(Suggestion) Installing upgrades

[McChubs]

Rather than instantly having level two shields or a drone controller magically appear, how about if your crew had to go and install it themselves? I think it'd be pretty satisfying to see them integrating new technology, but maybe people would get impatient inbetween jumps?

[_aD]

I really like this idea in principle: watching the crew tinker and repair, put out fires, work terminals etc. are all part of the appeal of the game. However I'm not sure how much it would benefit the mechanics of the game. One only receives or purchases upgrades when there are no events happening so being made to wait for these upgrades doesn't really serve a purpose.

[McChubs]

I thought that might be the case. Still, it's nice to see the crew actually work with the ship and have their own function rather than the game being focused only on the ship itself; more Star Trek than dogfighting.

[Gorlom]

Maybe you want some small collection of drones doing that instead so the crew doesn't have to be diverted. Could also have the system work instantly but have those drones swarm around installing it anyway just for the effect.

I think taking time to install a new system would just be bad and horrible for the flow of the game.

[ice]

It could be done simply by showing the crewmembers installing and fixing the upgrades and drives, but still being able to FTL drive away.

For example, if you had one guy manning the engine and one pilot and one on the shields, purchasing an upgrade would show all three (or two, if it's a small room) running there and fixing everything, but it would still count as if the guys were in their initial rooms, manning the consoles.

This way, players who want can sit and watch the crew installing the fun things, while impatient players can simply jump out of there and see their crewmembers at their stations ready in the next beacon. (As long as this is included in the tutorial, so that some players won't sit impatiently, raging at how slow his crew installs the upgrades while waiting for them to walk back to their stations before he can beam out of there)

[Durus]

I like this idea!
The obvious partner that goes along with it is changing room appearances as they're upgraded. So a level 1 weapons room looks basic, the level two gets a nicer monitor, level 3 progresses in to another square etc.
This might be a post release idea though as it is almost purely cosmetic.