I don't understand why an NPC pilot delivering the strike.

This would be a perfect gamemode for EVE pilots to control themselves. What i mean is that this gamemode would be initiated by pilots themselves. They would go over to the planet they wanted to target and connect to it to start the attack. They could either start it and expect people to fill in the spots or they could fill out which corp/alliance they'd reserve the spots for, so that they could coordinate with specific mercenaries.

Also, the planet owners could benefit from specific defenders if we finally were able to travel. If we could, perhaps EVE corps would be interested in having us take residence in their territory. What i envision would be that when a pilot would initiate this gamemode, allied dust mercs residing close by would receive an alarm on their screen that territory is under attack. These mercs would take precedence in occupying the defender spots but it would open up to the general public if not enough people ran to the battlefield on time. Same would go for the attacker's side.

Finally, an EVE pilot initiating a battle this way could make him a target for ground orbital cannons. The defender team could opt to not just defend but try to activate the orbital cannon. This solves the dilemma of implementing skyfire because it always knows what it is targetting. The EVE pilot would be aware of this risk and if damaged could just disconnect escaping the orbital cannon's lock but prompting a win for the defenders.

For the most part this would be great in FW if a pilot could fly to a specific district and initiate battles across the planet, it not onl would allow dust corps to strike specific localities, but also Q-sync their squads against those localities.

For pubs you cannot rely on an EVE player to do this as we have nothing they want.

I think this could be good for both pub, and FW/PC type modes.

pub, there is NPC pilot. others a real EVE pilot is required.

However, what I didnt see, is more of a space aspect. That is to say, victory for defenders can be achieved EITHER by

- timeout
- cloning out invaders
- defeating ship in space.

If the ship leaves, or is destroyed, automatic invade fail.

pub/NPC style, would not have that last one, though.