to blow this place up + i think it is a good ending overall to that part of the story despite all the flaws

-mercer mentiones an nearby UCH hideout they flee to, this place need to be a POI/place that actually exists. I am pretty sure it does not exist/spawn.

-i seemed to have missed that totally, but the person you resuce (alex i assume?) is your wife. When was this mentioned? The Talon Tharkan suddenly knows this if you approach him, but i do not remember ever hearing about this. And it is not clear from the dialogue that i have with her, since that is what Tharkan references. Maybe i missed sth there not sure, but it was one of those "mercer junior?" moments for me.

-ghyst prison find override acess there are two retractable turrets left+right of an elevator that need to be set to ON not follow signal + generally the better setting for retractable turrets, unless sth specific is done. -> should be done, i posted a fix. On a story poi this should have been done long time ago.

-there is not really any conclusion/end to this mission, it simply just stops and you go to the chapter 11??? i get that this probably should be a topic or some form of conclusion in the following chapter, but even for this the end of chapter 10 seems very apprupt and unsatisfying.



Murky Christmas

-overall this seems to come way out of context and the left field thematically, but starts out really well and i think is one of the better done quests.

-obivously thematically a bit unfitting when not the right season

-i assume you do not need to take the sled, but i found it a nice touch. Again game mechanic missing to check for these things and do fail flags.

-there is a big cavern where bad stuff probably happens, the players first reaction to this "i have to go down there – unfortunately" why? Why do i have to go down there. Is it strange yes, but IDA has not commented on that. I think what you are here to investigate is a strange signal, not kidnappings or caves. I think better would be sth like:

player: "this certainly is strange."

IDA: "i can not locate any source for the interference, but this cavern is as good as any place to start to investigating what goes on here."

now the player can say his line with small addition: "it seems i have to go down there – unfortunately"

-in murky hollow one civ random int dialogue there "whimper" is not formated properly shows as <i><whimper></i>, or is this intentional?

-this is a kinda fun side quest. A bit nuts in the cave, but a good fun quest.

-there should be a note somewhere that this is currently the last mission, but i did not really see it, just a be continued nearish the end, but after that you get still dialogue, which makes it strange and you kinda glance over it.

-i really liked this quest until the point where we (again) got forcefully shoved the legacy down our throat. I do not get why this needs to happend (again and again), can this not be a weird space adventure you stumble into?

This quest totally stand on its own and is probably one of the better/best quests currently in the game. This was a fun, mysterious, slightly funny, over the top quest until that "bug legacy" point. The quest is a bit weird, it is obviously out of place in terms of tone and setting and does not take itself seriously. There is some scifi mystery (people get teleported etc). All of these things are totally okay. You have some funny banter at the start. Strange signals. You find a space craft you can use. Investigate a mysterious place and strange occurences. The pacing is great. There is some action. All the ingredients for a great space adventure quest. That is fun to play. We even get a good christmas message at the end a la "you saved christmas". One could argue a bit cheesy or to classic, but i think with the theme it is fine.

But then suddenly we got a "no no no wait a minute. This was all totally serious and fits into the story this way and that way." and as a player you go "WTF? *totally confused* .... yeah right ... ". why do you take this away. This quest is good. The legacy part ruins this.



Quest/ the perfect quest – example

QUEST GHOSTSHIP IN STAR SALVAGE



content of the quest:

the player learns about ghost ships investigates these. Needs to stop/kill the thrusters+core of these CVs. Then finds out about the ghost fuel. Needs to put this into his fridge to not degrade. Then can repeatly turn in "ghost fuel" for rewards.

Or watch here

(the scenario is a custom one by KnowItAllDM here https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2827006530&searchtext=star+salvage )



why i think this is a perfect quest:

1.naming/theme is spot on.

Ghost ship name is intriguing itself + the theme/topic of the quest. All of this is said with just the name, so perfet. The quest has some mystery, aka ghost ships and leans on some seafaring lore theme, which is always nice to tie into the space craft topic i think. You read the name and know what it is about.

To that comes the player probably would investigate CVs with such a name anyway. So this could even trigger automatically if you come close with a pop up from IDA (or SASHA how the star salvage ai is named) to mention that "a mission for the ship is open and we could accept it if we investigate it anyway" or some similar pop up prompt.

2.the player learns the game mechanics.

You get actually explained stuff – mind blown. Like how to stop/capture CVs, aka destroy thrusters, then destroy core. You do that, the game tracks it and you get directly or indirectly rewarded for that. In the future you know how to apply this to other CVs. You have to get ectoplasma from the fuel tanks, indirectly learning about fuel tanks (which granted you probably already know if you are in space). The ectoplasma degrades, so you have to put it into a fridge. So player learns about degredation and the fridge block.(probably know that too, but still a good implementation to get to know the mechanic)

As a bonus all this comes neatly written not in the usual "this is a tutorial"-tone, but in a short story that fits into that galaxy (star salvage). Doing what the scenario promises, you salvage a ship. It flows so well with the games story/lore it is insane.

3.player can repeat the mission

you can do that again for money and reputation. So it is a thing to do for the player beside the POI hunting stuff. This gives things to do, if the rewards are right this could even be a playstyle aka a way to progress, giving you ressource similar to the current poi hunting. This would open up a new playstyle, where you pick a faction and "work" for them.

4.mission can be turned in anywhere (at console)

on first glance a minor point, but it is big, since "what to do while traveling" is such a big problem and makes this quest super convinient/good. You do not have to warp back x sectors to hideout/station xyz to turn in your quest, having long travel time. If you find a station type with the return console you can just complete the quest. Simple, easy done.

5.no mechanics that seem out of place, placeholders, workarounds or not implemented

There is no point where sth is used/done that is not part of the game and fits. Meaning for example there is no point where an NPC should walk away from you, but does not because we do not have the mechanic. There is no fail state or mechanic implied in the dialogue that does not exists and has no repercussion if the player does not follow it.

What we get is a communication over our pop up windows, which fits with the theme of a (faceless) space corporation offering you a mission. In the same manner you give the mission back, which is fine. The mechanic like stopping a CV and looting it are in the game and are used to the fullest. All fits very neatly.



Again it is so well written and all the major boxes are checked it blows my mind. It does not matter how short this quest is. With the current game mechanics we got this is simply perfectly done.



Things do not have to be complex to be good. You can make simple great quests with the mechanics we got. Not meaning that it would not be great to have more functions of course



(Sidenote: If we would want story-like or RPG-like content like the main story missions of the vanilla game currently tries, meaning where you talk and interact more with NPCs then this needs to be supported too. Currently we do not have the mechanics for even half the things that should be done and are happening in the quests. They are mostly implied, but have no follow through, which makes quest feel not great.

This is only talking about the last point made above, but even 1. to 4. are hardly ever followed in the vanilla game main quest. Not all boxes need to be checked all the time, but at least a few each time would help the quests alot.

There could even be more points added to the list above to check if a quest is good, a quick major one would be "fitting writing" which i mentined briefly above, but it is a major problem of most of the vanilla quests i think. Another thing that comes to mind is the worldbuidling/coherent/follow through, aka does it fit into the galaxy/setting. I touched on this a bunch of times in this.)



Quest/ what are chapters?



This seems like a trivial question, but after playing them there is the question in my mind. And again sth that will be answered depending on the vision/direction the game has.

Meaning:



1.Should missions be seperate small stories you can enjoy by themselfs or should they be only understandable with the main quest.

Aka how much knowledge from before do i need to understand them. Is stuff recaped or not to get me up to date. I think the game SWTOR does a great job with the loading screens having a small text of what happended so far, just to pick some example. So if you pick the quest/game up after a longer time you know roughly what happened and what you have to do. Sth similar could be done in empyrion, either with loading screens or via another mechanic. So if a player follows a quest after a time he gets a short briefing.

With how much backstory is sometimes given i wonder if the intend for them is to be seperate stories or not (meaning be able to stand on there own or not as a seperate good story).

To be clear here neither direction is better or worse. Both approaches can work, but then these need to be followed through.



2.What is the general pacing/layout of these chapters, aka should they follow a dramatic arc, should there be a solution/end to these (since some feel like a full chapter of info dumping on the player).

Again this is a question of what are they. If a chapter is more stirctly a part of the dramatic arc then it will feel different as when it follows such arc in itself (yes both can be possible too and to a degree probably will be). But how different the pacing of the missions is i think there is the question here of how well they flow together and why. Some chapters miss some solution entirely, others themes are picked up only after the next and so on. Stuff feels all over the place, so i would think we should get one arc/story, but for they the focus feels off on a bunch of places.



I would imagine/assume that a chapter should be a seperate unit/story, with how long the story is i think it would be a better solution and how over the place stuff is i think this is a better way to go.



If so then we need a resolution in each chapter. Things i started in that chapter need to be ended with a sufficient explanation. Yes themes could be carried over and yes there could be some mystery left, but to a degree they player needs to get things explained or has done things that explain things (preferably the latter here). This could be sth you did or experienced, like talking to the legacy entity. It could be IDA or a questgiver "solving" things too.



We would need some better pacing on some quests i think, yes there could be slower storys and more action loaded ones, but some things feel off. The part of "pulling the player" in with sth interessting on some question is especially lacking and might even resolve a lot of pacing problems.



Quest/ simple quest auto generation



i am not sure if to a degree(or completly) this is already done/possible from the mechanics we have, since reforged used this for some trader quests i have seen in the past or maybe these were predetermined quests that ravien/vermillion set up.But sth like this should be in vanilla.



What i mean is have generic backstory bits coupled with random calculated rewards from a list. The back story bits are small 1-3 sentence generic stuff like:

"A supplier did not show up, can you get me xyz to stock up my wares."

"This advertisment for xyz i once saw was amazing, can you get me some xyz."

"You look like you are capable to get me a xyz(gun/weapon). i feel things are getting more dangerous around here."



important here this would be nothing that would tie strongly to worldbuilding and be overly specific. It could be if we could manage this with spawns somehow, but i do not think we can so going generic is the simpler way here.



Then you would have a list of rewards+things to get and the game would match these. This could be calculated over market value or sth else. So combined with the story bits you would have a short quest with some flavor text. This would add a bit to world building and make the game feel more alive.



Quest/ (required) inventory items – item recovery



things like tokens or our staff of guidance, that need to be in the players inventory at a certain point to progress. I am not sure if these work even, since i had the staff of guidance on me, but i recently watched spanj's nemesis scenario playthrough and he did not have the data item and the quest worked the same. Maybe a bug, not sure.



So in general i do not think there is a problem with these if used on the same quest, But "you need item xyz that you have received 5 quests ago for this quest" should be a no go. Simply from a point of how the game works and what you do in the game. You have a variety of cargo boxes and collect stuff. Your vessel/base where you stuff in boxes can get blown up and in the worst case you might not be able to recover your items, same for you dieing and the backpack lying somewhere. This mechanic of "losing stuff" is part of the main gameplay for empyrion. Including items that are unique and a must is simply a problem.



