New Frames & Inventory Console Features

Agent Zirdik · Post by **Agent Zirdik** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 3:10 am

I don't think he meant the fighters in Evochron Mercenary, I think he meant fighters in general, sort of rhetorically. But I think the misunderstanding is what 5 cargo holds really mean. Each unit of a commodity is 1 ton. So each cargo hold can hold 25 tons of a commodity. Thus 5 cargo holds we be equivalent of 125 tons of something. That's not something you could fit in the cargo hold of an X-Wing or some other fighter.

But I do still think that my idea is pretty valid. We shouldn't have to sacrifice shield, fuel, engines, (though maybe manueverability) for the sake of cargo space, since those are all important to a freighter. Instead we should be able to sacrifice countermeasures, crew, equipment slots, and secondary weapon slots, since those are LESS important to a freighter pilot.

Letoras · Post by **Letoras** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:24 am

The defending stations is a nice idea indeed.

I would like to be able to name my ship, so i can have my pilot (Letoras) piloting my ships (military, civil).

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:35 am

I'd like a carver beam, for being able to build caves into big asteroids

then hide things inside

I'd like being able to create "things box" bow with not only things inside "equipement", but a message to, kind of "small quest" possibility's made by players for players

KingArthur · Post by **KingArthur** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 12:43 pm

I Think a MINING/TRACTOR BEAN Should Be an Integrated System in ALL SHIPS so as Not to Occupy a EQUIP SLOT. I Would Also Like to See EQUIP Such as an AUX POWER GENERATOR that would Augment your Ships POWER CORE and Increase your WEAPS/REPAIR Time By X% for Each of 3 Models. Say a Decrease in Time to Get ALL Systems/Hull back to 100% Re: A1-25% A2-40% A3-60% . So Simply an A3 would bring REPAIR/WEAPS CHARGE UP by 60% by REDUCING the TIME to Get These to 100% from 3 mins to 2 mins, etc. This would INCLUDE EXCAL PACKS. There Could be a "TRIGGER" Set So that the AUX SYSTEM Doesn't Start Opperating until Your HULL or a SYSTEM is BELOW 50%, excluding EXCAL PACKS.

This AUX POWER GEN Could Also be Made as a "One Use" System like the STEALTH GEN loaded in your MISSLE SLOT.

inDissonance · Post by **inDissonance** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 5:20 am

From post: 140866, Topic: tid=9376, author=Marvin wrote:
From post: 140850, Topic: tid=9376, author=inDissonance wrote:... but with only five cargo holds that even fighters can have ....
That's news to me. Last time I looked, fighters could only carry one cargo bay. I can add fuel tanks but not extra cargo bays.

That's why I said

In my admittedly small knowledge of ships (I still have the beginner, though I'm saving up big) it would seem all ships should have the 5 cargo bays because it doesn't "cost" that much. Now, this may change as I get further into the game with the bigger ships, but that's just what I see right now.

I just see the civilian ships right now and know that all of them--the "fighter" and the "freighter" frames--can hold a 5 bay cargo hold. I don't know about the military ships because I haven't gotten to them yet, nor do I much care about fighters as I was always a trader in almost every space sim game I've played. I enjoy the risk involved, i guess.

And, to whomever mentioned it, I do understand that five bays hold 25 units each. My suggestion wasn't really toward how much you can hold, but more toward ship "classes", but I suppose they go hand in hand.

If you look on the road (and this is generalizing a lot), you have your average cars, your sports cars and your semis. Now this game seems to merge the average car and the semi together as all civilian ships can have 5 cargo bays. You still have your sports cars in the military ships, but i liked trucking in a semi.

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:47 am

Well, there are "big rigs" in Mercenary ... but you don't get to pilot one. Best you can do is buy a pickup and attach a trailer to it. If that's not enough, log on to G1 and talk to the guy who runs the server. He might decide to talk shop.

inDissonance · Post by **inDissonance** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 1:57 pm

From post: 141134, Topic: tid=9376, author=Marvin wrote: Well, there are "big rigs" in Mercenary ... but you don't get to pilot one. Best you can do is buy a pickup and attach a trailer to it. If that's not enough, log on to G1 and talk to the guy who runs the server. He might decide to talk shop.

