Forums » Suggestions
Antenna arrays and faction wars
So I was thinking about strikeforces in grey space, and the issue of capturing stations.
What if you could take out those antenna arrays on the stations, and in so doing disable the local strike forces.
Now I know destroyable modules on stations have been proposed before, but it seems like an interesting way to go about it.
1 bomber group could fly in and take out the exit docks and the antennae, (would involve a major faction hit) but once the strike forces were out, they wouldn't be able to call reinforcements, So the 2 seekers and the strike force bots would be all the station had.
The repair of the antenna would take 10 minutes, and in that time a group of players would have to achieve a number of objectives in order to capture the station.
This would work for nation space too, except that there are the global strike forces to contend with as well, making it impossible to truly disable all the defenses.
These defenses would become stronger the further you pushed into nation space. Such that capturing Itan, would be nearly impossible without incredible organization, and even then, Cap ships and tridents would start appearing to defend the station.
But, if you could pull it off, there might be a badge for everyone who took part in the push.
In grey at least, though, this would also create missions for players to defend stations from the hive, which might occasionally (during times of high player activity/density) attempt to accomplish the same objectives.
In fact, even other factions might have raiding parties that could appear and attempt to take over a station.
Ex: Corvus attempts to annex all of Sedina and launches strike forces against both of the xang-xi stations.
It would be advertised in the news (Corvus makes a power play against Xang-Xi) and players could assist these strike forces (which might or might not be evenly matched) to create a dynamic
faction system.
Eventually, during the expansion patch, if one faction completely annihilated another, the other faction might be forced to take up residence in a newly explored system.
Players would be forced to decide on their factions not merely because the factions were mutually exclusive, but also because they would occasionally be forced to defend their factions to prevent losing a strategic station.
And looking at this, it wouldn't take too long to implement.
you set up the antenna arrays such like turrets, without weapons.
When all antennas and strike force bots are destroyed, (under the 10 minute deadline), 15 players (or some percentage of the player population) would need to dock at the station.
if a faction loses an outpost, then strike forces of that faction start appearing in grey space, trying to either regain that station or pick up another (totally randomly).
What if you could take out those antenna arrays on the stations, and in so doing disable the local strike forces.
Now I know destroyable modules on stations have been proposed before, but it seems like an interesting way to go about it.
1 bomber group could fly in and take out the exit docks and the antennae, (would involve a major faction hit) but once the strike forces were out, they wouldn't be able to call reinforcements, So the 2 seekers and the strike force bots would be all the station had.
The repair of the antenna would take 10 minutes, and in that time a group of players would have to achieve a number of objectives in order to capture the station.
This would work for nation space too, except that there are the global strike forces to contend with as well, making it impossible to truly disable all the defenses.
These defenses would become stronger the further you pushed into nation space. Such that capturing Itan, would be nearly impossible without incredible organization, and even then, Cap ships and tridents would start appearing to defend the station.
But, if you could pull it off, there might be a badge for everyone who took part in the push.
In grey at least, though, this would also create missions for players to defend stations from the hive, which might occasionally (during times of high player activity/density) attempt to accomplish the same objectives.
In fact, even other factions might have raiding parties that could appear and attempt to take over a station.
Ex: Corvus attempts to annex all of Sedina and launches strike forces against both of the xang-xi stations.
It would be advertised in the news (Corvus makes a power play against Xang-Xi) and players could assist these strike forces (which might or might not be evenly matched) to create a dynamic
faction system.
Eventually, during the expansion patch, if one faction completely annihilated another, the other faction might be forced to take up residence in a newly explored system.
Players would be forced to decide on their factions not merely because the factions were mutually exclusive, but also because they would occasionally be forced to defend their factions to prevent losing a strategic station.
And looking at this, it wouldn't take too long to implement.
you set up the antenna arrays such like turrets, without weapons.
When all antennas and strike force bots are destroyed, (under the 10 minute deadline), 15 players (or some percentage of the player population) would need to dock at the station.
if a faction loses an outpost, then strike forces of that faction start appearing in grey space, trying to either regain that station or pick up another (totally randomly).
hmm i like taking stations but getting rid of a faction ? and what "unexplored space" technically everywhere has been discovered right now
Well, the faction could still exist, but just "go underground" for a while after their stations have been taken.
And Space man....do you just keep signing up for free accounts?
And Space man....do you just keep signing up for free accounts?
Oh man this would rock. There could even be missions from rival factions (Maybe like corvus and tung over roids in odia) to take out other stations.
I love the idea of faction wars, guild-owned stations, and capturing other faction's stations.
One thing though: I think taking over a station should be a long process involving many, many missions. Otherwise you get the "Planetside Syndrome" where you log on the next day and find out that all your hard work has been utterly reversed by a group of players who were on at 2 AM.
Rather than have a "capture the station" mission, I would suggest having a "station raid" mission, where the objectives you describe could be the same (destroying components of the station, the strike force, and then docking) but at the missions successful end rather than handing off the station to a new faction the players would gain some powerful item and a lot of credits.
It would only be after a certain number of successful raids by a particular faction on a specific station within a given period of time (say... 1 week) that the station would switch hands. This way, the face of the universe change over a long period of time with a concerted effort rather than overnight.
Otherwise, great idea! Four things I'd like to throw out there for additional consideration...
A) Stations would normally be invincible... the conditions for a raid to occur in the first place and the invincibility flag to be disabled would have to be:
*Sufficient threat... this could mean a group of players of a certain size and the right standing, or the presence of a cap ship etc.
*Line of supply...
i) the target station would have to be in the same system as the station from which the raid was being launched, or
ii) in an adjacent system if the attacking faction owned all stations in the system from which the raid was being launched.