As said for the same quest that is fine, but still there must be a way to recover these, preferably within the lore/game context. To be honest i am not sure that there is other then via console commands currently. So for things like "need for a quest later" this is a massiv problem, even for the same quest, since you can still lose stuff.



My suggestion here add a unique one time trader or station that sells either these required quest items or way better items that are called "fake staff of guidance", "fake ghyst prison acess key" etc. I am thinking same shady guy / artefact dealer here. These would of course work (nearly) excatly the same like the normal ones. I would include some small stab at the player at points where these are required and if you have the fake ones. Like if a NPC wants to see the staff instead of "ah you got the staff, very good." you would get sth like "hm, i remeber the staff of guidance looking slightly different, but i must be getting old.". If these are checked without dialogue normaly add maybe sth for default too, like IDA commenting that an acess card is read. If you have the fake IDA could comment that it takes longer or seemed for a short time that it would not work or IDA hat to hack because the card did not work and could comment that it is a fake and what you did with the original. Just some small banter type stuff, could be very short.



This Trader would be a very lore friendly way for the player to get the item back. Yes these could cost some credits, but the quest descriptions or stages would include a hint for that place like:

"if you lost item xyz, in the starting system (or on the starting planet xyz) is an artefact dealer that maybe can help you for a price."



we would have two different items that would progress slighty differently via the quests, depending on what you get on you. Not sure if the quest structure supports this currently, i hope it does, since i think this would be a great thing to add. Kinda creating alternate content too, since a player just to hear the new dialogue lines could buy the fake ones.



Not sure if this would create problems in POI and how the game checks for these, but if that is the case we would want a quest stage check option anyway implemented. So could be a thing for the future.



Quest/ (required) inventory items memoribila



simply unique items like staff or guidance, acess card etc. Things that you have to hold into your inventory should be an actual thing you can place. What i am thinking is some pedestal where the item is on. The player could decorate his base with this. Think it would be a fun little thing to do.



Quest/ player vs character motivation



Just to get that point made/mentioned, since i rely on that distinction quite heavily, that there is a difference between the motivation of the player, playing our commander and the commander himself in the game. As an example the player might read a cool quest heading or get a message like "can you go into that hell hole and retrieve xyz". The player might think "yeah cool, let's roll and kick some butt". But in terms of game logic/lore the character you are playing might say no thank you. If these two motvations go to much astray it creats a problem. Call it dissonance or wrong writing or immersion breaking or sth else, but it makes things feel wrong in the end.



This is a major problem of the vanilla main story.



Ideally we would want the player to experience things as the character and go along with what he would do are act in the framework of the characters backstory. Of course the player can deviate a bit, but this gap should not be to big.



Quest/ pacing - player motivation/UCH backstory vs legacy/mystery



(already touched a bit on other parts like Tales of the Past – prisoner fate – mystery progression and the specific quests section)



Broadly speaking the pacing of the quests is way off and the main reason i think is how the two storys (UCH backstory and the legacy plot) fight each other and get switched (or not) at some points in the story.



What i mean by UCH backstory is that you the player character (commander) are lost. This is the classic "lost in an alien galaxy", "strangers in a strange land" etc pp. A very classic theme, but for scifi especially too. Together with this we have the whole UCH mystery of how you got there, what happended before, who knew and so on. All in all i think in itself it is a great story. It fits well with the player motivation too. As the player we start in a new galaxy, so are strangers too. We start from a droppod so there is the question of what happened before, how did we get there and so on. All of these overlap perfectly with the UCH story of the commander we play.



Now we have the legacy story, which is a story of mystery first and then develops into horror. Meaning a bad omen is hanging over the galaxy. A big bad enemy emerges that can transform people and is some kind of hive mind (not 100% sure on that one, but could be judging from the illmarien). Its a bigger problem growing over time and you the player needs to take care of this otherwise everything is doomed. A classic too with the "only you can save the galaxy". But again in itself a cool story which stands on itself.

The player + player character can be pulled in here too with "what happened" etc. So there is the option to make it fit too with both.



I say "option to make it fit" because i think that is where we have our main problem storywise. On the points where these two clash/interact and on the points where one (UCH backstory) should somewhat be resolved in favor of the bigger galaxy wide legacy story. At least i think that is the intention judging from what happens in the quest and what the themes are.



So we start with the UCH backstory. Get droped in. Wonder where our crew is, all good. Then we search (Tales of past+crashed bird), find we are to late and some random info about them visiting a club (totally overpowered). Okay fine i guess. Now at this point the UCH backstory simply stops, for no reason. It is never resolved and never picked up (the GLAD does not do this, later more to that). The player character our commander would not simply stop, his story is he is lost searching for his crew. In the game universe he is that motivation still stands. He knows at this point they/some are alive (club info) and that they might need help (hunted by zirax, crashed bird). So why would he drop this in favor of anything else. Up to this point in the story this is our(player character+player) only motivation. We have barely touched the legacy, know next to nothing about them. There is nearly zero curiostiy sparked about the legacy plot (just a tease or side plot point in tales of the past). So yes the player might say yes to "find a lost ship in space". But the character he plays would say "no lets find the crew." so there is a big disconnect here.



Next thing we do is go into the illmarien. Its legacy ground zero, it's massive plot reveal for a plot we have basically not dealt with at all. It progresses the legacy story (revaling the infection, process, where they found it etc.)

Yes going from 0 to 100 could be a thing to do, except that the motivations do not match up and we go from having zero legacy plot to having only legacy plot in the illmarien chapter adn after. The UCH backstory goes from being the main/only focus to not being mentioned at all. This is such a big turning point plotwise that there needs to be a reason to do this or this needs to be explained somehow. In terms of game lore/universe it makes no sense for the commander character we play.



Later the UCH backstory gets dropped completly. There is the attempt to pick it up with GlaD, but i think this fails misserably. It is never mentioned really in between or is a major driving factor after the first two quests. There are no further quests after you learn "the people you are searching for are alive". these people could give you answers to a mystery (aka how you got there). But there is nothing, you just do other things because reasons. This completly destroys any pull the story had at this point.

When you finally meet them there is not really anything of note happening. Nothing like "i was searching for you and slaughtered masses of enemies. Very glad you are alive." no, it's just "here is the new quest". You learn that all are alive at this point, would the character of the commander not be glad to meet people he knows in this strange place. To know that all (or most) are alive and well would be such a big relieve.(not even talking about the many subplots here tied to that with why/how you got there etc., all of which is a small topic later for like one dialogue box out of the blue where you suddenly distrust mercer, but gets forgotten too if we are being honest)

Since we never touch on this topic after the first two quest the theme of "finding your crew" for one gets lost and there is at this point (=first time glad outpost) very low emotinal investment here form the player and the player character. So even if we would have a "reunion" "yeah glad you are all alive" party type or scene or dialogue it would feel a bit hollow.

(i do not really count totally overpowered as picking up the UCH story, since it has such a different story and is off topic really. One of those left field totally unrelated quest really, btw should be the name of it too )

So if you first arrive at the glad outpost there is not really anything that picks one of our main topics up. The ghyst prison you might count, but it is really a lost agent story from glad. It features nothing about the "lost crew" theme. One of the persons there is apprently the commanders wife, but again there is nothing like "oh wow glad you are alive" it simply gets dropped on us.

For this reason i consider this topic of "search for crew" gone after the first two missions for no reason. Coming the first time to the Glad outpost should/could technically resolve this topic, but does not.



Now coming to the legacy story. A mystery the player character our commander needs to be pulled into. Yes this could happen suddenly, but then he needs a reason to be there (not like the illmarien currently). We need to remember that we start with knowing nothing about the legacy or what they represent and not caring and the goal is to make the player + character care and take action. Again here, that is my assumption from how the quest are laid out, the universe is build, the legacy faction etc.



Now what happens ... We learn a tiny tiny bit in the tales of past about them, just a footnote really. And then boom - illmarien. Monsters of all types, a talking hive mind, the galaxy is doomed etc pp. We get dosed with the whole legacy plotline in one go. There might be tiny plot pieces missing after that but you literally get revealed all in one go (at least the important stuff).

After that we get fed tiny pieces of the legacy back story, zirax, talon and so on bit by bit. Stuff that fills in the blanks, which if we are being honest do not matter at all for the mystery/legacy plot in general. We are send on history missions and side errands to find out about a threat that is already here and a major issue even without knowing this additional info. We find out what happend in the past who came from where, who did what when why etc. All things which are nice that they are thought of, but sadly make for a bad info dump at this point.



To that comes that from the illmarien onwards the legacy is our only main story/goal it seems. This could be fine, except the way it is done gets repetitive and annoying very fast. Everytime something even remotly is connected to the legacy the quests tell us about this, like it would be the most useful information tid bit ever.

Mystery lives from being not always front and center, like a creepy atmosphere. It's not in your face, it's the small things. The problem with the legacy story is we get slaped once with it (illmarien). Getting dropped right into the action there, which could be fine starting point would this be tied better in storywise (and would not everything be revealed right there). But every time the legacy is a theme we slap the player again and again with the direct approach. "oh btw this there is a thing from the legacy and the legacy was there too. Did you know this pencil was from the legacy bla bla bla." obviously i exaggerate, but you get my point, it gets tiresome.

Do not get me wrong i am all for driving plot points repeatatly home to make it clear to the player, but you can not do that with a mystery/horror plot, especially if every time is in the same direct way. For the horror+mystery to hold we need more quests where it is a side topic, even more then the tales of the past i think.



To illustrate, imagine a general plot: Big bad monster escaped from a lab and wrecks havoc.

Story telling approach 1:

you hear about people disappearing. No one knows why. There is fear. Then a glimpse of the monster is seen, maybe by you even. Other Hunters come, some die. You try your luck to kill the monster, since others failed. probably suceeding in the end, because hero and all, the monster is dead. You wonder where this thing came from and investigate. You hear similar storys form other places. Monsters hunting people from the dark. There is fear too. No one really knows what is happening. You go on a quest to end this evil. - THE END

Story telling approach 2:

you find yourself face to face with a monster. A scientist is running behind it. You managed to kill the monster. Scientist brings you to his lab. Explains that the thing escaped. You later investigate more.

You find out frank just had a baby, for that reason was sleeping badly and he was tired while working at the lab. For that reason he failed to activate the proper security measures, putting in the wrong code which should have been 1234. The monster escaped through airvent west, the facility was built by thomas construction ...

You further find out the gene code of the thing is xyz, it is a mix between DNA-A and DNA-B. A scientist named Bob first inveted the process and sold it to evil corporation abc.

You further investigate the financal dealing of this abc corporation and find out a sub conglomerate invested more into similar projects. Now you know there are more labs and more monsters. You go on a quest to end this evil.- THE END



story 1 is what i would like to get if we want horror+mystery, Story 2 is what i feel we have currently. I think a more subtle apporach would hold the mystery longer and make the story much much more interesting overall. It could slowly pull the player into the legacy mystery and make much more sense if we start with the UCH backstory and want to transition to the legacy plot and resolve the UCH plot somewhat on the way. This slow pull into the legacy plot can happen while you search for your crew. All things i would assume from the quest direction should happen. But sadly they do not.



