Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I understand that this is one of those "common ideas" that everyone has heard of, and no one wants to hear again kind of topics. Also, I do understand that boarding parties have been briefly mentioned recently. However, despite all of this, I still wanted to put in my own two cents on the matter.

Just recently at EVE Vegas, we were introduced to CCP's (distant) idea of going from capsuleer, to mercenary, to fighter pilot, and back to capsuleer. In my opinion, however, it would only make sense that if you can switch between the 3 types of characters in EVE, why not be able to not only interact with the other types of characters behind that annoying locked door in the captains quarters, but on the battlefield as well?

Let me give you an example scenario of how my idea would work.

Lets say we have a massive battle going on (we'll make it between N3 and the CFC, just for fun). The battle is a stalemate, and neither side can gain any significant advantage over the other. The N3 fleet is focused around a lynch pin Nyx, which they are doing a fantastic job of keeping it alive. The only way that the CFC is able to gain any sort of advantage in the fight is to take down that Nyx, which, obviously, they cannot do with conventinal methods.

So, a CFC Aeon launches a set of boarding vessels filled with soldiers and DUST mercs alike, aimed straight at the Nyx. These vessels are able to punch through the Nyx's shield and armor with ease, and compromise its hull. Not all of the boarding vessels make it, however, because they were shot down by drones or fighters. Once inside the Nyx, the soldiers get to work by fighting their way through the ships crew to get the pod controling the ship.

On the way there, they come across numerous systems that control crucial mods of the ship, and deactivate them by hacking. The closer the soldiers get to the pod, the more vunerable the Nyx becomes. Eventually, they are abke to shut off an armor rep, and the Nyx's tank slowly begins to break.

The Nyx's crew begin to fight back even harder, in order to save the ship. If they let the invaders reach the pod, they will destroy it, and put the ship in a self destruct timer, or shut down every mod the ship has installed, making it easy prey for the CFC dreads and Titans. If they only stall the fighting, the Nyx's tank will break due to the missing armor rep. Their only option is to push as hard as they can to get that armor rep back online, and kill off the rest of the invaders. Unfortunately, the N3 defenders cannot hold the invading CFC troops, and they reach the pod, blowing it up with high explosives, ultimately shuting off every mod tge ship has, and sending the pilot back to the clone bay.

To clarify everything that was presented in this scenario, here is a list of everything that could be implemented.
- A new vessel that is launched by only super carriers and is able to carry soldiers and DUST mercs (possibly be able to be piloted by Valkyrie pilots)
- These vessels can punch through the shields and armor of larger ships (battleships or larger)
- Once inside, soldiers (which are AI controlled) and DUST players must fight through the ship's crew (also AI controlled), and, possibly, defending DUST players.
- The closer the invading troops get to the pod (the one true goal of the invading forces) ), the more desperate the ships crew becomes, and the harder they fight to push back the invading forces
- The invading forces are able to turn off certain ship mods (cannot turn off all of them), depending on what ship it is, and how it is fit
- The defending crew is able to turn ship mods back on if they are to push that far back

Possible other features that werent stated in the scenario:
- Skills that can help "train" your crew into fighting back
- Certain ship mods that can give internal security drones to help fight back
- Fighters/drones possibly being able to shoot down boarding vessels

I know, I presented enough material to fill an expansion for both EVE and DUST. Also, alot of this would be very hard to implement (such as AI controlled soldiers, which, I believe, DUST does not have yet). I just thought that this would be an interesting and cool way to connect EVE and DUST even more, and also add a very interesting aspect to the battlefield. Think of how many battles could have had a different outcome if this were true.

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts on this.

Explain why my tank should be utterly meaningless. Explain why it should be totally impossible for me to defend my ship in any way, shape or form.

Not supported.

Why?

- I would never trust my ship's defenses to random players who have no stake in my survival.

