New Frames & Inventory Console Features

Denninja · Post by **Denninja** » Mon May 14, 2012 5:21 am

-Forward-facing spotlight(s) to SEE in the dark without being in an asteroid.
-Function to realign your ship to the grid automatically without gating or docking.
-Variation to Construction "recipes", providing:
-More equipment and weapons that exploit the effects/functions already available and more.
-Construction in multiple steps.
-Ship-part sizes and proportions affecting armor/speed/accel/shield etc; make this optional?
-AI mercenaries to be hired for inter-system trade and complete mining-constructing runs.
-More detail on solid planets, and I see "giant grass" too often.
-Cores for gas giants.
-Slight variation to atmospheric storms, maybe some cyclones, think Jupiter's spots.
-Ocean terrain, dive underwater. (a bit extreme to suggest but seems possible)
-Hitch rides on green capital ships, provided the destination's faction is also green.

Huw · Post by **Huw** » Mon May 14, 2012 8:53 am

From post: 137169, Topic: tid=9023, author=Denninja wrote: -Ocean terrain, dive underwater. (a bit extreme to suggest but seems possible)

That's a great idea, I'd love to see this.

Post by **DaveK** » Tue May 15, 2012 10:19 am

From post: 137169, Topic: tid=9023, author=Denninja wrote: -Slight variation to atmospheric storms, maybe some cyclones, think Jupiter's spots.
.

some great ideas - actually having the big red spot on Jupiter would be a great addition!

Underwater could be fun, though it would need a lot of work on environment otherwise it would be a bit like nebulae without the lightning!

kromaticorb · Post by **kromaticorb** » Mon May 21, 2012 4:55 pm

From post: 137169, Topic: tid=9023, author=Denninja wrote:-Forward-facing spotlight(s) to SEE in the dark without being in an asteroid.
-Function to realign your ship to the grid automatically without gating or docking.
-Variation to Construction "recipes", providing:
-More equipment and weapons that exploit the effects/functions already available and more.
-Construction in multiple steps.
-Ship-part sizes and proportions affecting armor/speed/accel/shield etc; make this optional?
-AI mercenaries to be hired for inter-system trade and complete mining-constructing runs.
-More detail on solid planets, and I see "giant grass" too often.
-Cores for gas giants.
-Slight variation to atmospheric storms, maybe some cyclones, think Jupiter's spots.
-Ocean terrain, dive underwater. (a bit extreme to suggest but seems possible)
-Hitch rides on green capital ships, provided the destination's faction is also green.

Use your 3D radar. You can Self-Orient. Thank you Orbitor....

Letoras · Post by **Letoras** » Tue May 22, 2012 10:13 am

Size.
Sometimes when battling it is like shooting at colored circles.
I would like to see more of the enemy ship.
Making the ships bigger maybe is not possible due to technical reasons but if the range of weapons could be re arranged so instead of fighting at 500-700 the combats take place from 200 - 400.....just a thought.

Also the sizes when you are docked at the station are very strange, i think the problem comes from the texture of the station, i would like to try and retexture the station (but my skills are poor and i cannot do it unless i find the texture somewhere).

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Tue May 22, 2012 1:16 pm

From post: 137475, Topic: tid=9023, author=kromaticorb wrote:
From post: 137169, Topic: tid=9023, author=Denninja wrote:-Forward-facing spotlight(s) to SEE in the dark without being in an asteroid.
-Function to realign your ship to the grid automatically without gating or docking.
-Variation to Construction "recipes", providing:
-More equipment and weapons that exploit the effects/functions already available and more.
-Construction in multiple steps.
-Ship-part sizes and proportions affecting armor/speed/accel/shield etc; make this optional?
-AI mercenaries to be hired for inter-system trade and complete mining-constructing runs.
-More detail on solid planets, and I see "giant grass" too often.
-Cores for gas giants.
-Slight variation to atmospheric storms, maybe some cyclones, think Jupiter's spots.
-Ocean terrain, dive underwater. (a bit extreme to suggest but seems possible)
-Hitch rides on green capital ships, provided the destination's faction is also green.
Use your 3D radar. You can Self-Orient. Thank you Orbitor....

Hi,
what do you call "3D radar" ? is it the one in the center of hud (moving sphere like) ?

