Player Features and Ideas Discussion

[Original Post]
Hi,

I would rather send it directly to CCP rather than post it the forum. I wrote a word document about this ship too. It's not a combat ship that you could fight other players with, but a transport ship that could change a good amount of things that would make EVE even much more interesting. And even though you could not fight with this ship, it would have a military support role that could tip the scale in battle.

[Edited 16 February 2017 for readability - e.g. copied and pasted from a later post in this thread]
Okay.

SOE and the ORE Corporation has collaborated on a ship concept that's been sitting on ORE's drafting table for years. ORE believe it would revolutionize Industrial transport and shipping but they would not commit the design to production because it was too much of a risk to pilots being that ORE's, like other industrial ship are bulky and slow.

That was until SOE made an engineering breakthrough with the use of a new hull material technology called Quantum Spatial Phasing (QSP). The technical details about how QSP works will be explained in my story. But, for now it was the technology that ORE was looking for to make their ship concept a reality.

The new class of ships SOE and ORE are designing is called Starlifters, and what the hull design allows the capuleer to do is carry other capsuleer pods in its cargo hold. In other words the Starlifter is a transport ship for other capuleers and their packaged ships. It's a concept that doesn't exist with any other ship in EVE.

The reason why ORE was reluctant to produce a transport ship like this was because they knew a passenger transport ship would be just as vulnerable as any other indy ship, and the idea of a ship kill transporting other pilots was not very marketable. But QSP will change that.

There are two version of the Starlifter space craft, a regular Tech I version and a Tech II military version called the Vanguard.

Now, QSP also has some very special benefits unique to the Starlifter because of its effects on warp field mechanics (there are also draw backs too, I but I can explain those later). Here are a few.

1. A pilot can drop out of warp at any time before they arrive at their destination.
2. Its hull material makes the ship extremely fast and agile for an industrial ship.
3. The ship has an emergency warp function that allows the pilot to warp off in the direction it is facing almost immediately.
4. You cannot scan this ship down with combat probes because of its QSP technology.
5. The tech one version is modestly effected by warp interdiction sphere's while the Vangard is immune.

But most important to ORE is that QSP significantly delays Ladar, Magetometric, Gravemetric and Radar targeting sensors when locking onto a Starlifter. We're talking anywhere from an 8 to 14 seconds target lock delay on a Starlifter depending on the Starlifter's pilot skills.

What this all means is a ship concept that allow's it's pilot to be extremely evasive to targeting, which means a better chance to survive gate camps, and give a pilot a chance to explore the farthest reaches of low or null sec space.

Here's where it gets interesting. The military version, the Vanguard is able to perform in-flight warp drops of its payload. Basically, the Starlifter is the EVE equivalent of the very real and very capable C-17 Globemaster III (Google it).

Now here are some of it's drawbacks.

1. There are no high slots on the Starlifter because the higher power requirements disrupts the QSP technology.
2. Ship modules, fits or modifications that would affect it's signature or cargo capacity will also adversely affect its QSP technology, so no microwarp drives or cargo expanders, etc.

and finally, SOE and ORE do not want to enable the criminal enterprise that would interfere with their commercial interests, so they would work with CONCORD to restrict pilots with a security standing of -5 or lower from flying the ship in high or low sec (criminal pilots can still fly a Starlifter in null or worm hole space). Further more, SOE and ORE would offer a Starlifter pilot's licenses through their LP store, which are required for flying Starlifters in high and low sec space (some restrictions apply, but I can explain that later).

And finally, here are some other interesting abilities the Starlifter offers.

1. The Starlifter would offer a whole new way for pilots to earn ISK by serving as "airline" pilots basically.

2. Passengers on board do not appear in the local chat channel or in the ship overview. This opens up for some interesting clandestine travel as a service though New Eden.

3. The in flight Warp drop opens up a whole new possibility in military logistics support and battlefront staging for war campaigns

That's pretty much, it in a nut shell. Wrote about ten pages of description, to include load mechanics, doctrine uses, visual effects descriptions, even the new type of scams, challenges for better or worse that the Starlifter would bring to EVE.

I have more but I'll just stop for now.

Also be braced from harsh criticism. As you will most assuredly receive it .

I do appreciate good feedback. I've pretty much refined it to the point I've limited the concept as much possible to prevent or avoid exploits with such a concept (of course I can't think of all things). For example the ship concept is too 'powerful' to allow it to fight (which would not be its role anyway) so I would propose there would be no high slots available on the ship (which would probably be a first for eve, not counting shuttles or pods).

I'll offer a hint. The concept is modeled after a very real world application that people experience everyday, so it could be a natural fit in EVE to have its equivalent in the game.

And to add game lore to the idea I would propose the concept is a (secretive) joint venture between the Sisters of EVE (SOE) and Outer Rim Expedition (ORE)

EVE is scary, but I play it anyway.

The key is to weigh the risks, so you've misjudged my caution as lack of confidence

Every time I undock...

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=491023

BTW I'm really encouraged you responded to my thread =)

There is nothing to be afraid of with robust discussion.

It'll happen at some point anyway. Either your idea can stand on its merits or it can't. If it can't then discussion here can help you refine and improve it. If it can, then you'll end up with more support and evidence you can point CCP towards.

tbh, sending directly to CCP is probably the worst way you could go. A better approach would be to approach a CSM member. The best approach is to post it here and then approach a CSM member after discussion.

In the past, when players try to send ideas directly to ccp, they get directed to here.

Most ideas are judged harshly, but most ideas have not been thought through at all. Many are petty 'i wants' and 'i hate. so it should be nerfed!' or 'its in for WoW so...'. Many are baseless, or based on outright lies. Many are the 'antithesis' of EVE. Many haven't searched for their idea to see if there's already a thread on it open.

Generally, if you demonstrate you have thought your idea through, are open to feedback, answer rebuttles honestly and explain why you think its going to make the game better, any initial harshless tends to fizzle out quickly.

Oh, and always use the search function.

why not just plainly explain your idea?

OP I'd rather you just lay out your idea for the ship

The other thing that happens in f&i is if you don't post a feature or idea your thread gets locked....