Hey, FDev. I'm Italian, so please pardon my poor english.
I would like to ask you why there's so much unfinished mechanics and "unused options".
Now, i'm talking about general ship stuffs, and mostly related to flight/module/management. I play mostly exploration, and i've done other activities (mining, trading, combat) only to the minimum required to boost my exploration stuffs (= engineering grind) to the max.
While i don't really know what's under the hood of ED, as a programmer i can estimate that my questions/requests are not so absurd or so hard to be implemented, and that's why i'm asking for.
Anyway, here's my questions:
- Why i can't (de)activate optionals fuel tank modules? So that i have full control on the fuel (and mass) of my ship? A deactivated tank should not fill when scooping and not being emptied when using fuel. You already have the mechanics of modules activation, it should not be different from other modules.
- Why i can't dump fuel like i do with other cargo? It could be treated exactly like the other cargo, i could select how many Tons of fuel i want to dump and so i could manage the mass and jumping range of my exploration ship. You already have the mechanics of cargo dump, it should not be different from the others commodities dump.
- Why i can't see how much fuel i have in Tons? It tells me how much i burn in tons/h, but how much i have in %. I see that the % is useful in the most cases (and usually it is when the consumption is'nt), but sometimes i want to stay under a specific tonnage 'cause jump range and i have no way to look at that value.
- Why i can't (optionally?) link the fuel scoop to a fire button or a key, so i can choose how much fuel i want to scoop while in the proximity of a scoopable star? Maybe a different fuel scoop module? but if you don't want "module proliferation" (a thing i've read somewhere) just a tiny change in the existing one is enough. You already have the mechanics to toggle things on and off.
- Why there's not a key to toggle the SuperCruise Assist? You already have the mechanics to toggle things on and off.
- Could the cargo door of the SRV follow the "picking logic" of the limpets? I see how now it follows the ship "cargo door logic" (= pick only what's targetted) but while in a ship there no other way to see and pickup objects (and i like the "minigame" of aligning and scooping them) in the SRV you just run over them, but you can't target (fast) what you don't have in the front. The "Limpet logic" (pick everything if no target, else pick only the targetted one) would be much more pleasant and functional: the commander just runs over the things and they got sucked. You already have the logic, is it so hard to port it on the SRV?
- Why the star maps shows me all the "normal jump" lines for the star i can reach, but not the "neutron enhanced jump" i could do? With the right filter for the stars, i could see where to go with a "supercharge". You already know where i can go, and already shows me jumps line, it should not be so hard to let me see also the long ones.
- Why the plotted route lines have to be scaled with the galactic zoom? i'd like to zoom out and see where the route passes, but the lines disappears. They should remain visible no matter the zoom.
- (Odyssey) why the "SRV door light" (the moving yellow lines from the ship) can't touch the ground like the "human elevator light" do? it won't break the game balance in any way while making the boarding a bit easier.
- (this is more complex, but while i'm here….): about grinding manufactured stuffs: why not implementing "mining" for it? I imagine a big, big ship wreck that i have to "mine": i fire lasers (either for mining or standard weapons) and materials starts popping out. The whole hull should be like, say, 10 asteroids, so i pass a good amount of time there without that awful log-off/log-on trick, and when the hull's done i've got a good amount of stuffs. This will follow all the already existing game mechanics (mining & destroying stuffs to pop materials) and it is basically another representation of them. And it is "play", not "grind".
Thanks for your attention.
Cmdr Parduz
o7