@Herzog_Wolfhammer mentioned some neat ideas for a new area of space and I suggested he start a thread in Ideas to expand and muse on it further. He said that he was much too busy drinking rum n’colas to bother and passed the torch to me…
So, these are my ideas plus some of the ones he mentioned before. For nomenclature, I will here on in refer to this new area of space as Herzog or The Herzog Region in Wolfhammer’s honor.
So throughout NE, I would envision semi-stable, permanent wormholes but just 1 per region. These wormholes would not accept anything larger than 300,000m3 (because reasons) which, and I didn’t check every ship, means BC and smaller only. There would also be a MAX number of ships allowed before the wormhole collapsed. Finally, the exit in Herzog would move every X number of hours/days if the mass limit or ships limit wasn’t tripped.
Just an estimate, the MAX total mass allowed though would also be about 300K so after a BC or hauler went though, that’s it. The number of ships counter might be in the 5 to 10 range. This is to prevent a tsunami of frigates overwhelming a system like locusts. I would also suggest that these numbers might be a little flexible based on the number of players in the exit system. Low numbers mean stricter limits while higher numbers mean relaxed numbers (slightly).
The Herzog region is massive with about 400 systems making it twice as large as Domain. In Heraog space, there is no highsec, low sec or null and no access to wormhole space. It’s its own little bubble of space.
Also, there are no NE NPC entities (exception coming soon) so no concord, no police and no infrastructure. Nothing.
As mentioned, each region in NE would have one door meaning there would be about 64 wormholes into Herzog. These doors, unlike the ones in NE, are not stable and reset location every few days (randomly). So nobody knows where they are going to come out in Herzog unless somebody posts a message and even then, it would only be valid for 1-3 days.
Initially, every system in Herzog would be standalone with no gate to neighboring systems. People could construct their own gates, known as Deteis Jump Gates that are built in pairs and used to connect systems. Of course in the future, these vulnerable but important objects would need to be protected.
The reason for this should be obvious; to limit the (easy) ability for huge pieces of the region to be taken over by mega corps. Logistics from NE would be very hard as you would have essentially a 1 in 64 (1.5%) chance of landing near where you wanted to go in Herzog. This core concept really should limit the influence NE has on Herzog as it’s just too risky to send ships in.
So then what do you do? You send seed fleets with enough supplies to set-up a station, mine, process and manufacture everything to need. Everything.
Oh and I did mention that there is no NE NPCs right? So that means, you die, you die and wake-up in NE with no easy access to where you just were. There are no clone links from NE to Herzog. But, stations in Herzong can make and have their own clone vats to support the locals.
Oh and one more thing regarding Herzog…The banking network in NE is not connected to Herzog so your ISK cannot be accessed making it worthless in Herzog. All exchanges of goods would be though contracts(ie barter) and contracts would be visible throughout the region. You are only as rich as what you have physically with you in the region. All communications from NE to Herzog are impossible so nothing works (mail, contracts, etc).
There is no faction war, no missions, no story arcs, no bounty payouts, no sec status, no gate guns…etc…There would be NPC rats though and possibly even NPC stations that are red to everyone regardless of standings in NE. Basically, the idea that Rats from NE also are coming into Herzog and setting up stations too.
For modules, I’d probably suggest getting rid of bubbles, T3 BP don’t work (again reasons) and possibly reduce the power of scrams/disrups by half to allow for more escape chances. Station times would need a rework to maybe something like NS or WS. Because death here is so brutal, the chance to escape needs to be increased.
Ores of all types would be available and hauling out of the region would be very lucrative but pretty risky as you really have no idea where you will come out in NE. PI would operate normally too. A player would face the choice of keeping their riches in Herzog knowing that they could be lost easily or try to get them out and back to NE. All one would have to do is find a wormhole and pray it goes to somewhere safe/friendly in NE…
So, what are your thoughts? What can I expand on for you? Where are there glaring issues?
What’s the point you might ask…that will be in post to follow soon…
NOTE This main post is now being updated as the thread grows…