A few ideas and suggestions

[FAD]

1) *Ferian Warrior: These guys do more damage to their base than those that call them out.
As soon as a Warrior spawns from its base, it targets the ship that's been causing trouble, and fires at it while still hovering over its base.
Possible solution; give it a 10ls parameter on the base to prevent the Warrior from firing while hovering.
I'm not certain if noFriendlyFire=true works on ships, but if so that may also solve the problem.
As it is now it's an easy exploit for Ferian Farming and not become the target of the Warrior.

2) *Armor Dealers: Could there possibly be other selections for shields that the station offers to install? The monopole deflector screen is nice, if you're worried about kinetic/blast damage, but what about laser/particle?
It would be nice to have a small list of shields to choose from, with each having specific deflections.
Also, though it's not very important, just makes sense... Why is it that armor dealers can't repair their guard's armor, yet can repair the player's armor? shipRepairRate="1" would have the armor dealers keeping their guards happy and ready to serve.

3) *NPC ship scuttles: I like the idea of certain ships going around and cleaning up the neighborhood. I've also noticed that they'll even loot the wrecks if they have any. What if there were a Tinkers in the system and these ships could 'sell' damaged items to them? Or 'sell' good items to stores? Or even getting higher level looted items installed on their ships? This would add a more realistic, living, economy to the game. They're already station hopping as is, why not make the most of it?

4) *CSC Antarctica: I'm pretty sure that this has been tossed around before, but I couldn't find any old posts about it. Anyway, this scenario seriously begs closure, if Captain Helios and crew survives and assumes course to St. Kat's. What if after saving the Antarcta, Captain Helios insists that the player return to St. Kat's, and once there finds themselves set for trial. Admiral Decker present, the complete shebang to determine a final outcome and ultimately a closure to her case? The trial could be a series of questions relating to what both Admiral Decker stated as well as Captain Helios, with having the player select answers from options relevant to either side. Note that currently, if Antarctica escapes and player meets Decker again, loses rank. This court hearing could be detrimental to the player, pending the outcome based on player's answers. Decker has the ultimate cannon, so what if Helios had a spiffy, experimental shield instead of a high level alien gem as a reward?

5) *Tinkers: I'm really liking the actual custom-made Tinker items, and hope to see this expanded further. Tinker armor, Tinker shields...devices They could infuse different perks from various items and create more unique and Tinker exclusive things to sell.
Examples;
Dragonfly missile system + Rasiermesser SmartCannon = Tinker tracker cannon; Shoots like the Dragonfly but homes in on the target. Could fire either shell?
Mark I Omsk deflector + hull plate ionizer = Tinker shield (part 1)
Segment of Light Omsk Armor + a segment of Carbide Carapace = Tinker armor (part 2)
When parts 1 and 2 are used in concert with each other, the shield increases in strength of the armor, and the armor increases the strength of the shield.

Well, there they be. Hope to hear some input, just don't razz me too bad.

[Shaman]

2) that has always been bugging me. I also like to see a bigger range of shield generators to install directly. How about a random selection which is linked to the system level? This way you had some usefull shields to choose further in the game.

3) I like that! Little shuttles flying around, doing stuff. Possible with an ares Archcannon later on? That would be hilarious, but had to be very rare.

4) To my knowledge George has it on plan and the story behind the Antarctica is pretty big.. I think we have to wait longer to see this one happening

[RPC]

Problem with #3 is that salvagers are basically the same thing and they're kinda bad news since they take loot away Even if you can buy the looted item at a store (which would be a cool feature btw) I dunno if I would be able to get cash in the early game for stuff like that >.<

[FAD]

2) that has always been bugging me. I also like to see a bigger range of shield generators to install directly. How about a random selection which is linked to the system level? This way you had some usefull shields to choose further in the game.

A random shield selection based on system level does sound more practical, and useful. Hopping the system past St. K's and finding an armor dealer in the midst of Slavers, one would hope they have a shield ready to be installed that would help counter them. That monopole wouldn't cut it at that point... though those particle deflectors could.

Problem with #3 is that salvagers are basically the same thing and they're kinda bad news since they take loot away Even if you can buy the looted item at a store (which would be a cool feature btw) I dunno if I would be able to get cash in the early game for stuff like that >.<

The thing with salvagers is that they can auto-install shields and weapons greater than what they currently have, unless that's changed? But haven't you noticed how NPC Wolfen's and IAV's often go and dock with wrecked ships and scuttle them? They also remove any loot those wrecks may have, and keep them. If you're lucky you may find one of those NPC's that got killed themselves, and they'll have a belly full of loot that they took from other wrecks. But anyway, they'll take the loot if they beat you to it, same with the salvagers. So having these NPC's sell their loot could put more items out for players to buy, otherwise you may never see their loot at all...unless you target them.

