Hello Dioxine!
It has been a long time, and personally I have taken a little rest from my crazed obsession with X-Piratez for a bit, although now I have come back and am simply astonished by the potential on display with the Space Missions (really putting the Space back in Space Pirates!). I think that they add a nice change of pace and generally offer unique and enjoyable gameplay. However, it being in its infancy I am wondering about a few odds and ends with Space Battles (as to be expected, in all honesty). First of all, are you planning to expand the scope of space battles or are we simply expecting to see Prison/Research space stations? By this I mean, is there any though of having it so that in the future there is a possibility to raid moving vessels (ships, like Cruisers, Destroyers, or other large vessel. Hmm, maybe even a Space Cruise Ship of sorts that would act akin to Mansion missions, albeit with a much more...metallic feeling to it). Certainly, it is a dream, and I have little knowledge of programming myself (so I am unaware of the feasibility of such features) but I can imagine space battles adding a whole new dimension to the late-game combat, replacing the old land battles if you should so choose so. It is my dream to have space battles act almost like you would see in a series like Firefly, where you could raid abandoned stations (like we see with the Zombies currently, although it may be an interesting concept to see if these abandoned stations displayed some visible damage ala crashed UFOs, with some breaches, debris, and obvious damage to them signifying why they were abandoned), abandoned vessels, drug traffickers, police and faction leaders. Maybe even tactical actions on space battles could open up new markets like their earth-based contacts do, who knows, but that is certainly a long-term dream if anything.
Secondly, I was wondering about the tactical backround, I do understand that the pure blackness of space adds some ambiance, but to be honest I do think it would look more appealing if there was some backround, not only for aesthetics, but also for being able to tell what areas of the map you have trekked already. I think in this case a re-purposed backround from what we see for the space on the geoscape would work well here, with small stars, purple colors and a very stylized look would suit the action of space battles quite well, see below for a more accurate description of what I mean.
Lastly, this idea was given to me by a close friend when I was showing him the new space battles, he was wondering if it would be possible that breaching a space station when their are inadequately prepared troops on the inside of the station (in the area directly following the breach) would take stun damage every turn much like your own troops do when underwater. This would add a new dynamic and certainly give a benefit to a properly executed breach (or maybe even cutting a hole in a wall via certain methods). I believe that this would be exceptionally challenging, however, as IIRC these negative side-effects only apply to your own forces as of yet, not to mention that programming such a response that "exposed" units in the vacuum of space take stun damage is probably a major change in of itself.
Anyway, those are just some of my preliminary ideas, still loving the new content though and wanted to congratulate you on your progression, keep it up!
