Make Explorers.. Um... Cool

[Salk android]

I find I'm unwilling to place points in explorer as I hate killing my crew for profit.

I'd love to see search and rescue missions, making explorer more relevant as dieing for something more Nobel than profit, fits my ego.

"A galaxy class research craft has gone missing, it's last known location was..."

Now the fun begins... Are pirates waiting at that location... Which of the three nearby planets did it crash on?.. Can my ships engineer get it flying again for additional profit?

Or will my crew get the same plague that killed the other ship, unless we have a ships doctor on board with the medi-bay upgrade.

And please let my crew become alien hosts "play as the Alien" if we can't find a cure.

I'd imagine that alien bases would then be available via the gas giants and dead worlds.

Since aliens don't accept republi-credits, human husks would be rendered broke, and given a low level scout ship at best. Skills would be reset as the host creature is newborn.

New skills galore Observation, Abduction, Mind control, and Probing... OK maybe not that one...

Now we would have all new ships to build towards and new bad guys "Stupid Monkeys"

Plus all new lore... Sorry if all of this is redundant as I didn't search the forum beforehand.

On a side note Explorers could also find dark age upgades not available elsewhere.

My fave... The jump drive.. No fuel costs... But the further you go the more random the destination... Like in a star...

And deralict spacecraft encounters as possible traps, upgrades, and...and...and...

Laterz

Thanks
Salk

[blackgauntlet]

Huh? are you talking about Aliens, Explorers, Alien Explorers or Exploring Aliens?

And come on, what could be cooler than a heavily scarred and ruthless captain with cybernetic innards, hands & legs whom had sent more than thousands of able-bodied young people to their graves on alien-infested planets with a click of a button?

Edit: Sorry, make that 2 clicks.

*MAX*
*EXPLORE*
*MAX*
*EXPLORE*
*MAX*
*EXPLORE*
"No more men?! Off to the nearest Urban zone for more fresh meat!"

[Salk android]

What I want is more things for explorers to do...

Finding "useable" lost alien tech

Rescue downed space craft

Explore abandoned spacecrarft in random encounters

Scan uninhabited worlds for xp and faction

Etc...

The stuff about becoming the alien via exploration, was just day dream about game expansion.

So yes I want more for Explorer than just throwing crew into a meat grinder...

[whitegauntlet]

That would be really sick if there was a mini-game in the Elite version that allowed you to be an alien. And maybe I could grow hands back instead of buying them in six packs from the local doctor.

[salk]

That is exactly what I'm looking for...

Space exploration, should be exciting, crazy, scary and strange all at the same time.

Imagine the dialog for a random ghost ship encounter...

"Military Officer"
Captain long range sensors have detected a Javat cargo hauler in a deteriorating orbit around Ceti-Alpha 6, and I'm getting nothing on the Com's

"Mechanic"
Looks to be she (the ship) lost reactor containment, sadly she's a lost cause unless someone goes over and looks after her.

"Scout"
Yeah, but notice how the cargo bay is still intact.. come on let me take some men over and see if there is anything worth acquiring"

Now the player decides

Torpedo the ship so it doesn't crash into Ceti-Alpha 6?

Repair the ship as a possible upgrade or salvage?

Loot the ship for fortune and glory?


Sadly only the Game knows...

Pirates are waiting on board, ready for Zero range boarding actions with this weeks suckers.

---------------------------------------------------------
Player wins the Dice battle against the Pirates
---------------------------------------------------------

"Captain"
Whew that was a close one! but ya gotta admit our ship feels a lot more roomy without all that crew on board...Oh come on that was funny...Why are you glaring at me?

"Mechanic"
Ya know captain that ship over there may be in pretty sad shape, but I can see some potential.

At this point the game pops up the standard side by side comparison of the two ships and the player decides which to keep.

----------------------------------------------------
That's only one possible scenario, throw in survivors, disease, aliens, booby-trapped ships to stop illegal salvage...

Now the player is looking for another Explorer, because the last one came back to the ship with a case of the "head crabs" or another mechanic because the other ship exploded during reactor startup.

Of course it would be nice if we had more portraits for each possible crew member as replacing our red headed mechanic with the same exact girl might get a little creepy after a while.

Obviously this level of dialog would work better if we could have more than 3 officers on larger ships, like one officer per fifteen crew...

[hellion7776]

Apr 5, 2012 2:47:43 GMT -5 blackgauntlet said:

Huh? are you talking about Aliens, Explorers, Alien Explorers or Exploring Aliens?

And come on, what could be cooler than a heavily scarred and ruthless captain with cybernetic innards, hands & legs whom had sent more than thousands of able-bodied young people to their graves on alien-infested planets with a click of a button?

"No more men?! Off to the nearest Urban zone for more fresh meat!"

"You forgot butt-seeking flesh bugs... Ive been attacked by so many of those that we don't need to discuss what it looks like when i take a poop!!!" - Capt. 03

[Cory Trese]

lol