Hence me posting this in the "Things you'd love to see in future updates/games" thread of the forum. It's something I'd love to see in this game and I think it would add more versatility and fun to it. I think I'll let the creator of the game decide. Thanks.

Mecingo · Post by **Mecingo** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 3:51 pm

Dynamic AI as in they fly in formation, plan attacks, run away when they realize their getting hammered, faster AI, and actually taunt, talk, and call for help.

Make money from the stations you build I have always hated building all those stations and not getting any royalties for it!

Slower Ships I'm probably the only one that wants this but I hate when people run away. I want it to be harder for them to do that lol Also going in reverse should be slower. It doesn't make sense that reverse thrusters go as fast as if you were going forward

Seeing a star of a solar system from far away I always thought it was weird not seeing the star of a solar system once you get like 4 sectors away from it. I would at least like to see it from 100 sectors or so away. It still gives off light as I see the light hit planets, however I don't see the star. Not even a faint flare of it.

Dangerous Gas Giants Being real here. Going into a gas giant should destroy any ship.

Lastly Clan AI to protect clan stations, take orders, and as followers in a fleet It would be nice to see AI tags on Ships in clan systems, and if one person tries to destroy a clan station, he will suddenly see clan AI become hostile toward him. Having minions would be fun that aren't players. Of course fleets would be useful to.

[Edited on 7-24-2012 by Mecingo]

Agent Zirdik · Post by **Agent Zirdik** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 9:29 pm

I like all those ideas, Mecingo. About the AI defense, I posted a little earlier about a defensive station that would fire upon players who do not submit a pre-shared code beforehand.

One thing that I have though about recently, which I actually think would be a very small but pretty convenient change, would be the ability to transmit coordinates to fellow pilots in a way that is private and convenient. I think that you should be able to transmit your coordinates in a packet, sort of the same way you can copy and past a URL into a text document, and it becomes a hyperlink. That way a pilot could transmit a coordinate, and all his/her friend would need to do is click on the coordinate and it would automatically set it as their destination. Alternatively, there could be a way to send a Map Log, to a pilot, so that it would be saved to his/her map log and they could select it as a destination from there.

[Edited on 7-25-2012 by Agent Zirdik]

Kraiz · Post by **Kraiz** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 10:56 pm

I like the defensive station idea. Perhaps a password that you set in your Inventory? I play EVE Online, and Player-Owned Starbases have very strong forcefields around them. To get in, you have the POS Forcefield password entered on your ship. This is useful being stored on the ship because a clan can use a universal password for their stations and bases so all members can not have to worry about memorizing passwords (Unless their clan leaders are paranoid)

I'd definitely like to see some revisions to the chat system. Having the option to remove the game's text inserts (Mission completion/death, entering exit menu, station construction, etc.) would be wonderful, as this frequentlhy clogs up the chat.

Also being able to form "groups" with players as a simple means of having a private chat channel. In Freelancer, Groups gave a chat channel that was exclusive to your group, allowed you to enter formation with a player, and showed their position to you anywhere in system. The group was temporary; it wasn't named, nothing You log in and you just invited people to it like a private convo with multiple participants.

KingArthur · Post by **KingArthur** » Tue Jul 24, 2012 11:06 pm

I Like the POWERFUL SHIELDS and The PASSWORD IDEA Kraiz. The Shields would Have to EXTEND OUT to a RANGE FURTHER than that of an SD and Be IMPERVIOUS TO ALL OTHER WEAPONS.

EN4CER · Post by **EN4CER** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 4:52 pm

My own suggestions:

1. Give us more on a planet that is unique. For instance unique contract of mining a certain mineral only found on one planet.

2. Have hostile planets/stations owned by rebels. The guys have to be using more than a carrier for everything.

3. Require landing gear and alignment for docking. This would really make it feel more like a sim.

4. Please allow us something permanent like a named wingman that can die or 1 static station per zone that only the controlling clan can place and access. Nothing feels permanent.