Post by **DaveK** » Wed May 23, 2012 8:31 am

From post: 137539, Topic: tid=9023, author=mido wrote:
From post: 137475, Topic: tid=9023, author=kromaticorb wrote:
From post: 137169, Topic: tid=9023, author=Denninja wrote:-Forward-facing spotlight(s) to SEE in the dark without being in an asteroid.
-Function to realign your ship to the grid automatically without gating or docking.
-Variation to Construction "recipes", providing:
-More equipment and weapons that exploit the effects/functions already available and more.
-Construction in multiple steps.
-Ship-part sizes and proportions affecting armor/speed/accel/shield etc; make this optional?
-AI mercenaries to be hired for inter-system trade and complete mining-constructing runs.
-More detail on solid planets, and I see "giant grass" too often.
-Cores for gas giants.
-Slight variation to atmospheric storms, maybe some cyclones, think Jupiter's spots.
-Ocean terrain, dive underwater. (a bit extreme to suggest but seems possible)
-Hitch rides on green capital ships, provided the destination's faction is also green.
Use your 3D radar. You can Self-Orient. Thank you Orbitor....
Hi,
what do you call "3D radar" ? is it the one in the center of hud (moving sphere like) ?

Yep!

SeeJay · Post by **SeeJay** » Wed May 23, 2012 8:42 am

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but it would be cool if docking/landing required much more skill.

More penalty if you hit anything inside the dock and that you need to "park" your ship at
a designated position that requires more than just flying straight into it at any speed.
Require clearance to dock/land!
(Cleared for approach to docking bay 3. Dock at pad 5!):P
Adjustment to speed should be required to avoid death when docking!;)

Landing at planets with atmosphere could be done more like an airplane with runway!:D
(Gear down! Oooops forgot - Boom!):D

[Edited on 2012-5-23 by SeeJay]

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Wed May 23, 2012 9:33 am

I'd like a volumetric radar, which show hard structure around as floor or asterooid walls looking like green structure only..

dunno how to explain

but actally on dark side of planets it is sometimes really dark and cant see well the terrain.

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Wed May 23, 2012 8:11 pm

different mining tools (with classes and/or spec) and mining radar for detect place to mine for what element

i had others idea in game, must get back and list them, sorry if already said before in thread

War Eagle · Post by **War Eagle** » Thu May 24, 2012 12:10 am

During WW2, fighters were often scrambled by the fleet to beat off Japanese Kamakaze attacks.

I think it would be fun to see military fighters spawn from the carriers (as a contract mission to you) to fight off and destroy an incomimg flight of Vonari against the carrier.

It seems like it would be an easy addition to implement

Post by **Marvin** » Thu May 24, 2012 2:26 am

Arvoch Alliance already has carrier scrambles. Whether Vice can incorporate them into the Mercenary expansion pack ... gotta wait and see.

Spiffv2 · Post by **Spiffv2** » Thu May 24, 2012 4:11 pm

I have several ideas that could be put into the next iteration of this more interesting (some of these might already exist, I might just not know it.) Some of this may be totally impractical to implement, but I'll toss them out anyway.

Gameplay Stuff:

-Player to player cash and equipment transfers. One player can hire another to do their dirty work for them or just give them a loan for something. Or they can swap items. Maybe even player initiated contracts.

-Combat oriented distress calls. Say you're flying around, the distress call could be something like "Mayday, we are under attack by <some faction>! We are requesting immediate reinforcement from any mercenaries in the sector at <coordinates>. We are willing pay <sum of money> to all who respond. Responding could improve your rep with the faction you helped.

-Gas giants should have a "kill zone". In real life, jovian planets behave more like a fluid that gets increasingly denser until it's far thicker than water, but still moves pretty quick. If the winds on planets like Sierra are enough to wreck your ship, flying far enough down into a gas planet would utterly crush and tear you apart. Speaking of which...

-Some planets should have really bad weather. This already exists, but I say crank it up. Make it like flying through hurricane force winds that really throw your ship around, making it damn hard to safely land. Maybe have an audio warning "Entering severe weather conditions." or something. The reward is that contracts for deliveries to these planets are worth a ton. Possibly they might have a rare commodity for cheap or are willing to pay a lot for a normally cheap commodity.

-Air to ground combat. Basically bombing stuff on a planet's surface. Something like a military installation that can fire missiles and AAA up at you and scramble their own fighters to intercept. There could also maybe be dedicated A/G weapons with higher yields but are useless in space. (Large bombs. Or nukes, hell yeah!)

