What are some must have gameplay mechanics/ features/changes added to the base game?
I know these companies make time to read community forums like this, maybe with enough noise, Bethesda will turn this from a decent game to a generational phenomena. This is coming from nearly 200 hours in the game, several NG+s, level 100, and achievement hunting.
My suggestions are as follows:
1: buildable spacestations. This is SUCH a no brainer. Let the players make passive income from building a space station, star yard, etc. Have it act as a "garage" for all your ships, allow you to hire traders, ship technicians, you can ally them to factions for kickbacks and security. Honestly a pile of features from FO4s settlement system could be ported over and polished to make this a highly viable solution. The buy in could be large, to offset the convenience.
2: star yard slot/ saveable ship designs. A way to build your perfect dream ship as you make money. Perhaps all parts are available at a huge mark up, or you have to do quests for specific manufacturers to unlock higher end parts. Its parked and being built while you grind out the funds needed for that class c super freighter with enough firepower to split a moon. And let us SAVE THE DESIGNS. I hate doing another NG+ run and having to redesign the same ship over and over. Maybe the save files are on a 10kg data box that you have to put in the new quantum warp carryover box, for lore purposes
3: CAPITAL SHIP CONTROL Trickier to implement, but what it reads on the tin. You can move through space in a capital ship. Big, slow, armed to the teeth and can hold a a ton of people. Your own ship can dock to it for when you need to land planetside or pick off attacking pirates. You can hire security escort pilots, engineers, doctors, techs, etc. You can take jobs establishing LIST colonies, carrying the necessary equipment. Require regular He-3 refueling by jumping to worlds with outposts you control, or hitting an interstellar gas station. Same as with the first two, you have a huge buy in or questlines to unlock the option.
4: buildable ship modules. Again, what it reads on the tin. Ive got 10k mass worth of manufactured parts and resources, but I can't use automated manufacturing to create the parts I need as opposed to buying them? Gross. Again, BIG buy in or quests to keep it from being too OP.
FIX THE OUTPOST LINK SYSTEM. its an Olympics worth of mental gymnastics trying to remember how to set it up correctly when im coming off a 3-6 month hiatus. Why do I need a landing pad for each individual link. Why do I have such limited space to build that littany of pads when these worlds are mostly empty.
FIX STORAGE. Why am I limited to 150 "mass" in an shipping container sitting on a moon with .1G
BONUS: Please give us better options with these storyline-esque quests. I would have joined the terran armada in a heart beat given the chance. And where's the lore? A massive, newcomer, threatening faction just shows up, and the first chance i get to speak to one of its members is moments before the big finale? We got 4 factions to align with in FO4, with massive repercussions depending on who you picked. Dame with 3 and NV. You get one chance to pick one side or the other in the whole game and all it changes is whether you get attacked at certain outposts. We gotta resurrect the good writing from the past. Let us really flesh out what and who we could be each NG+. let me be a pirate turned terran with a small fleet of my own. Let me be a force for mass colonization and spread of humanity, let me be a downright evil force to be reckoned with. In other words, let me Role Play this Game.