I always thought communication centers would be cool if they hid all alliance mates from local chat unless they spoke.

If most eve players experiences of pos mechanics are similar to mine it would be that they are an outmoded clunky waste of life.

How about you actually use the planetary facilities to do the job for you and eradicate the pos mechanic all together? i.e you want a blueprint researching?? planet 5 has a research faciltity with a free slot and you own that district.

Materials are stored in corp or personal hangers in the cargo hub on planet 2 there is also a production facility nearby (maybe the two are linked somehow and the eve player can move goods about between districts) now lets build some titan components there.

Then eve players would want to own planets and others would want to take them to cripple their enemies infrastructure.

So sum up a few ideas:

I think the PC interface should be available in both games to Directors and Planetary Management Officers in the Corp that owns the District.

I think that a Corp attacking or defending a district should be able to create a contract to hire Mercenaries (ringers) to fight the battle on their behalf. This would allow EVE Corps to take and hold districts. It would also make it more convenient for DUST Corps to get ringers to fight for them. It would be setup similar to a currier contract where there would be options to make it Public, or Private. In this case a private contract would be directed to a specified Corp rather than an individual.

I think that a Corp attacking a district should be able to contract a Corp, or Group of pilots to escort their Warbarge. If the Warbarge makes it to the district on time they get paid.

I think that a Corp that owns a district should be able to to create defense contracts. These would be long term contracts. While an EVE pilot or EVE Corp is under contract to defend a district, they will receive the notification when a hostile Corp registers an intent to attack the district. Pilots and Corps with a defense contract get a stipend for being on call, and receive a large payout if they destroy an attacking Warbarge.

Most of my experience in EVE is in small gang PVP in Low and NPC Null Sec. I have found that there are quite a number of small gang PVPGÇÖers in Low Sec and NPC Null Sec who use PI to supplement their PVP. I am not as familiar with High Sec, Null Sec, or Warmhole Space. I also have never been directly involved in the operation of a POS, although I have been in Corps that had several of them. (I have made a few go Boom.) So I am reaching a bit when trying to come up with POS related bonuses. I appreciate input from people more knowledgeable in that area than I am.

My biggest question is what is in for the dust mercs?

Yes I understand it would be cool if ships had to carry in our MCCs by war barge.

But put the mechanic in and what results is a corp waking in their merc quarters for 30 minutes the ship to maybe or mayb not arrive. That seems awful boring for us mercs.

What happens if the ship is late? How long are players supposed to sit around doing nothing but waiting?

Why can eve players/alliances have complete control over who we dust mercs fight with no retribution except other eve players?

I hope they can figure this stuff out, cause waiting for multiple PC battles for hours a night for no shows will kill it dust side.

I plop down a command center in PI in EVE. Another player in EVE doesn't like the competition to his resource gathering. DUST mercs can then be hired and attack the command center.

That's what it was supposed to be as part of the introduction to PI and the involvement of planets in EVE. That is what it should have been. That is ALL it should have been at the start of this whole mess.

This whole district thing makes no sense and has no involvement in EVE's present PI.

I'm thinking they would have to use the 24 hour mechanic to schedule the war barges for delivery ?

with an hour before the battle notice of its arrival or destruction. I would see it as an advantage as you said if you have a corp in eve escorting your ships to make far reaching incursions. But I agree there would still have to be a way of attacking through NPC for larger attrition rates, or a dominant eve corp would stifle PC more than it is now. Who pays for all these ships? Dust mercs who have a small amount of isk compared to eve side? What retribution do we have to protect our investments from our playstations console? To make it work the advantage needs to be big for the dust mercs, otherwise it just seems like an easy way for eve to grief dusters.

The mechanic has to be able to increase the time in batlle not lengthen the wait time in merc quarters.

I also bieleve it is imparitave that dust mercs can fire back through the successful capture of ground to space cannons, in no way should we be pounded on from orbitals and not be able to do damage back.

It would do the same thing as now only have direct impact on EVE and allow for control of the area around the facility (i.e. The map areas as they are now). That is the only area a DUST player can exist right now. If you have a district you can't set off on a big trek around that area.

So, about as fun as it is now. Join a match, fight on the map, win or lose, exit to the lobby. Only, if you belong to an EVE alliance or corp. then you get enjoy the income et al that could go with keeping that planet's PI assembly line going.

This is making more sense, would the eve pilot have a penalty clause if he does not deliver? Why do we need to pay for the service? Couldn't we make it a two way street where eve pilots can contract us to land on this planet and take it for god and country?

I think you are adressing the main concern I have about scheduling of batlles as many corporations can share organizing a full war with multiple attacks simulataniously is a huge time consuming but necessary chore. If you add to that that 30% of the battles you have scheduled are no shows it becomes discouraging and counterproductive to dust corporations.

Even now having an opponent no show is a very boring mechanic and a huge time waist for us console players who just want to shoot people in the face.

Ship flies to planet, with clones in cargo, drops them off to district. Once present, war can be declared and then do the 24 hour thing so everybody is informed and can schedule play time. Battle timer hits zero and battle begins. Otherwise, they sit there for whenever a battle is declared, ready to go.

The Corp that owns the district would get a notification when the attack is registered, and a second notification when the Warbarge anchors and starts the reinforcement timer. The ground pounders only worry about the second notification. It gives them the time of the battle in 24 to 48 hours. If the Warbarge does not make it in the two hour window, there is no second notification so the ground pounders could care less.

That is why I included the mechanic of having to register the intended target of the attack with CONCORD before you are able to move clones to the Warbarge. The defenders and any EVE players they have a defense contract with get a notification that an attack on the district has been registered, so they can scramble a defensive fleet.

The other advantage of this system is that it makes location matter. If you take districts in some backwater dead end system 2 jumps from the closest temperate planet, then your system will be much easier to defend in EVE than a district on a planet in the main drag with two temperate planets in system and 3 more within two jumps. You also have to worry about roving PVP gangs who will kill the Warbarge just for the kill mail, which are more of a risk in high traffic areas. Every gate the Warbarge has to go through has the potential for a gate camp. So attacking way behind enemy lines would be really risky EVE side unless you have a massive fleet defending the Warbarge.

The most important part of this for me is to make location matter so that the choice of which districts to attack feels more like a strategy board game. Right now with Clone packs it is like a board game where you can move any piece to any square in one move.

If we get enough EVE pilots to care about DUST to produce a Time Dilation effect, I would consider that a triumph! The number of EVE pilots in one battle to produce those recent heavy Time Dilation fights would have approached the total number of people playing dust at that moment.