B) If the station does have targetable components, destroying certain components could have certain effects...
*If the antenna arrays aren't destroyed within the first 30 seconds or so of the raid, the station calls in for backup and other strike forces and cap ships in the area arrive to defend, making the raider's task far more difficult.
*The station itself could have destructable turrets which it used in defense
*Destroying certain components could limit what services the station offered (repairs, reloading, trading goods, buying ships...)
*A certain component could be destroyed that allowed the attacking players to dock with the station, regardless of faction...
etc. etc.
C) There could be a specific type of cargo widget called a "combat drone" (9 cu) of which a certain number had to be unloaded in the station before the timer ran out for the raid to be considered successful. This would necessitate i) strike ships to destroy the station component which prevented docking ii) "troop transports" with large cargo holds to land the drones and iii) escorts. Regardless of whether the raid was successful or not, when the timer runs out the station would become invincible once again, and the modules would gradually repair themselves.
D) In the distant future, if we ever get to leave our ships, it would be sooo coool to be able to fight marathon-style up and down the hallways and various components of a station during a raid with blaster rifles, ceiling turrets, timed explosives etc. (Perhaps the devs would even consider using the Half Life source engine. There could be a different standard room for each component, and... awww I'm just dreaming here.)
One thing though: I think taking over a station should be a long process involving many, many missions. Otherwise you get the "Planetside Syndrome" where you log on the next day and find out that all your hard work has been utterly reversed by a group of players who were on at 2 AM.
Rather than have a "capture the station" mission, I would suggest having a "station raid" mission, where the objectives you describe could be the same (destroying components of the station, the strike force, and then docking) but at the missions successful end rather than handing off the station to a new faction the players would gain some powerful item and a lot of credits.
It would only be after a certain number of successful raids by a particular faction on a specific station within a given period of time (say... 1 week) that the station would switch hands. This way, the face of the universe change over a long period of time with a concerted effort rather than overnight.
Otherwise, great idea! Four things I'd like to throw out there for additional consideration...
A) Stations would normally be invincible... the conditions for a raid to occur in the first place and the invincibility flag to be disabled would have to be:
*Sufficient threat... this could mean a group of players of a certain size and the right standing, or the presence of a cap ship etc.
*Line of supply...
i) the target station would have to be in the same system as the station from which the raid was being launched, or
ii) in an adjacent system if the attacking faction owned all stations in the system from which the raid was being launched.
B) If the station does have targetable components, destroying certain components could have certain effects...
*If the antenna arrays aren't destroyed within the first 30 seconds or so of the raid, the station calls in for backup and other strike forces and cap ships in the area arrive to defend, making the raider's task far more difficult.
*The station itself could have destructable turrets which it used in defense
*Destroying certain components could limit what services the station offered (repairs, reloading, trading goods, buying ships...)
*A certain component could be destroyed that allowed the attacking players to dock with the station, regardless of faction...
etc. etc.
C) There could be a specific type of cargo widget called a "combat drone" (9 cu) of which a certain number had to be unloaded in the station before the timer ran out for the raid to be considered successful. This would necessitate i) strike ships to destroy the station component which prevented docking ii) "troop transports" with large cargo holds to land the drones and iii) escorts. Regardless of whether the raid was successful or not, when the timer runs out the station would become invincible once again, and the modules would gradually repair themselves.
D) In the distant future, if we ever get to leave our ships, it would be sooo coool to be able to fight marathon-style up and down the hallways and various components of a station during a raid with blaster rifles, ceiling turrets, timed explosives etc. (Perhaps the devs would even consider using the Half Life source engine. There could be a different standard room for each component, and... awww I'm just dreaming here.)
As long as I get to keep the station :)
@Kixkizzle
Lets not have player owned stations, but player owned modules attached to Guild owned stations or NPC stations of specific nation/faction. So if you take over a station, your basically reliquishing command over to your nation/faction.
Lets not have player owned stations, but player owned modules attached to Guild owned stations or NPC stations of specific nation/faction. So if you take over a station, your basically reliquishing command over to your nation/faction.
They should also have to where you switch factions and pledge allegience to one of them, and from here on out you aid (gianing money from it of course) in the defence and conquering of new stations etc. You would be able to defend vs player take overs and faction take overs.
This reminds me of a pos I made some time ago about how Monitored space should really be Monitored and there should be little outposts in monitored sectors. A box with antennas and such about 50m to a side, which if destroyed would leave a sector unmonitored. These would also act as communications relays in the vastly redesigned communications system that I proposed. Unfortunately, neither idea met with much success. But 1000cr if you can find my post about the Monitored space outposts, because it would be apropos here.
The Subspace Wormhole Relay System!
"The Sewers"
Yeah, that would meld nicely, I don't know where that one is, I remember it though.
For me, haveing the factions wage war on one another through these routes was the big thing.
"The Sewers"
Yeah, that would meld nicely, I don't know where that one is, I remember it though.
For me, haveing the factions wage war on one another through these routes was the big thing.
roguelazer: This would be cool because then they could send an individual message to every serco for instance if an itani is breaking into serco space etc.. each time they unsucessfully sneak past one of these towers all these sercos get msged with their position. The closer in they get the more urgent the msges become..and reward gets bigger, like a temp bounty.
This brings on new missions. Itanis or Sercos or UIT, goto into (insert faction that hates you) system blah blah random.. and go retrieve blah blah blue prints that one of our ships intercepted and blew up but then dropped by accident while running..
This brings on new missions. Itanis or Sercos or UIT, goto into (insert faction that hates you) system blah blah random.. and go retrieve blah blah blue prints that one of our ships intercepted and blew up but then dropped by accident while running..