-Combat contracts in asteroid fields. It'd be a challenge and you could take out enemy fighters by getting them to fly into rocks.

-Anti-station missions. Because my motto is bigger explosions are better explosions. This one might not be practical, but the idea is that upon accepting the contract an "enemy station" is spawned at the waypoint. Destroying it requires weakening a certain area in order to destroy a reactor or core. Perhaps also have it so you have to be clear of the blast radius when it explodes. That might be something to implement for capital ships as well.

-The ability to equip more than one primary weapon. You'd only be able to fire one at time, but you could cycle through maybe 2-3 types of cannons as is done with the missiles.

Environmental stuff:

-More in-game background on the Evochron universe. To me this is actually my biggest hope for future installments and my biggest criticism of the current game. The gameplay is fantastic for a detail oriented space junkie like me, but the universe feels a bit sterile. I realize that as a free-form game, there's not going a single driving story that the player must follow, but learning the history and motives behind the different factions as well as allusions to past conflicts and events being present in mission dialogue would be wonderful. Multiple quest lines completed for different factions would be great. If they were presented by characters with distinct personalities (only in text of course) that would elevate this game immensely.

-Intelligible radio chatter. I heard this was present in earlier installments. I think it'd add immersion. If there was system specific chatter, for instance chatter between a ship and a station detailing docking procedures where the station is mentioned by name, that would be incredible. Of course, I realize that would require a lot of recorded lines and might be a bitch to program in.

-Brief descriptions of item functions. This is something I've read about in a lot of reviews of this game. New players were unsure what certain things did. I also read this complaint in the Steam forum when EM was launched there. Some items have a small description and some are just self-evident, but things like the afterburner drive or the build construction have no mention of exactly what they do. A couple sentences mentioning exactly what things do would really help new players out and keep them from quitting out of frustration.

-More terrain variety, various types of vegetation, different city models, ect. I was astounded at the scope of this game and how well it looked for only being 250MB in size. Honestly though, even if it meant increasing the size to the 1-2GB range in order to throw in higher res textures or effects, I wouldn't complain one bit.

Well, I hope I didn't sound like a jerk rattling off all that crap, it's just stuff I think up while flying through the black.

Post by **Marvin** » Thu May 24, 2012 4:14 pm

I only read the first three 'cause two of them are already in the game. You should probably play more before making suggestions.

Post by **DaveK** » Thu May 24, 2012 9:18 pm

From post: 137668, Topic: tid=9376, author=Spiffv2 wrote:I have several ideas that could be put into the next iteration of this more interesting (some of these might already exist, I might just not know it.) Some of this may be totally impractical to implement, but I'll toss them out anyway.

Gameplay Stuff:

-Player to player cash and equipment transfers. One player can hire another to do their dirty work for them or just give them a loan for something. Or they can swap items. Maybe even player initiated contracts. can do in MP and SP with AI

-Combat oriented distress calls. Say you're flying around, the distress call could be something like "Mayday, we are under attack by <some faction>! We are requesting immediate reinforcement from any mercenaries in the sector at <coordinates>. We are willing pay <sum of money> to all who respond. Responding could improve your rep with the faction you helped. there are already SAR - not sure about riding to the rescue, but it sounds good

-Gas giants should have a "kill zone". In real life, jovian planets behave more like a fluid that gets increasingly denser until it's far thicker than water, but still moves pretty quick. If the winds on planets like Sierra are enough to wreck your ship, flying far enough down into a gas planet would utterly crush and tear you apart. some people are asking for gas planets to have surfaces so you can land on them because you explode if you go too deep Speaking of which...

-Some planets should have really bad weather. This already exists, but I say crank it up. Make it like flying through hurricane force winds that really throw your ship around, making it damn hard to safely land. Maybe have an audio warning "Entering severe weather conditions." or something. The reward is that contracts for deliveries to these planets are worth a ton. Possibly they might have a rare commodity for cheap or are willing to pay a lot for a normally cheap commodity.

