E.g. barrels of meteor dust, radioactive waste (I know - there is weapon you can make from it), some of the minerals like Palladium etc.
There's the early reactors, too - which very fast get replaced and then you never go back.
Well, I was kinda thinking you could use some of them to design some heavy weaponry...
Like, take a 50mw reactor for power, a couple tons of some minerals for structural support, a few tons of meteorsteel dust for the inner plating of the barrel, and maybe some defunct old weapon for other base parts.
Now you could have all this 'junk' modeled into a new weapon system with some unique properties:
a) it was independent of your own engine, but would need it's own reactor refuelled - you had renewed use for some of the early fuels, too.
b) since you used meteorsteel dust it would force you to decide - either have some nice unique (in that you can't buy it anywhere) weapon but no shields or go the old way and pass on the weapon. This, too would make using meteor & worldsteel armor more interesting, if the weapon was interesting enough in it's properties.
c) you had finally some use for those spare parts.
There's also the software. Things like autopilot are - for now - utterly useless (ok, you could sell it) and things like visual enhancement, targeting etc. once or twice usefull, no more.
Why not introduce them into the whole tinkering.
Well targeting & autopilot could be recoded into a crude omni-targeting device that you could pop onto weapon systems. Well, maybe first you'd have to build a turret mount for the weapon to sit on.
And with visual enhancement you might be able to upgrade this crude omni targeting device.
Another thing I was delving on had to do with the idea of a non-linear 'universe'. Seeing how cargo space is limited and there's always stuff you'd like to keep for later special areas it would be nice to have a stash somewhere where you could temporarily place this.
Well, there's plenty of stuff ingame like the barricades etc. Couldn't one build his/her own little base and use this as private stash - non-lootable by scavengers and with a self-defense mechanism (install a weapon system) so it's safe from small-time attacks?
EDITED/ Added
I generally like the idea of being able to upgrade/enhance items, kind of personalize them a bit. Would be nice for all kind's of things.[/u][/b]This could also add another layer - you could not only upgrade your own ship but also your station. Build up armor, weapons, reactor, maybe even add on your own facilities. Convince a tinker to settle on your station in a 'side-quest'.
