... the game never existed, you had this great idea in dream of a Space Shooter in which a mysterious race intervenes in a conflict between the Terrans and another race... you get the idea.
What would you make different ? In term both of background / history and campaign/battle design.
My opinion :
In term of background / history
- I would make nodepoints tougher nuts to crack, but with lighter ships able to jump in or out further away from jump points to justify "skirmishes" in systems.
- I would make the Taranis a Destroyer
- Actually, I would call cruiser "cruiser", but "destroyer" carriers, and war capships smaller than cruisers "destroyers".
In term of campaign design
- More point defense for capships. The level of anti-fighter defenses we see in PI - this I like. It feels more realistic.
- No "waves" of ships, even Shivans. Maybe one first wave to scout, but then brute forces immediately. I really resent the "wave" systems (although I understand it was necessarily due to hardware capacities in 1999)
- Shivans ships more specialised : for instance the Scorpion is supposedly a scout IIRC, but really we only see it used just as a fighter. I would have liked to see it used more as a scout - only a couple of them patrolling, and jumping out when they see something. As it is now, when I play, there is only three types of Shivans "fighters" : Dragons (shoot with missile or send wingmen), Manticores (engage) and "Targets" (everything else, supposedly they are "assault" or "heavy" fighter", I don't really make the difference anyway).
What are the other ideas flying around ?