Starfury : Lacking a lot?

[Markavian]

I've played Starfury for around 12 hours now over the past few days.

I think its good overall, its fnu upgrading your vessel with different components and fighting + winning battles.

However, I think the game is missing a lot of things, things that modders probably won't be able to add. This seems like a game released ahead of schedule just to prove a feature (3D models for SE:V?).

How far did I get? Playing campaign one, I got as far as the mission where you had to do 3 Pirate missions, then go to a planet. I must have done 20 pirate missions now, in various systems, and not been able to progress... I dropped the campaign story line and began saving money for a new ship.

I bought myself an Xiati Cruiser, loaded with weapons shiny defences, fast engines, etc. Its a rather nicely designed starship I think.

Okay, so I've got a vessle I like, my goals are complete. That was a fun game??? Kinda, but I don't see much room for advancement.

These are the main gameplay featuers of the game for me:
1) Delivering Cargo > Money
2) Destroying Ships > Cargo > Money
3) Visiting Starports > Ship Upgrades
4) Following the story line? (Didn't get me far).

Faults:
The Galatic News seems dreadfuly empty.
Unsure about campaign progression.
Impossible to tell who is friend and foe.
(e.g. illegal cargo : TCN attack until you dump
cargo, then they're all friendly).
Too much effort trying to navigate your ship, should have autopilot feature (leaving it up to you to avoid rocks).

I vaguely understand why the ships are as big as planets, but thats really lacking. I would have thought that exploring vast areas of space to come across a highly detailed and sensibly sized planet would be very interesting.

I think a much better system for navigting this game would be to scale all the models precisely, and have the main game map represented by a holographic map of the system. The map would define your position, and the position of unknown objects. You could then click on highlighted objects to see details, such as a magnified image of a ship/planet/asteroid. Objects that you chose to track would then be 'enlarged' holographically on the map.

Upgrading your ship, great fun. Best bit of the game. Getting to try out new weapons and shields is good fun.

The map could be greatly improved too. If you take the idea of a a holographic/virtual map then there could have been camera angles which showed your position in space relative to the central suns.

Also, since they went 3D, I would have expected gravitational simulation to be applicable. Fly too close to the sun, you'd have to pull away from it so you don't get dragged in.

There was so much that could have been added to this game. Modding everything seems boring. It would better if Malfador focused on their game for gameplay, making it fun, adding great features. To be honest, the only thing I'd want to add to this game is my own ship design. A separately developed campaign maker would be interesting. Modding games is great fun, but leaving it down to editing a bunch of text files is more like 'tweaking'.

Thats my blurb, I thought I should write something since I rolled out so much time playing the game.

Tell me what you think.