I’ve gone back as far as a few years on the board to figure out where the game is going. Is there a link to a design document? Regardless, I have a few thoughts, ideas and questions.
For ground stations. Space elevators and shields. Space elevators move goods from the surface to the station. Therefore, an obvious hauler spawn. The elevator cable provides shield power to the station above. Players have to kill the ground node to kill the stations shield power. The elevator car is armed. I don’t think I’ve seen a game with a space elevator. Or you can do the giant transmission dish like Endor and the DeathStar.
Future meta: bombers. If a group of 50 bomber were to assemble; they would wipe the field as they are currently armed. Add in one carrier to respawn and 4 corvettes for resupply, pretty much unstoppable as they will overmatch any unorganized blob they encounter. I’d probably throw in some bait intys to drag people away from the base—these would fly straight and level to help the bombers missiles hit. The only saving grace is there is not a target list on the HUD for a commander to call primaries.
Corvette. It has a bit of an identity crisis because there is not meta to design against. I have a feeling it will be a torpedo killer. See above.
Ship upgrades. Will the upgrade pathway be more like World of Warships with incremental upgrades along a predefined pathway? Or more free form like ED or Eve? Please let us not have PVP and PVE fittings.
Are there more ships being planned; frigates; battlecruisers, battleships?
Why are these factions fighting?