(heyy, you can give ideas based on other games, cool~)
Recently I've been playing....
uh....maybe I shouldn't start like this...
Well in brief, there is a game called Highfleet, which is about you driving a dieselpunk fleet, building and getting new ships, and blasting enemy ships with your big guns...sounds familiar to Cosmoteer, right?
With such a similar gaming experience, of course, there is something that Cosmoteer can learn from this competitor
(due to personal opinion, I shall divide the ideas into "Should add" and "Maybe adding it ain't a bad thing" categories)
(and yes, some ideas may already exist or partly exist in trello)
Shouldprobablyadd
1. Roguelike/random and unlockable Elements
Highfleet got a lot of things in random, random map generation, random enemy spawns, random helpers, random sekrit locations, even random docking sites and random codes for you to decode. (but more on the last two later)
Right now, Cosmoteer already got the most crucial thing for a roguelike: random enemies and random map generation, but......nothing else at the moment.
(i figure some of yall is furiously typing "look at trello" with your keyboard, yes I am aware there is an entire google doc and more lying in there)
So, my suggestion is, in addition to the existing and planned items, maybe there can be perks/characters, secret puzzles which unlocks something cool (flashback of FTL's crystal ship grind), systems that specifically gives buffs or debuffs, or even more easter eggs (we need more coconuts) just to make every run fresh and enjoying instead of just snowballing through the map.
And specifically on perks and characters, they may be unlockable after...let's say, earning a certain amount of resource X, which you can gain based on how well you performed
2. A Story
Question: what makes gal games visual novels appealing? their gameplay is obviously not the best, nor do they have the best effects and animations, or even CGs. Their sole buying point is their story, an adventure which allows the player to experience something which they cannot experience in real life, and to look forward to how the story progresses and ends. Being one of the few spaceship building/fighting simulator-thing, Cosmoteer has the potential to house a decent lore, one which can drive players into exploring it, or even be a major selling point.
Highfleet, for example, have the player playing as a duke, taking command over a fleet of absolutely not fuel efficient airships, and to plan an assault the enemy HQ while greeting friendlies, purging hostiles and fleeing from the rebels, a pretty immersive story when paired with sirens and other sound effects to enrich the experience.
Of course, Cosmoteer is worked by a small number of people (at least currently), but when compared with Highfleet, Cosmoteer go an entire Lore & Roleplay community which you can get ideas or even host writing contest on to get a story rolling. And compare with a game without a story, a game with a story is way more enjoying (and can sell for more bucks XD)
(Maybe more will be added later)
Maybe adding it would be beneficial
Minigames!
Most games got minigames here and there, Ace combat got the refueling and landing sequences, Highfleet got the decoding encrypted messages and docking airships, hold on lemme see what game i had played um..... ahem, even some mobile games got minigames, like Girl's Frontline with it's "Luffberry Chess" (basically monopoly) and countless others related to the events......
The point is, something that is not the usual gameplay of well...the game, would help lengthen how much time a player would spend on a game, and the likes of something like asteroid field obstacle run, precision shooting or even good ol' docking can be interesting enough for people to do like speed runs on it specifically (free advertisement, stonks go up)
(maybe more will be added later)
Aaaaaaand, that's about it, thank you for reading through all of this XD