Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hi,

I have an idea to increase interaction between NPC stations and players.

How about NPC stations raids?

Here's how I think it could work:

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You could Raid a NPC station by deploying troops inside it. I think it could be done by creating a new class of ship, the Troop Transport Ship (or Personel Transport).

1. Hire mercenaries from Mercenaries Offices, located at specific stations in Eve. These mercenaries could be:
(bear with me, this is only brainstorming)

- Rookie mercenaries
- Seasoned mercenaries
- Veteran mercenaries
- Elite mercenaries

- Hackers
- Spies

Now, these troops would be pretty expensive, since you have to pay for their salary and life insurance. The amount that could be recruited could be skill-related. A Troop Transport Ship would be MANDATORY to recruit them, they're not cattle meant to sit in a cargohold.

Raiding the Station

The Fleet Commander only can start a NCP staion raid. To do so, he would right-click the station, and choose : 'Raid Station'. A popup would appear saying: ''Warning. You are about to raid the X station. This is a serious offence and blah blah blah''.

As soon as he clicks 'Yes', the raid begins. The NPC station would start deploying NPC ships, which are pretty strong. The difficulty of the ships should be determined by 3 variables:

- Size of fleet
- Security status of system (the higher, the more resistance)
- The owner of the NPC station (messing around with the Imperial family would e more dangerous than Quafe, for example).


Now, to really start raiding the station, the Troop Transport Ships have to deploy troops inside the station. They should activate something that would be like a Reverse Troop Tractor Beam, which would transport the troops via a ray to the station. A popup window would appear, asking the pilot which operation he wants to do:

A. Storm warehouse - requires mercenaries
B. Steal isk (hack into the NPC station banking databases) - requires hackers and mercenaries
C. Steal classified information - requires spies and mercenaries

The pilot could do 1, 2 or all of the operations at once. He can enter the amount of mercenaries / hackers / spies for each operation.

The delay to deploy troops should be pretty long: about 5 minutes, more or less. Meanwhile, the Troop Transport Ships have to be protected until they successfully deploy the troops. Meanwhile, eveybody else is fighting the NPC ships.

Once the troops are deployed, the amount of mercenaries are added to each opeation. For example, if Pilot A deploys 20 mercenaries to raid the warehouse and 10 mercenaries and 2 hackers to steal isk, and pilot B deploys 40 mercenaries to storm the warehouse, a total of 60 mercenaries would storm the warehouse and 10 mercenaries and 2 hackers would try to steal isk.

The operation itself would take about 10 minutes (there would be a countdown).

At the end, an email would appear in all the fleet members inbox, telling them if the raid was successful or not, and what has been taken:

Type of Loot

Storm warehouse operation: Cans would appear next to the station, with products related to the NCP corp. For example, if you have raided Quafe, thousands of Quafe crates would spawn.

Steal isk Operation: Each Fleet member would receive their share of Isk that was stolen (usually a large amount, depending on the 3 variables)

Steal classified operation: The Fleet members would receive a bookmark with a hidden location (combat site, mining spot, etc.) which would be located in a specific system, cannot be scanned by exploration and would yield good loot.

Standings

Fleet members which raided the station would have an automatic -10 status, and would be forbidden to enter the station for a specified time (maybe 1 week?)

Non-participating pilots

Pilots in the system can help the NPC station defend by attacking the raiders. Their standing with the NPC corp would be upped for each kill. On the opposite, raiders cannot initiate an attack on an innocent pilot or get Concordokken.

End of raid and Retrieving troops

Once the NPC station raid is finished, no more ships will spawn from the NPC station. There could be a popup or a message in the local channel saying that the NPC corp is not happy and wil do all they can to prevent you from going in their station. Also, cans would appear next to the NPC station with the remaining troops that have survived. Those troops can be kept or 'sold back' to the Mercenaries Offices.

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Feel free to develop the idea or flame me, it's ok. The goal is to increase intereaction with NPC coprs, without harming or harassing highsec players.

- Vulkain