I know there are plenty of these going around here, but I thought I would add a few (relatively speaking) ideas. Yeah, there are a lot, but I see a lot of potential here!
- Point Defense lasers: Getting owned by missiles is pretty common in Normal, and the only defense is well, defense drones. PDL's would work great here, as a weapon that must be powered - ie, 2 power for level 1 - that pretty much functions like a shipboard defense drone, but in a weapon slot. Best if unstackable.
- Black hole combat environment as a rare event arena like the star: Lose engine power for too long and fall in, with a small chance to survive and end up in the "secret sector"
- Semi-permanent hull damage: Multiple breach hits in the same area could totally destroy (ie, block off) rooms until they can be repaired at a store or special repair yard. Some rooms (ie reactors, below, and cockpits) would be immune to this, as destroying them would be destroying the ship. This would give some new event possibilites ("Ie: some jerk snuck on board and blew up our sensors with a bomb!")
- As someone else posted, reactors should be a targettable system, for yourself and enemies, with much higher health than most systems - but taking damage drops total power
- The main run seems too short for many people here, myself included. An extended 12-ish system run would feel a lot better imo, rather than 7, though it would obviously require more events and and enemies and well, stuff. But it would be nice, and much better than the no-rebel mode everyone seems to want, imo, as that pressure is what keeps the game moving.. and exploring would get pointless past a certain point anyways.
- Mass-based weapons, from simple mass drivers up to railguns, as an alternative to all the lasers
- implement "half-damage" values to allow for more weapon variety, so things like 1.5 damage are possible.
- a 2-3 HP or so armor system that blocks hull damage, but must be repaired at a store/special repair yard
- The EMP weapons are pretty OP, especially the 4 second recharge laser and the Ion bomb. They should really be toned down for balance purposes imo, especially the Ion bomb, which can even shut down the last boss's shields totally with a single hit that bypasses all shields and drones itself. 2 ion dmg would be a lot more fitting than 4. By far the easiest fight I've had vs the boss was with the 2nd Zoltan ship, and I never took those EMP guns off my bar.
- related to the above, Ion guns maybe should only do half ion damage to shield generators on direct shield hits.
- a small chance to encounter hostile crystal ships or super-strong SPACE MONSTERS
- more mannable systems all around, more weapons, more races, more ships, more bosses, blah blah
Thanks for making such an awesome game! I have wasted a surprising amount of time with it already. Here's hoping it's not over yet!