Partly in response to discussion in this thread;
http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/topic/3191-mod-more-trade-ships-npc-ships-spend-less-time-docked/
but also just because the current free-for-all trying to get into a station when something leaves might start to prove a problem as Pioneer gets busier, I've been wondering whether it would make sense to have a system where you book slots at specified times in starports.
Suppose you hyperspace in, then on the 'request docking' menu you request a four hour slot, because that's how long you estimate it'll take to unload your cargo, make repairs, whatever. You're then given a list of available times and how much they'd cost. Sooner slots would cost more (perhaps up to a point, then when they look like they're not going to be used the price could start dropping, like a Dutch auction). You buy the slot, and perhaps you could get a partial refund if you cancel it with enough warning. If repairs are ongoing and you can't launch, that's a fine.
Obviously that would require a bit of a change in the game mechanics to work - things that are currently instant, like loading cargo and outfitting ships, would probably need to have a time penalty. But I think it's in the spirit of the game, especially with all the role-playing / managerial developments I've been reading about around ships' crews. You could perhaps have some ships that are faster to load than others, and upgrades you can buy that take some capacity away but speed things up.
I think it would add realism, and also an interesting tactical dimension by prioritising your needs - you've jumped in with a taxi mission, and you know you need to dock before a certain time. You can pay more to guarantee your slot, or try to chance it not being busy and one cropping up cheaper. You can buy your slot in a few hours or days, then scurry off and try and make a few short-haul missions or trades before getting back in time. You might decide to buy a short and cheap slot to drop off your fair, and delay the slower tasks, like unloading your cargo, for somewhere less busy. It would provide an incentive to use 'backwaters' more - getting access to the big shipyards with all the weird and wonderful ships, or the major ports better stocked with lucrative cargo, would take a little more thought.
It's a nice idea, although booking a slot for a specific time when you're days away from docking might be tricky. I think it would be more easy to put together a system where you request docking at about the time you arrive, as you would right now, and the station either lets you dock immediately or gives you a time when you may dock.
In both these cases, if the station is a busy one, your docking clearance might have a finite period, after which you're expected to leave so that somebody else can dock. If you don't launch in time, then you get to pay a huge fee.
You could conceivably have different 'difficulty' settings, allowing players to disable or simplify some aspects of the game. Like a slider determining how much combat takes place (turn it right down and no pirates spawn and no assassination / military missions ever come up, turn it up and it's bedlam), and another one determining how much it tries to be an in-depth simulation (fuel scarcity, heat management, complex docking mechanics).
Maybe I'm just saying that because I've just been playing System Shock 1 again 🙂 You could crank the difficulty on the puzzles up, and turn the enemies off so they'd just stand there looking confused, and you'd have a completely different game...
I like the suggestions for difficulty settings. Might not be too hard to do.
Another slider might be 'Politics'.
At the lowest end it's more or less like it is now - all missions are available to you, and all 'airspace' ('space-space' ? 🙂 ) is unrestricted.
At the highest end factions are potentially at war with one another, and flying through the frontline (especially if you're bringing back a spiffy new ship...) is likely to get you shot. You are untrusted by neutral factions and subject to random police searches, higher docking fees / outright refusals etc. You can gain standing with suspicious factions only by finding missions that give you legitimate business in their space.
You could even have double-agent crew members spying on other factions, or trying to get smuggled over the border then jump ship... endless possibilities 🙂
I'm thinking aloud here, so ignore me entirely if I'm talking rubbish 🙂
I guess what I'm imagining is a series of constants, with grouped presets. The idea as I understand it is almost that Pioneer is a highly moddable general engine, which also happens to be very playable as a standalone game...
Let's say we have a constant called 'propensity_for_neutral_sectors_to_refuse_docking' and another one called 'pirate_spawn_probability_index'.
So mods could override those individual parameters directly if they want, still giving them complete control. But there are also preset levels of groups of similar themed parameters - like the above 'combat', 'politics' and 'realism' difficulties, which the mods or the players can set...
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