Captain Crutches
Nexus Marines
1
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Posted - 2013.08.23 22:19:00 -
[1] - Quote
TL;DR GÇô Adding Incursion mechanics/contracts into Dust could create opportunities for PVE as well as strengthening the Eve-Dust link.
For those of you not familiar with Incursions, let me start off with a little background.
In 2010, Eve got the Incursion expansion, which kicked off a series of in-game live events involving SanshaGÇÖs Nation, one of the pirate factions in Eve (and, I believe, one of the corps that you can be arbitrarily assigned to in Dust public matches). Basically, Sansha Kuvakei, the leader of this group, began using unknown wormhole tech to invade Empire space, abducting millions of people from planets, and transforming them into his cybernetic slaves. Kinda reminds me of the Borg/Cybermen, but IGÇÖm fuzzy on the lore, it may be a completely different animal.
The Incursions started off as a series of events in which large fleets of Sansha ships would appear in certain systems, a warning would go out to nearby players who would fleet up and fight the NPCs. Hundreds of people participated, fun and lag were had by all, many shiny things blew up, etc, etc. Here's what it looked like.
Those, however, were just some pretty light shows to get people excited about the new expansion. After the massive initial invasion, CCP changed the mechanics into what Eve players currently know as Incursions. Essentially, random constellations in the galaxy will become GÇ£Incursion ZonesGÇ¥, where regardless of base security status, you are likely to die if you arenGÇÖt prepared. These areas are inhabited temporarily by EXTREMELY tough NPCs which require a coordinated fleet effort by (in some cases) up to 40 or 50 pilots to fight off. Traveling through an Incursion zone, there will be an ambient green light in space, youGÇÖll be placed in a constellation-wide chat channel for coordination, and itGÇÖs not unusual to see NPC gate camps that can and will kill you if youGÇÖre not paying attention.
Most important to those who want to fight is the complexes. Incursions work in much the same way as control of Factional Warfare zones. You have a constellation control bar that changes based on how much influence the pirates have, and players can tip that in their favor by running complexes (and make assloads of ISK while doing it). As the players collectively run more complexes and tip the influence bar in their favor, the complexes become more difficult, culminating in a GÇ£final bossGÇ¥ where a fleet of several dozen capsuleers is needed to take down a Revenant-class Sansha Supercarrier (like this player-owned one, the most expensive ship ever destroyed).
So why should Dust players care about all this?
Well, right now, they donGÇÖt, as Incursions have no effect on Dust-side combat, nor vice-versa. This could be a very cool (and maybe even easy, in the current state of the game, though I don't claim to know anything about CCP's code/architecture/plans) thing to implement. On a very simple level, at least to start, Incursion fights could work very much like FW does now GÇô at any given time, a Dust player can choose to fight on a district in an Incursion zone, either against or on the side of the Sansha pirates, and the results of those battles would influence the amount of control Sansha has over the constellation. In order for the incursion to advance or be defeated, it would be necessary for a certain number of Dust-side battles to have been fought and won by one side. Eve players can enter Incursion zones and travel to contested planets to deliver OB support to their mercs on the ground. This gives another way for Dust players to influence Eve affairs, and also gives non-FW Eve pilots a way to shoot planets :D
If we start with even something as simple as that, we have so much more we can then build on top of it. One of the obvious ideas is PVE. Mercs ought to be able to fight for Sansha as well IMO, but Sansha himself also has billions of cybernetic zombies at his commandGǪ I donGÇÖt think any Dust player at this point would be opposed to shooting them.
As for OB support for each side, obviously pilots will be able to drop OBs on mercs fighting against Sansha, but what about OBs for SanshaGÇÖs mercs? Maybe they would only have access to the weaker Warbarge strikes, but get more ISK/SP/salvage for winning battles to balance out the disadvantage. Maybe capsuleers could have some way of dropping OBGÇÖs for SanshaGÇÖs side. Or maybe (and I like this idea best) Incursion rats spawn in orbit over districts where battles are occurring and are able to drop OBGÇÖs for their team of mercs, unless a fleet of Eve players comes to clear them out. That way the Sansha side has the advantage of more powerful OBGÇÖs available right off the bat, and it gives Eve players a reason to help Dust players (since they need those wins to flip the constellation control) and something to shoot at the same time. Kinda like the Fanfest tournament.
Of course, thereGÇÖs a lot more that can be thought of, and obviously this wouldnGÇÖt be implemented in the very near future, but itGÇÖs something cool to think about and brainstorm on if nothing else. Hell, maybe this has all been suggested before, and maybe itGÇÖs been confirmed as in production or labelled as worthless BS, but I thought IGÇÖd bring it up just in case. So, mercs, pilots, CPM, CCPGǪ what say you? |