Oh that's really cool! I like to imagine the possibilities that teams in planetary conquest might come up with for deploying harvesters when a battle commander has the ability to pick deploy spots.

I do have a question. What happens when node collection areas overlap?

In my head I was imagining a Dyson sphere with stabilizing legs to anchor it to the ground. Additionally, I was thinking that once it was either hacked or called it by a particular team, the only way to hack the sphere for the opposing side would be to harvest yourself to the sphere, terminating your clone.

Suiciding yourself to make a hack?! Damn, that's wicked. I really like that idea, however I have feeling it won't go over well at all with the KDR Bros.

Still, are terminal going to be exposed for snipers to pick off approaching players, regardless it the end goal is death of the clone?

The sacrificial clone would be further rewarded at the end of the match if the friendly team held onto that node in which the player processes themselves to capture.

Alrighty, I can work with the shield bubble idea.

I am glad you added in that bit about the additional reward. I wonder if it should be a percentage of the biomass price of all clones collected by that harvester.

This would also be a cool look for the sphere.

In my head I was imagining a Dyson sphere with stabilizing legs to anchor it to the ground. Additionally, I was thinking that once it was either hacked or called in by a particular team, the only way to hack the sphere for the opposing side would be to harvest yourself to the sphere, terminating your clone. The sacrificial clone would be further rewarded at the end of the match if the friendly team held onto that node in which the player processes themselves to capture.

Ouch, that's some major risk vs. reward right there. I wouldn't want to risk having to terminate a protosuit fit in order to clear the area around a harvester. However, a part of me thinks that's what it might take if you're rushing a heavy siege of that point.
The big thing I am wondering is how much of a payout a heavily stocked harvester would grant.

Seems like that would favor clever scouts who speedily sneak up and change the alignment of the sphere last second before a match ends. Sounds fine to me.

A problem I see it stupid militia fit blueberries eating up clone reinforcements by constantly throwing themselves at the sphere.

I got the impression that if a single player is the team's sole Dyson sacrifice that they would still receive the 15% bonus no mater how many times they entered the spheres. If that works in the context of having to share a sacrifice bonus with other team members who harvest themselves, the lowest your bonus would be is 1/16th of the 15%. Even that example of 35 clones perishing within range of the harvester would net a player about 52,000 isk if all members of team harvested themselves at one point during the game.

Remember, any death, even sphere suicides add to the biomass capacity of a harvester. More deaths around them equate to a more valuable harvester at the time of match extraction.

I think the system should work like this. The first sacrificial clone should take a 15% cut of all clones biomassed by the harvester (again pending that this player's team hold's the harvester at the end of the match). If another player has to harvest themselves to change ownership of the harvester, both players now share a 7.5% cut of biomass sales. Each further player sacrifice reduces the biomass sacrifice bonus by half. This system encourages more end of match offensives on collection nodes in order to keep individual player bonuses high.

It feels like a system like that should only work in planetary conquest. Otherwise, you're turning out too much isk after a match. There would have to be some kind of change to the value of biomassed merc in public contracts and faction warfare versus PC battles.

A problem I see it stupid militia fit blueberries eating up clone reinforcements by constantly throwing themselves at the sphere.

You can make it work in a way where , once the harvester excepts your DNA , so to speak , you can't "hack it" anymore , to prevent any double dipping. You have already registered your DNA , so to speak , so your entry has been excepted into the database. One time and that's it. And the planetary conquest issue would be good for starters to test and see how players react to this. Then if it goes over they can move it to the factional warfare because like the clones this tec has to spread through out the system.

This will make it all the more important too because now there is something at stake and a personal interest as well. As long as the
"CUT" is split among the collective.

I got the impression that if a single player is the team's sole Dyson sacrifice that they would still receive the 15% bonus no mater how many times they entered the spheres. If that works in the context of having to share a sacrifice bonus with other team members who harvest themselves, the lowest your bonus would be is 1/16th of the 15%. Even that example of 35 clones perishing within range of the harvester would net a player about 52,000 isk if all members of team harvested themselves at one point during the game.

Remember, any death, even sphere suicides add to the biomass capacity of a harvester. More deaths around them equate to a more valuable harvester at the time of match extraction.

That adds an interesting bit of strategy to the mix. I know it would certainly make the end of match moments more intense. Players would have to weigh the choices of 1.) do I use a suit to get an additional cut of the harvest, 2.) when do I go about harvesting myself if I only have one opportunity to do so.

In consideration of choice two, if you expend yourself too early in the match you may run the risk of being unable to counter hack the sphere it the opposing team mounts a zerg rush of the spheres in the final moments of the match.