u/MMO_HighJoe

I post this idea once every few months in an effort to get people talking about and spreading it, with the goal of drawing the attention of Sean and the crew at HG to maybe, just maybe make it happen. It's a bit long but, I hope worth your time to read and leave a comment.

Space Station & Star System Ownership and Management! :)

The ability to take ownership of and manage our own space station in an abandoned system and further, to restore the abandoned star system to an inhabited and lively one. 1 station/system per galaxy, per player. It's not like there's a shortage of them. :P

First, we have to find an abandoned system and then, if we accept it, we have a long, long, and resource expensive road to both rebuilding the space station and eventually, rebuilding/repopulating the entire system.

The space station is just the first step. Taking custody of the station to begin refurbing it, unlocks access to all new plans for parts you'll have to fabricate to rebuild/refurb the station. Once the station is complete, you unlock plans and the ability to begin planetary rebuilding/repopulation.

To refurb a planet, you have to construct/restore 1 of each building type typically found on every planet. 1 Archive, 1 Trading Outpost, 1 Minor Settlement, 1 Observatory, 1 Transmission Tower, 1 Manufacturing Facility, 1 Communications Tower, 1 Shelter Camp ( I think that covers them all). When complete, that planet will automatically start generating more of each and become populated with appropriate NPCs as well as unlock settlements on that planet.

As the entire system improves, the number of each of these things increases in availability on each completed planet. Only finished 1 planet in your system? Then only that planet has any of these facilities available and they are far and few between. Finished rebuilding the entire system? Throw a rock and find a facility. You get the picture. This process must be done for each individual planet to completely restore the system.

To save a little time, you can begin working on buildings on all planets simultaneously (if you have the resources that is) but, only 1 building can be built/worked on at a time, on each planet and only after 1 is complete can another be started on that planet. Of course, to build/complete any new piece of a build project, there is a time component too. Rome wasn't built in a day.

Basically, the settlement system is scaled up in complexity and scope to cover an entire star system. But, all of that really just speaks to Ownership. Where's the 'Management' come in?

Easy, anything that can be built, can also be destroyed and since Pirates are a thing in NMS, random pirate attacks can happen anywhere in your system, prompting a communications message to you, giving you an opportunity to warp on over and defend the affected location, to prevent any damage or, at least reduce the damage and recovery/rebuilding costs.

Of course, as you're just starting out in this new system, it's conflict level will be the highest and it's economy will be the lowest but, as you continue to successfully fight off the Pirate hoards and rebuild the system, the economy improves and the conflict level decreases. Eventually, you could improve the system to a 3 star economy and conflict level of 1 but, despite Pirate attacks decreasing in frequency the better the system becomes, they never completely stop so, stay away to long, ignoring those cries for help and eventually, your system could fall back into complete ruin and abandonment.

But, build and maintain a high value, low conflict system and the units and nanites just keep coming in. I know, I know, it's not like it's hard to come by either units or nanites in the game as is but, this would be another, more immersive way to go about obtaining them both.

Don't get me wrong. I understand the desire to build that Star Destroyer, Millennium Falcon, Enterprise knock-off. But, if you're going to build some big ship, you should at least try to make it not only cool looking externally but, functionally beautiful internally. I truly enjoy seeing some of the better, more original Corvette builds and routinely stand outside them in the Anomaly and fly over then through them via camera, so I can't be kidnapped. 😛

But, as soon as I see the interior of some massive ship is nothing more than a singular long line of habs down the middle or, just a hand full of habs in the middle, just there to hang all the rest of the external structure off of, with those few internal habs not even counting enough to have all 10 storage, at least 1 refiner, a food prep station and a mission board, you know, all the functional modules that are arguably the whole reason Corvettes are a thing, I completely loose interest in it and move on.

Perfect example. Just minutes before this post, I was checking out a massive Corvette with 3 decks, using 35 habs in its construction. Yet, even with all that room, there wasn't a single refiner, not a single food processor, not even a single storage module. There was at least a mission board on the 3rd deck, near the cock pit but, with all that space the builder couldn't even be bothered to at least install some grow chambers to farm some NipNip?

So, sure. Your Corvette is big. Some might even think it's beautiful but, at the end of the day, it's no more functional than any base game explorer/fighter/hauler/shuttle.

But, that's just my (unpopular) opinion.