-Air to ground combat. Basically bombing stuff on a planet's surface. Something like a military installation that can fire missiles and AAA up at you and scramble their own fighters to intercept. There could also maybe be dedicated A/G weapons with higher yields but are useless in space. (Large bombs. Or nukes, hell yeah!) interesting idea but it's not really a space oriented activity

-Combat contracts in asteroid fields. It'd be a challenge and you could take out enemy fighters by getting them to fly into rocks. love the idea - you can pVp in MP if you can find someone interested

-Anti-station missions. Because my motto is bigger explosions are better explosions. This one might not be practical, but the idea is that upon accepting the contract an "enemy station" is spawned at the waypoint. Destroying it requires weakening a certain area in order to destroy a reactor or core. Perhaps also have it so you have to be clear of the blast radius when it explodes. That might be something to implement for capital ships as well. big part of clan versus clan fighting in MP, though there actually is very little clan versus clan fighting in MP . . .

-The ability to equip more than one primary weapon. You'd only be able to fire one at time, but you could cycle through maybe 2-3 types of cannons as is done with the missiles. I'd love to be able to have two particle cannon rather than one plus a beam - I find that the beam weapon is pretty (but) useless!

Environmental stuff:

-More in-game background on the Evochron universe. To me this is actually my biggest hope for future installments and my biggest criticism of the current game. The gameplay is fantastic for a detail oriented space junkie like me, but the universe feels a bit sterile. I realize that as a free-form game, there's not going a single driving story that the player must follow, but learning the history and motives behind the different factions as well as allusions to past conflicts and events being present in mission dialogue would be wonderful. Multiple quest lines completed for different factions would be great. If they were presented by characters with distinct personalities (only in text of course) that would elevate this game immensely. There is a written history of Evochron - several players have/are writing clan fiction as well

-Intelligible radio chatter. I heard this was present in earlier installments. I think it'd add immersion. If there was system specific chatter, for instance chatter between a ship and a station detailing docking procedures where the station is mentioned by name, that would be incredible. Of course, I realize that would require a lot of recorded lines and might be a b to program in. I use a sound mod that has intelligible chat from the stations

-Brief descriptions of item functions. This is something I've read about in a lot of reviews of this game. New players were unsure what certain things did. I also read this complaint in the Steam forum when EM was launched there. Some items have a small description and some are just self-evident, but things like the afterburner drive or the build construction have no mention of exactly what they do. A couple sentences mentioning exactly what things do would really help new players out and keep them from quitting out of frustration. I assume you mean in game - there is a description in the official guide, plus an explanation of the science behind all the technology in the (clan fiction) Mercenary Manual

-More terrain variety, various types of vegetation, different city models, ect. more planetary eye candy would be great (there are changes coming in the add-on Vice is writing but whether they will include the veggie stuff is unknown at present, but you will be able to wander around in a mech lander!) I was astounded at the scope of this game and how well it looked for only being 250MB in size. Honestly though, even if it meant increasing the size to the 1-2GB range in order to throw in higher res textures or effects, I wouldn't complain one bit. not everyone has the luxury of a high spec PC - the game size limit is deliberate. Vice has taken some aspects of earlier games out (for example the beacon quest) to keep the game size down

Well, I hope I didn't sound like a jerk rattling off all that crap, it's just stuff I think up while flying through the black.

The forum is for sharing ideas and having fun - there are some good ideas (IMHO ) in your suggestions. It's good fun to hear what other people's imaginations can come up with

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Sat May 26, 2012 12:34 pm

I'd like very much an in game spacecraft journey log, would be great for write deep thoughts, notice places, prices (where i buy what at which prices etc.), and so on...

Post by **Marvin** » Sat May 26, 2012 3:55 pm

One of the nice things about this game is that you can exit full-screen mode via Windows+D without borking anything. Ergo, you can launch and use other programs at the same time, such as: (1) if you don't want to install other screen-capture software (but do want to post screenshots to the forum), you can use Print Screen and then Paste to Windows Paint; or (2) you can also launch Notepad or Wordpad to create and add entries to a Log.

Post by **DaveK** » Sat May 26, 2012 4:19 pm

From post: 137774, Topic: tid=9376, author=mido wrote:I'd like very much an in game spacecraft journey log, would be great for write deep thoughts, notice places, prices (where i buy what at which prices etc.), and so on...

