New Support ship ideas/concepts

[roknikus]

I must say I do like most of my support ships and I love the fact that I can name all of them what I want. I do feel that they could be improved upon and since this forum is here and the creator of this game is great and actually listens to feedback I figured I'd throw a few ideas out there.  

Idea #1: The ranking system is a great idea, but I feel that it could use more depth/ranks to it. Also perhaps some elaboration as to what the ranks do for your units ( i.e. do they boost certain stats?) I also believe that a statistics section when viewing the selected unit in the garage would be very cool. This statistics section could include info such as number of kills, number of missions completed, total damage taken/dealt, etc. I'm not too picky about having a statistics section but a more in depth ranking system would be great!

Idea #2: What if the Hydra ship (the one that spews fighters) also had 2-3 harvesters as well? It makes sense from a tactical perspective. The Hydra would be better able to recoup its losses with such automatic resource collecting. I would however make sure to confine the range of these harvesters and make sure that they don't fly out while the ship is under attack.

Idea #3: A support ship with a satellite dish as one of its weapon slots. This satellite dish would allow for better scouting. This idea isn't so important to me, just a suggestion.

Idea #4: More combat dialog. Such as lines letting the player know that the ship is critically injured or is missing its guns.

I had more but I just can't think of them right now. If anyone else has any other ideas or would like to comment on these ideas, feel free to.

[Space Borders]

Thanks for all your input.

1 - Currently higher ranks boost the speed and armor of all ships, however in the future it may affect the firepower as well. For now it's just a thought but who knows.

2 - This has been suggested before and yes, it does make sense because it would allow the Hydra to fill the role of a "forward base", that could operate independently.

3 - Perhaps we could have a scout version of the Gladiator (like the one from CM).

4 - How much I wish I could afford voice actors. Having ship captains actually talk to you about their current condition, rather than text would be so awesome. In general I wish the whole battlefield atmosphere could go to a completely new level.

[anders]

You could go to a nexus site and put a volunteer add up for voice actors, there's usually a lot of people that will do it for there names to be in the credit.

[Space Borders]

Really? that would be so awesome! Do you have a link?

[anders]

Ah i don't anymore. Last time I used the nexus was almost 3 years ago for a big mod I was making for Fallout New Vegas. I know that on that nexus there where many people who were willing to voice act if you named a character after them, put there names in the credits, or made a tribute to them some how. I'd check out the fallout nexus since that's still heavily used I believe.

[anders]

What would you like to have the voice actors do? I could try to dig up my old account and post a ad or message some old modder friends that know some people that'll voice act.

[roknikus]

Dude, doing the voice-acting alone would be fun in and of itself. hell, If I had a halfway decent mic, I'd totally volunteer, and thanks for clarifying what the ranks do, I was really curious to know, I have a star-rated harvester and I was just curious to know what that meant for the unit.

[Space Borders]

Well considering the voice acting, there's so much that could be done.

Have ships report their current state like:
- Engaging the enemy.
- Taking heat.
- Hull breach imminent.
- etc...

To go even further, adding audio to the conversations/briefings. Giving game characters a voice and have a narrator, but that would of course be secondary.