[Philosfr]

I wanted to post a copy of something I put in our guild forums the other day. I'm relatively new to Jumpgate Classic, though SOL Navy of course is not. But I thought that ideas from someone new to the game would provide a different perspective. Free to shred them at will!

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Equipment: In Jumpgate Classic, the "best" equipment leaves very little room for argument. There's no trade-off. The "best" piece of equipment is usually better in every single category, or at least comparable. This means that everyone essentially flies the same thing unless there is a shortage, with only guns being the separator. Most players would prefer "customization". So maybe this shield has less protection, but much greater regen. This engine has only a fraction of the mass, but uses a huge amount of power to run. Ideally, there should be multiple equally good options for a piece of gear.

Faction Equipment: There should be benefits to using your own factions gear. Cheaper price, more efficiency when installed in your own ships (No need to get a metric to English converter trying to install an oct into a sol, ect), or something to give some edge to using your factions equipment. Maybe you need a MODx slot to fill with "compatibility gear" to run differing factions equipment together. Either that, or trading between factions should be a little more difficult. Put increasing tariffs on gear as relationships between the factions degrades. When it's all out war, perhaps no legit trade can happen. Only smugglers and black marketers can sneak into enemy space to buy.

Physics: Drag is too much of a factor on light ships. Cut your engines and within a few seconds you already have lost half your velocity. Sure, it's a different story when you get a heavy miner loaded down with uranium, but even the light ships should behave that way. I'd like to be able to get up to high speed with a pursuer behind me, cut my thrust and flip around and shoot at him for a bit without slowing down drastically like currently.

Side Thrusters: Nothing powerful, but it would be nice to have side thrusters comparable to the braking thrusters. That way if you're trying to navigate through a tight space, you don't have to flip your ship, burn, flip it back the other way and burn to brake. These could be as strong as the brakes, nothing that would make a drastic difference in combat.

Radar: I need more radar options! An option to toggle on and off individual categories. Click here and 'roids show up, click here and 'roids are gone. In combat, I want to be able to clear the radar and only see friendlies or enemies.

Targeting: No matter what I have my radar set to, I should be able to target what's under my reticle. Right now if I have my radar set to only enemies so I can cycle through just hostiles, I can't even select a friendly under my reticle without changing my radar.

Targeting Computer: Give me an indicator on my HUD for objects! Space is big... right now I have an icon over my target, but anything else is a tiny point of light if I'm lucky. Put a little red icon over enemies I don't have targeted, a green icon over friendlies and a grey icon over beacons and gates. Even just a little circle. This information could be expanded... maybe a MODx component to do it. With a nice one, it could give you distance and velocity right under the icon. Or maybe that could be a function of a good radar, some would put icons over missiles, others would ignore missiles, etc.

Electronic Warfare: There should be more electronic warfare. Right now ECM's appear to be mostly for non-combat folks trying to hide in asteroid fields out of trouble. I think this should be swapped around, and have it useful mainly for combatants. Make your power consumption a factor in detection. If you have your shields running at full, your radar at full, your throttle at full... you should stand out from quite a ways away. But if you turn off your throttle, turn off your shields, have some ECM loaded, I think you should be able to hide a lot easier. Scout craft could then get radar jammers, that would degrade the detection abilities, helping "cloak" their allies slightly. Gives a role in combat for a scout, rather than just as fodder. Could even have storms and anomalies interfere with radar, making it nearly useless in their area.

Component Damage: You should start losing components once you start taking armor damage. That way when your ship is physically beaten, you can't just wait till your shields recharge and come back fresh. Maybe you have lost a weapon, or your radar is fried, or something. Could make for an interesting aspect trying to return to base without a radar, or without braking thrusters. It also could allow for some additional types of weapons. Maybe a missile that throws an EMP that knocks out targeting computers (duelists and missile guidance) for 20 seconds. Maybe a laser that impedes engines, so as long as you're hitting the target, even through shields, they lose a little speed. The lower their shields, the more effect is has... so 100% shields they don't slow at all, but at 0% you can drop them to half speed or something.

[Pyrophred]

Im definitely with you on the radar and targeting stuff. I would like to be able to target asteroids and/or have a very short range option on my radar.

Component damage would be an interesting thing to toy with.

Gear will always be an issue right up to the moment they shut the server down, and will always have its own set of threads

[Aphelion]

Originally Posted by Philosfr

Maybe you need a MODx slot to fill with "compatibility gear" to run differing factions equipment together.

Physics: Drag is too much of a factor on light ships. I'd like to be able to get up to high speed with a pursuer behind me, cut my thrust and flip around and shoot at him for a bit without slowing down drastically like currently.

You're pretty in touch with the game for being new to it...

These two ideas are the best ones out of your bunch. I think your other ideas are great, but have been brought up elsewhere on the forums here.