I take all the points about the old designer's strengths, and I really sympathise, but if I had to choose a designer, I'd choose the current one in a heartbeat. Once upon a time, Hazeron was the only game of its kind. Now we have No Man's Sky, Starmade, Dual Universe, Space Engineers, etc...and Hazeron pretty much has these three selling points, and only these, to make it stand out from the competition:
I really like the idea of allowing easy-paint interiors to be imported to the new designer. But I don't think the new designer should become intrinsically restricted. I have boarded people's ships to see what they looked like - their designers sometimes thought they were impenetrable mazes of fake walls and invisibile holes. Nevertheless, I penetrated them, and sometimes dropped a calling-card. Perhaps boarding in the old designer was easier. But I never used to care enough to try, because I already knew what I was going to find: more empty grey hallways.
And even when interiors are truly impenetrable (and I concede that's maybe possible), does it matter? So Hazeron drifts away from being a combat game into being Second Life in Space. It was never a terrific combat game in the first place. No matter the system, players like Dean, Jack Katogh and myself, will always design logical interiors because we enjoy the fantasy and the balanced fun of fair combat. Players like Mortius will always find glitches to make beating them impossible - if not in the designer, then elsewhere - because that's how they like to play. There's room for both ways. The game already acknowledges this in a major way by having a whole zone with no PvP.
- The large galaxies and fully modeled solar systems with their many moving and tilting body types. Hazeron is the only actual game - as opposed to physics simulator - that pours as much love into this.
- The high-level city and empire management that lets you build whole towns and nations, rather than just bases.
- The freedom of the new designer to create your own environment.
I really like the idea of allowing easy-paint interiors to be imported to the new designer. But I don't think the new designer should become intrinsically restricted. I have boarded people's ships to see what they looked like - their designers sometimes thought they were impenetrable mazes of fake walls and invisibile holes. Nevertheless, I penetrated them, and sometimes dropped a calling-card. Perhaps boarding in the old designer was easier. But I never used to care enough to try, because I already knew what I was going to find: more empty grey hallways.
And even when interiors are truly impenetrable (and I concede that's maybe possible), does it matter? So Hazeron drifts away from being a combat game into being Second Life in Space. It was never a terrific combat game in the first place. No matter the system, players like Dean, Jack Katogh and myself, will always design logical interiors because we enjoy the fantasy and the balanced fun of fair combat. Players like Mortius will always find glitches to make beating them impossible - if not in the designer, then elsewhere - because that's how they like to play. There's room for both ways. The game already acknowledges this in a major way by having a whole zone with no PvP.