4Game

I have been a on again (really dedicated) and off again (burned out) player since its release in 2014. And I absolutely love this game; however, I absolutely hate this game too. I hate how much untapped potential is in this game. I don't understand how a game with an annual income larger than Robert Space Industries(Star Citizen) net worth: has less features (truth time: missions are all a failure), less ships (in a space game based on ships), almost no developer to consumer communication about current bugs (that have been in the game for years) and future content. Let's not mention the DLC's or the panther clipper that was promised back in horizons.

Now that I'm a billionaire in game, there is really nothing left for me to do. Own a credit sink named Fleet Carrier that does nothing special except make more money if you do only one specific thing (mass market trading), no thanks. — For the fleet carrier owners who want to debate me on this – how's the view from the commander seat, nice wall simulator.

My goal from buying this game was to reach Elite status. Once I did- it was very empty. Cool I got a permit to visit 10% off dream land. There was literally nothing else that happened except I got a shiny new logo to put on my ship.

All of this complaining to say there are so many simple improvements that FD could make to help retain players and gain new ones. The Space Game genre boomed when ED came on board, and shortly dwindled like the promise of odyssey on consoles. Sure you've got content creators pushing the hell our of this game but how many mining python builds will it take before their eyes bleed.

Let's talk. Here are some of my ideas that could and would help;

Ships – Bring variety. 38 ships is a useless number when only 10 of them are viable. You can create new ships or rework current ships to increase viability and playability.
Mechanics – Missions are at best good, on average ok, but they could be great. There is a reason people are always searching for ways to exploit the board.
Rewards – Reward players for accomplishing something in this giant grindfest.
Examples include:
Passenger -The entire Saud Kruger ship line – create special dedicated spots like military spots for passenger cargo you can do this by increasing the number of internal compartments, keep what you have just add 1 class 4-5 on dolphin, 2 class 5-6 on orca, and 1 class 8 or 2 class 6-7 on BL.
Combat – make them one of 2 categories Tank or DPS. For Tank, bring Hull tanking up to the shield tanking strength for pvpve; there is no reason you should be able to pop a type 9/10 in seconds after the shield falls. You could adjust this in base numbers- ships that are meant for hull tanking will have lower shield values and higher hull values. For DPS, well there is really only 1 ship for pvp and if you don't know it you don't pvp. A federal Corvette shouldn't be beat in a 1v1 fight with anything, and alas the FDL remains supreme since the days of pre-power play. AS well as Player owned downgraded versions of Fleet Carriers meant for Combat. That would invite Squadron v Squadron Combat. And a massive boost to incentivize Multicrew action – someone is shooting this gun, someone is in charge of flying the space whale, and so on.
Cargo/Trading -I'm talking about you Lakon, Do the same thing for this as you would the SK lineup except make them dedicated cargo rack spots. Why in the world does the type-6 even exist, and for that matter the type 7. Make cargo ships better for traders. We are scraping by with on average 20k/ton runs anyways.
Mining – create a dedicated ship or 3 (low, medium, high tiers) for this. Using a python to get to a fleet carrier is dumb. For the hell of it I made a laser mining cutter and corvette just to pew pew rocks. There needs to be a ship that gets some kind of boost, maybe a dedicated refinery spot, or limpet controllers, or even an extra utility spot in that class for the pulse wave scanner.
Exploration – there are some great ships for this, but there is very little incentive besides someone being a completion-ist and wanting to fill out that new Xeno-elite. (sorry console players) adding in some form of rewards for bringing that terraformable planet to that major power you are turning into. something other than boosted reputation, you could add a science component to this. And why on earth isn't there an exploration variant of the fleet carrier with a smaller cargo size and increased FSD- they should also be able to discovery scan right from the fleet carrier.
Piracy – bring something different to the table that doesn't include the rebuy screen because that guy was in a fully engineered FDL. Think hatch breaker limpets but weapons that "dmg" a ship without blowing it up. Weapons that can turn off engines without destroying them, or an emp stealth ship that runs shieldless and colder than normal without weapon hardpoints / only utilities and a hatch breaker compartment dedicated spot. There is your idea for the Hawk.
Smuggling – bring in those illegal goods in a special scan proof cargo rack. Thats right, im not carrying 200t of Onionhead, its just 200t of biowaste. These aren't Imperial Slaves, these are passengers.
Courier – These might as well be just reputation missions not courier. Sending information should be valuable and important and only apply to specific ships, or ships with a "cargo" module, like a computer that can store xGB of data. the more the data, the more the money. Make the sidewinder/hauler/imp courier valuable to even late game players. You could even add a late game ship anaconda size that transports mass data like "election results" or "megaship data" or you could add a new mechanic allowing players to purchase exploration data and bring it to their super power. As well as a new tree for elite.
Salvage/Rescue/Refuel/Support – Adding in these types of mechanics and ships that are dedicated for such a task would expand the pvp aspect of open play. Salvage ships – could salvage mats and cargo from recently destroyed NPC/Player ships in the form of fuel/ammo/metals and sell it. Rescue ships – could provide rescue for a NPC/player stranded on a planet or out in space and bring them to the nearest space station for a mission generated payment. Refueling – PAY THE FUELRATS for inventing an entire game sub-type by creating missions dedicated to honoring them. Support missions – could changing the supply mission to something that's rewarding- a ship that can have refrigerated cargo, that would make all perishable commodities a subtype of trading that you have to have the cargo for and make trading it and supplying it just as valuable as gold, its like people don't eat in space.
Planetary everything/combat – this is just a joke. It pay less money than a fully loaded sidewinder and is about as fun as arriving at your mining location only to realize you forgot limpets. Pay people for going down onto a planet and investing time into hitting that sweet spot while they glide down to a planet. For trading, this could mean a reduction in costs for selling to players commodities natural to that planet and buying from players commodities at an markup that they need. For combat, this could mean engaging in a fight pays you well above the cost of a viper or giving rare you materials. Hell you could even run re-enforcement missions and make the Federal Dropship (with a dedicated module for armed personnel/or a special cargo for weapons commodities) something worth having; for instance, you have to supply x soldiers to x combat zone. *PLEASE add warzones inside a planets atmosphere for ship to ship combat.
Xenocombat – make this the endgame combat people want to do. Make this a freaking raid boss that you NEED a wing of 3-4 to kill and is just as lucrative with loot. Rare blueprints for weapons that are really strong, Tons of t5 mats, and valuable commodities that don't corrode your beautiful Gutamaya interior. Give people a reason to actually go Thargoid hunting in groups, or a reason to be scared when their ship is pulled out of hyperspace randomly.
Engineers – please balance this. Its a great idea, but why would I ever want to engineer my heatsink for one more puck. If I invest into engineering a heatsink, make it so I only need the one heat sink. *Just an example.
***ELITE*** -give players something useful for completing this daunting task other than Jameson Memorial.
Elite Combatants – you deal 5% more dmg, or take 5% less dmg.
Elite Explorers – have access to the FSD S class (just made that up but it sounds good).
Elite Traders – buy at a discount, sell at a markup
Elite Xeno-nerds – a special SRV or ship module that can scan biodata, or something else. I'm not the biggest fan of this *new gameplay.

And I'll end on this,
Players should be able to craft commodities. We should be able to generate commodities and create a pseudo-player driven economy with supply and demand. It would give fleet carriers a boost and a reason to own. Keep in mind this is just an example: they could take metals/minerals/etc and purchase them from players, then the fleet carrier could craft them into something like ship modules and sell them to players to sell to stations, both sides would profit and it would be unique cargo only a player owned fleet carrier would have.

Please let me know what you guys think.