Tldr; In a game with dozens of ships to choose from, each ship should have a reason to choose it. Right now, there's clear winners in what is the "best" ship of each size category (both fighting and mining). But if each ship had unique bonuses that made it excel at a role, it would be desirable.
Like Eve Online ships.
In Eve, a ship's passive bonuses made it clear what role the ship was meant to play, yet still allowed flexibility and customization. Sure a Rokh had 4 launcher hardpoints, but it had a bonus to turrets so you'd almost always put turrets on all 8 hardpoints. But the choice was still there which felt awesome! Thus it's no surprise that all the Eve ships felt like they excelled at their roles.
That being said, what kinds of bonuses would make sense for X ships?
Some ideas/examples:
- Boost speed
Boost shield drain
Travel mode speed
Travel Mode initiation time
Travel Mode acceleration to max speed
Cargo size
maneuverability
crew size
boarding strength
boarding time %
Weapon modifier examples:
Pulse laser damage
Bolt reload time / projectile speed
Plasma projectile speed
missile damage / speed
Sensor range
Mine damage
Tracker mine detection distance
Mining speed bonus for Ice
Bonus to effectiveness of defense drones
Area of effect buffs for nearby friendly ships
Area of effect debuffs for enemy ships (Electronic warfare stuff?)
The weapon bonuses in particular would make ships with varying amounts of hardpoints more desirable. For example, right now you'd never choose an S ship with 3 hardpoints over a ship with 4 hardpoints. But what if the 3-hardpoint ship had certain bonuses if and when it equipped certain weapon types (ie, Plasma projectile speed), that helped it excel at a certain role? You'd have an actual reason to own various ships and have more fun kitting out ships for a role in a fleet. But right now, it's just 1) Pick the best ship in the class 2) fill your fleet with that ship. What if certain ships had bonuses to sensor range instead of the flat 40k that every ship seems to get? They'd be more useful as scouts. Different mining ships could also have certain bonuses to mining the various materials in the game (ice, ore, gas, etc). This again would give the player incentive to own ships across the entire spectrum, rather than just pick the "best" solid mining ship and never give the others a second glance.
If I knew how to mod, I would totally make this a mod. Anyone out there in the ether know how to mod and want to do this?
I'd love to be involved in providing input.
