There are a small number of bugs that are annoying me to no end. First among these is a bug in "rescue" missions. This is the bug that causes all the attacking craft to be ConFed ships, no matter what the briefing said their alignment would be. going out expecting to fight a bunch of Talons and then get eaten alive by a dozen Broadswords sucks. It also seems that the ships, while confed models, aren't actually owned by anyone. On one hand, this means that I can kill them without penalty. On the other, though, if I was going to be depending on an ally's ships to help me with them, the ally will just ignore them while I die. Oh, and while I'm thinking about it, having an "expected resistance" tally in the briefing for rescue missions would be nice as well. Obviously if a guy it offering me a million credits to pick him up, I'm going to be expecting more than just a gladius, but still it would be nice.
Thing two is that sometimes strike missions against capital ships go screwy. One way they go screwy is that one of their fighter escorts becomes the mission-critical ship, so I can draw pay to bagging a kamekh while only actually having to defeat a single dralthi. Another way they go screwy is that sometimes they're escorted by other cap ships: if it says the kamekh is defended by 19 starships, sometimes a dozen or so of them will be more kamekhs. I have m4d l33t sk1llz and all, but that's a little ridiculous. This wouldn't be so bad since I only have to delete one of them and a handful of Broadsword wingmen will make short work of one kamekh, but I really start to get into trouble if they decide to start swarming nearby confed bases.
The latter bug, combined with how I always seem to be having to save Perry from an errant Kamekh, has given me an idea that I thought might be interesting and give front-line systems more of a "war zone" feel. Firstly, there should probably be a lot more Paradigms floating around, especially around Perry and the Blockade Point systems. Secondly, huge swarms of Kilrathi capships should only show up in seriously contested front-line systems (like the blockade points, but definitely not New Detroit like they do in the current version). Thirdly, if large groups of Kilrathi start attacking a confed or militia controlled base, the base should be able to whistle up support for itself (ranging from a group of fighters to a couple of cruisers, depending on what's attacking it and what kind of base it is).This would mean that if you opt to go to war there will be a war waiting for you, but if you decide to stay in more populated systems behind the front lines you get pirates and retros and small kilrathi raiding groups but definitely not huge kilrathi strike forces.
If you decide that having a full-fledged naval war is inappropriate to the privateer setting (though I can't imagine why, since there is a full-fledged naval war going on at least according to the news reports), then I strongly suggest making kamekhs a lot less common and preventing them entirely from showing up in large groups. After all, it's not like ConFed would just let a dozen or so destroyers get within striking distance of a sector hq without so much as sending a single paradigm to against them, right?
The above items are the only things I feel have really detracted from my experience with the privateer remake. Though I've found a large number of "bugs" most of them are along the lines of "polish" more than anything. For example, InSys pickets complaining that your course is deviating and they can't search you properly while you're engaged against a group of pirates seems a little wierd.
Ok, the rest of this post is "general suggestions that will improve the polish of the game." I think they would be good things to implement, but there is no urgency whatsoever.
New Reports
These are interesting and all, but they have some minor flaws and are repetitive in the extreme. One relatively easy fix would be to reduce the "freelancer helps the Cause" messages to one time per launch per system rather than for every kill. As much as I enjoy seeing my name in the headlines, having it there six times in a row is a little excessive. Also, while it would probably be a lot more work, having a thing that randomizes the contents of the article would be nice (a la Sim City). Finally, putting the name of the system where they article takes place at the top of the body of the article would be a good idea, since some articles do not include a system and it is a modern newspaper convention to do so.
Drayman
As far as I can tell, there really isn't a point to owning a Drayman. It is entirely dependent on its armor and shields for defense, and while those are quite stong compared to the lesser freighters, they won't repel a determined assault. It is neither fast enough nor maneuverable enough to try evasion, and the lack of maneuverability nullifies the forward guns as well. In exchange for those drawbacks, one gets more cargo space than any transport run will ever need, but not enough to carry a fighter escort. Given that the Galaxy also has plenty of space and is superior in every other way, there really isn't a point to the Drayman, and it will never make enough on a transport run to justify hiring wingmen. I see a few solutions to this. First, give it some turrets so it can at least pretend to defend itself. Second, give it enough cargo space to carry a couple of fighters (or, better yet, add wingmen who will keep following until fired rather than just until the next dock). Third, increase the amount of available commodities at the various locations to a point that justifies the additional cargo space (though I fear this may imbalance the rest of the game).
Escort Missions
It would be really handy if escorted craft were smarter about what they were doing. Particularly if one is escorting a Paradigm, for example, which moves very slowly and likes to spin in circles on its way to the jump point.
Generated missions
Does the mission generator have a max for the number of enemy ships it will put in a mission? If not, it probably should. Also, it seems to ramp up the number of opposing ships in the missions it generates. This is not inherently bad, but I suggest that it only increase the number of enemies in particular types of missions. For example, just because I (with the help of my wingmen) managed to bag a Kamekh under the noses of a dozen or so defending Dralthi doesn't mean that it's possible to defend a Drayman against a dozen or so attacking Gothri. Also, is there some way to come up with really high-paying cargo missions? At present, playing the game as a mercenary is many times more lucrative than playing as a merchant, and with a lot less jumping around to boot.
Nav Map
Would it be possible to define missions for oneself with this? For example, if I am in Perry and I doubleclick Troy in the nav map, the mission objectives screen would show what jumps I needed to make to get there.
Well, this brainstorm is over. I hope the above has been constructive. If anyone has any comments, I will continue to lurk for a while.
They are currently a lot smaller than they were in 008, hopefully they are less intrusive (they are closer to the size of the various background images of celestial bodies from the original). Anyway, An agricultural world without a sun would be somewhat ridiculous
