Ideas and wishlist for the Warfare2.

With the much anticipated Warfare 2 update hopefully coming out before the end of the year I was hoping to leave here a sort of Suggestion list or wish list of things I'd love to see included in the update. I set some requirements to myself while coming up with these ideas as well. The main restrictions were that I'd try to suggest thing that wouldn't impact the major physics in the game and require any major rewriting of code, as well as keeping the core vision of Space Engineers. Therefore most of the tech and blocks will be near future and avoid the classics of asking for shields, cloaks or anything too overly futuristic.

I'll start with what I consider to be the most overlooked and under developed part of the game and of space combat. Sensors and detecting things.

Currently, the only real way to spot grids in space is by eye or if the grid themselves are broadcasting with a beacon and antenna. The way I would change that is by assigning a special value to every block. We'll call this value "Detectability" for the lack of a better name. Blocks can have different values if they are On or Off and all the values of the blocks on a ship would combine to determine over all ability for a grid to be spotted by another.

That value would then come in to play when using a new block, We'll call that block a "radar" for the lack of a better name. The "radar" would work in one of two ways: Passive and Active.

Passive mode, works exclusively though the "Detectability" value, and would give relatively little information about the grid being spotted. Things like block count or size, distance, speed and direction and maybe some targeting.

Active mode is where the fun begins: It would give the full spectrum on information however would increase the grids "Detectability" range greatly.

Doing it like this would enable ships to be designed and build with "Detectability" in mind as well as making it easier for things to be spotted.

Now onto weapons. While the simplest solution would be to simple integrate one of the many turret and weapon mods that already populate the workshop into the game, a better solutions would be do a deeper rework of weapons.

Personally I think weapons should part of the engineering challenge of spaceengineers, and so I;d like to see more support for modular and player made weapons.

I'll split things into two categories along the lines of large and small grid.

large grid weapons are probably the hardest to both balance and made as there is a place for both simple turret blocks and more player made weapons. Though in general I think three classes of weapons should be considered.

Spinal mounts: This big bulky weapons are would be designed to be modular. (the 2cm beam laser mod on the workshop is an excellent example of this) Making the weapons modular would allow a level of customization and again engineering to be retained While also giving a bit more of a futuristic edge to the game. Things like more classic large ballistic weapons, rail guns and even laser or beam weapons.

Player made turrets/weapons: This is one of the places where the game both excels and lacks the most. Bringing the ability to build guided player made missiles, and player made turrets into the vanilla game would not only revolutionize combat in the simple sense but dose so while respecting the engineering side of the game.

lastly are turret weapons: Despite my love for PMW's I still think the vanilla turrets and turrets in general stand to have a place. Though of course some balance would have to be made with PMw's

Small grid weapons on the other hand are where things are both simple yet still dire. The biggest need for small grids would be the ability to take on large grid ships in a more equal manner as currently small grids lack the ability to do more than be a nuisance. The vanilla turrets though in this case are not that bad, though some more diverse weapons for other forms of small grid vehicle would be a nice addition. (Tanks, mechs ect). In addition the same improvements to PMW's would affect small grids, weather is be more custom made turrets for small grids or missiles.