Really nifty ideas - a MUST read!

I am so sorry for posting here and not the INA forums, but they require me to use a real e-mail (i use YAHOO, not like bellsouth or w/e do not have it registered...) So I could not make an account...

SoupDragon, if you would be so kind as to please also post my ideas on the INA forums for me since I can't, I would really love that, hope you do and I hope you like em!

Anyway, I have some pretty nifty mod ideas, and I do believe they are all possible given a large group effort, Here I go...

-=Technology=-

Different Levels of Technology: Allow different races (Independents, navy, player, police, ect..) to have different amounts of technological advances. Ex: The navy would have such technology as full 360 degree hard shields capable of withstanding up to 75 shots from a medium assault cannon (per shield, a carrier may have 4+ shields)... Some other idea's may include, different ship types for the same class not just TWO, like corvette, and heavy corvette mk1-mk3, but as many as 10 different corvette models, and I mean totally different, each for a different race... This would go for other models as well, maybe as many as 25+ classes of fighter, 4-5 classes of destroyer, 4-5 classes of cruiser, 2-3 classes of carrier, ect.

-=Advanced AI=-

Ever feel like the game is just a "LITTLE" unfair to the AI? How would you like to be just part of the gang? Not always some important person, still able to upgrade your ship to some extent, but how would you like it if the AI (with enough money, which you will need to in order to upgrade your ship) to be able to upgrade itself as well, not only that but in as many ways as you can upgrade yourself. How would you like it if the AI was a valuable trading partner, and was just as important economically as you are, sometimes alot more (navy vs player, navy will always have ALOT more money and resources to build more advanced ships) How would you like the AI turrets on your ship (mod or CAREER, will be talked about later..) to stop shooting at a trader that you just stole cargo from, but do not want to destroy, because if you do, the TRADER's AI will send an sos which may/may not send more ships to your area... You all know the iFleet mod I assume, if you do not it is a mod that allows you to board and capture ships... How would you like it if the AI could do the exact same thing to you? Ex: You are stopped by the police, they find you are carrying illegal cargo such as drugs, they CAPTURE your ship and haul you off for a TRIAL and then possibly jail. Also, how would you like to be able to continously communicate with AI ships which will respond to you in different ways depending on what you are asking/saying, and what caste you are compared to them. Who knows, you may have to address the captain of a destroyer by saying SIR, before he/she answers... or he/she may not answer at all.

-=Multiple gamemodes=-

Ever want to do more than just fly a ship in EoC? Would you like to be able to get out of your ship, walk around a station? walk around a planet covered with cities/bases, oceans, a full sky, ect... Would you like to just be able to jet around space in a little jetpack? How bout as a mentioned above, you are taken away to a trial when police find drugs in your ship, how would you like to physically be at that trial? possibly even insert text and have the AI judge judge your plea? Even more so, how would you like to be able to walk around your own spaceship? or get in an airplane and fly around a planet then get in a rocket and go back into space? or enter back into the atmosphere in the same rocket? How would you like to invade stations using a selection of guns in first person shooter mode, where you will literally be a marine on the station killing other marines... Even more so, how bout being able to control a whole group of marines to invade that station?

-=Career/Castes=-

Ever want to choose your destiny in a game? Well, would you like to choose from a career as oh lets say.

Military: Commander, medic, marine/spy , officer, colonist.

Description - Commander: A commander is a person who can command either a spacecraft/aircraft/ground vehicle or FLEETS of them, a marine group (both in space + on ground + in air), or a station (both space + ground) Medic: A medic can HELP in the aid of an injured/sick person of any sort. Marine/spy: Marines can pilot aircraft/ground vehicles/space and air fighters. As well as just fight on the ground (in a station/planet/ship) and as well as in space, though a marine-space battle would be quiet pointless and weird, unless it was a battle that had to be done very very quietly as to not warn others. Marines can usually be used in space/ground/aircraft/spacecract as specially trained spies as well, usually only for a single mission and not a career. Officer: Officer's are usually people on-board a ship or station(ground or space) that control the various systems, give orders from higher officials to the commander, warn the commander of something... Officers can also be used as lower-class marines if their station/ship is under attack and no marines are present. Colonists: Wanna live the nice simple business man's life? Well as a colonist your job could be a Trader/lower-end officer at some job in some random station that you fly/drive to (depending on whether its a job in space or on a planet)

