Battlevoid: Harbinger Feature Requests

Talking about additional features, I certainly won't mind paying for expansion sets to complement the base game.

But anyway, let's talk about ideas first.

First, my pain points about the game:

1. Not everything appear as drops, such as the Particle Turrets. This limits their potential as the game scales towards more powerful weapons with more utility in Endless modes.
   
2. Some item stats are hard-capped, such as the speed of projectiles and the repair/regen rate of repair/shield beams. These designs are "un-fun" in Endless mode.
   
3. In-game explanation and description of items is somewhat limited.
   

Now, things that I think could be beneficial to the gameplay:

1. Un-cap the limits. Let it scale according to game difficulty as players progress in Endless mode while sticking to some realistic value for some parameters (e.g. speed of missiles, it shouldn't scale infinitely).
   
2. Ship speed is pretty pointless. Perhaps should double the actual speed. The fastest ship still can't dodge like it seem to be designed to.
   
3. Allow value-based ship customisation. This can start off on existing ships as the base template, and allow players to modify the hardpoints on the ships. Each hardpoint has a certain point value assigned to it (e.g higher value for the main turrets). The final value will be used in determining the hiring cost and/or the player level required to unlock it. Each modification beyond the original configuration may also affect the ship's stats, such as lower speed or stronger hull. Further adjustments in-game may be possible but would require a lot of resources to modify a hardpoint.
   
4. De-couple drone type and its weapons. Select a drone type, then select a weapon. Tiny drone carrying missiles? Yes, faster than bombers but no burst shot and is terribly weak. Large drones carrying repair beams? Yes, can repair faster but slow turning may make it poor at repairing different targets. You get the idea.
   
5. Persistent Upgrades. Two ways to do this. a) Base upgrades to ships and its mounts that can be unlocked by spending resources. Each map cleared allows players to unlock a level that must be purchased (e.g. max level 10 at 10th map, starting from level 1 at first map. Player starts with no upgrades, at level 0). Limited resources force players to choose between increasing base stats or bonuses, or acquire more powerful items and reinforcements. Unlocked levels stay through the game until player loses (not tied to ship). b) At the beginning of each map, the player gets to choose an upgrade for free. There are only 3 options versus the numerous stats the player can boost. The options could be determined by random chance, or by the player's past actions, or by the path ahead (e.g. the new map/enemy).
   

Some items I think would be interesting:

1. Explosive flak -- Point defense that fires short-range AOE blasts that is effective against missiles, rockets and enemy fighters/drones. Think Freespace 2 or Rebel Galaxy.
   
2. Mega-weapons -- Upsized main weapons that occupy all available high-power slots for an appropriately-scaled amount of sheer power. Think Stellar Converter powered by 3, 4 or even 5 power sources, or Twin Buster Rifle, or Satellite Cannon.
   
3. Jump inhibitor -- Prevents all ships from leaving the sector until the battle ends. Yes, this includes your ships, unless the ship carrying it is destroyed. Think Interdictor-class Star Destroyers from Star Wars, without the Star Destroyer.
   
4. Interceptor-class drones -- Drones that are so fast and agile that it spells death for missiles, rockets and enemy fighters/drones. Its weak armour also mean it's pointless against enemy capital ships and especially lasers.
   
5. Torpedoes -- Heavy warheads that can only lock onto capital ships. Deals tremendous amount of damage, but has shorter range than Nukes.
   
6. Heavy artillery -- Heavy projectile cannons that can fire over greater distances, slow ROF, fairly accurate, poor rotation, devastating against capital ships and stations.