An Somewhat Detailed Particle Fleet 2 Wishlist

[Zoura3025]

Hi! It's been a while, hasn't it? Kind of wild to be back after so long, really.
With a few maps (that people apparently really don't like) and ships notched under my belt after a few days of returning to the game, I've decided to post a sort of "masterlist" of wants and unwants for a Particle Fleet sequel. I see no reason to delay this any, so...

Let's go!

Request 1: 2D Gameplay

Let's get the controversial stuff right out of the way: I'd rather PF stay a 2(.5)D game. I personally don't like how Creeper World translated to 3D (CW4 is probably my least favourite game of Knuckle Cracker's), and I feel like 3D wouldn't benefit particle fleet much, seeing as how a lot of the game design comes from the physical interactions of the particles with the environment; pushing the game to 3D would require vastly more particulate to retain such emergent gameplay.

Request 2: Carrier Rework

It's difficult to deny that the stock carrier bays are a strong addition to any ship; their vast range and crowd-control potential make them (one of, if not) the strongest modules in the game, perhaps only behind an equal ship space's worth of cannons.

However, I think the ability to customize carried ships (herein refered to as "fighters" from now on) could lend some significant customizeability to ships. As for some ideas for how this could work...

Fighters can come in 3 canvas sizes; 3x4, 5x6, and 7x9 (all in height*length). Each canvas size corresponds to a carrier dock; 3x9, 5x15, and 7x21, respectively. Fighters can be customized with ship modules just like any normal ship would, allowing for vast customizeability. You could have support fighters carrying ports to send and receive power, missile fighters to provide fire support, or laser fighters for point defense. Each fighter has a 1x1 control module, and no armor, as they still fly "above" the field like PF1's fighters do.

I'm sure some people would lament the loss of the prefab fighters and guppies, so they could be included
perhaps in the form of premade fighters, or in their original forms attached to special modules.

Request 3: More Module Variety

This is one of those "given" sorts of requests, but I do feel the need to express that, as someone who's made dozens of particle fleet ships, the editor can feel... A bit anaemic (I never learned PRPL; sorry :(). It's a good editor, but it does eventually leave something to be desired.

More specifically, options for more flexible ship pieces (for example, smaller energy tanks, larger/smaller engines) would be greatly appreciated, especially when combined with the fighter rework described above.

Of course, more guns to blow things up with would be nice. To humour my own brain: Some dumbfire AOE rockets, a beam that deals low damage but pierces many particles, a plasma generator; just to name a few.

Afterword

Those are the big wishlist items I have for a potential PF2. Feel free to agree/disagree/discuss in the comments; been a while since I stirred up trouble. :P