Player Features and Ideas Discussion

TL;DR - Pretty much what's in the subject line. Get some use out of T2 hulls.

How it could work;
- Opt in/opt out system
- Players are able to choose which specialized hulls they are willing to use
- Target isk/LP per hour numbers to be about the same as current missions of the appropriate level based on completion times

Benefits;
- Revamp high, low and null sec agent missions
- Encourage primarily PvE players to diversify their training beyond ~bs5~
- Break up the monotony of "warp-in, f1" style of missions

Potential hurdles;
- Difficult to balance for groups
- Potentially overwhelming for newer players

Examples of how these could be laid out;

Covert Ops hulls - Search and destroy type mission

Require the player to use combat probes to scan down a unique-to-mission NPC ship (shiptype can vary, depending on mission level. Assume BS for L4) and tackle it. The player would have to keep this ship tackled until an NPC response team can warp in and destroy the target ship.

Logistics hulls - Fleet support mission

Have player go to mission site and support the indicated NPC fleet with remote repairs until the battle has been completed. During this engagement, the player may need to avoid damage by warping to beacons on the field, or support different ships on different parts of the grid.

Stealth bomber hulls - Turn-the-tide mission

Have player move around the mission area during a staged NPC engagement destroying targets of opportunity, like command posts or admiralty ships, without being destroyed. Have the player destroy several targets to complete the mission.

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Obviously, some additional work would be required for a proper implementation of this type of feature. Improved NPC AI would be needed to allow for them to engage eachother in fleet combat convincingly, without instantly targetting player ships. Scannable targets would need to be player specific and only visible during scanning to the player who owns the mission. Additional items like NPC covert cynos would likely need to be added as a special exception in the highsec cyno rule to allow Blackops ships a good use.

To address issues with multiple players going to these missions, they would simply have to be unavailable for groups (as they are voluntary, group PvErs may want to simply opt out and use the standard missions only), giving an error to any additional players attempting to warp to the beacon (fleet warp or otherwise) or not allowing acceleration gate activation.

Hope more folks like to sounds of a feature like this enough to get behind it.

Sword.