zzZaXxx
D3ATH CARD
425
   |
Posted - 2014.08.19 18:30:00 -
[1] - Quote
Even though Legion seems to be dead, I still have some ideas for its development I'd like to share. As I see it these are the activities that should be available to players in game:
- "Factional Warfare/Instant Battles": Fighting multiplayer battles for/against NPC factions (empire or pirate) or corporations
- "Alliance Warfare": Fighting multiplayer battles for/against player-owned corps/alliances, either as a member or on a contract basis
- "Exploration": Exploring the sector for hidden NPC complexes, destroying their inhabitants (or trying to sneak through to objectives), and looting them
- "Piracy": Searching low/null security space for explorers in the act of clearing NPC complexes, destroying them, and taking their stuff
- "Missions": Completing storyline missions against NPCs given by NPC factions/corps (subject to piracy if outside high sec)
- "Raids": Participating in attacks on elite NPC complexes in null sec organized by player corps/alliances (which is essentially still exploration, just requiring more large scale organization/deployment) (basically player-driven raids)
- "Salvaging": Searching high/low/null security space for battles in process or just finished, and scavenging for salvage
- Buying/selling/trading in the marketplace
- ???
For now let's just focus on the first one: "Factional Warfare/Instant Battles": Fighting multiplayer battles for NPC factions (empire or pirate) or corporations.
Factions include the four empires and all the pirate factions (Angel, Sansha, Guristas, etc.) They each have their own LP store. Each LP store will have some market items and not others, as well as a number I unique items. LP can be exchanged for ISK at every LP store at a universal fixed rate. (This is so that the hard core loyalists don't have to look outside of faction warfare if they don't want to.)
NPC corps are all the random corps that are attacking/defending in Dust pub matches.
Each time you win a battle for a faction/corp you gain standings with them and lose standings with the defeated one. If you lose, nothing happens. Factions/corps have standings with others and as your standings with one rise they will slightly decrease with some others depending on how bad their standings are with the others.
There are ten levels of standings that can be reached with every single faction/corp in the game, though the system works different with factions than it does with NPC corps.
For factions every standings level increases your LP payout. For NPC corps it increases ISK payout. There are also other benefits from standings increase.
For empire and pirate factions it works as follows, with slight variations for each faction:
Standings Progression:
0 - No benefits
1 - LP store discount
2 - Unlocks periodic level 1 storyline missions (can be run solo or with a squad of up to 3)
3 - Unlocks unique faction skill trees (related to faction weapons, equipment, dropsuits, and vehicles)
4 - Unlocks unique LP store items
5 - Unlocks periodic level 2 storyline missions (can be run with a squad of 3-6)
6 - LP store discount. Unlocks unique LP store items.
7 - Can call in installations and faction NPC reinforcements into certain battles
8 - Unlocks periodic level 3 storyline missions (can be run with a full squad or up to 2 squads)
9 - Unlocks unique LP store items, including unique installations. Can call in unique faction orbital strikes and elite NPC reinforcements into certain battles
10 - Unlocks unique LP store items, including unique buildings. Unlocks unique faction skill trees (related to squad and platoon leadership, corp leadership, specialist roles, weapons, equipment, dropsuits, and vehicles)
For NPC corps it works as follows, with slight variations for each faction:
Standings Progression:
0 - No benefits
1 - Small chance of being periodically assigned level 1 storyline missions (assigned one immediately, however, upon reaching standings level 1)
2 - Small chance of NPC corp gifting player items
3 - One time ISK bonus
4 - Small chance of being periodically assigned level 2 storyline missions (assigned one upon reaching standings 4)
5 - Increased chance of NPC corp gifting player items
6 - Increased chance of being assigned storyline missions
7 - Small chance of being periodically assigned level 3 storyline missions (assigned one upon reaching standings 7)
8 - Improved quality of gifted items
9 - Increased chance of being assigned storyline missions. Increased chance of rare items dropping.
10 - One time ISK bonus. One time gift of rare items. Permanent weekly passive income from NPC corp (so long as standings remain above 9)
Raising standings with a faction, especially empire factions, is something you can consistently grind and make progress on. Raising standings with NPC corps is a lot harder to grind, due to there being such a multitude of them. It's more something that just naturally develops in the background over time.
The overall success that the faction that you're fighting for is having in its conflicts--and the amount of territory it holds compared to its starting amount--should impact each "loyalist" player in some way, such as by increasing/decreasing LP store prices (as in EVE) and LP/ISK exchange rate. There should also be shifts in the overarching storyline depending on where the various factions stand, but that should be based on case by case orchestration from devs.
Continued... |
zzZaXxx
D3ATH CARD
425
|
Posted - 2014.08.19 18:31:00 -
[2] - Quote
Storyline missions:
These are assigned missions that require you to go to a specific location and achieve a specific objective. LP or ISK will be given as a reward. If the mission is successful, all participants will have their standings raised with the assigning faction or NPC corp. Each player is guaranteed a base standings increase (the player who was assigned the mission gets a bigger boost). To encourage players to make it more challenging for themselves, a pool of standings increase will be divided among participants on top of the base increase. The less players, the more each gets from that pool (and the less players there are to divide the loot among).
Higher level missions have larger payouts and increased chance of rare items dropping.
One interesting note is that if a players corporation's standings with your faction are low enough, there is a chance that your next level 3 mission will target that corporation's holdings.
Any storyline missions taking place outside of high sec are subject to rude interruption by pirates. Some level 1, and all level 2 and 3, missions take place outside of high sec.
You may notice the lack of mention of "agents", such as those in EVE, that hand out missions against NPCs. I like the idea of either having to engage in multiplayer battles in order to get periodic access to missions or having to engage in exploration, where NPC content is always available and which is more dynamic and conducive to emergent behaviors.
Player corporations can organize "missions" for their members, setting goals and/or specific objectives for attacking NPC complexes. Larger scale efforts against elite complexes are the Legion equivalent to raids (or perhaps EVE's incursions), as mentioned earlier, and always take place outside of high sec and as such are vulnerable to piracy.
Please offer your feedback and let's have a discussion! (Just for the hell of it.) |