It is important to note (again) that for a good story certain details do simply not matter. Like in my story example 1, yes it would be cool if information about who engineered the monster, who funded it etc. be in the universe/world too for the player to find (as bonus/side content). But for the main story to progress to be interessting and engaging these backgrounds simply do not matter at all.



Yes the approach story 2 can work 2, but i think it is much harder to make a good mystery/horro out of this. Things do not have to complicated to be good. We do not have to reinvent the wheel so to speak.

 

VERY LONG SPOILER !!!

Spoiler: long read part 3/4

Quest/ suggestion on changes



As you can guess already, i would like for the UCH backstory to be a topic longer. Its a great story for one and this way it would make more sense. We could resolve the issue when you first visit Glad then too, since the player would actually be invested at this point if we do not drop the issue after the start.



For the legacy story i would like a way slower apporach and wind up. Meaning the illmarien quest needs to come way later if it is left as is. There need to be quests before that have search crew as main and a very subtle legacy touch i think to wheel the player in more and create more myster and anticipation. The reason you search for the illmarien could be that someone told you that some of your crew could be on there. There needs to be a (fitting) reason for you to go there other then "random ship in space and random person asks you to search it".



Question i think that should slowly arise in the players mind are things like:

-What is going on here, where are these monsters coming from.

-I had multiple quests where i found these already, but people(NPCs) did not know what was up with these.

-these things are everywhere there is a problem (abandoned POIs).



So specifically i would insert at absolute minimum 1, preferably at least 2 quests before the illmarien. These should have the search for your crew as a main topic. Important these quests are there to establish the backstory of the commander too. So it will be a bit remenising of the past and i would love to see more banter like at the start of murky christmas. Like you find out your crew made a temporary camp and got hunting and you/IDA think back about some survival UCH training. Things like that.



(Totally overpowered i would prefer to come later or be a side mission to be honest. More later.)



Crew search Quest 1cold case)

named appropriatly "cold case" since you arrive way after them and need to pick up the trace. And if i remember correctly the crashed bird ended on a snow planet, so double meaning that makes sense, but gives you a rough idea what the quest is about, aka perfect quest name for this.

So in this one i would add some stuff to do on the snow planet preferably, maybe in space or other system/asteroid field. Depends on the excat things that are done here.

Must haves:

-legacy as very minor plot points

-establish the commander as character

-goes from "no idea where they went" to "they went to place xyz"

Main topic is you retrace their steps from way back and try to find what they did. Topic is mainly picking up the trace in the first place. This could involve a wild-goose chase on the snow planet to finaly learn where they went (could be a bit funny too i think, overal or in larger parts, since most quests before were serious).

Preferably this ends with you having a real trace, meaning the quest after could be named sth like "getting warmer". Like you get a destination they took a ship/shuttle or a planet they settled.

Example:

The UCH crew had to get off the planet somehow. There could be a trade/research station(s) you go to and hunt for info. Again this could be a "do this for me and i tell you" type situation. Or it could be an asterix/oberlix "fill out form A to get permission for form B" type deal, where you are stuck in a bureocratic nightmate (but then i would change the quest name probably).



Crew search Quest 2getting warmr)

I am thinking you have finally a trail here to follow, could even be a lava planet we go to, just to go with the naming. I know not very creative on this one, probably a better one that fits maybe.

Must haves:

-legacy as very minor plot points

-establish the commander as character

-goes from i got a definite trail, to either "do not search for us"-message from your crew or a faint trail leading to the illmarien (probably the last one or both combined, since you still search after such message?)

my thinking here is that maybe you end up with a (new) destination from crew quest 1, at this place you again search for clues. Run around a bit and maybe find only small bits or find out that the crew slowly went into hiding from the zirax.

To be honest i have not really a good idea what should be in here excatly / in detail, just roughly a type of "your new hope gets crushed" situation. Where in crew quest 1 the player is on the case and finally learns they are there and gets hope. I would take this feeling slowly away in this one, by maybe slowly leading to dead ends and twists that turn out you are not as close to them as you thought(some could be even turn out to be not UCH people you followed). Maybe your last straw could be a faint suspicon or a minor clue that some boarded the illmarien, leading you over in a logical way to the illmarien quest. At this point the player+ player character would have explored all options to find his crew and the illmarien clue/faint trail would be the only one left. It must be important that this is clear it is not a high chance that someone form your crew is there, but better then a cold trail. It is your last option, so much must be clear from the quest/setup.



From this point we can go in a (somewhat) sensible manner to the illmarien quest.



(sidenote: you could put totally overpowered here. i think it would make a lot of sense if slightly changed. The player is down because his hot trails turned out to be a bust. IDA could suggest to "cool your head and think". So you get send to the bar with a beer to relax and think about what to do further. By coincidence you are selected for the beer raffle of 1mil customer. IDA can comment "see your luck did turn around commander." When you conntact them for your prize they have the problem with the formula and therefor can not provide the prize (=new beer). You could comment back to IDA here for some banter "you were saying about my good luck."

so you offer to help them with the formula problem. Now we are again in a nice way making our way into this quest so it makes sense. You resolve the quest. Either when you learn about them in the club it reignites your fire for the search and you decide to take on the supposedly bad/worst lead the illmarien or at the end of the quest or in the club someone could tell you he heard people like that signed up for a polaris mission (aka illmarien) sending you on that route this way. There are multiple ways to do this well so it flows within the story of the game.

FYI i would change the quest name of totally overpowered. It makes no sense at all, if the quest is on another point it is better of with a another name anyway.)



Illmarien quest:

quest name change too please, since main theme should be "you search for crew" as to how you get there. The legacy part should be sth you stumble into, not sth that is foreshadowed/revealed by the title. sth like: "lost in space", "the illmarien", "last straw"



This could/should involving at the end or in/during crew quest 2 sth to get you good with polaris, since in the illmarien quest you get conntacted by them. And it makes no sense why they would consider you for the job. So if you did sth before in crew quest 2 for polaris while searching for your crew, then polaris could they "you did this thing for us and solved the matter in a good way, we got this other problem (illmarien). can you take care of that too?" This would make much more sense.

You learn the info about your crew boarding the illmarien or being there or a chance of them there. So you search for the illmarien and contact polaris. They could give you the run around and it could be some investigating here before, maybe no one will answer your questions. To give the quest a slower start if that is sth that is wished for.

Or because you did the good thing during quest 2 and they might just say "yes we know the ship, but there is a slight problem". Aka then you are send to find what happend.

(if we have decisions and the polaris thing in crew quest 2 was optional we could have a branching option here too)



overall i would cut anything that does not need to be revealed from the quest. Meaning the legacy hold their mystery longer. Althrough you get dropped into ground zero, so not sure if this is even possible.



From the start this quest should have cut anything legacy related form the intro/start dialogue. This should feel like "buisness as usual". A ship is lost form polaris, they do not know why (or do not tell you) and you go to find it. That should be the starting setting. Not the legacy reveal.

There could be a short dialogue where you ask what the ship was doing and why it is lost. Polaris could just say a research mission and they do not know why it has lost contact. Maybe a message of a last crew to investigate did not come back (add a tiny cv wreck, aka empty ship, near it for that to illustrate). Since you proved capable they will send you now. Only this much info should be given to the player at this point, not more.



When you pick up the message "destroy the ship, sth has taken over blabla" from the ship on the console, then IDA MUST comment on the strangeness and what is going on here. Overall IDA should comment more, especially here on the strangeness of these things to highlight plot points and drive important parts home.



At this point there should be a short conntact back to polaris (via text message boxes), since you are tasked to investigate and now the ship crew wants it to be nuked and you just found out sth majorly messed up is probably going on there.

There could be some higher polaris manager cutting the normal call and taking over (this could be a fleshed out character apprearing later, aka ruthless manager type, or/and a glad agent too, that one is only revealed later. For tone of this character i am thinking a bit sth like the types in the star crawlers game). He tells you the illmarien was on some outer worlds for research but he does not even know more. What the ship picked up might have been valuable and polaris wants to find out to potentially make a profit, otherwise the whole venture would be a loss. (aka fleshing out the faction as a corporation where money rules)

the polaris manager might know that you search for your crew and are UCH and that you think they might have been someone you know on the ship. (you could have met him at crew quest 2?). so now he tells you both of you would win, polaris would find out what the ship has and you maybe find a clue to the crew. (he could be lying here, since he probably knows from the manifest no UCH was there, or maybe there was for the story. It does not matter really. I think if it later turned out he lied here, then it makes for a better character).

This could involve a smallish fake decision here too. You could say no to the manager and tell him it does not matter what happend, if the threat is so big, better blow the thing up, then IDA would tell you "we really do not have any choice here commander. This is the only trace of the UCH fleet left if we want to find out what happened to them." since this was the main topic so far it has much more pull and could force/give you to an only option like "okay fine, let's go."



i would not have the minefield controll station have infected blocks too, just being old/abandoned. So IDA can comment later in the illmarien on points where the infection visibly speads/advances to a new stage. "like this must be the organic growth the captain was talking about." or/and "i can not find any entry in my database about this material."



There needs to be some comment from IDA of generally the strangness of the whole situation here too. Aka you setting out to search for the crew finding out about the situation on the ship and then being monsters. IDA giving direction and all is fine, but for the story purpose having a bit more input would help.

Since you "met" the horros before i would like IDA input too in the sense of "remember when we searched for the crew (or did abc quest/mission) on place xyz we found creatures like this too." to make the player connect the dots of "yeah this was foreshadowed a bit."



illmarien ending/conclusion

at the end of the illmarien there needs to be some conclusion turning the player from "crew search" to "legacy threat" motivation. The way i can think of to do this would be the following:

(there are probably better ways or wording these, but just to make clear what i imagine as direction here.)

The player+player character just went through the illmarien and found no trace (or dead end) in regards to their crew but got dropped in legacy ground zero. So now IDA would commend on that. Sth like "yes we have no further trace, but you know somehow the UCH crew survived this long. It is resonable to assume that they are still alive out there in the galaxy". At this point maybe establish what the values of UCH are, but i would imagine "saving others" would be somewhere there (if not direct then implicit maybe on some UCH value they fight for). So IDA could add sth like " The legacy are a danger to all and you are still an UCH commander, new galaxy are not, so i think you have a duty to help with this threat. Maybe the crew came in conntact with them too and set out in this jounrey in secret. If we fight this menace it could be a way to sooner or later pick up another trace."

you get my point. You have the values form UCH to help if dangers arise. Legacy is such danger, aka you are "the man for the job". Your UCH friends have the same values aka they probably feel "the pull of fate too" (methaphrocally speaking of course ^^). so aka good chance they would do the same. If legacy is spreading and galaxy wide they will have met them. Aka they are on the same jounrey, aka you might meet them if you take on the legacy.



