-A request to view market data anywhere in space.
-A question about how large scale asset management will work.
-Market-
I would like to see the ability to access the market from space. I was a fan of EVE Online for a while and there's nothing better than looking at, and dreaming of owning big shiny ships on the market while en route to a mission destination or mining an astroid (being able to see a fully rendered 3d version of the ship in the market window was also super awesome). With a market that is constantly changing I wouldn't want to have to sit in a station all day or jump around to find what I'm looking for. I feel like this game is taking place far enough in the technological future for interstellar ships to have access to the universal or at least regional Ebay. Maybe restrict it to a region of space or maybe have some kind of sovereignty where the player has to own some part of the system they are not in, in order to see its active market.
-Managing Assets-
When one dominates half of cosmic infinitude one has undoubtedly amassed an immensity of capital. Put another way, if you are the leader of a large faction, alliance, whatever, you probably have a lot of ships, stations, planets, etc. under your control. I guess this is more of a question than a suggestion. How will assets be handled in late game (large scale)? Will you be able to make a coordinated siege on a system or region by being able to control ships (and any other asset) wherever they are or is the command limited to ships in system with the player? Can I have my space station in Nil'Kemorya start a production line of fighters, outfit them for combat and have them fly out and form squadrons in Wolf 359 to patrol for pirates? Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep with the simplistic and intuitive style of the game while being able to control massive amounts of "units"?
Depending on how managing assets is implemented, it could become a nightmare to own large amounts of stations, ships, etc. like in X3. When I was nearing end game, the amount of time I spent in menus grew exponentially. I am really hoping to see an alternative to that in some way. Maybe making AI smart to the extent that the player doesn't have to command much. I know some people may like sitting in menus and dictating precision orders to their armada. I agree, at times its okay to get nity-grity, but to keep gameplay smooth I think some serious thought should be put into this. I will continue to brainstorm but I wanted to get this out there for others to mentally chew on as well.
I have never made or been part of making a game so my opinion has no experience behind it; take it for what its worth... I think making the asset management system from the bottom up (micro to macro) is going to cause problems (like lots of time in menus) down the line when you start trying to implement them with multiple large fleets, station assembly lines, etc... Maybe start from macro and work it down to micro or maybe its somewhere in the middle. I honestly don't know but I thought I would share my mind.
This was my first post so yay for that
. Hope this gets some ideas flowing.