Player Features and Ideas Discussion

It's been a while since I've played Dust (RIP PS3 2010-2013) and I really did enjoy the gameplay, but I felt it lacked the proper tie-in to the EVE universe that it was marketed as having. Don't get me wrong, I like orbital strikes as much as the next guy, but I think there could be more to the fun.

So where can Dust Bunnies have fun in EVE?
A lot of places, but I picked sov warfare since it seems the most player driven aspect of the game.

How will Dusties come into play?
The primary target of Dust marines will be sovereignty upgrades and station services. I see a unique place to put them that could have an impact on warfare as a whole, without having too large an impact if you decide to not employ them.

Potential targets to interdict:
Clone facilities
Repair/fitting facilities
Docking
Manufacturing/Research
RF timers (maybe)
Cyno genrators/Jump bridge networks/Cyno jammers
Super Capital manufacturing (and possibly hangars)
POCOs

Where will these attacks happen?
The three locations where Dusties can attack will be at Stations, Ihubs, and POCOs.
How will the get there? A high slot module will be used as a landing craft (LC) launch bay. There will be different sizes for different ships (possibly restricted to certain classes and specializations, with a limited number of modules allowed to be fit). In my mind I always imagined a panther jumping in and dropping them) and these different sizes will have different cargo capacities that are capable of holding more soldiers, clones, supplies, equipment, vehicles (yes vehicles), and other combat related machinery. When these LC will have a certain speed and sig radius and will be vulnerable to attack. Multiple LC can be launched increasing chances of successful landing, but reducing their cargo size. It becomes a decision for the commanders to make based on their capabilities and those of the enemy.

When can the happen?
These attacks can happen at anytime (excluding attacks against RF timers), however there is a cooldown time (which is much longer than the effect of the a successful attack) after these attacks that makes it impossible to continuously attack the same target and keep it's services suppressed. RF timer attacks will be limited to occuring within a certain timespan near the normal time when a station/Ihub/POCO comes out of RF. For now I'll leave that time at 2 hrs previous.

Why would you attack these services?
Each attack has the possibility of temporarily removing the defender's home-field advantage. For instance if i successfully disable a cyno jammer, I would have a small window with which to jump in capitals. If i attack their docking services, I could remove their ability to either dock up and stay safe (I have decided against undocking since that could have too large of an impact against defenders). Any number or combination of these attacks, given that they are successful, could give the attackers a leg-up against the defenders when attempting to take an objective.

How will these attacks work?
Assuming that 1 of the 3 LC you launched managed to lock onto the target (we'll use an Ihub for example) the Dust marines would now be inside the Ihub and begin moving toward their objective (Jump bridge network array). Along the way they will encounter defensive turrets, hostile security systems, locked doors and bays (which need to be hacked), and if the defender was at least a little prepared, other Dust mercenaries as well. The attackers will attempt to move toward the array and if they successfully get there within a certain amount of time, they now need to destroy, disable, or possibly implant malicious code into the array. At this point, there will be a short timer (5 minutes maybe) that notifies everyone in the Ihub to GTFO as the Ihub is about to enter into lockdown (don't want to lose all that costly supplies now do we?). Once timer is up, anything inside the Ihub becomes lost to the owner and the negative affect of a compromised JB array takes place.

Should the attack be unsuccessful (either through total domination by defenders or a retreat by the attackers) the JB array will remain active, and the Ihub will enter a "Heightened Security Status" for a given period of time (the cooldown timer). Depending on the importance of the target, it could be anywhere from 6 to 36 hours before another raid can take place.

These attacks will have a set amount of time in which they can take place once the fight has started. Anywhere from 30 – 60 minutes. If the attack is not successful in that timeframe, the installation enters “Heightened Security Status” everone needs to GTFO or lose their equipment/clones. This excludes the defenders automated systems.

In the case of the RF timer, a successful attack will allow the attackers to set the timer +/- 2 hrs. If the defender wins, they get the same option as well.

How are alliances going to get these mercenaries? Surely you don't expect everyone to just go out and find some to keep handy.
Of course not. It will work in a similar fashion as FW works on DUST. The attacker will put out a contract for normal mercenaries to accept or decline, which will outline what kind of attack is going to occur, what the target is, who the defender is, and many others bits of intel that the attacker believes necessary for the Dusties to know. You may want to be a little skimpy on the details if you feel secrecy is necessary.

At the same time the defender will be alerted that this contract has been placed and can offer a counter contract to defend the location (again you might not want to disclose the sensitive details but it's up to you).

Contracts can be offered privately or have preference/bonuses to certain corps that you trust to do the job. Each contract can either be a flat reward or a bidding contract to get the best deal.

So, In short, it should be completely impossible for people flying in space to defend their ****.

The problem with people wanting to integrating dust into eve is that they keep trying to put it into Nullsec first. "let dusties attack capitol ships in battles" "Let dusties do the sov grind for you"

Sov mechanics in eve are pushed the way they are because people on each side want that objective.
Dusties have no reason to be in on the sov change, They have nothing invested, unless they play eve as well, in which case they can play eve to take a hold of eve.

The groups that take sov are very insular, and justifiably paranoid. Unbelievable man hours went into buiding the alliances and coalitions power bases and fleets. Now you hand sov over to people who likely have less than isk than skillpoints, no real afiliation to the powerblocs fighting for sov.

in b4:

"just play dust, get your sov that way"

I do not, and will never own a ps3, and will not ever play a f2p-pay-2-win game

"hire people to do it, theres mercenaries in eve"

hire people to take sov. we know how that works out, and if you don't, you shouldn't be asking for dust in null, you have no place in null.

"they're going to have to do something to integrate dust"

Highsec, where mercs really live. The anarchic area "highsec" actually need mercs for things, because its uncivilized. Keep your proposals to highsec mechanics.

The way they have integrated DUST into FW is to make the threshhold lower/higher for a side to take a system depending on how well the DUST side does when attacking systems on the planets.

(Pilots can help affect these outcomes by providing orbital strikes, but it seems most of the effective DUST corps have their own guys provide the fire support at this time)

DUST doesn't remove the requirements for conquest, it just sets the required "grinding effort" involved in doing so.

A similar sort of thing could happen anywhere - stations, sov structures, etc...