Castes:Commander: (commands a..) Carrier, cruiser(heavy or not), destroyer(heavy or not), corvette (heavy or not), patcom/adv. patcom, high-end scientific vessels, bombers (in the air on a planet), naval ships of all kinds. Medic: Military medic, or civilians medic. Marine: Highly trained offensive/defensive marine, Political defense marine, personal protection marine(bodyguard basically) Spy: Military hired spy (used for very confidential jobs, very very highly payed, but if caught could be KILLED.) Corporate spy, or political spy. Officer: High-class officer(stations/carriers/destroyers/cruisers(both in water and space)), Middle-class officer(corvettes/patcoms), low-class officer(civilian vehicles/ships). Colonists/civilians: Upper-class, middle-class, lower-class.

Salary: Yeah thats right, you get paid to do your job, and depending what your job is, that could be 10 million credits a week (simulated week..) or 6 credits an hour... Higher class jobs/dangerous jobs = more pay, lower-class (sometimes still dangerous) jobs = less pay/medium pay

Rewards: Save a baby from drowning? Good for you have a reward... Defeat an enemy fleet much larger than yours using alot of strategy? good for you heres another reward... Rewards are usually in the form of logged medals, + alot of credits, + you can allie with other races/people alot more easily.

Punishments: Murdered someone? Got most of your men killed in a station invasion due to bad strategy? Your ----ed now man. Punishments can mean, death, jail-time, credit deduction, or lose rewards..

-=Mission Generator=-

Much like GrandpaTrouts idea, Mission generator will be a prog within eoc that automatically generates missions after a career + caste is chosen, the missions will be for that type of career + caste only. The mission generator will be activeated as soon as the normal EoC game ends (when u finish the game in act 4)or when u load a saved game from Free Form mode.

-=Instant Action=-

Instant action will be alot more complex as in you can choose from 'quick fix missions' that will be available for any Career + caste, ie. you do not have to move up in rank like you would in the normal game (doing so by gaining money or w/e, when you start out as a commander you are a commander of a smaller ship, and you move up in rank, you can CHOOSE as high as a corvette, but in order to move up higher and start commanding fleets you gotta earn money and rewards.)
In instant action, you can choose to be the highest form of commander and have a full blown fleet battle with the other side, or even a full blown WAR with multiple sides and planet invasions ect....

In-game caste/career switching: You will be able to access anyones duty within your same type of career as long as their caste is the same/lower than yours... Ex: You're in a destroyer as the commander, you see a corvette pass by... Select the corvette, go to unigui menu and select "Switch to that persons caste", this takes you to that ship and makes your destroyer an AI ship, if you want you can switch back to your destroyer of course...

-=Summary=-

Basically what this is ment to do is give you as many options as possibly using a simple gui display where you can select all your options, controls will be more complex but still the learning curve won't be large at all... and keys will be totally configurable. This "mod/addon" would also make you EQUAL to the AI, not almost equal, but totally equal, in-fact if you are a trader, you will never be able to fend off an attack from a military scout group, because they are much more advanced, and you will have a limit depending on caste/career on how much you can upgrade your ship, theres no way in this mod that the strongest corvette will be stronger than the weakest destroyer... Just won't happen.

-=Problems=-

I am not a pog programmer, and I do not wish to become one, I can do some J++ and thats about it. So in stating these ideas I have created MANY problems for any pog programmers to overcome if they tried to make my ideas reality. If this was to be a real mod/addon, it would almost have to be done by a large and most of all COORDINATED group, or else it would take months/years to finish. This "mod/addon" is more or less a whole new game, because in order to land on a planet surface, have a 3D 1st person display, ect, you would have to create a whole new range of graphics/game engines as well as AI engines. The only way to create such a mod as I am describing is most likely to do it for company profit... Then again, what do I know?