5. I would really like to see ejection and emergency pods. If you eject before being destroyed you can pay to be towed (tractor beamed) to a station or friendly aircraft.[/list=1]

Agent Zirdik · Post by **Agent Zirdik** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 6:40 pm

Hey EN4CER, some pretty good suggestions!

I whole heartedly agree with number 1, planets do seem sort of the same except for their appearance, but Vice is working on an expansion in which you can explore the surface in a terrain walker, so there will be more surface features including random space cargo that falls to the surface and you can find and collect. But I do agree that ores or minerals should be more exclusive to certain areas. Platinum is valuable almost everywhere and is obtainable almost anywhere!

I also agree that ships of any organization should be based in . . . well, bases! Not just floating around with no real destination.

In terms of docking, the expansion is changing docking so that there are designated hanger bays which the station control will assign you to. So that will complicate things. As for landing gear, I'm not sure I agree there. I mean, anything for simulation, but I think Evochron's technology is past the point of landing gears what with zero-point energy that can guide a ship into dock. But I agree very much in the idea of more skill needed to dock, some rotating stations or stations inside asteroids and the such.

I also agree that AI wingmen would be very cool. Related, I think that the ship's crew should have full names and maybe portraits, so you feel like you have actual people aboard rather than three initials.

I think that ejection/escape pods sounds cool, but with the ease of just reloading from your last save with all your stuff and an intact ship, it makes that not a practical alternative.

EN4CER · Post by **EN4CER** » Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:13 pm

Planet caves would be nice. I haven't done much exploring and I probably won't spend a ton of time doing it. I and I assume most other players feel that too much time spent on the possibility of reward rather than actually working towards one lowers the priority of exploration a lot. If there were hints and other factors that led us to hidden objects that would really be nice.

I do and dont like the reloading mechanism. It's nice that you can quick save and just try something over and over (like high speed descents) but at the same time it really breaks the believability. I read somewhere else that it would suck to have to pay to rebuild your ship and I agree with that also. There has to be a clever middle ground that can be reached where death isn't something you just simply shrug off but at the same time isn't so punishing that new players are frustrated. While it's not a top priority I do feel the game would seem much more permanent if death had even the slightest of repercussion. Something like damaging your hull, destroying a random piece of equipment, killing a random crew member, anything!

I mentioned this somewhere else I would also like to see heat management on the walkers similar to mechwarrior games. Since they'll definitely have energy management since they're using the ship's weapons it would be really cool if they had heat management instead of shield management. Now you're adding another level of thought and complexity to basic ship gear. "These beams dont take much energy but they'll generate too much heat while I'm walking.". Also I'm sure this is a given but people will certainly want to try some walker combat both against AI and players. This opens up some really cool mission possibilities like Defend the city from 5 walkers while keeping your own alive.

As for the AI wingman I would even be satisfied if you had to pay them and they left after a single mission. Anything that allows us to fly around and feel like we're leading a small squadron would be a massive bonus. A miner could pay for an AI escort instead of being so naked. Even if they didn't have any flight AI beyond what they currently have +go to nav point. I do see a potential for abuse if the AI was too good or their equipment is too powerful but as long as it's a simple ship and simple AI with a limitation of 1 per player or maybe even 1 per clan. If you got fancy we could even assign them to protect our more permanent objects.

Sorry for rambling. Killing time at work

Post by **Marvin** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 12:12 am

When you talk about AI wingman, are you suggesting something different from what already exists?

Agent Zirdik · Post by **Agent Zirdik** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 1:29 am

I think he means in multiplayer

Ged Tigeriei · Post by **Ged Tigeriei** » Fri Jul 27, 2012 10:28 pm

I'd like to second the motion for increased cargo hold options at the expense of weapons/crew spots. A very large but mostly defenseless freighter might well be an interesting sort of ship to play, especially if some new, highly valuable mineable substances were added, available only on asteroids in remote systems with high hostile rates. The current paradigm of metal, diamond and platinum available on every asteroid in the universe is a little boring.

