Forums » Suggestions

Hold down the fort idea.

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Apr 19, 2005 Blitz Stormwarren link
I like what the devs are doing with the cap ship. I was able to dock with it and man a turret last week when it was in Sedina and I had a blast (no pun intended). It got me thinking about what other options could be possible with player manned turrets.

So, here's my idea.

What if you had to defend a station from attack. It doesn't have to be a big station, maybe just a little outpost, listening post, etc. It would be like a mini yet stationary cap ship, with a dock and some turrets.

This is what the background story could be for it. Axia corp is experimenting with a way to override rogue bots and bring have them bring their ore to a station instead of back to the hive queen. They have a small communication post in a remote sector in one of the systems. It is almost complete and ready to be tested. It's a really small station. Just a dock, some communication arrays and defence turrets that are mannable.

A group would get a mission to take the last parts needed to start up the override experiment. They would also be told to stay around and make sure everything goes okay. One member of the team would be given the cargo and deliver it to the station. They would deliver the cargo and the override array would go online. Of course all the bots in the system would immediately descend upon the station and instead of giving up their cargo they would go berzerk and attack. The team would then have to defend the station for a certain amount of time or for a certain number of waves of bots. There would be a reward for successfully defending the station.

There's a couple of ways I've though of modifying this scenario.

You could have a final 'boss' bot at the end of the time or waves, like a hive queen.

You could repair the station from damage, but it would require certain resources to do. Maybe Nanobots, Silksteel, Xith plating, or just your resources X,Y and Z that could be bought at other stations and brought to the mission station. The players could trade in amounts of each resource for a set amount of hull restored to the station. A well stocked station would be able to last longer than a poorly stocked one. Players could even go out on a resupply run while the rest of the team stayed and defended.

Tie it into crafting. I don't know how the devs plan on implementing crafting but it could tie into upgrading the base defences. Take a phase array and plasma core and with a little tradeskill upgrade one of the turrets to a death dealing photonic cannon. Again being able to upgrade would rely mostly on bringing in the right resources either before or during the battle.

Okay I'm starting to ramble here so I'll come to an end. Feel free to use, modify, ignore, flame, add to or be inpired in any way by these ideas.
Apr 19, 2005 everman7 link
sweet!

(bump)
Apr 20, 2005 Forum Moderator link
Sayeth a1k0n:

"...We plan to have scheduled Serco incursions into Itani space with at least one capturable station. But we don't have it now, so yeah, unfortunately the Serco-Itani war isn't very interesting yet."
Apr 20, 2005 a1k0n link
Yeah, it's kinda funny, since we talked about exactly this at around 2AM Monday night, except in the context of the serco/itani war and not a defend-it-from-the-hive scenario. Even including the crafting stuff.
Apr 20, 2005 Dasus Vanos link
hmm i like everything about the idea except... well I guess I like the whole thing

yay for station raids/defending/whatever you wanna call it!!
Apr 20, 2005 Machiavelli link
Yes, excellent idea.

Once the war really heats up, theres a lot of open-endedness to add to everything, like having trading to distant stations up fleet production, or disruption of cargo transport.
Apr 20, 2005 thurisaz link
ooh!!

use one of the wheel-stations we don't see anymore...
Apr 20, 2005 Blitz Stormwarren link
Wow, I got replies from both a1k0n and the Forum Moderator.

A capturable station for the itani/serco war would be really cool too.

My idea would be geared towards a group/guild defending the station, reguardless of which side they were on. Another difference would be that you'd be defending the station from being destroyed, instead of being taken over. I guess it's more of raid event geared to the neutrals. I play a UIT ingame.

It doesn't have to be hive bots either, it could be pirate npcs or even asteroids. Imagine that, "Pilots, we have a sensitive communications array out in the sector fringe, there's an incoming asteroid storm and we need you to protect it. Go blast any asteroids that come too close." Hmmm, maybe not, forget the asteroids. Pirate NPCs might work too though.