As an example, this is possible without the UCH value inserted here, with more of a sort of exploration (free/sandbox play) prompt from IDA. Sth like "yes there is no trace of your crew, but you know they are alive and the galaxy is a big place. Maybe it is time to explore more, take on different tasks, at some point you inevitably will cross path with them. They are besides you the only humans in this universe after all."

aka driving home the "lost in strange galaxy" point and giving the "set out to new shores" pointer. Overall i think this could work. Needs some short mention about the legacy too, like "this new emerging legacy threat might be a good first step to take on new things."



personally i think using UCH values to justify going into the legacy story/plot in full speed is the better approach, since we pick the UCH crew theme bach up later and in an indirect way the old motivation is the reason you fight the legacy this way. But again both can work if done well, probably even other ways to solve this i have no thought of.



So now we have given the player the green light and the story to go full "legacy". Aka do all your things.



Rest of the quests

Going a bit faster, since it has been some time since i played the quests now and i forgot a bunch +writing all this took way longer then i thought and it ended up way more pages. But on another note the illmarien and maybe prison quest were the more memorable ones. Murky christmas and the sigma fulcrum only for the better dialogue. The rest of quest were a bit forgetable to be honest.



You get my general approach, use IDA a bit more as a plot tool. Aka drive points home, recap stuff and do conclusions the player maybe missed. Give tips, establish the character etc. And it would make IDA more special, meaning not the usual suit AI, but one with a character, which i think she should be.



Since we get yarod later you could even have one of each do certain things only, but we get him quite late in the story, so IDA would have to do all the things before. But still you could establish him more to use as a certain plot device. He is a bit the "hacker type"/spy/info type. So maybe use more of this and establish situations where this could be use, might be fun, but might backfire too. Bit unsure on this one if IDA gets more lines if that fits when yarod comes in more as a character. Depends really on the writing.



At the point where you find out GlaD is similar to UCH i think there needs to be some reunion or be mad that they send you into hell type of thing. Aka not just "ah hello, do have a mission" more a "oh wow, i finally found you guys".



Overall the crew theme/interaction should be more of a focus 1-2 missions in after you find glad. So it goes slowly to "buisness" as usual. It would still be fun to have some crew interactions and maybe you helping them with weird/stupid/funny stuff from time to time even later. Just to establish the characters and play around with the theme more, since it is an underpinning of the legacy story. Meaning since the glads mission is to fight legacy and you are UCH(or glad is crew), it does not matter at this point what we decided at the end of illmarien (aka UCH value to pull player into legacy or exploration prompt). You are tied together at this point and their motivation becomes your + you took on legacy before anyway so things sink up.



Again after we meet glad all legacy stuff can be dropped and be done to the player. Send him place investigate xyz. The reasons need to be a bit better, but it is generally fine at this point.



Your wife

this came a bit out of the blue to be honest, since i am pretty sure it was never or only in small part mentioned before. But if we first go to glad and learn they are UCH you should/must ask about here. (IDA could comment there too, either banter "are you stepping out on me commander?" or to drive the point home"i never knew you had a wife commander, the personal files were corrupeted." if the file corruption theme is a theme, but since in murky christmas IDA recalls stuff from the past it might not be true. But there is probably a more neutral way to phrase this so IDA can mention it and drive the point).

This asking mercer for your wife could give you the prison mission right away, since sigma fulcrum currently comes before for some weird reason (if i remember correctly you learn before sigma that they are missing). If you learn she is missing it would prompt a "save her" quest chain right away.

Or mercer could say she is on a mission and will be back later. Yes he could be lying and wants you to do stuff for him and not run to save her, does not matter mercers motivation, but needs to be a topic. If the player should do sigma fulcrum first then there needs to be a reason why you do not run off to meet here right away. Secret mission, no contact rule, back later – all would do the trick i think. Then you learn she has not checked in, aka you run off to save. Prison quest and so on.



Zirax vs legacy plothole

there is a question here that need to be asked and will be by the player. Meaning if the legacy are such a threat to the galaxy, why are the zirax not fighting them. If glad fights the legacy, why are the zirax fighting glad at this point. I think this is a major plot hole. First we never see the zirax fighting legacy and secoundly the zirax ambassodor claims to be an outlyer. So not even the "some zirax houses recognize the legacy as a threat and fight them" could apply here.

Yes we have the zirax/UCH history form the titan. It is never really clear what happend there at least to me, but they are enemies. So yes fine and all, but now we have the bigger player, aka legacy. Would they not unite?

The whole situation seems strange to me.

I think a good way to clear this point up would be to let the zirax ambassador explain this or make a sidenote about this. Meaning option could be: the legacy is not yet recogniced as the threat it represents by the zirax empire. The ambassador wants to do this, so the zirax empire can join into the fight. For that reason you are send on these historical/digsite missions.



legacy immediate threat plothole

already mentioned multiple times, so the legacy are a growing threat, but all the missions we get are learn about their past, Talon/zirax relations etc. If the legacy are such a big bad danger now, why are we not activly fighting them. I do not get it and it makes the missions with these historic topics feel so meaningless and like a bad info dump with the setting we got presented beforehand. I mentioned this in the small stories, aka some details do simply not matter, depending on the story and focus. Meaning our setting/focus is legacy as a growing threat. They are dangerous, they infect people. We need to fight them. - the end. These things sum the situation up. But we never ever do fight them after the illmarien. Why?

If they are such an issue what are the glad actually doing to stop them, they are certainly never sending us on a mission to stop the legacy or even trying to stop them.

Yes their past/history (aka who did what and came from where) and maybe through that finding their weakness could be a topic, but only after you find they are unstoppable in another way. We are never shown (or better played missions) where we got to see "we can not beat the legacy directly.".

So this major problem needs to be dealt with. It hurts all the quests after the illmarien that have this history exposition feeling to them immensly. A bad way would be to have glad tell us. A way better way would be to to actually send us on missions that make this clear(probably multiple to "exhaust all options"). Aka stuff where overall we fail to reign in the legacy threat and see for ourselfs that things are bad and we need to do sth. These then would send us on the "learn more about them to find a weakness"-path (which i assume the current missions purpose is?)



GLaD fights who?

I kinda assumed since they send you to the illmarien they are on the "fight the legacy" course/direction. But since you have the whole prison story line and ghyst invading the outpost it is unclear to me. Yes you have the red crates and some secret/mystery/betrayl is teased there, but overall what glad is doing seems ... strange for lack of better words.

If we assume they are a larger organization that have multiple "projects" (aims) at once, there is a question here too of how many UCH crew atucally survied and how big glad is.

They are for galactic liberation and defense. So they want to free the galaxy from zirax and defend from legacy threat i guess? What are their goals excatly, i do not get it. It is such a vague motivation.

If so would not the legacy be a larger issue. Why are they shooting themselfs in the foot by picking fights with the zirax. A whole zirax empire by the way, it simply seems suicidal. Glad is as far as the story goes a small UCH crew stranded on a tiny outpost in space for gods sake. The zirax are empire/galaxys wide. If these UCH guys are there more then a year they should know this.

There is too the question if such a small group even doing sth against the legacy makes any dent, same for the zirax. And yes we can call guerilla tactis and say of course, but at least for the legacy even that is doubtful as it being some entity that spreads through infection.

So yeah glad motivation remains a mystery to me to be honest. If they should be some paper cutout then you can take this over the top and play around with the trope of saving the galaxy, but since overall (except maybe murky christmas) the quests have a more serious tone, the whole motivation makes no sense and falls flat.



quests/ wirting style / scenario set up



not sure why, but in general i found most of the quest writing very stale. It is hard to describe, but it is certainly to that point that bits like the murky christmas opening banter or the conversation with the traders at sigma fulcrum stuck so much into my mind as great conversations that were way better then the rest. So i would love some more vivid writing so to speak. Do not be afraid to give characters some mannerisms that reflect in speech or some quirks.



Same with the setup of most things - it seemed uninspired, not sure how to describe it best. Part of it was some pacing and the whole background motivation i already chewed on in length, but a lot is the setting/scenario you represent.



The thing is i know you guys can do better. I recently watched spanj's nemesis playthrough and this scenario was way better written then most of the quest dialogue from the main story line. Add to that that the setting was interessting and you got a great mix. One comment under his video even mentioned he did get a different ending because he was enemies with polaris. I mean if you can do such great stuff with the current quest architecture we got, why is sth like that not in the main game. Bring some of that to the table and you will have great quests.



Quest/ good villain?



A good case could be made for our main story questchain missing some good villain or even multiple ones. We have some faceless factions (zirax+legacy, maybe pirates), the whisper voice and potentially mercer (last one i feel is being set up as one with the red cargo container incident, but i could be wrong).

With all that we have still no real identifiable "commander you will suffer, i will find you and destroy you." type characters (because you foiled their plans they swear revenge type of stuff). I am not sure why, but i think having some identifiable counter player character could make the story more engaging.



You run into a mad scientists lab, who thinks controlling the legacy is a thing/possibility. He is suffering from some delusion of grandure to conquere the galaxy with the legacy army (let's lean into the trope hard^^). You managed to stop this experiment, but he will not give up. Maybe by a twist and turn he could come back again in other missions becoming a bit of a reoccuring theme.



Similar a zirax commander in charge of raiding the archive might swear revenge for you killing his goons and foiling his plans/orders, preventing promotion. He goes on ignoring his orders going rogue completly or just subverting his military power to set units he has command of on you as a target.



Make these characters a bit over the top, give them some fun writing and you are set for some way better and more engaging story lines.



Misc



mixed things or things i added later and did not fit 100% the other sections.



Misc/ vastly different astroids/asteroid fields



astroid fields should be some place of mystery. There is a lot of potential here to further exploration. For one making the exploration of an asteroid field fun, interessting and worth while in the process. in terms of shapes and in terms of what could be found i think there is a lot of potential that can be expanded on.



Meaning asteroid fields should look vastly different. Different stone textures and vastly different shapes. Like how different the planet types look, that is how asteroid field should be in my mind.

Example basalt vs sandstone:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6196/6048360409_ac6e92b3f1_b.jpg

https://www.reise-liebe.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/schrammsteine-titelbild.jpg

(just having vaguely different shapes+textures would make asteroids completly different)



You could have an astroid field out of just glowing crystals etc. Or just longer tube like asteroids or some could be exploded due to heat, having small pebbles floating beside. Some could have holes, which would be fun to fly through and could even have a racing poi etc. (^^)

Alone in terms of what different shapes we could achive here there is a ton of potential i think that has not been harvested and could increase the charm of the playfield itself. Even if we take polygon/3d restirctions into consideration you can still work in a few very different shaps.



In terms of what could be found i can imagine more options too. Maybe a cave with crystals or a hidden treasure(tresure hunt quest or just some random backstory drop), an old ship that rammed an astroid, maybe a spy ship lurking on the dark side with the people just saying "we are on a secret mission, do not distract me.". Why are they here, you do not know. There could be a quest later for this or just world dressing.



