spoiler alert

[TGS]

The original idea was primarily around fleets be it capital or fighter. Or freighter even. The point is my whole perspective is built around atmosphere.

As much as everyone constantly sings the praises of this game I have to play the devil's advocate in saying that this game has an extremely detached atmosphere. I don't feel like I am actually "part" of the universe. I don't feel like I'm making a living in it. Maybe some of you do I'm not sure but I personally don't.

The idea of a fleet would add to that sense of atmosphere in that when you go up against hostile AI... how often do you go up against 1 or 2? Pretty much never right? So why is it you as the player are in that situation (Primarily speaking multiplayer here). Not that the option isn't available but the MP population just isn't high enough to get the sort of relative "fleet" feeling as you can get with 5-20 AI behind you in SP. That would really provide an awesome atmosphere boost to me because it would make me feel like I am merely a part of the universe rather than a lone player that's disconnected from everything else.

The reason I have in the past brought up Capital ships and I'm sure that's probably where people got that from is the fact that in this game we have extraordinary traveling capabilities. Far more than really makes sense. I know in Vice's "universe" it makes sense but in every sci-fi or naval context I have ever thought about smaller ships simply do not and can not have the capacity for massively long distance travel on their own. It simply doesn't work due to lack of fuel space lack of drive distance/speed and general lack of design. Yeah there are some Sci-Fi universes where there are fighters that have inter-system and extra-system capabilities but they are usually either built for it specifically at the expense of other aspects or they're something like X-Wings in Star Wars and even those ships in Star Wars aren't really designed to solo fly around the universe. Thus you think about capital ships which if you applied it to the Evochron universe as it is right now. You wouldn't fly them you would merely direct them. They would have much MUCH higher jump capacity and would obviously be quite expensive to buy and maintain.

One thing that has always struct me as odd in Evochron and even some other games like Freelancer is that in the MP environment a lot of the capital ships are stationary just sitting there. They might as well be stations because they never move. I know in some cases this is due to the technical limitations and design of the game but it just feels... awkward to me.

There is so much potential in this game but it feels like it's missing something. I know that some people don't want it to turn into an X clone but resisting moving in a particular direction simply because you don't want to emulate something else is a pretty silly rational.

As far as lag goes I'm not entirely sure having AI fleet's would really bump up the lag that much unless you get 4-5 people all with fairly sizable fleets all in the same area. And if it was implemented and worked similar to in SP technically there's nothing that would say your fleet would be right next to you. They could be off on assignment mining or killing stuff. In fact that would be a good feature in and of itself. Sending your fleet on assignments.

[Siege]

All good points I think, and fleets certainly have some attractions along with possible downsides. I like the capital ships ideas, I wonder if it is possible and or viable?

[Jax_Cavalera]

I couldn't agree more.. I hink that's what I was really trying to get across when I was speaking of he advanages to having he fleets and the capital ships.. and that they would have very different purposes.. but based on how the games balanc is all laid out.. there is no need for them but if those balances were adjusted, there would be a big need for the bigger ships if one wanted to do the longer distance deep space exploration. basically I agree with all you are saying.. you have just managed to articulate it a lot better than I was capable of doing... none-the-less just bought a copy of evo merc now so i'll give multi player a shot and see hwo it goes

[Siege]

Look forward to seeing you in there