Suggestions for netrek by Zachary Uram (Yoda)
Rev. 04/12/07

* Allow status display (fuel, hull, shields) to be abstracted from the main
  client window such that it can be 1) a seperate window 2) a Windows system
  tray icon which would have 3 color coded lines or integrate this
  functionality into the Windows title bar of the netrek application if
  the user hasn't disabled it. This could allow for very nice large readouts.

* Add more clock styles and make them easily selectable via netrekrc file.
  - neon colored display
  - different font face for the digital display
  - military hours display

* Abstract the phaser damage message window into a status meter.
  - red for crippling phaser inflicted
  - yellow for medium damage inflicted
  - green for light damage inflicted

* Provide button to automatically take one into an observer slot,
  assuming they are an active player, allow clicking it again
  automatically take them to a player slot of put them on a wait queue
  if it exists.

* Provide easy intuitive way to record a game via GUI:
  - GUI can be inside the client application or abstracted out into a
    seperate utility
  - add universal type record button ("[=]")
  - add universal pause recording button ("[||]")
  - add universal stop recording button ("[o]")
  - use Windows standard dialog box for saving game to desired filename
  - add option to record game to a default filename such as:
    gamerec-$DATE-$SERVER
  - allow conversion into a standard video format such as AVI or MPEG

* Sturgeon only mods:
  - Give planets defensive capabilities such as shooting Paradise style
    missiles at incoming ships
  - Add wormholes which would pop up randomly on the galaxy and transport
    one ship caught within a certain distance to a random spot on the galaxy
  - Add toxic planets, these would be select planets on greyed out planets
    (ie. the planets of the other 2 races besides the 2 races at war which
     no one has yet touched)
  - Add starbase upgrades dependent on KPH over time + enemy planets your
    team has taken:
    o stasis field which temporarily freezes an enemy ship
    o Death Star type powerful laser which can destroy armies on enemy worlds
    o time warp field which knocks an enemy ship backwards a given distance
    o beam armies onto non-SB team mates if SB is under attack and dying
  - Add Paradise style Jumpship which can carry a teammate's ship in it
    and can go as fast as an SC

* Add voice communication such as TeamSpeak or IBM's TTS which is now open
  sourced.

* Add GUI for configuring the buttonmap and keymap.

* Add single key (a la F1) pop up complete help/tutoral application.

* Allow RCDs and macros to be mapped to function keys such as:
  F2 for quit, F3 for announcing you carry armies, F4 for base ogg macro

* Add dogfight tactical mode which could be toggled on/off by 1 button, in
  this mode the tactical screen would be greatly magnified as well as the
  ship graphics, this could allow for very richly detailed modern ships
  (could even use 3D models with textures applied and other OpenGL effects)
  and very exciting dogfigts.

* Add alternate fire for phaser and torp. Some possible choices:
  o Alternate fire torp produces two parallel torp streams: | |
    each group of torps would be located on the far left and far right
    area of the ship respectively
  o Alternate fire phaser produces a rapid burst in quick succession of
    varying phaser strength such as short-long or long-short

* Allow players to extract their lifetime stats for a given character from
  a given server and save this to a text or HTML file.

* Add hockey bots so that you can have hockey game with bots and humans.
  - Allow bots to be given commands such as:
    o 'defend X' - defend player X
    o 'defend goal' - defend the net
    o 'assist X' - ogg the enemy player closest to X
    o 'recpass X' - receive a pass from player X
    o 'pass X' - pass to player X
    o 'faceoff' - take the faceoff and if won pass to closest teammate
  - Improved bot logic/AI would be needed.
  - Allow BB, CA, DD and SC ship types.
  - Make a widened rink (opens up game - European style hockey) an option
  - Shrink net width (more defensive style game)
  - Widen net width (more offensive style game)

* Allow clue game rank to carry over from game to game.

* Improve player statistics and presentation
  - Add more player stats (PWSTATS and LTDSTATS):
  - The code already exists in older netrek servers
  - Allow a player to be emailed their game stats after their client quits
    a pickup or clue game.
  - Make a pickup blog and a clue game blog (each server could have their own)
    o All stats from pickup and clue games could be automatically uploaded
    o Combine this with stats tracking and a player could login to the server's
      blog and automatically see all their game stats (like we already do
      for clue games) as well as their character lifetime stats for pickup
      and clue games
  - Add graphs to show percentage of time spent flying a given ship
  - Add graph to show lifetime DI or Stats (off+def+bomb) for a player
  - Add graph to show lifetime bombing, armies dooshes, offense or anything
    you want over time

* Create an RSS feed per server in which players could subscribe
  - Email players when a server has a certain threshold of players
    such as TMODE or TMODE minus 1.
  - Web viewable list of all players logged in and their full hostnames
    and IP addresses.

* Have metaserver be minimizable to the system tray:
  - Play a sound when t mode is reached on a defined list of server(s)
  - Mousing over the system tray icon will show:
    o green (t in progress)
    o yellow (t minus 1 to t minus 4)
    o red (4 players or less)

Zach