Below are some thoughts and ideas hopefully to fuel discussion. I debated where to post what and decided to throw everything together in this forum section since it does include thoughts to new features.

1. The NPC aggro change is huge. For a person out pve'ing it up for whatever reason(modules/plasma/kernels) pulling 1 mob and knowing 1 or more was going to come linked is normal. The majority of the spawns points are 2 of a specific set of randomized 2+ linked mobs. Now every spawn is instead 1 big pull. Basically all pull sizes have been doubled. They really may as well spawn as 1 linked mob set now then perhaps the Devs can look at making changes to the resulting npc squads total numbers & composition. I know it only makes sense that the npc's should "aid" each other. But suddenly aggro'ing 4-6+ mobs everywhere when you use to be able to sometimes maybe only barely handle the 2-3 you got before greatly reduces the over all pve solo & duo/bot farming options.

2. This next point however may render the above meaningless anyway, I've seen posts make mention of removing static spawns entirely? Is this Dev quote from somewhere? This factors into a lot of different aspects of game play. Even if pve static farming is harder now than before due to #1, that is completely different from removing it as an option all together. Indy oriented, casuals, pve'rs, newer/low EP players will be hugely affected by static spawn removal. Pve farming is a major if not primary source for players to acquire modules for use or sell, plasma for pure nic potential, kernels for what are already large research point investment requirements and also the fragments & decoders needed for manufacturing. I believe I've read someone say this would leave artifacting, roaming mobs, beacons and missions. I ran through the new mission system from a previous faction standing of 1.0 up to my current 3.0 on Daoden doing just combat missions and am eager to see the upcoming Alpha 2 map & mission system changes added. Phasing out the need for static spawns may actually be possible but not until the new mission system is fully out on all islands. Then changes to mission rewards, drops per mob, number of mobs spawned per mission, maybe research point requirements or amount of research gained from each type of kernel things like this can be adjusted to replace needing static spawns.

The next 2 topics are the reason for posting in this forum section. They both fall under the general idea of more customization options for players. As I understand it the Devs don't currently have an artist for graphic model changes & new additions like robots & modules things like that yes? Keeping that in mind the following ideas would affect each other but individually are potentially worth adding and discussing.

3. Slot changes: I'm breaking this up into 2 parts/possible ideas.

A. Torso specific- How many robots have torso slots that for some reason can not be changed? Be it graphic issues like clipping or something else. What if torso slots had no Turret/Indy/Misc/Missle restrictions...they were just torso slots like head/feet? Or if players could at least change some?

B. Overall slot change- Slot substitutions- Imagine if you will 1 or more "phantom" head and feet slots on the equip UI. These slots can only have modules equipped if another slot(head/feet or torso) is right clicked on and disabled meaning nothing can be equipped there. The phantom slots would not be available for use on the torso cause that would require graphic artist work to add external hardpoints.

4. Robot bonus changes: Every bot has I believe 3-5(more?) robot bonuses governed by basic/advanced robotics. I would suggest allowing players to pick their own bonuses for 1 or more of these instead, with a minimum restriction of at least 1 permanent and unalterable bonus from the current robot specializations. Allow 1 or more of these bonuses on your activated robot to be replaced & selected from a drop-down menu on the equip or info UIs that includes all the different possible current basic/advanced bonuses available & maybe we can add some more as well. They would still be governed by basic/advanced robotics & would retain the same values(though I could see an argument that maybe they would be slightly less than current faction specific traits to balance the resulting ability to more finely tune our robots).

3 & 4 above could maybe/hopefully/possibly be just added to the game to increase a player's options when it comes to their robots. They could also possibly be balanced by requiring EP investments in current or even new skills. Imo more options are better and I wanted to see what others thought of these.