IIRC, the reasoning was that spawn rates were lower than they had intended, and they were bringing them up to the intended values - I think they said that a solo player was actually getting 1/6 the spawns of a four player group, instead of a quarter.
After the “kill two billion bugs” order got finished in a few hours, I was genuinely surprised to log in a couple of hours ago and find only a few percentage points on both planets… But that won’t last long, there were about 10x as many players on the airburst launcher planet as there were on the anti-tank mine planet.
I like the idea of having it as a ship upgrade, but even as a fairly new player, being able to see the lanes seems like it would be helpful in deciding what planets to drop on.
Maybe that upgrade could sort of be a part of the tutorial? Like, you learn what samples are, pick up a few (maybe five-ish), and then the first time you open the ship upgrades, it walks you through buying your first module with the conveniently low-priced “Galactic Positioning System Premium Subscription” or something of that ilk. That way, it could sort of kill two birds with one stone, teaching newbies how to do ship upgrades while giving the map a bit more functionality.
(Edited for grammar)
That makes a lot of sense, actually. I also saw “fully electric” and immediately thought of electric/hybrid/ICE cars, and my brain went straight to “hold up, did I miss the fully functional diesel-powered humanoid robot?”
I feel like I would use it voluntarily if it put the sponsors in the “add a destination” menu. I tend to use Google maps for longer trips, and I try to add any stops on the way to my route so I don’t miss them - if I hit “add destination” and it offered, for example, Citgo stations, 7-11s, and Dunkin Donuts on my route, then I would probably get gas and snacks at sponsored locations almost every time.
As it is, though… Well, just having a Dunks on the way to the laundromat doesn’t make me want to stop in and buy a coffee. Driving by ten of them “randomly” on my way to another state isn’t going to make me any more likely to stop at one.
Wait… Y’all are talking about X-Wing: Rogue Squadron and Star Wars Episode 1: Battle for Naboo, right?
I owned those windows ports!
They worked great back in the day - I had such a blast with them that I begged my parents to get me a shitty Logitech joystick! If you want to check them out, it looks like Rogue Squadron is only $10 on Steam; and Battle for Naboo seems to be abandonware, but it seems to be hosted on a lot of “better spread than dead” game sites.