There is probably more here that can be brainstormed, but just to give you an idea.



Misc/ Workshop upload limit



please simply remove or extend. I am pretty sure this was not a thing a while ago. To say it sucks would be a big understatement -.-



Misc/ Tap into Basic ship/base signals



felling like i already asked this somewhere, but lets ask again. i would like the basic ship/base functions to have default signals that i can tap into somehow. For example for LCDs/Lights to display things. Some devices like a shield can not create a signal for example. I am talking about general states/signals for ships are anyway saved by the game like "docked or not", "all thrusters on/off/between" "oxygen on/off" and shown in the p-menu anyway. These in some cases i can not easily create/acess in another way.

So maybe have a checkbox to switch on like "generate default signals" would be the easiest at the monent. Another variant would be to have the option in the signal drop down to actually type in the signal you want the device to follow etc. So the default signals could have generalized naming i can just put in and use.



Misc/ have all devices create+take signals



Meaning they can follow a signal from another source and at the same time create their own custom signal for others. I wish every device that is involved in signals in some way could do that.



Misc/ Drone Carrier



simply an option to fit your ship with drones that fight for you. This would give more combat option beside the current one with slapping as much turrets on a ship.

These drone bays could be bigger blocks with like a 2x2 or 3x3 opening that needs to be on the outside of the ship (+have free space in front to launch the drone). The drone bay block i would imagine tube like, so a 2x2 would need to be at least 3 blocks long, a 3x3 at least 4 blocks. There could be different sizes too.

Drones could have other uses then attacking, like mining or salvaging drones. Limiting factor on how many you can have can be CPU and/or energy. Maybe they need when producing a new drone more energy like a shield charging. Together with a small drone respawn timer that would go with that, aka time to produce a drone, you would have some decent balancing and easy use. These could of course take ressources too to produce new drones or just run on matter conversion of stardust (aka scifi magic).



I think gameplay wise this would bring some good options to the table. Especially if weapons would have to be fitting for example dealing with a large single threat or many small ones.



Misc/ automated production blocks



quite liking the idea of setting up a production chain. Autominer then furnace, then constructor sth like this. Having maybe more options here to make things or the option to produce trade goods. Either way it would give bases some purpose or factory ships.



Misc/ how to expand on the horror features?



Not sure on the answer to this one, that's why the question. While building the cryofacility i was thinking how to create a bit of this horror feeling there and found it quite hard. To that comes empyrion is or was listed as a horror game. So i think it makes sense to try to brainstorm a bit on how to expand or incorporate this more. Not really someone usally into that genere too, so that made this not easier.



One issue i had with this is horror has a lot to do by what is indicated indirectly, which most of the time depends on smaller details i think. You find blood splatter or a body, well things probably did not go well. Or you have details that in context together are bad, like a creepy basement + a chainsaw. For scifi this could be some medic room with some weird technical instrument.

Most smaller things are not doable in empyrion, but from these horror lives.



You only have the rust pattern, but no blood. Bodys or body parts you can not place, only alive monster. Tools/weapons of anykind are not sth you can place themselfs in the open.

For a chase sequences the AI is not fitting or the player will just murder the thing straight up. Jump/scare stuff or sound can to some degree be done, but spawning stuff infront of the player is mostly bad design and over sound you have very limited influence while building.

The furniture always looks the same, meaning if i place my office table in my horror POI it is the sameone as the one in my working office POI. These is no texture change indicating "this is scary".

Which leaves mostly the enviroment to send the horror message.



I am not saying that it can not be done, but i found it very challenging.



What i think would be nice to have:

-some block that indicates "dead people". This could be sth similarish like the player backpack when he dies. Or it could be some option to spawn in a NPC that is already dead showing/getting a body this way

-some dragging texture/symbol pattern, with ~3 different straight versions + some 90° corner. This way you could simulate that a monster took someone away. Indicating there is danger ahead. Maybe the player can avoid it and search another way or is simply warned.

-sound+effect blocks (see the sections there)

-spider webs (see section)

-option to create shadow patterns, like placing a truss block infront of a light or railing/shutter block (i know this is a performance issue too, but horror lives from light and shadow play.)

-"unbeatable enemies" that can act as chasers. I am not meaming sth that you can not kill, but sth that you want to avoid for one reason or another and run away first. This could be a melee enmie with a shield type mechanic from the front, so in a small corridor you can not get behind him without getting into melee, so you run away first. This do not need to be actual enemies if we get traps/danger areas that can full fill the purpose to channel the player into a direction or movement pattern, which is the main goal together with creating some urgency. Traps on certain timers could do that.



Misc/ spider webs



spider webs that are colorable, so i could use these in a poi for spiders or for bugs that "spin"/create weird alien goo. In term of function and look i am thinking sth like in skyrim/oblivion. Meaning the player could burn then or has to shoot them to make a way. These could just be visiual too if that is to much. Not all of these have to be "wayblocking" ones, some can just be corner fillers and be visual. Have a few different versions you can use. Like sth for a corner, sth for ceilung+walls. At least one version for a 1 block hallway (similar to double thin walls with spider net part left+right).

example:

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z9VKSzdQS2k/VVdHP1dH31I/AAAAAAAAAaw/CIN41syW60I/s1600/Web4.bmp



Misc/ THE motorbike



If you do not want to remove it, then please at least change it to some scifi looking model so this fits into your scifi world. No matter what the new model is. Not everyone will like the model you pick, but it will be no motorbike.



The motorbike looks so out of place it is mindboggling that this model is still ingame with how much the tutorial/start got an overhaul. It is the first or one of the first things a player see's. Meaning even if he liked the game got emerged into "yeah - scifi world, i am the survivor, let's go". This hype happens until he sees THE MOTORBIKE. After that he is forcefully yanked out of his blissfull illusion of joy and reminded of the hard reality of things

No tutorial can fix that. It does not matter what you do, if the player see the bike the "make believe" is finished.



Yes people joke about it, the bad handling etc. But the main/worst point here is you have a science fiction game, where the player has high tech stuff to work with and is droped onto an alien world from a freaking space ship. What does he see? A 20th century motorbike (+tools, see below). Is there a lore reason this is there – nope. Then WHY is this there. Pick any other model please that does midly look like scifi and switch it...



Change this ASAP.



(make a community contest or sth if you want designs for this, tons of people would submit a build or picture or model for this, just to change it finaly.)



Misc/ Tent, chainsaw etc.



All 20th century things/models are as bad as the motorbike in terms of design and how it destroys the game impression/immersion, but without the bad performance of the motorbike. So you could technically call this "not as bad". But since the motorbike for me is "doomsday now", the rest is "doomsday in 1 minute" – so yeah, hardly any difference in my book, so please simply change this.



Make things scifi looking. Pick your new weapons style, add some metal elements with glowies in this style etc. Then you can have a scifi tent and scifi chainsaw. Even if these models might not be perfect or what you envisioned in the end - that is fine. Maybe you have some weird plasma sword as a chainsaw, that is fine because IT IS NO CHAINSAW.



If you want to leave these models in game then make up lore/reasons that is/are plastered front and center so the player knows excatly why they look like they do. In the current state these things are bad for your buisness.



(maybe IDA could only restore some prewarp tech and a corrupted tech database -> see section "player built tech tree")



Misc/ Auto targeting mining/tool turrets



some mechanic like this should be an option at least for advanced/special versions of these. Same like done in reforged.



Misc/ space poi problem, solutions?



broadly speaking you can not lead the player due to game mechanics, which results in no/bad space dungeons (or non existing ones, besides admin cores).

the space POI experience for enemy POI's is mostly park cv, watch till you have no gun fire and a swiss cheese station. On one hand i like that you can damage/destroy everything on the other hand i think it hurts the gameplay experience a lot. To that comes the jetpack problem, aka player can dodge most things.



The only solution is admin cores, which is bad, because it removes the "destroy anything" selling point. So i get the design/gameplay decision that lead to the current situation, but you barely see people do a space station poi for that reason.

As a builder it makes no sense to set up a longer dungeon experience if in the end the player blast through ex rooms to the boss/core room anyway. The player sees no reason to run the dungeon or can not because crutial parts are damaged/gone and as a builder i seriously ask myself why i spend the time setting this up.

Yes you can technically take an sv and try to target turrets, but the main problem stays and it is again just a workaround to an existing problem: Space dungeon gameplay is in the current version of the game practically non existant or not possible (besides admin core poi's).



maybe different/better turretn AI/targeting would help, but not sure (sth like "do not target normal blocks"). I really would like a solution here, but can not really think of sth.



Misc/ player built tech tree



the player will create his own tech tree. I have not seen this in any other game and i think this could be really cool and fit with the story/plot. Feel free to convinve me otherwise and of the downsides, but i would be hyped if sth like that got into the game. It would fix a lot (all?) problems people currently have with the tech tree i think.



So here we go:



You crashland and IDAs tech database gots corrupted. The only way to restore this is by you the player. Increasing processing power and helping IDA "remember", aka building a new the tech tree. (adds a tiny mystery element here). The lore behind this system would be optimizing IDA, so rebuilding your processor of your little helper friend.



You have some fixed (seperate) tech tree to start with that has the survival tool and basic things like heater, survival constructor. Add some matrix/corrupted screen overlay on that page so it shows things might be missing, but the tech tree is set and not changeable or expandable.(or maybe you can build on that, but my idea is you can have multiple tech trees, more later on)



At this point could add a blurb here that for some reason IDA could restore some pre-warp technology. Aka giving things like the 20th century stuff like motorbike, chainsaw etc. an actual lore reason to be in the game and have this model. (you could maybe later in a quest have someone comment on this on the side, making the player remember "ah i have these items with models because IDA can only remember certain things". Driving this point home extra hard.) You do not have to explain why excatly this pre-warp tech you can simply call "plot reason" aka "because we said so", which is the great thing on this.



There could be a conclusion/explanation at some point why the database is corrupted at all, but crashlanded and damaged i think is totaly enough and makes sense.



Now for the tech tree, the tree would still be a sort of tree diagramm. Meaning you will have blueprints that are connected and have prerequirements and you would still have the level steps. The only difference is how this branches and what is a prerequisite you would determine. The player would have to "aquire" the blueprints of the items and the connections as some sort of items/card. Meaning he could buy them from traders or get them from quests or loot them, maybe even reverse engineer in some way by some game mechanic (analyzer/scanner item?).

The blueprints would still have a minimum level, so i can only start a tech tree with certain items and can not go straight to a T2 shield. But what type of requirement which you have before does not matter as long as you reach the level in your tree via connector pieces to slot the blueprint in.

The connector pieces could be vastly different, meaning you could have straight ones in various lengths to cover a level gap. You can have Y or X connectors. These could even different length on the ends, so a y-connection could go over to a 5 level gap on one side and to a 7 gap on the other y-end. So two y-connections could be different.

