I know this is a long shot but I'd like to request the addition of a feature. I would like to see a Current Win Streak and a Longest Win Streak added to the stats page.
For example, if you lose, the counter is set to zero. If you subsequently win two games in a row, it's set to 2. Your best win streak should also be displayed so you have something to try to beat.
I know win streaks are rare (lol) but I think tracking and displaying those stats would be amazing.
There's plenty I'd love to see, but I know that some of this, I'd have to wait for a sequel to even have a chance.
Here's the stuff I'd like to see in a later update or, most likely, a sequel:
1. You're fighting a ship, you see they have a weapon you like, or have a ship that isn't coming together right. You kill the crew without destroying the ship. You willing to give up turns for the Rebel fleet to catch up after the battle? You can claim that weapon from the derelict ship. You willing to give up more turns? You can take what you want off YOUR ship and commandeer the ship outright.
2. (SEQUEL Item)An ability to upgrade your augmentations list. It's fine if it's something you can't just throw scrap at; if you have to complete certain quests (or *shudders* quest CHAINS) to do so, fine. But three slots fill up quickly.
3. (SEQUEL Item) An ability to upgrade individual weapons instead of needing to buy new ones.
I can't tell you how many times I've lost a game simply due to the fact that I get stuck with a suck weapon selection, with nothing in the shops. Nothing drastic; I know being able to craft a superweapon from a level 1 peashooter isn't feasible, but if you can shave off a couple seconds with a slow-charging weapon, or add some punch to a shield whittler, that would be great. You could even tie this into crew skill, giving more reason to actually bother levelling up crew members with the particular system, as the member you have upgrade the weapon decides the upgrade. More skill with piloting? Weapon gains accuracy. More skill with hand-to-hand? More punch to crew members in the room you're firing on. Skill with shields gives a bit of ion-like charge to the shot. Repair work allows for adding hull damage. Weapon skill drops power draw by a percentage. Engine work ups the firing rate. Picking up a bunch of useless weapons? Instead of selling them, cannibalize them for parts. There's a gold mine of potential with this.
4. More versatility with the non-weapon systems. It's this part of the game, in my opinion, that separates this game from countless other spacefaring games, but the non-weapon systems don't get a lot of love.
Crew teleporter in particular has a HUGE amount of untapped potential. You have a crewmember stuck in a burning room on their last legs, and the way to the medbay is a suicide run? Let me use my teleporter to get them out of there; it's MY ship. Or how about, with an augmentation and after knocking out their shield, pulling enemies off THEIR ship to beat on them on mine? I would even be okay with turnabout as fair play; I've rage-quit this game more than once before for lesser reasons (mostly due to my own inattention or stupidity). Give me an enemy who has no compunction about pulling my crew, one-by-one, off my ship to execute them after gutting my shield system, and I'll rage-quit some more.
Or how about, with enough upgrades to the O2 system, you can depressurize an individual room. Or how about being able to prioritize O2 from one room to another, vaccuming one room for another, instead of needing to cut pathways via door to an airlock? That's worth a ship's load of scrap to me in a firefight.
With the battery backup, how about an option in regards to how it runs? A choice between power bars for a burst in a pinch, OR one or two bars, like a secondary reactor? Matter of fact, where on these ships are the PRIMARY reactors? Seems to me like they should have a room of their own. Digressing. Anyway, with a game where part of the challenge comes from power management, something like this would allow for more varied ship builds, with new strengths and weaknesses.
Then there's the medbay/clone bay setup. How did neither of these find a combat use? Off the top of my head, I can come up with a couple of game changers. Medbay: upgrade it to full, it extends the life bar of your crew a bit, or in the case of a boarding party, gives a chance for stun against organic enemies while on your ship. For the clone bay? If you don't have a full compliment, or some of your crew are killed in a tough fight and there's more fight to go, allow an upgraded clone bay to make duplicate clones of your existing crew; for balance, you can give them timers for duration, or a chance for enemy status upon creation due to instability.
5. More use to the cargo bay. At this point, all the cargo bay does is give you 4 slots to keep drones or weapons in reserve; I don't know about anyone else, but I've never had need of all four slots. How about letting me keep augmentations in the slots? Sometimes I need one augmentation as opposed to another, and allowing that would actually make the spot relevant. And while this is SEQUEL Item material, how about modifications to the cargo bay? This somewhat ties with #3. Instead of one of your spots, allow for different slots to accommodate non-combat systems. You don't need 4 slots? Make one of them a crew-staffed section, like an armory for boarding party combat effectiveness, or a workshop for weapons, drones or augmentations. Also, not sure why key items aren't kept there. That stasis pod you pick up for the stealth cruiser quest? Why is it not sitting in your cargo bay, and in your augmentation slot instead? That made no sense to me. Digressing again. Anyway, point is, instead of using the idea of the cargo bay as a glorified inventory spot, you could do so much more with it.
6. (SEQUEL Item) Expansion of the game and different play modes. There's plenty of replay value, but I would love to see some extension of this. 7 systems go by pretty quickly before the big fight, especially when you HAVE to move on within a certain limit. I say either give more branches and lengthen the travel time, or have a campaign that isn't dependent upon the pursuit. Have a mode where you play as part of the Rebel fleet, hunting down a ship, and losing the trail or taking too long makes the enemy tougher. Have a mode where you act as a pirate, and you're confined to one huge system while trying to dodge or fight off rival pirates, military intervention and bounty hunters. Have a mode where you're a newly-minted warlord seeking to take dominion of the systems or waging war on another race for one reason or another. Have a mode where you play peacekeeper, with different ships coming into your sector and causing problems you have to deal with.
With this, you have different styles of play to choose from, with a bit for everyone, and nigh-endless replay value.
In summation, I love this game, and see so much potential.