Anyway, that's cool that the Devs already have an idea that would involve defending a base. There's a lot of different ways it could be implemented. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. Good luck guys :)
Apr 21, 2005 bojansplash link
Give us guild stations.
Think all guilds will support this idea.
Apr 21, 2005 CrippledPidgeon link
so that's what... another 37 additional stations? Look down to my Guilds suggestion thread.
Apr 24, 2005 roguelazer link
 
Apr 25, 2005 Fnugget link
all guilds? how about only the ones who are willing to amass all the resources, materials, and credits? The man power to defend it at all times? Buying automated defenses, hiring guards, etc?
Apr 25, 2005 johnhawl218 link
There needs to be several types of scenerios like this throughout the game. Triggerable bot waves like the guides have been doing for players in B8 for the past few weeks. I like Blitz's outpost idea, I've been saying that for ages myself. It would also be nice to see random outposts that are not accessable to players as stations thoughout all the systems AS listening posts, peppered thoughout the empty, less traveled sectors.

Scenario One: Defend Outpost from Attack
You could take a "outpost guard duty" mission in which it would give you the sector location of an outpost owned by that faction that was in need of defence, this would then trigger an attack on the designated outpost. If the outpost is Serco, the attackers could be Itani assault forces making a preemptive attack. It could be Itani spy ships trying to capture intel on Serco Ship movements in the system. It could be the Order of Akan (not the guild) trying to do the same as the Itani or it could be a bot invasion/infestation of the sector in which case the defender would have to fend off. The variants per factions are the same just change the names. Preferably a group mission, though it could be worked so that the number reflects the number of pc pilots in sector, and since this would be in a sector off the beaten trail, most ships would be there for fighting and not as simply traders or newbies just getting lost.

Scenario Two: Pacifying Botted Sectors
You enter a botted sector and begin to kill all the available bots. Instead of them all being respawned almost instantly, they are depleted but instead (as has been mentioned in other posts) a second wave of bots are sent as the first are being depleted to defend them. As they are destroyed more and more come till the queens show to help. Once they are destroyed the system is clear for a few hours till new queens migrate into the opened territory.

Scenario Three: Hive Station Invasions
(NFZ rules will need to be altered for this one, as well as damageable station parts)
The Hive is on the offensive and is actively trying to take over base sectors. Starting with grey space or fringe sectors of each nation, hordes of bots descend upon station after station taking out the stations themselves and consume there resources for there own construction. A "general distress call" would go out over /100 calling for all able pilots friendly or willing to help to come defend the station. At this point, the stations themselves are in danger of being destroyed so there would be no need for a "No Fire Zone" as the whole place would be crawling with bots. Strike Forces should be involved but there should be sufficient bots so as to make little difference in the final outcome, the table should always be turned by the player. This could also apply to outposts per scenario one. This one should be a randomly occuring script that happens often but not too much.

Scenario Four: Stygian Invasion
Stygian Invasion forces descend upon a random grey system/sector (with station or target of interest) and players must defend. This could be a Dev Run Script for special events, but I really think that if you have the models that they should be used. Though I'm sure they already have a use for them in mind.

These are just some of the stuff that stood out on the suggestions board and from what I thought up, that pertains to bots. I can come up with a few more scenarios for other types of pve content but that's for another post.
Feb 02, 2006 lukejmurray link
I like this idea. it could be guild controlled as well.
Feb 02, 2006 zamzx zik link
Well, devs, what the hell did you decide on!?!?!?!

:[
Feb 02, 2006 Chikira link
Yeah fill us in guys? Did waylon marry a rock star? Is Incarnate suddenly a small but amazingly quick coding rabbit? and has Luis turned in an artistic squrriel?

We must know!

Anyway I love the idea, and most, if not all, the elements to make it are already in place.

{stamp of a god damn approval} ^.^
Feb 02, 2006 Cunjo link
awesome thread necromancy :D
Feb 02, 2006 BoxCarRacer link
YAY RAIDS!
Feb 03, 2006 mellowvision link
I like this idea too.

I also like john's concept of how bots come in waves to defend the sector... I've thought about that before while sitting still picking off bots who come at me.... they come slow and are easily defeated without moving sometimes.

maybe it should be that if a player sits in a bot sector for too long the number of bots doubles every 5 minutes or something... but it should get harder and harder.
Feb 04, 2006 rothgar link
just remember to keep the open endedness feel in the mission.
For example if you were to be playing "defend the station" from the hive then you would not know how big or when the next wave is coming (of course it would get harder and harder but you might get the odd scout party followed by a huge attack)

And i like the idea of being able to repair the station, your group would have to be well organised, say the one with the most money and trading licenses (and the fastest connection) would be countinously jumping betweent sectors fetching materials.