There are a bit more things possible here, explained below, but you should get the general idea. I find a pistol blueprint and start a tech tree with it. Then a y-connection piece and some fuel tank and generator blue print. So my tech tree would go from pistol and split of to generator and fuel tank. You could mix base/sv/hv/cv/combat how you wish.

the current unlock points would be completly removed or could be some ressource to limit the size of a tech tree. So connector pieces and blueprints would cost a certain point value, maybe getting higher the higher you go into the tree. So at a certain point you would be forced to restart a new tech tree. Each level you would get a certain point value to your max cap, so you could build a bigger tech tree at level 20 then at level 10. but at max level you still would have the max tech tree points you could reach. These points would not be consumable like now, but more like a character limit, so more a point cap that changes depending on the changes i do to my tech tree.



There are a few options why and how you could make building a tech tree worth it. The tech tree could get a (small) bonus to IDA depending on which tech tree you set as active, aka slot into her (lore wise which processor she runs on basically) and of course only if she gets some active role where a bonus can matter (like some computer hacking or minor boni to your craft, imagining she is pluged in, or some neural interface and you would get the boni this way yourself or this could be some item/block to link IDA to a vessel to make it slightly better).

Personally I think the better way would be to give boni to the items directly in the tree's depending on the tree and maybe some other element, depends how far you want to get into that there are tons of options. Lets say for example i put multiple generators in my tech tree one after the other, this would mean i "spend processing power to research better generators" in lore terms and in gameplay results in the generator producing more power then normal. I would still have the same price and the constructor would only have one generator to choose for production, but it would be better then a base version. Not big buffs here, but even stacking two generators behind should get you a small boni. The player could make this way stronger if he only focuses on generators, so picking sth you want to be good at via a tree should be worth it, but not gamebreaking. Slotting multiple armors in a tree would make the armor stats better, for a weapon the weapon etc. This could be done with all items.

To not make this endless i would put a limiter on the tree's themselfs via level cap ending the tree or via the unlock points (or maybe you would even give the option to make it endless for ridicoulus builds?). Unlock points are probably a better option, otherwise certain short connections would be worth more because you could slot more items in a tree until a cap.



This tech tree bonus system can be replaced and combined with the following ideas below:

1.Now for boni there are options to have connections be different and give boni to the next item. Or could have slot to put in items to give boni, think sth like gem slots in path of exile or other fantasy games where you slot a +5 strength crystal into a weapon. Our tech tree could have a "improve quality" item to slot in or give a specific boni, like less ressource cost, more power output etc.

2.Another option would be to give boni to different items too. Lets say a fuel tank is sloted in front of a generator in the tree, now the generator would have a small energy storage. If i put the generator in front of the tank, then the tank would have a small energy generation. Do i put an armor infront of my tank, then the tank would get more hitpoints. Adding a thruster before an armor would give it more mobility etc. There are tons of options with strange combinations, but i am quite certain this might be to complex, since you have to account for all the options.

3.you can seperate the tech tree slot and blueprint itself in different items. The slots could give boni too if you have special slots. These slot types could be general (armor/weapons) and base/hv/sv/cv slots you have to get and then the blueprint. So if i would want a base generator and some armor to connect i would need not only the blueprints and connector, but a base slot and a general slot too.

4.have certain recipes for better things. Meaning you have to slot certain items in sequence to get a better item. These recipes you could get via quests or loot for example. The better items could be the T1+T2 stuff, aka advanced stuff or even super special things. For example a T1 generator could require you slot two small generator on a previous level and then put a y-connector on it (i could solve this with an x-connection to), with the single connection to the upper level where the T1 generator would "come out". Option would be to either if you find a T1 blueprint it would show the prerequiste how you have to build this at minimum or if you build the recipe (even by accident or only after "knowing" it) the T1 blueprint would "magically" appear in your tree and slot in.



Overall i think such a system would be great. I could focus a tree on combat to get my favorite weapon+armor or boots better. Maybe strengthen a shield too etc. Or go some engineer type route and slot mostly devices in to make them better. It would offer some endgame play, where you would min/max your tree to get the most out of it, while early you just scramble to unlock items you need and find blueprints with connectors.

It is very similar to what the current scenarios do with classes and removes the tech tree problems, aka "going from that item to this makes no sense". For multiplayer you could have a different person focus on sth different. So this would help there i think.



Important:

-the types base/sv/hv/cv/combat and what is produces by which constructor needs to be marked clearer for this system to work.

-the player should be able to have multiple tech tree's

-there should be an easy option to reset the tree, without a cost getting higher each time or having limited resets (could be some hacker NPC, for a set price, or just a button in an interface)

-overall keep it simple with the option to make it complex if the player chooses to do so.

-what does the player do with double blueprints/connections you find

-blueprints+connections should be sort of consumable where you learn the thing or feed it into your processor storage or whatever lore you want for this. I would want to avoid having more stuff in your inventory to manage. So you would have some interface where it is shown you have x amount of blueprints of this type, so many connections of this type etc.



(fun fact: if not used as a tech tree you could actually create some minigame. Goal would be reaching some end (like certain level in the tech tree) with highest points or to hit a number like black jack. Connections and blueprints would give different points. Imagine sth like scrabble, but with a tree diagramm.)



Misc/ gravity change visual feedback



add some visual feedback if the player suddenly enters higher grav(=helmet/1st person overlay, i imagine sth similar like the drone overlay in red + attention sign blinking and some text like "HIGH GRAVITY!" blinking). This could trigger on a condition if for example my grav goes up or down over more of a 2 G difference (or if you go into 2/3 G+ territory). So if i would exit from my ship on a high G planet i would get a short feedback visually for like 3 seconds, then it disappears to not be annoying. Like red scifi lines, some warning sign and IDA saying "warning: high gravity". If you go to low gravity you could get sth similar (but shorter display time) or just IDA saying "normal gravity restored.". There should be some cooldown on these messages so if i switch back and forth they do not trigger constantly. in this instance if another message would/should be displayed right after (aka message trigger during cooldown time) you would just have a display of words like "gravity changing" or some other very minor thing, that very quickly disppears, could be a symbol too, overall keep it short ~2sec display time max.



Misc/ starter system destroyed cv



simply have a CV you can restore in the starter(tutorial system), like in the asteroid field in the middle where the station and sv are. This could be very badly damaged, but would give an option to go the scavenger route form the start. You can get thrusters/neo from on masperon from crashed cv, skillon cv wreck and loot crates in general. So it is not impossible get basic parts to start/restore a small cv. Having the option would be a nice touch i think.



Misc/ option to zoom when in cockpit



this could be some extra device like optical enhancer (block or inventory item like nightvision) or default game option. Very similar like weapons have, just using the mouse wheel. Your high tech cockpit should have some option to enlarge things you see to some degree at least. Jumping out and using a sniper/rifle for some zoom seems a bit odd and disruptes the immersion of scifi world (where apparently your cockpit is crap ).



Misc/ plant harvester automated block



imagine some robot floating above the plants with some energy/scifi visual beam around the plant to indicate harvest process. This could be some npc or some block/machinery. It could be a autonomus robot on rails, sth that actually existst today, like this:

https://www.techrepublic.com/a/hub/i/2006/07/18/6f675f36-c3c3-11e2-bc00-02911874f8c8/9359.jpg





Misc/ bulk trading



option to bulk trade through a game mechanic. This would on one hand give rise to a trading playstyle. On the other hand it would change the problems we currently have if we want to sell more items, like a bunch of weapons.



This could be a completly new mechanic or done over a cargo controller type block for trade(similar to harvest+ammo controller), that the trader recognizes, or you can check a box in the p-menu of a cargo crate to designate it for trade.



Misc/ map command game mechanic/item



sth that executes the map command or does sth similar with selected POIs, depending on certain criteria. This could be implemented with services (aka find a statrion reveal map)or could be a special block or consumable item. If items these items could be quest rewards or just bought from special traders or could be faction specific if they only detect selected stuff (like resouce node discovers come from polaris etc)

Things i could imagine here are:

-survey/miner probe (discovers all ressource nodes)

-scavenger probe (discovers all wrecks and non-faction POIs)

-life detection probe(discovers all faction POI's)

-enemy detection probe(discovers all hostile POIs)

-damaged/defect probe (reveals a random sector/part of the planet that you have not discovered)

-pirate probe (reveals POIs up to a certain combat/atk/defense rating, preferably good targets to plunder)



important that the map reveal is easily useable and reuseable/repeatable, especially later in the game. And it needs to be usable when at a new planet/sector, so a station service sounds nice, but if you first have to find a station or no station is there then this change is only a minor solution.



(sidenote: yes exploration could be fun and is sometimes, but currently we still have nothing to do while we travel. So this is a minor solution or workaround/bandage fix to that "what to do while traveling. Overall i think even if you solve the travling problem i think a map command mechanic could be a cool gameplay option. Since you still would travel to placed you want to see/raid/etc.)



Misc/ replaceblocks



In 99% of cases this is used to replace all hull blocks. So either give us a new command like replacehullblocks or add input options to the one we have. I like the options of the replaceblocks command, since you can remove certain stuff, but really most of the time players use it to replace all hull blocks. Why do we have to type/do this each time for Large, Thin and all the Extended blocks seperatly?

Give us some input options like:



replaceblocks 1003 Hull HullArmored



This will run automatically the seperate command lines for Large,Thin and all Extended versions in the background and replace my Steel to hardened steel in this case. One short command and done.

All this is really minor programming work for a very big/useful QoL change.



Misc/ setdevicespublic



Please give us more options with this one. I rarely use it, because in the current state it is really only usefull for doors to be honest. Even then it is a debateable use case most of the time, because you do not want all doors public and have to go/check through the doors anyway to see where the closed ones are. There is not display doors in x-ray vision functions so you go through p-menu anyway or thorugh the POI.



At least create sth for funiture please. I know closets are in that category and you do not want these public. So make a category/input for sth like "sitting furniture" that would be all tables,benches and chairs. Alone this would be a big help on larger POIs.



Misc/ sth to do while flying

aka "what to do while traveling"-problem



A lot of the game time is just sitting in your CV/SV/HV moving from point A to point B. Give us sth usefull to do while doing that. I do not mean walking on a CV while flying, since i personally do not think this solves the main issue here. Yes you could do a bit more if you could to that, but i do not think this solves this at all.



If you want to expand into empire building and/or fleet managment then we could give tasks to your ships to trade etc. Fiddle with stations and outposts etc.

If you want us to have just crew, give us some crew managment stuff to do.

If we can do some more trading there could be a way to check trade prices, plan buying+selling and routes etc.

If you expand the options to remotly "look" into other systems/stations we could search for things or where we want to go. Plan stuff in general etc. Add map planing functions/options.

If you expand on the player built tech tree idea this could be sth that one could spend time optimizing while traveling.

Or some minigame to speed up traveling, like optimizing your engine?

Or add inner system warps (would just sligthly mitigate the problem not solve the issue)



Generally speaking most space games go into some form or another of managing stuff. Not sure if you want to get into that, but even if not - doing sth that covers "what to do while traveling" is a must. Overall probably a larger task too, depending a bit on how you want to solve this. But since it is such a big part of the game i think it should be some of the main objectives to tackle or at least stating to solve.