EM_Tools has a logging and a note taking function built in

kromaticorb · Post by **kromaticorb** » Sat May 26, 2012 10:09 pm

Some things I would like to see sooner than later, followed by stuff I would like to see later:

-Planet size increased along with gravity, I've played orbitor, its cool using celestial masses to "slingshot" yourself around. Maybe this game doesn't have "true" newtonian physics. If it doesn't, is it possible to add a little more newtonian in the engine?

-Fleets!! For now, maybe limit it to 3-4. But instead of "hiring" pilots, you buy ships, and the ships you are not piloting, can pilot themselves (requires Pilot crew members or something that you have to pay an upkeep)

-I am not sure if they exist (new player) but defensive structures to protect your stuff would be nice.

Stuff I would like to see later:

-Empire type mechanics (X series). I love the X series but the pace is too slow and RTS for me. Maybe you are your own faction. You build a station, a flag says that station is yours. Option to build a station for yourself, or to "flag" it for your clan so a station can have two flags, you built it and its for your clan.

-Remote operation of "owned" property. Out of sector control of your ships/stations

-Fighters: how cool would it be to fly a carrier and then unleash an angry hornets nest of fighters? make them slighty more durable than missiles (they gotta be fast though) and a short fire range.

-Ship building: once you can build a Unique "headquarters" (rip off of X3) you can manufacture ships/weapons/anything. Provided you can supply the necessary raw material. Limited to only one per person or even one per account (to prevent one person from having 5 headquarters)

-Storage: dump resources/items/weapons/ships you don't want to sell into a storage bin (for building purposes or optimum trading potentials)

westernnomad · Post by **westernnomad** » Sun May 27, 2012 3:57 am

Load fighter drones in missile bays. They would use energy weapons with small damage potential. But they are reusable - returning to the bay automatically once the threats are eliminated.
Mk.1 drones - One fits in 8 slots.
Mk.2 drones - Two fit in 8 slots.
Mk.3 drones - Four fit in 8 slots.
Suggested cost starting at 12 Mil credits.

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Sun May 27, 2012 11:05 am

From post: 137784, Topic: tid=9376, author=DaveK wrote:
From post: 137774, Topic: tid=9376, author=mido wrote:I'd like very much an in game spacecraft journey log, would be great for write deep thoughts, notice places, prices (where i buy what at which prices etc.), and so on...

EM_Tools has a logging and a note taking function built in

i tried to use it but
http://evochron.junholt.se/files/EM_Tool_Readme.txt

was a little freaking me

i do not have a second comp for run it so its a little hard to..

i'd like a simple logbook function on a F key like for trade or nav
and there being able to write down some infos i collect..

right now i'm carrying a pencil and a paper... so it's minoring a little the magic about flying in space

Post by **Marvin** » Sun May 27, 2012 3:42 pm

Too bad Atollski isn't still around. I'm pretty sure he could've created a mod to fit your specifications.

Post by **DaveK** » Sun May 27, 2012 5:07 pm

From post: 137815, Topic: tid=9376, author=mido wrote:
i tried to use it but
http://evochron.junholt.se/files/EM_Tool_Readme.txt

was a little freaking me

i do not have a second comp for run it so its a little hard to..

i'd like a simple logbook function on a F key like for trade or nav
and there being able to write down some infos i collect..

right now i'm carrying a pencil and a paper... so it's minoring a little the magic about flying in space

I can see your problem

- I am lucky enough to have a second monitor and use it for TS, EM_Tools and Evometrics

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Wed May 30, 2012 9:39 am

From post: 137784, Topic: tid=9376, author=DaveK wrote:
From post: 137774, Topic: tid=9376, author=mido wrote:I'd like very much an in game spacecraft journey log, would be great for write deep thoughts, notice places, prices (where i buy what at which prices etc.), and so on...

EM_Tools has a logging and a note taking function built in

Hi,
I put it in the right place and so on, i dont have a second screen but i open it today while not playing and got the informations... the map the places the equipement...
found the note and log function

can start to use "offline"

will try to run it on my linux laptop trough wim and router... if it works i will tell you and then translate the use of EM tools in french (if you are ok with that)

thanks a lot
see u in space-time continuum
mido/ IGN : Major Grubert

Major Grubert · Post by **Major Grubert** » Wed May 30, 2012 1:00 pm

Hi again,
it works fine

in fact i just had to share the folder and open the EM_tool.exe with the wine

thanks a lot for the support and help !

Will do some translation for explain in french the use of the EM tool, after some practice

See you later