Community Input: Systems Development Future

[Antonio]

Hello everyone. A bit more than a month has passed since the 5.0 release. With it, many changes occurred in all departments of the development team, with Systems being no exception. That's why we have decided to make this thread and gather community input on the topic of the Systems department specifically.

A few words from us first. For starters, the entire department lineup has changed compared to a couple of months ago, with @Wildkins being the new department head. As such, the current members were not around for most of the changes in 5.0 which is why, as the title suggests, our primary focus is on future plans. We still have quite a few older changes to catch up on, fine-tune, and see through. Additionally, we will attempt to be more transparent towards the community in general.

Without further ado, here are the questions we'd like to see you answer. Strictly following them isn't necessary, nor do you have to answer them all, though it is appreciated.

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System design:

-What would you like to see future system design focus more on, and why? Some examples: visuals, gameplay, story progression, hazards, treasure hunts, environmental storytelling, etc.
-What do you think current systems, on average, suffer from the most? Use the above examples. An additional example: Overcrowdedness (lack of barren, dangerous space) can be a valid reason as well.
-Would you rather the Systems team focused more on reworking existing systems, adding new systems, removing obsolete ones, or a balance of everything?
-Where and how do you think existing systems could be enhanced with environmental storytelling and worldbuilding? Example: How would you make systems like Hamburg, Tau-23, or Hokkaido more interesting?

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Travel times:

-Would you like to see travel times between two regions' hubs increase, decrease, or be kept the same? Example: New York - Omicron Delta.
-Would you like to see travel times between two regions' most distant points increase, decrease, or be kept the same? Example: Vespucci - Omicron Mu.
-Would you like to see travel times without using trade lanes decrease? How would you do it? Example: A Liberty Rogue inside of Liberty not using trade lanes or jump gates for inRP reasons.

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System connectivity:

-Do you think systems, on average, have too few, or too many connections? Do you think the concept of having defined activity hub systems per region is good or bad?
-Do you think all systems should have an equal number of connections, instead of sacrificing some over the other? Example: Sidelining Omicron Kappa in favor of Omicron Theta.
-How much value do you put on connections of a system? Would you be satisfied with a system being sidelined connections-wise, but having importance in another aspect instead such as interesting gameplay or story asset relevance, and why? Example: Dublin, Omicron Pi.
-Would you like to see a) fewer systems with more connections, or b) more systems with fewer connections? Example image:

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5.0 feedback:

-Give us your brief 5.0 feedback - system addition/removal, reworks, merges, connections, gameplay aspects such as hazards, treasure hunts, flavor wrecks, overall environmental changes.
-What did you like the most?
-What didn't you like at all?

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One thing to note: try to avoid confusing Systems with Story. Although they are often correlated and work together, Story is a separate department primarily responsible for narrative, lore, diplomacy, and asset progression. While you can provide brief feedback on how Story should collaborate with Systems for a logical, cohesive development flow, try to keep the main focus on the Systems field of work. Thank you for your attention.

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