Disclaimer
::this is the feedback i collected from players and reintroduced to you all so you can see if there is something big missing, please don’t be hung over details for now::
This is the current idea to rework standard ships in the sense of Ellydium upgrade design:
There is not much to go by on this gif alone but cramming an entire ship line into one ellydium-like tree isn’t any better than having triple/quadruple copy-pasta models in the current tree. I was asked by newcomers why are there same-looking ships but different loadouts, like, wouldn’t it be better to have one ship and choose your loadout? (kinda makes sense)
I’m not exactly a fan of inflation of the ship tree myself but since there is a notion to changing that, based on the feedback i gathered for the past year and a half on various topics from various sources, i tried to put it all into one concept in hopes of a better future design.
Current ship tree has over 240 ships of which only about 70+ are truly of unique design/model. The best way to shrink the number of available ships from 240+ to 70+, at the same time provide some extra customization to players, is to provide one ship model with more than one preset layout and bonuses to choose from, instead of 3-4 same models with preset layouts that we have now.
When the player buys a standard ship model, that model will only have 3 nodes unlocked to provide the player with a basic layout to start with (a special mod, a passive layout and a level bonus node). Then the player has to spend credits and experience points to unlock other nodes to unlock other passive slot layouts, bonuses, or just special mod.
The idea is to have 2 nodes for special module selection (guard/long range etc) + one more for those ships that have additional special module variations/options like Sword S, 3 (or more) nodes for preset passive layout selection (passive slots to put in modifiers) and 3 nodes for preset level bonuses that were present as preset for that ship model variations.
Level bonus nodes can be expanded to individually select which bonuses one wants to use but I would advise against that due to possible imbalance/possible abuse of the upgrade system if that were to happen. It’s best to provide single nodes with preset bulk of bonuses that were present for each of the 3-4 versions of that ship model.
The last node would be the node that provides the option to select the premium version of that ship model OR the ability to turn the ship into a premium ship altogether with all of its bonuses for a price in GS. It would provide a nice incentive to progression on a ship for players and would support the F2P business portion.
This rework would ease the player progression difficulty while keeping the same pace with much more fun elements. Players will no longer be confused by the huge number of similar looking ships but with different purpose for each. Intuitive UI for upgrading and progress as well. No more farming experience on ships you don’t like just to move onto ships that you may or may not like.
The problem that might occur is the unique module issue when the ships are fused into one upgrade process. Unique modules will need a slight rework too, to tie them to their respective ship model and class only. At least in this way the issue is manageable/contained within the ship model range and easily correctable, whilst in the proposed concept in the gif, it might cause further development issues in terms of balance that nobody wants.
One big issue that might arise from either ship rework is that there are players that like to play the same ship model but with different special/passive layout.
To counter this issue the Save Preset ship option must be upgraded to accommodate the players need to switch layouts while in respawn mode. What that option should have: the ability to save passive ship layout, crew settings and modifiers installed in that preset. Only 2 presets like this should be allowed due to most same-model clones having only 2 different special modules and to discourage any form of strategy abuse. On top of that if a person decides to switch ship layout, the respawn timer is slightly increased to mitigate abuse as well. This option should not be available in competitive modes like Portals or Conquest.
Another issue worth noting is the issue of prior unlocked ships, to have their layout already unlocked in the nodes would be a good start. If a player has unlocked all of the ship models, the nodes should accommodate that progress by unlocking all of the nodes for that ship model.
Before any of you start rampaging that i missed something, don’t worry, this is just a concept and i know like 99% of the issues that i did not mention but will be addressed.
I’m aware of things like “but what will the name of the ship be if 4 ships convert into 1” or “but what about the rank balance and weapons…”, primary goal is to provide a clear concept of things can be better, improving the gameplay experience both for newcomers and intermediate players and provided a nice and refreshed experience for us older players alike.
If you have concerns about this concept, please do write them down as this is by no means something created by the devs, this is just me combining all the feedback i got from all of you guys over a huge span of time of playing together. Try to be concise and precise with your questions and suggestions. Also remember to vote on the poll.