Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Allo,

After some intense thinking at my monotonous job about Eve, what its lacking, what makes it awesome, where its going, and what it can become I came up with a bunch of features and ideas I want to just put out there. Im not sure wheather to spam topics or not, so I'm just going to make a list here of what I came up with with explanations. Here goes (activating anti-flame hardener).

1). Customizable ship bonuses: HOLY !@#$ right? I know this is kinda weird but let me explain. I'm well aware of the audacity to suggest this after the tiericide and ship re-balancing that was/is happening. However, giving players the ability to change the ship bonuses of certain ships via something similar to the rig system would have several benefits. Tech 3 strategic cruisers should always be the top of the versatility no doubt, but giving each ship the ability to swap one bonus for something else could make the game much more interesting. For ex: Swap the missile bonuses on the Typhoon for turret bonuses and/or a neut range/amount bonus. Of course this needs to be SERIOUSLY thought through, as well as implemented carefully. Similar to a rig, these components would could be manufactured via blueprints, with the materials being a combination of salvage, planetary materials, and/or minerals. Once applied to a ship, the effect is permanent ( again, debatable, could perhaps have a "dry dock time if you remove it so as to prevent rapidly changing bonuses). Linking this "ship bonus rig thing" to PI would give another incentive for DUST 514-EVE interaction, which can only be good. I know this is weird, and crazy, but it would add a new element to the game. I am NOT suggesting making Amarr ships missile crazy, or laser shooting drakes. Just maybe one other option to your ship of choice.

Of course another alternative to this is just introduce tech 3 frigs, Bc's, and BS's...

2) Expansion of the NPC (rats) influence: This is a stretch, but hear ( hehe read) this one out. The four empires are supposedly at war? In each ship description we read the supposed battle tactics of the ship class. So how about something too spice up high sec a bit. Empire NPC raids against each other. I'm not familiar with Incursions too well, but I'd imagine this could be an expansion upon that. Essentially this would mean Amar fleets spawning in Minmatar space, blockading planets, causing mayhem. Capsuleers then have the choice of either to support, or destroy said fleets. What I was hoping for is NPC on NPC combat, so Minmatar rats counter-attack, causing a fight for us to watch, join in, or run from. Lps for killing one side, standings changes, yada yada. This leads me into PART 3!!!

3) NPC's in DUST 514: The aforementioned Empire NPC invasions would be accompanied by troop transports, which in those transports reach a planet and survive for ( insert appropriate amt of time here) will dispense ( appropriate amt of NPC soldiers) onto the DUST 514 battlefield below. If the Amarr capture the planet, and lockdown the system ( space superiority) then sovereignty flips). Another DUST 514-EVE interaction. However, this would require persistent DUST514 gameplay, not instanced. Dont know the technical side of this, but I hope its possible. These NPC soldiers should have the AI of typical NPC's in other games ( I'm thinking of the grunts from the HALO series). This means not difficult to defeat, but in large groups, along with enemy DUST players, could cause trouble. Of course, there should be friendly NPC's as well, again NPC vs NPC combat! OF course all this can be avoided by just blowing up the transports before they get to the planet. This leads me into Part 4!

4) This is the craziest idea yet...The capsuleer takeover of the military decisions of the four empires. I know, never going to happen, but humor me for one second. Think Enders Game here. Those with, for example, good standing with the Gallente and/or members of Gallente faction warfare would be able to vote for one capsuleer to take up the position of HEAD GENERAL of the Gallente armed forces. He/she could then have a cabinet of advisors which he could delegate tasks too ( DUST 514 Commander, Regional commanders, Industrial commanders, etc). He would have the final say as to where NPC forces are allocated for aforementioned raiding. He also could set objectives for factional warfare. Micromanegment could go as far as we want to take it ( setting warp to distances, orbit distances for the NPCS, fleet formations). Resources would be directly related to the amount of territory controlled by his empire, and would affect the amount of forces he could muster/ position. This could also provide an opportunity for industrially minded eve players to "donate" minerals to the cause, thereby boosting existing NPC forces. (im sure ISK incentives would end up being provided for that). I understand this is a massive switch from the existing safe high sec, but I see this as an alternative end game to the Null Sec Sov grind that i hear about. I also realize that the HEAD GENERAL thing is also ripe for corruption, so some measures would have to be in place to mitigate that. That said, these are just ideas to think about.

With the rumors of Player made STARGATES on the horizon, I would like to propose one more idea. Make ALL stargates vulnerable to destruction as well as important to sovereignty. Also, give the a cap as to how many players can get into system via Stargates. Maybe 1000? If that limit is reached, better hope you have a cyno pilot inside to get more reinforcements in, titan bridge, etc.

LAST IDEA: DUST 514 takeover of stargates to influence who can and cannot use the stargates ( reds cant use gates, etc).

1 We call them T3s.
2 They aren't at war, some missions have them taking pot shots at eachother and Gal-Cal fights sometimes go full scale, but they don't have large scale conflicts.
4 That's like giving a 4 year old the launch codes. So, no to that. The factions loathe capsuleers.