Recently played through the game in a few days and I have a few suggestions. Apologies if they have already been mentioned.
- I would like a reason to continue using older ship models. As it stands right now, there is nearly no reason to go back to older ship models. With the ships that are currently in the game I would give the cheaper ones significantly more speed and maybe a modifier that affects enemy accuracy, giving them a chance to evade rather than absorb damage. All ships should be viable options, not just the latest one that you unlocked.
- fixed firing arcs for some weapons. Having all of your main weapons able to turn 360 is too powerful and offers little incentive to strategically place your ships. Some 360 point defence spots would be nice too, and a way to view available firing arcs. This feature would also go wonderfully with asymmetrical ships.
- I know that this one has been mentioned but a greater variety of weapons would be nice. If some ships were faster then the short range weapons would be more viable, and more deadly to the enemy
- I'd like a means to build space stations at strategic locations
- A full on skirmish mode where controlling planets actually matters, not just racing to the next sector
- I got impatient with the ships unlocking slowly from normal gameplay so I found a way to take a shortcut; starting a game on hard and dying immediately grants around 1000 experience and takes less than minute. A game lasting an hour or two only grants around 3000 experience in my experience.
- more mission variety, that's probably already been recommended. Also for escort missions it would be wonderful if the ship to protect is close to where you jump in or at least temporarily invulnerable to at least give you a chance to protect it.
- maybe a means to convert money to experience. After a certain point you have too much money and too little experience.
- the different races are not unique enough. I noticed that one of them had a little more hull than the others but that was about it.
It would be interesting if the fixed stats on a ship could be upgraded slightly, and at a high cost. Hull, shield, speed, turning and armour. I'd like for an armour stat to be added that can reduce the damage taken by all weapons except for energy weapons by a fixed amount but never completely negate the damage. Each side of the ship would have a different armour value with the highest probably being on the front or sides, maybe rear on a carrier. This would also add another strategic aspect to the game.
Overall I really just want to see more strategy in what you call a RTS game. As it stands right now the only strategy is to have stronger ships than the enemy and charge right in.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