KingArthur · Post by **KingArthur** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 6:26 pm

Something I'd Like to See is a WARNING SYSTEM when Another Clan is Accepting Contracts in your System. Simply, When the Text Message "X has completed contract (x) in sector, etc" Appears it would Show IN RED when It is Completed by a Clan Tagged Pilot NOT of the Clan that OWNS the System.

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 11:11 pm

Divert ore, more of them, more specialized for constructors, upgrade constructors available for construct more parts or different ones dunno... feeling this area could be more specialized detailed customized to

Some ore, example Cobalt, could be available only in some sectors or quadrant parts or sort of planets and it could be used as x in this system but as y in another one... and maybe coupled with gold could build Z module which can be used to.. whatever
endless possibilities

Agent Zirdik · Post by **Agent Zirdik** » Sat Jul 28, 2012 11:35 pm

I agree, Major Grubert.

There needs to be more industry to this game. There are so many different commodities, but only a handful of them are actually used for anything.

EN4CER · Post by **EN4CER** » Sun Jul 29, 2012 2:40 am

Being able to fly a transport and perform travel missions for a high number of 'crew' members. (More frame diversity)

Being able to fly a command and allow AI pilots to warp in and defend or have long range (sector wide?) request for AI support. (More frame diversity)

Spinning not getting stopped by IDS system while it is toggled off (roll/rotate/rudder/spin several terms for it)

Much much larger cities some without docking bays for eye candy.

***
More custom quest functionality such as adding an object condition (go here pick up this).
***

More clan features. Any features at all such as a clan hud you can access in the station. Shared banking or shared 'clan hangers' where good starter equipment can be handed off.

Chat formatting. Namely font size and message filtering. I've considered removing some of the messages from the text.DAT file to 'mod' this feature into the game but I haven't isolated the lines or tested it. That is for another topic though.

Seeing how modular the game is coded I'm not sure if this would be a lot of work or not:
There are a ton of commodities. Crafting would be really nice for this system. Take fusion cells, ship parts, flux capacitor, and a schematic found on a hidden planet to a constructor to have access to a hidden frame or piece of equipment.

I know the expansion is close to release so there's probably not a lot of time to add major features into the game but the thread is here so I'll keep adding to it

[Edited on 7-29-2012 by EN4CER]

Combat Wombat · Post by **Combat Wombat** » Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:27 am

a new game needs multiplayer capital ships

Lettijeesus · Post by **Lettijeesus** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:30 pm

Personally I play Evochron Mercenary because it makes you feel like you're flying your own ship, and to fortify that feel I think the game should offer more options to customize your ship.
Just the littlest things like decals or more detailed painting tool. Also it'd be nice if you could give a nickname to your ship.

Few other things:
When you zoom in in the navigation screen, you can move around the grid using the arrow buttons also use the arrow keys to do this.
Also when you zoom in the navigation screen, it changes the focus automatically to your current location. I think it'd be better if it kept focus on your cursor and you could return focus to your current location with a button or something like that.
Lastly: The map log is kind of hard to use. It'd be a bit more user friendly if you could rearrange the saved locations instead of having them in the order of saving. Also you should be able to edit already saved points.

[Edited on 30-7-2012 by Lettijeesus]

Post by **Marvin** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 7:42 pm

From post: 142085, Topic: tid=9376, author=Lettijeesus wrote:Lastly: The map log is kind of hard to use. It'd be a bit more user friendly if you could rearrange the saved locations instead of having them in the order of saving. Also you should be able to edit already saved points.

I'm pretty sure you can edit the file itself. Check the main game folder for "maplog" files ... there should be one for each pilot profile.

Lettijeesus · Post by **Lettijeesus** » Mon Jul 30, 2012 7:49 pm

From post: 142106, Topic: tid=9376, author=Marvin wrote: I'm pretty sure you can edit the file itself. Check the main game folder for "maplog" files ... there should be one for each pilot profile.

Ok, but it'd still be better if it was integrated in the game. Meanwhile it's good to know I can at least do something about it.

[Edited on 31-7-2012 by Lettijeesus]