Yep, yep! I've requested all of these repeatedly in the beta forums and out here in the public forums. The "Engine Pulsar" from MOO, for example. And simple collateral damage to adjacent ships when one blows up. And the "lightning shield" missile defense. That's probably a no-no with missiles as unbalanced as they already are... I wanted multiple levels of armor effectiveness and armor-piercing too, instead of just the one "ignores armor" ability. We need 'Neutronium' armor that cannot be pierced by
anything... Best idea we ever had in the beta forums was a settable modifer for each weapon for its damage to shield or armor. So, you could have all sorts of variations in weapon effectiveness against shields or armor. It would probably require a complete re-write of the combat engine to implement this.
MM is just too busy with bug-fixing to add new stuff right now. I hope we'll at least get drones before the "SE IV Gold" re-issue that seems to be in the works. Space monsters and/or pirates would also be a nice bonus. Especially with an intel project to create them against your enemies. But all these fancy new weapon effects seem likely to be put off for SE V.
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 18 October 2001).]