(minor improvement would be to do this too -> Misc/ map command game mechanic/item)



Misc/ tradeprice indicator



For this one simply a quick way to show the profit or loss if i buy said item compared to average market price that item goes for.



Star valor does this over prices that have different colors, which i think is a very good solution. Meaning if the price is green->profit, yellow->average, red->loss(=over average market price). There could still be minor differences in the colors, but it gives you a general idea. The solution i think would fit with empyrion and the trade interface we got. It would work with the single player approach (single player here meaningnot the game mode, instead simply no empire managment and you have to physically be infront of said trader to show prices). Prices colors could be default or it could be some armor mod.



As another example the x-series games have things like price locators, where you pick an item and then it searches you the station with the lowest/highest price you can buy/sell said item. Sth similar could work over a block/device too in empyrion i think or the GTN too or similar console interface.



Misc/ traders buy/sell



why is this set up this concovulted/unintuitiv? I know it makes sense that they sell+buy for different prices. But there are tons of options to make a trade interface clear and not as strange. Yes after a while it makes sense and you get it, but even then there are times when you get confused again, because it is not intuitiv to use. Especially for new player this is a turn off.



If you want to improve trading changing/fixing/improving this interface should be the first step.



Misc/ more broken blocks



some of the extended blocks are so tiny that we do not need broken version, but for a few distinct shapes it would be nice to have a broken version.

Some shapes are very similar and could be covered by just having one broken block verson that somewhat fits, since you are building destroyed things anyway.



Blocks i am thinking of here are:

-sliced corner d + corner half a3 medium /aka the new slopes

-corridor pillar d (super distinct, and you can not replace this with beam destroyed like the other pillar blocks)

-Doorframe a+b+c

-all double thin blocks, like wall double and so on

-wall sloped bold (usally used in a build to show the block, impossible to replace with sth fitting for borken blocks currently)

-a lot of ones in the cubes and ramps block category, like sth for cube stepped and cube stepped edge, this could be one broken block that covers both. Same for things like sliced corner a1 medium andramp a double half, again could be one broken block i can potentially use in both cases. Some broken blocks for the new half block shapes, like ramp a half(right+left) and rampc medium half(right+left), again these half blocks are usally used exposed and therefor more visible

-cube half ramp, corridor bulky wall a (+windowed), all three have a distinct, but very similar shape, again just have sth that fits like the cube half ramp destroyed version so we save a tiny bit of size class

-edge round thin (distinct thin block)

-edge round double a,edge round double a half (similar issue like wall sloped bold)

-cylinder framed, cube framed (damage one side with a hole the player can potentially get in and one side just dmg, a bit like wall l-shape destroyed, just uneven

-sth that covers corridor roof, ramp round b double, ramp round c, cube half cube connector, all of these are somewhat similar, meaning a half block base and one side comming up to full block height. Just have one broken block with this features and it can be used for all

-cube quater (usally used exposed, a broken block could cover cube quarter edge too)



maybe could use a broken version:

-wall u-shape (distinct shape, but could potentially be replaced with dmg versions of wall l-shape or wall corner or wall double, so i think not needed, but could be done)

-the tiny pipes like pipes L, pipes T, pipes X (already eating sizeclass, but usally used exposed and you could use the broken version as a nice looking vent entrance)

-new pipe connections like cylinder thin 3-way etc., you could potentially cover these with fewer block again, like a heavily damaged 3-way version on the corner and x-joint damaged in the middle. If you make the broken stuff so strong you can not determine if other connections are there it will cover the 4/5/6-way ones too. But i think these blocks are rarely used, so not important)

-ramp connector a+b+c (left+right), these could be replaced with other dmg versions, but could be a seperate block too.



Overall this is not a priority thing, since you can work with what we currently got.



Misc/ referenced POIs/places/things list



i noticed that during the unexpected allies dialogue where the imperial academy is mentioned. So things you talk about need to be there. The imperial academy is not, so there needs to be a list of unique building still needed if these need to be build still or list of which are mentioned in lore and need to be there (like imperial academy of zirax, the santa corporation would be another example, since just having one tiny outpost seems very wrong/unbelievable)



(this list could even be posted publicly. So for one people would think "nice these things are ingame" or "nice i could build place xyz and it might get added".)



Misc/ performance increases



There are probably more instances like this, but the cube half is the one i know. If the cube half is placed on a full block surface, it has still its surface. So doing a connection like this is strangely lower in sizeclass then filling the connection with a full block, which is weird and should not be the case.





Misc/ Sound



i had all sound sliders music+ambient+total at half and felt like a lot of the time there was ambient/music missing. I know you guys mentioned somewhere that this is something to come or on the list to improve. Probably one of the major issues that is not as obvious, but if solved would instantly improve the game by miles, for this reason on my list of TLDR. Not much else to mentioned here, otherwise then i like the game soundtrack.



Maybe think about featuring this a bit more with like a jukebox item or maybe there is another way. I think it would do wonders.



Misc/ What character/personality has the default player character?



I know we are a bit more of the silent type protagonist, at least what it felt to me. But IDA still has some character and since we answer to some things NPCs say, we as the player have some character type/direction too. My question would be what is that, because i do not see it. We say yes to every offer, even stupid thing like "there is death down there do you want to go?". And in the backstory there is to my knowledge nothing to suggest we are some gen experiment zombie. It feels at the current time very unrefined and all over the place.



It's fine if we are the soldier type, aka go in and slaughter stuff. Then this is great and i would suggest you play a bit with that trope. The murky christmas start for example does a great job for establishing the character with the short banter.



As an example in the swtor game you have the character storylines to play through. All of these (original old characters/classes) have predefined excatly layed out backstorys and therefor some character traits from the developers. You might think this would hurt the game or replayability. It does the opposite people are roleplaying their characters like they want and the make for great storys.

Do not be afraid to set a fixed picture of who the commander character is and how he acts. It will not hurt the game and be way better then the paper cut out hollow version we got now.



So yeah a question you should ask yourself internally and i would say work after that template to refine the dialogue.



(btw same question goes for IDA)



Misc/ armor station why/use?



The light armor equip option is nice, but gameplay/lore wise it begs the question why do we need an armor station for the other ones. They currently look very similar and i would imagine it would be similar hard/easy to get into them. Maybe in the future we will get other models and then from the visual it will be obvious, but in the current state if we think in game logic it makes no sense.



If you have no plans to distincly change visuals on light and medium+heavy, then maybe add more suit options that you can acess at the armor station. I know mods should be that, but then the light armor would need to be restricted to not use any mods without an armor station to make sense. So i do not know if there could be another option or mechanic here so this makes sense. Currently the station seem a bit more obsolete then before. They always felt more of an inconvinience to me then actually fitting well into the game lore/world. With the light armor change it think this got even more obvious.



Or make up lore reasons why that is and slap the player silly with them so he knows



Misc/ public forums



part of POI building improvements, aka making make at least barking input public

->poi need stuff in public forum (no login)



Misc/ space radio



this is bit of the part of featuring your game soundtrack more, but would mean you would have to add more different tracks too. The idea is to have a block or a key to turn on sth like "deep space radio". Meaning the game would play songs from a playlist. Could be themed to fit with the "station" or could evne be things the player selects from his pc's folders. In between some songs you would add small audio bits with very short background sound/jingle and some voice with sth like "this is xyz radio", like "this is andromeda radio", if you go with your universes name. These can be simple text to speech voices with some effects (or people from the community). Think sth like the old gta radio shorts. Or/and it could be adds too for/from polaris or the traders/colonists for example. Or some farr cultists radio/speechs/slogans^^.



I think space radio could be fun addition and would feature your music more. it would be one of the things that fill the "what to do while traveling" category, althrough i would class this more as a flavor addition, since you turn the space radio on and then you still have the problem of what to do while you travel.



Plus the composer alex jordan that did most/all of the tracks for the game did some other stuff too, i think this would be a fun project for him too to add music of a different style.



Example gta radio stuff:

(mostly start of the videos has the bits i mean)



Misc/ autogen vs framework



i know you are a small team and to a degree you are already doing this. But it is quite important so worth to emphasize, so here we go: The two main approaches to solve the "how to create lots of content with a small team" are either autogeneration or setting up a framework where the players can do it for you. Meaning you either have a powerfull engine/algorythm that puts out cool automatically generated stuff (like the planets/galaxy) or you set up things like editors/menus etc so the players can add things themselfs (like the building mechanic we have).



In some way the planets/galaxy is the autogeneration part and especially the latest updates to visual and terrain were great. The POIs on the other hand i would put more in the framework section, but both make up your content. Quests fall into that framework part too currently btw and are part of the content too, but they make up a smaller part in my mind.



There are a bunch more stuff that can be done with autogeneration and i suggested a few things above already, but do pretty well on that front i think. Where you fall a short i think is that to make the framework approach work the players need the tools to create stuff for you. Meaning yes building is great and we can do cool things there, but most people do not build POIs. We have a bunch of tools to do cool bases and ships and hv's. All of this is fine, but on POIs it falls short.

A few examples:

-Alone for setting up a simple quest i need to create a galaxy first. Meaning even if i just wanted to do a cool quest i need to learn that other stuff too.

-Tokens are a good addition, but need to be set up seperatly in a file, so you need to create a scenario again.

-Decals are cumbersome to even implement, not even talking about the issue that they stay ingame even if the block is removed, which is a major issue.



There are a bunch of more reasons for that, but it mainly comes down to "we/players do not have the tools". (or we theoretically have them but they are so overly complicated/convoluted that they are a pain to use) At this point it is up to you, the developers, to give a better framework that makes us want to add/create stuff to create content. Assuming here you want to go with a framework approach. If you do, which i would guess, then you need to actually give the framework/tools so this does work.



We see you adding cool features, like tokens, decals or the more recent update with mini/side-quests. All super cool stuff do not get me wrong, but these are rarely used.

As an example it does not matter if my car can drive as fast as a sports car in theory. if to achive that i need to prepare a week before, do a smoothy with specific ingredients, perform a ritual and get "the special fuel"- well guess what, i will never use that feature because it is a pain to do so. (Or maybe for the fun of it try it one time as a party game, but after that i am done )



So coming back to the start here, the framework only works if it is in a useable state. Aka the need needed QoL changes are there. Tools that are there can actually be used and so on. In short:



Give a better framework and you get better content for your game. It's as simple as that.



misc/ some sort of scifi security camera



you can technically do sth with blocks + LCDs, but i would love an extra block that does this. Meaning a security camera type of device/block. It has some sweeping motion and area indicator, aka the camera view the player is supposed to avoid. If triggered you can link this to base alarm/reinforcements (if this would just be a special signal block). But maybe the game by default would call troop transporters (or if you do a check box). So the incentive to avoid these is to secure your sv/hv/cv you have parked outside the base.