And I think it would be very cool to see a Wolfen scuttle a Wind Slaver wreck, dock with a Commonwealth station and fly off firing a Shuriken neutron blaster at the enemies.

[FourFire]

I've suggested a similar idea to RPC in connection with his Dynamic Systems mod.

There is a mod which allows salvager nomads to loot and install equipment which is better.
And the code has been modified and made to work with Aquila crusiers inside DySys.

There are other mods which allow you to buy items from salvagers directly.

Anyhow I would like to see a more integrated implimentation of this kind of dynamic economic behaviour: making npcs less like props, and more like other agents in gameplay.

[Yama]

....
2) *Armor Dealers: ...

.... It would be nice to have a small list of shields to choose from, with each having specific deflections.
Also, though it's not very important, just makes sense...

Armor dealers already have a random selection of shields available for sale.

How about just adding a "Buy and Install?" option, the way Commonwealth stations already offer to install any device you're preparing to buy during the purchase process?

[FAD]

....
2) *Armor Dealers: ...

.... It would be nice to have a small list of shields to choose from, with each having specific deflections.
Also, though it's not very important, just makes sense...

Armor dealers already have a random selection of shields available for sale.

How about just adding a "Buy and Install?" option, the way Commonwealth stations already offer to install any device you're preparing to buy during the purchase process?

That could probably work, although the armor dealers are corporate. And I wonder if that would negate having specific shields listed to install, as it currently has the monopole as such? I'm guessing the original concept was meant to be a specific perk for the station itself, since none of the others offer anything similar. So that particular shield would always be available--while those listed for sale are not a guarantee to always be there due to game variations. This was just a proposal to add more flavors into the already existing station perk. Though I wouldn't complain if we got both the 'buy and install' and more shield list options to choose from.

[Song]

When I modded armor dealers for Elemental Shift, I gave a fixed range of shields they could have. If I were to work on them again, here's how I'd do it:


First off, let them install the stuff they sell, and swap out stuff in the process. No dock services besides that, because they're not in that business.

Second, the "have one item on the main dockscreen" thing is a very useful idea, but currently lacks purpose. I'd make that be their "special offer". Each station has a single piece of gear that is within 1-2 levels of the system level. it might be powerful, it might be weak. But it will scale as you travel towards the core. This piece of gear is sold at a reduced price (maybe 70-90% of regular price), and there's a per-customer limit for each store (so you can't farm for cash). Also, that item is removed from the store's inventory: it's on special offer so it's off the shop-floor. In the case of armor dealers, this could be a special offer on armor segments (Buy a full set for the price of half!!!!one!) or shields.

This would also work for weapons dealers, although they already have some randomisation.

This basically turns it from a "will always have X" to "will always have something, will always have that something for a reasonable price, which might be very useful....or might not be". While this can be less useful in specific instances, it'd be more useful when considered across the part of the game where these stations turn up. 30% off an S500 or X-ray laser would be very nice indeed. 10% off the price of 100 smartcannon shells, not so much.

[digdug]

Second, the "have one item on the main dockscreen" thing is a very useful idea, but currently lacks purpose. I'd make that be their "special offer".

this is really a good idea.
the usual boring monopole deflector might be interesting if enhanced with some rare enhancements that would make it worth to have. Kinetic reflection or drastically reduced consumption enhancements might be more interesting than the usual +10/+30% buff

[Song]

Second, the "have one item on the main dockscreen" thing is a very useful idea, but currently lacks purpose. I'd make that be their "special offer".

this is really a good idea.
the usual boring monopole deflector might be interesting if enhanced with some rare enhancements that would make it worth to have. Kinetic reflection or drastically reduced consumption enhancements might be more interesting than the usual +10/+30% buff

I didn't think about enhancements. Having a random, level-appropriate enhanced item on special display would also make sense from a business perspective.

[FAD]

Second, the "have one item on the main dockscreen" thing is a very useful idea, but currently lacks purpose. I'd make that be their "special offer".

this is really a good idea.
the usual boring monopole deflector might be interesting if enhanced with some rare enhancements that would make it worth to have. Kinetic reflection or drastically reduced consumption enhancements might be more interesting than the usual +10/+30% buff

I like that idea of having the monopole enhanced with rare enhancements. Imagine if it had +laser +particle resistance (or +kinetic +particle), how it could further its usefullness for a few more systems outward.

Actually, I wouldn't mind if the monopole was replaced by a lesser, unwanted type of shield having such rare enhancements. Or better yet, have it to where it (code) selects a random shield that the shop can sell and have it set with a rare, random enhancement. It'd then become that "box of chocolates."