- For me, a proper "ship defense" would be sealing off and decompressing the compromised srctions of the ship... then flushing said areas with heated plasma. Failing that, I would iust self destruct and call it a totall loss.

- I can totally see people just spamming boarding ships at the enemy fleet and vice versa. The effectiveness of each fleet will hinge on coin toss toss odds... assuming BOTH sides can find enough DUST players.
Consequently, fleet tactics will become less important and large ship escalations will be discouraged.

My thoughts exactly.

I don't like it and this is why:

1) If a fleet cannot break my shields how exactly can a thinly skinned boarding party transport? Fails at the first hurdle.

2) If my Pod dies (bearing in mind I'm a 9.9 year old character) the skills that were keeping my ship up with extra Shield\Armour and Hull means that as soon as I die...that ship dies. This is also where the idea "Let me live and I'll give you my ship" fails. Fail number two.

3) I wouldn't trust my ship to AI if AI aren't coming at me. To balance it you need to have Bunnies in your ship...who wants to play that game when they could be on the ground where they're supposed to be being...well...DUST Bunnies.

4) This is probably years away (and yes I watched the EVE Vegas stream and was very excited in being able to traverse environments as well) but I don't think this idea is what we will see.

If anything the only time boarding parties would get into your ship is:

1) No Fighters\Drones
2) Everyone else in your fleet is dead
3) No shields
4) No armour
5) Hulls breached

And then I'd still self-destruct with those Bunnies inside Fatal Attraction style just to give the opposing side the final vOv before I went.

EDIT: Oh and I picture the boarding parties like something from Off-world Resource Base (ORE) an old PC Game.

I'll use my supreme capsuleer abilities to fire some very large cruise missiles with pinpoint accuracy and perfect timing right in the very same spot where the shields, armor and hull of that Nyx have been penetrated.

The Nyx now explodes from the inside incinerating the crew and remaining fighter craft along with the boarding party.

I win.

- The End

I'm okay with the pods penetrating shields using multifrequency counter-shields or shieldbreaker rounds that momentarily disrupt the fields, then using the pod engines as big-ass plasma cutters to bore a hole through the plating into a corridor, into which they drop a platoon of DUSTbunnies. The problem is what comes after this.

At this point, the pilot is aware that the ship has been breached, and hostiles are on board. Let's assume that the dropsuits/hardsuits make decompression moot (as does the fact that there's already a large hole where they entered opening into space), and the pilot doesn't want to incur a, say, 90% structural damage by gutting his own ship with drive plasma. So he's faced with a choice: abandon his ship altogether, or risk being killed by the mercenaries. Neither option is desirable, but he can deny subverting his ship by self-destructing it, which comes at the end of a two-minute timer.

I'm willing to accept the fact that DUSTbunnies have some sort of hardcore bio-enhancements that make them superhumanly fast. But the Nyx is still more than three kilometers long (3,319 m), with many decks and significant breadth, a large crew complement, likely static defenses, and defense drones (given the Gallente specialization in drones). Unless they were extraordinarily lucky and landed practically right outside the pod bay, there is simply no time for them to

1. Orient themselves after boarding
2. Locate the pod bay
3. Make their way to the bay through numerous sealed bulkheads, static defenses, drones, and crew resistance
4. Breach the pod bay's likely reinforced doors
5. Destroy or eject the pod

in the space of 120 seconds.

I've already posted a similar breakdown somewhere on the forum, but I can't find it among my past posts for some reason.

I'm just going to quote that part...Platoon of DUST Bunnies...in my Pod...that I'm biologically linked to ...come on get with the lore .

and what about vulnerable stations?

My pod can take a couple of hits from miniature NUCLEAR WEAPONS. And that's after it has survived the explosion of the ship. How the hell are mercs going to carry something that can scratch it?

And how are these plasma cutters going to do what a titan's doomsday device can't?

And why should I not be able to actually defend my own ship? You, like every other idiot with this idea, have not answered this question.