So you want them to make more money for you in one way or another. And let me guess, nobody could shoot them or disrupt them or bribe them in any way? Which means you simply have to hire them once, let them level up and eternally get a ‘buff’ for whatever you assign them to?
Do you see a… problem with that design?
And how do they “guard” this Mercenary den? Is the Den “just stronger”? Does your Companion fly around it in a spaceship that can be shot? Is there any risk for you losing anything?
Well, having something like Aura who you can simply talk to and it acts like a Mentor would proably be okay. Why does it need to give ‘buffs’, it’s just a nice human library that adds immersion to the game. I did play Dune II back in the 1990s and I don’t remember the Mentats there giving my army units any ‘buffs’.
Again, without any risk for you? You just pay the Companion and he “steals” Titan BPCs while neither you nor he can be shot down? I don’t believe in those no-risk things being added to the game. If you want a Titan BPC, go grab one from the ways that exist. Either pay a fortune to reward someone that took all the risks bringing one to a market station or go out in space and risk your own ship by trying to grab one.
“So you want them to make more money for you in one way or another. And let me guess, nobody could shoot them or disrupt them or bribe them in any way? Which means you simply have to hire them once, let them level up and eternally get a ‘buff’ for whatever you assign them to?”
No, there could be a war of assassins or NPCs send against each other. Like sabotogue to build time, or to find out where your at most of the time in space, or something.
" And how do they “guard” this Mercenary den? Is the Den “just stronger”? Does your Companion fly around it in a spaceship that can be shot? Is there any risk for you losing anything ?"
No, just by being assigned to a mercenary den, they would increase the NPC numbers and such and either give them a bonus, more npc ships or make more money generated.
That already exists, it’s called NPC agents. They can tell you where you can get good money (missions), they can locate other players. Interacting with them can increase or decrease your standings towards NPC corporations and empires, buffing or limiting the money you can make or the space you can access (without being hunted).
So you one-time purchase it and then it generates more money for you by whatever effect they have?
Sounds like you want to create a game within a game that has little to do with the original idea to pilot spaceships and either build or blow up things.
I can imagine evolving FactionWarfare in a complete expansion implementing FW mission arcs in which you as Capsuleer make a military ‘carreer’ within your chosen empire. Achieving higher ranks and trust levels progressively enable you to accept highly challenging special missions from the empires where you have controllable NPC support squads that you have to lead into battle vs. overwhelming enemy NPCs. Or even opposing player forces that also have NPC support squads and then depending who can use his sqads better, keep them alive longer etc., gets the advantage. Some of these NPCs could be also kinda “Commanders” of the NPC squads and they gain experience the longer you can keep them alive during your duty, the more missions you solve with their assistance successfully etc. However, these NPCs would only ever aid you in these special NPC-FW missions and absolutely give no boni in general gameplay!
NPC agents cannot be assigned to tasks. They just give tasks.
You wouldn’t one time purchase npc companions. It would be like hiring operatives that you control and assign tasks to that are always loyal.
Yes I want to create a game within a game, but it works if you take both games and make them work seamlessly between each other.
The faction warfare idea is kinda cool but you don’t have your very own men. It would be like opening your own sub corp, like you are in goonswarm, and open a sub corp within which your own npc companions work for you and you for Goonswarm.
They could be sent to spy on amarr empire for some of their tech, research speed increase for Amarr blueprints or you open up a blackmarket that only you can access through your npc companions, All through spying, subterfuge and bribes.
Or there could be illegal tech you can secure only through companions working through the factions and making deals/bribes/theft which affects your standings if you are detected or not. Imagine spending a month to get a Austrahaus or keepstar cloaker so your stuff in wormhole space cannot be destroyed. Take the tech, install in astrahaus and leave 1 companion there to operate it, and you have a fully function cloaked and safe home base.,
One way:
Just invent a blackmarket, link it up to factions and their agents, and invent new tech that only exist in the darkest corners of Eve which your npc companions can get, and also not just that, but let your npc companions have many tasks possible in all aspects of eve gameplay. The blackmarket should have like 100 game balanced new techs that expand the gameplay and you use your NPC companions to secure it. And in all aspects of eve from planetary, to manufacturing, to beacons, to incursions, to mining, you just create ways your npc companions aid you.
Oh ya, and each npc companions has like 200 skills that you can passively train over time that are different than the skills you passively train on your main. Like stealth, charm, bribery, theft, leave no trace, co-pilot skills, helping in manufacturing and research, planetary speed up, etc.
I like this idea and it seems like a lot of fun. Please continue. It would be cool if CCP like the idea enough to make it work.
And also, there has to be your own companions walking around room with your eve trophies and a place to just sit. You could also invite your pilot friends to each other’s quarters in the keepstar or austrahaus you call homebase.
Quoting from above:
" I can imagine evolving FactionWarfare in a complete expansion implementing FW mission arcs in which you as Capsuleer make a military ‘carreer’ within your chosen empire. Achieving higher ranks and trust levels progressively enable you to accept highly challenging special missions from the empires where you have controllable NPC support squads that you have to lead into battle vs. overwhelming enemy NPCs. Or even opposing player forces that also have NPC support squads and then depending who can use his sqads better, keep them alive longer etc., gets the advantage. Some of these NPCs could be also kinda “Commanders” of the NPC squads and they gain experience the longer you can keep them alive during your duty, the more missions you solve with their assistance successfully etc. However, these NPCs would only ever aid you in these special NPC-FW missions and absolutely give no boni in general gameplay !"
A problem with this is it is just the same as missions, just with a slight difference. Need something new to link into eve.
Also, you know how in the game mount and blade warband every time your army enters a town/city they get 6 options on how to interact with the town? They can go to the castle to shmooze with the nobles, they can take a walk around the town to find the guild master, they can join a tournament, they can buy either weapons, armor, horses, or goods, they can go to tavern to recruit companions and interact with different people offering different info, and wait there. Why not do that with any dockable stations.
Also, each faction needs a leader that is an NPC and a figurehead for each faction. Eve could hire someone to play the amarr, caldari, minmatar, gallente, guristas, any pirate faction, any non pirate faction’s leader and you could go if high enough and dine with the npc faction leader if high enough and try to convince them to do stuff for your alliance.
Imagine if only CEOs of major corporations or alliances with enough corp member could dine with the leaders of like 4 main factions and convince them to unite Amarr/Caldari/Minmatar/Gallente to unite in major time dilated fights which includes entire player run alliances, against triglavians or something. There could be stories based on how your CEO of your major alliances fight to manuever the factions.
Holy ■■■■ man, please learn how to quote and edit if you want to have a forum discussion. It isn’t that hard. If you don’t show this little effort, how do you expect to be taken seriously by anyone?