Just a little update to show what I have been working on. I have been spending my time balancing the combat a little more, with the aim to making it a bit 'faster' and exciting. In hand with this I have changed most of the weapons and particle effects, slightly, and have revamped the 'nuke' missile explosions. Further, I have rebalanced a lot of the NPC ships, and the way they are setup in game, making certain regions' and factions' ships much weaker or stronger.
Finally I have been working in depth with GranpaTrout's awesome new loadout package, and have it working very very nicely. Currently both the player and wingman ships can have many of their systems changed out. There are also two classes of weapons (three if you include capital class), one that is mounted internally, and one that is mounted externally. When mounted externally, you can acutally see the correct weapon mounted on the ship. Not all classes of ships have these ships, but at least 5 do.
That reminds me, I have also made a number of new player pilotable ships. Take a look at the latest screenshots in the images section to see one of them (a refitted Dreadnaught, able to mount external weapons pods, and the advanced comsec), and a few of the external weapons in action.
