In light of the many DUST PvE threads, I thought IGÇÖd post my GÇ£visionGÇ¥ for how DUST could implement PvE in an interesting way that is closely tied to EVE, and also has the elements of PvP pirating, and potential for brutal backstabbing. I think this system would be reasonable in scope, and certainly less ambitious than many of the other proposals. It also has the potential for being expanded through iteration over time by adding things like 0-G combat, or fighting in a vacuum, different structures, different NPCs, different scenarios, etc. It's a very "New Eden" way of doing PvE IMO.

It begins with an EVE player fitting their ship with 2 new modules, a clone torpedo launcher and a CRU, as well as buying clones from the market (i.e. buy them from PC corps selling spare clones). The EVE pilot will scan down a site via probes and fly to it. They will target the siteGÇÖs wreck and launch several clone torpedoes whose nose penetrates the hull of the wreck, creating a seal and then opens up allowing the merc access to the interior of the wreck. The clones need to recover some highly valuable new resource (such as a special datacore or something). Each torp will contain a single clone (perhaps a full squad).

Once the squad has boarded they will progress through the drone-infested wreck interior. They share coms with each other and also the EVE pilot. As the Mercs progress to their objective, fighting drones, they may trip security traps, these may release waves of NPC rats that will attack the EVE pilot. There may be opportunities for the EVE pilot to assist mercs via targeted bombardments of the exploration wreck as well. Perhaps Mercs could gain access to the wreckGÇÖs weapons systems and help take out rats by activating/repairing/recalibrating the wreckGÇÖs turrets.

Now it may be possible for competing EVE pilots to also scan down this particular site and launch their own team of mercs to hijack the objective and/or take out the first merc squad. If in hisec, the EVE pilots cannot directly attack each other without concord reciprocity (unless flagged per usual EVE PvP mechanics), but they can assist their own clones and use targeted strikes to take out the competing merc teams without getting Concorded. Once the objective has been recovered, the merc squad will need to make it back to their torpedo for extraction. If one of your mercs gets KOd, they can be needled back as usual, but if theyGÇÖre completely killed, theyGÇÖll need to respawn in the EVE shipGÇÖs CRU and get re-deployed via another torp, expending one of the clones in the EVE pilotGÇÖs cargo, and torp ammo. This incentivizes good fits. Mercs are paid ISK for their trouble by the EVE pilot via contract, and the EVE pilot recovers the resource to sell on the market. If your EVE pilot is destroyed or abandons you, the Mercs will be forced to suicide to return to their quarters, getting nothing for their trouble. Alternatively they could contact another EVE pilot via chat with their current system info to sell their services and get a ride home + payout from the new pilot. e.g. Corp Chat > Hey, we lost our ride home, Any EVE pilots want a {valuable thing}? Come scan us down, weGÇÖre in {system}. 10mill ISK.

The key to this concept is making the resource valuable enough that EVE pilots can pay DUST mercs well and still make better ISK/hour than most other activities.

What do you think?

Well, there would only be a few types of interaction to begin with. You're talking about 2 separate games that occasionally pass messages to trigger events in each other. The CREAST API already exists for orbitals between the games, so it's a matter of adding a few new message constants to transfer between the games and then implementing those actions in each game respectively. You're only talking about a few calls per minute at most, so that's pretty minimal networking, unless I'm overlooking something. I'd hardly describe that as a "nightmare."

As for PI. That may be the direction CCP goes. I have an alt who can do PI on 6 planets and often don't even bother to log in and keep my extractors running. PI is kind of a hassle. The one redeeming quality is that it's mostly a passive activity. Make it so you have to constantly hire DUST mercs and it could quickly become more trouble than it's worth TBO. Plus clearing out drones on existing maps by yourself (or even with a squad) would probably get old fast.

This proposal would be dynamic and interesting in many ways. As others have pointed out, it's more like running a "dungeon" with a group in other MMO's. Plus it will foster a deeper connection between the games (especially socially) as it requires coms between mercs and pilots. Once you get people talking regularly, they will start to build social relationships and friendships/enemies. This would be a very good thing for brining people together and making EVE players care about DUST and vice-versa.

I think this concern is valid and well-made. I think it would be cool if there were more teams competing for fewer sites, so you'll have fights going on between competing squads and the drones simultaneously, which would be awesome. This leaves the low SP player looking to build up some ISK/SP away from protostompers out in the cold a bit.

One way to address this is by having a solo mode (without any EVE-side interaction) where you can fight weak drones in instances of these wrecks for low rewards (more than coming in the last few places in a pub match, but less than doing well in them). You would be deployed via NPC and the site wouldn't even appear on scanners.

The problem with this is most of the interesting merc fights will take place in highsec. In low and null, the EVE pilots will just kill each other, so there won't be a lot of competing squads at the most competitive levels. This seems backwards.

I don't think it would necessarily be just high sec that would have competitive fights. Not only does low sec have the opportunity to have competitive space battles but immagine 20-40 competing teams for the same site or 2-4 alliances competing for the same site with large teams of not just 6 man squads but battalion sized deployments.

This has great possibilities, not to mention the PVE end of things as well, consider the drone armies in the middle of this CF that deploying in lowsec as an alliance vs several alliances at once would entail. Look at the battles between competing Incursion fleets as an example of how profitable and risky the experience could be.

Definite possibilities.