Thread to discuss additions to the game that would be considered New Content. Needs to be things that are relatively straightforward to implement.
1) Better choice of early game vessels. Afterthought is the gold standard right now.
HERMES - 2000 cost ship. 2 red, 4 PD, 34 speed.
Basically just a fast version of the 1600 ship meant for quicker scouting and manuevering.
FLASH - 1000 cost ship 0 red, 4 PD, 36 speed.
Alternative to 800 cost scout ship. More PD instead of red.
HIVE - 1800 cost. 0 red, 4 PD, 2 BAYS. 30 speed.
Early game mobile fighter carrier. Might be worth a try.
DEFIANT - 3000 cost ship. 2 red, 6 PD, 32 speed. Tough.
Tougher version of Afterthought, without bay.
2) Heavier versions of the Phoenix. Slow, strong warships.
PORCUPINE - 2000 cost ship 1 red, 8 PD. med speed. decent shield/armor.
Alternative to 1600 ship with lots more anti-fighter bias.
BADGER - 3000ish cost ship. 3 red, 6 PD. slow.
Next size step up from the 1600 ship.
ARMADILLO - 7000 cost ship. 4 red, 8 PD. heavy armor/shield. Slow.
Mid+ tier heavy cruiser for slugging it out.
3) New specialty Station choices.
SAURON - 3000 cost station. 3 red, 6 PD. no bays. Very high Vision. heavy armor. lots of marines.
(should be unlockable instead of the Visio in my opinion. Make visio usable early game)
FLYSWATTER - 2500 cost station. 0 red, 12 PD.
Anti-fighter/marine station.
STARTROOPER - 2500 cost station. 2 red, 1 bay, 4 PD. lots of marines.
Ability to capture isolated attacking ships that get too close.
DEFENDER - 3500 cost station. 3 red, 2 bay, 6 PD. heavy armor. decent marines.
endgame general purpose station. Able to replace baystations in dangerous places.
STALWART - 1800 cost station. 2 red, 4 PD. LOTS of armor.
4) New Weapons. Unlockable via new Tech Tree(s).
TRACTOR BEAM (or maybe GRAVATON BEAM or SHEARING RAY) - Starting large weapon. Insta-kills a fighter. Upgrades are reload/range only.
No damage to normal ships. Does high damage to marine vessels.
DEATH RAY - Locked tech weapon. Mostly hull damage some shield damage. Similar to mega-laser except swapped.
ROCKET POD - Fires a burst of unguided Rockets. Basically a good version of rockets in a tech tree. Typical upgrades.
TESLA COIL - Fires burst of energy that then bounces to a certain number of enemies. Upgrades are Range, fire rate, number of bounces, boost shield/hull damage done.
This would be another solid anti-fighter weapon with some multi hit effect.
GAUSS GUN/MASS DRIVER - Really long range weapon with lots of hull damage but basically no anti-shield capability. High speed projectile.
Great once shields are cleared or for sniping long range fighters.
PARTICLE CANNON - Starts out relatively weak like in harbinger. Expensive tech cost but powerful when built up.
MEGA PLASMA - As per harbinger. Big ball of plasma-ey goodness.
5) new Bays:
ORB FIGHTER - Compromise between fighter and bomber. Has speed of a fighter with higher damage, but slower orb. Much weaker vs enemy fighters, but stronger vs enemy large ships.
ROCKET POD FIGHTER - Fighter that shoots a volley of small unguided rockets at the target. Long cooldown. Only attacks large ships.
TRACTOR FIGHTER - Fighter with a small tractor beam. Kills enemy fighters. (maybe missiles?) Does no damage to larger ones. Purely defensive fighter useful on mobile ships.
DEFENDER DRONE - Defense-only (no offensive mode) drone that has no weapons. They basically just get inbetween ship and the enemy to block shots. Great against large slower weapons. The idea is to have choices that are useful to put on mobile ships in their bays, vs spamming fighters on stations and letting them roam.
To implement, they stay at a static 100 range from ship and simply attempt to move onto the enemy with a fake range 1 gun that does nothing. It will then always try to "attack" that target thus interposing itself. It would have perfect manueverability so it can stay at the 100 distance.
GAUSS SATELLITE - Small satellite that orbits around host ship and cannot be Aggressive. Zaps anything that comes close with long range gauss gun.
6) Utility Slots (both Point Defense and Big Gun slots potentially).
SHIELD MODULE - Kinda obvious I know. Boosts max shields X amount.
ENGINE BOOSTER - Increases move speed by some flat amount.
OVERLOAD MODULE - Powers other weapons to be able to fire faster.
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