A suggestion: External Airlock

[Darth Fool]

First, I am excited to see this game and am looking forward to playing it. Since you have made this forum available, I thought I would throw out a modest suggestion for your consideration. The subject says it all, or at least most of it. Never the less, I will feed my own ego by putting forth my reasoning.

An external airlock could be the start to a variety of boarding technologies culminating in transporters. From a gameplay perspective, the external airlock would permit boarding another ship, while limiting the point of access, potentially to a more defensible spot. It would add an additional level of possible outcomes when considering dealing with another "friendly" ship. From a storyline perspective, the external airlock adds a new dimension to how supposedly friendly interactions could go wrong. One could be given an option when coming across a wreck to attack it externally and only salvage a small amount, or attach to it and scavenge parts, which would provide more/better salvage, but could lead to a possible trap where your big ship guns won't help you.

I would suggest that the external airlock should initially only be usable in "friendly" situations where both sides agree to it, even if they are both actually planning, once let in, on raiding the other ship. As part of this, normal ship to ship weapons should not be usable while connected by the airlock (although maybe drones could be), and you should not be able to jump until you close the airlock and detach. Which compartments are close to the external airlock could be important.

Advanced versions could give you the ability to attempt to 'ram' the other ship which would force an unfriendly airlock connection, extra strong docking clamps to prevent a ship from detaching, the assault pods previously mentioned in another post. Acquiring transporters might make an external airlock less necessary, but it could still be a backup. Upgraded sensors might be important for determining if you want to connect in the first place.

The flip side to all the gameplay goodies is that it might require too much in the way of graphical changes to allow the ships to connect. I imagine something like the extending bridge from Firefly/Sirenity and a corridor through which the crew(s) could pass.

Well, there it is.

[Samson]

Personally I like the idea of an external airlock, so long as you can use it in non-boarding situations. It'd be a great way to combat fires by selectivly venting rooms. It would obviously comprimise your O2 supply, but no more than your average hull breach.

I guess you could also deal with transported in boarders the same way. "What's that? I can't seem to hear you? No, we've got plenty of air on this side of the door"

[Snake Plissken]

The game already has external airlocks. They are handy for venting compartments to put out fires/ kill off enemy crew.

[Samson]

The game already has external airlocks. They are handy for venting compartments to put out fires/ kill off enemy crew.

See, I knew it was a good idea. I didn't get to try the onLive demo, just basing it from what I've in gameplay vids.

[Snake Plissken]

I was only able to use them with limited success though. They seemed a little too hard to click on