 

VERY LONG SPOILER !!!

Spoiler: long read 4/4

misc/ auto rename p menu for things like traders etc



if i set a trader to like paxpurgatory, doing an autosort of devices would rename the block in the list to "trader paxpurgatory". This way you can see if you just scroll down which traders you have without having the need to click on each seperatly or having to rename them by yourself. Overall it would be nice to have some more poi/build otptions there for seeing wares overlap, so we could have a whole new tab/window to display these too. Aka which types of traders, wares overlap etc.



This autorename would be nice for spawners too btw. Sth like "3x TurretrobotV2".



Important: If i rename things manually this would automatically be disabeled for that device i renamed. (could be a check box option too to activate if needed)



misc/ more signals



aka options to create more elaborate signal circuts. I am not well enough versed to know what excatly needs to be done for that to happen, some programmer might probably know. But just things that give you more options to create puzzles and so on. This could be signal to trigger troop transports/drone stickes too. Or signal to pull up predefined minigames where you can use the signals created from the solutions/results of these too. Aka fancy stuff to make cool things



As an example i recently tried to do sth like a cursor. So the player would have two buttons to move a signal to the left right and of course back, aka move however he wants. I ran into the signal cross coupling issue there. So there are either some base functions missing here to get sth like that to work or some internal programming to be done. Not sure.



Again this was just an example, other people might have more ideas here. The more options we have the better and if they are easy to use and impliment then that is great (see frameworks section).



Legacy minor plot point quests



touched briefly and some examples have this. Important with these legacy is a side topic and people involved in the quest either no nothing about legacy or next to nothing or are very vague about it. Examples:



-polaris manager sends you to investigate why a mine has dropped in productivity. This could be some kind of do a favor for me to get x type deal (for sth like info about your crew if crew quest cain). So you go to the mine, ask the workers and they are scared to go into the mine. People got killed and they hear screams. So they sealed the mine and stopped production. There could be a short tid bit of why there is no radio/comms about this back to the manager, could be solar storm knocked out comms or a case bureaucracy, where polaris messages are not getting to the people they should, because big corp and solving this issue might cost money. So your job is to get the mine abck to production. Aka go into the mine, kill horrors, done. Miners thank you. You might be able to ask them about the horrors you found, but they have no idea and maybe just say they would burn the bodies of what ever you found. Back at the polaris manager he is happy you solved the problem. Does not know anything about horrors and your mission is done.



-lost person that you search for, maybe because some relative did not receive a message from him/her for a while. You go to the colony , it is infected/overrun by legacy. The relative turned out to be turned to a horror. Could be some text/diary you find to make that clear. You go back, report relative is dead. Quest giver is sad. If you ask about if they know what happened, you get sth like "frontier colonies are lost every and so often, the galaxy is a dangrous place. Sometimes it is pirates sometimes some unknown alien wildlife they can not deal with, not something that warrents a special investigation." you could get the "i do not know line from the quest giver." and maybe the option to report to station security so they investigate and then get the before "buisness as usual" lines.



-quest involving some lab/scientists. You are there for other things like get some meds or rescue someone who is taken as a test subject etc. When in the lab there is a section where horrors/legacy research is done. It is just there as set dressing, not main focus, but a brick for the worldbuilding.



-some cleaning type of quest. You clean sth and find legacy goo. You clean it either way and they quest giver is just "nice that it is done." he does not care that is was some strange alien liquid.



-some pitfighting type contest. Where one is a horror or legacy creature. This whole thing could just be set up on the side while you investigate sth else in this strange underground den or a quest leads you there. Or the pitfighting could be a bit of a main focus, but the "strange creature" just another fighter to bet on.



misc/ block styles: ancient/tribal/stone, tech, alien/organic



in general you have these three broad directions. Where ancient/tribal/stone is mostly just poi's (rarely do people build bases in that style). So i would love options for the other styles if we have some block for one. Like for tech we have a ton of stuff. But for example most doors look "wrong" in an organic/alien setting or ancient/tribal tomb.



Ancient/tribal/stone: tombs, crypts stonestructures that are forgotten and low tech, tribal villages etc.



Tech: our normal scifi space ships, think arc, polaris, zirax this direction



alien/organic: more round shapes, alien goo, insect, growth plants etc. Think legacy, maybe kriel (althrough they are some mix)



few blocks/things that would be nice i already mentioned elsewhere (like organic spawner) so this is mainly meant as a usefull classification to help see what is missing and might be nice to have as a new model/block.



misc/crew skills/managment idea



nothing revolutionary really, but i would love some system similar to star valor with a mix of rimworld. Like crew would have some specialisation in a field (or even more then one). Like you could have an engineer. If i use that crew on my ship he could rank you, get to become a better engineer and give better boni.

(overall we are talking minor bonuses)



add in the rimworld traits, like crew could have special character traits. Like a "packrat" could give you slightly more cargo space. Or a berserker, guy who loves combat not sure what that is called in scifi, would give you more combat boni. These could have some trade offs too, like more cargo could make you slightly slower. Or combat berserker could give you more weapon power, but lower shields etc pp. You get the direction. Important to not make these trade offs to bad. Again overall boni should be minor.



I think a setup like this could give some more end game content. Aka the player flys around to optimize his crew for certain ships. It would give slaves some place. Aka these could be lower level crew guys that are cheap, but bad at the start and need more time to be trained up. And could give pirates a special thing, aka sell slave aka cheap crew. Normal(=polaris,civ,zirax) stations could have average crew for hire. A faction like arc that is a mercenary faction could get you higher level guys but for a high price, aka making the faction distinction actually sth that you find in a gameplay mechanic. So you could be good with some factions to get crew. For the best crew you would have to engage with arc or pirates, either buy crew or raid arc/pirates to capture them (or free slaves). Think this would be a nice addition.



Other/and option would be to give crew rooms some boni and for the game to recognize them, but this might go to far. Rimworld did and i would think still does sth like it. Meaning like a room that has a bed and some furniture would be a sleeping room. For empyrion you could have requirements for crew or rooms categorized as sth could give ship boni. Giving roleplay some function. But again that might go to far into "station/starship simulation" and would probably be another game.





Short Misc's



-physicaly flip lever via signals, aka correct lever signal response/display (example: signal like motionsensor can trigger a lever to flick physically)

-low tech quest trigger like consoles, for example like the old table with some parchments on it for example or some statue type thing or ritualistic stone table etc.

-more tribal deco that fits somewhat into the block shaps grid like the tech deco stuff. (benches on the side of a block etc, single tables in the middle, maybe a tribal counter top)

-more scifi looking deco furniture

-make upgraded turrets used for drone base as blocks in item menu avaliable. Current solution i used is replace blocks, but having the actual block would be more convinient

-npc just sitting on a chair, so i can place him/her in front of tables/consoles or other stuff i build out of blocks (simply the ScifiChair with a dude on it)

-npc with "working" animation (simply the ConsoleSmallNPC without the console and slighty more in the front so i can place him infront of things and it looks like he is taking a reading of engineering things or checking stuff, maybe give him some pad he can type on like ScifiSofaNPC)

-"forward leaning" hv cockpit, aka a motorbike type cockpit where the player character is angeled foreward

-more scifi/weird/tech looking elevators, i am thinking sth like energy tubes and some metall frames. +Sth for organic POI's. Like xcom1 maybe:

-make workshop/factory blueprints respond to tech unlocks. Meaning if i do not have the shield unlocked i should not be able to build sth with a shield in the factory.

-implement the factory lore friendly into the game

-make level visible somewhere without the need to switch to state/level

-getting carbon at the start still feels like a chore (i did masperon)

-runing+walking straight through an elevator slows the player down, wish this would not be the case

-mineral lab POI has one very rare alien loot crate that is hidden in a ceiling area (left wing), it is saved with custom optical fibre loot, intentional?

-booster switching should be possible with drag and drop for light armor without armor locker

-add prisoner/slave barking dialogue

-add robot barking dialogue (already suggest a while ago already in the thread)

-crashed bird dr mandor camp, make/place poi near that works as his camp so the story makes sense

-sky guy's bar quest dialogue makes no sense, you have to buy a beer and then ask for beer??? (+the exposition did not mention you get a free beer, just to sit down in the bar)

-epic sniper why no sniper ammo?why 15mm? Be consistent, have a weapon type for a weapon and it's better versions (do not get me wrong i like that it uses the same of gatling/turret ammo, but it makes no sense in game logic+consistency)

-if i have been on a planet option to open map while in another system (could have a warning for multiplayer like "last known map information")

-multiple switch/lever blocks for POIs/BAs

-make tribal deco/furniture sitable

-juke box device/block, maybe pay small amount of credits to listen to an empyrion song from the soundtrack you picked or just for free pick a song

-dancing NPCs that are not moving around the tiles. This could be the same animations, just have her dance in one place, aka just where i put her.

-quest ancient revelations PDA has old illmarien preview picture, why?

-possible to warp distance inside a system/lock planet there

-make tokens usable while poi buildling outside of a scenario

-ancient revelations "missing vessel in deepspace" -> it was right beside a planet in a sector with 4 polaris CV's crusing around, why no "dead" sector so the exploration thing is emphazised

-hotkey to turn off/on thrusters only

-in planetary map display biome on side if i hover over with mouse

-save if i had turned on/off "info panels" in maps

-the space station with the teleporter to omicron had weird music of a busy station while being abandoned

-improve POI placement generation, so cutout looks/is not a square, let plants grow on spaces no used by a poi or just used by flat filler blocks

-customizablke cross hairs weapons + vehicles, maybe other crosshair depending on vehicle weapon, different weapon cross hairs. All of these are possible and already used in scenarios and it is great that the function is there, but it would be nice if this would be used in the base game too

-guns with alt ammo, like stamina, oxygen, health. Already used in reforged and i think a nice idea, would like to see more of that in the base game. Counting to the category of enhancing or giving more variety in combatgameplay

-since the T2 is not produceable at the adv constructor i guess this is now a loot item. But this makes workshop ships with T2 shield a no brainer to use, since you can easily get it this way. Highlights the workshop problem a bit more.

-QoL changes to signal logic menu, like scroll down with mouse wheel in signal logic tab (where AND/OR etc are if you have many signals set up there you have to scroll currentl with mouse cursor)

-Highlight cursor of color tool better (in general + mostly for creative)

-Dislike sniper edge chesse, would like more combat options and better solutions that do not feel as cheesy

-default tech deco color of the glowy bits, why white, why not the old cyan? I do not get it, are you want to create more work?

-way to increase drone reach/max limit

-bake LCDs for performance increase?(convert to jpg/png that it iused by the game + would be scaleable)

-ancient/stone doors, aka hangar door size type that fits with my ancient tomb/stone/concrete stuff. Think indiana jones tomb













THE END



Thanks for reading and if you skiped down here:"how dare you" joking of course, i would do the same either way thanks for spending your precious time and i hope you got something out of it, be it enteraintment or food for thought.



and with that i wish you a good day space traveler