So far we have several events during the year that involve Capsuleer’s hunting down event sites for booty galore. But what if the hunt was turned around and instead the Capsuleer became the event and was hunted by NPC’s?
How it would work theoretically is that during the event a random roll would take place in a system based on the number of pilots in the system. The more pilots the faster the roll and NPC spawns would be. Systems with less than 15 Capsuleers in it would not trigger the event until Capsuleer 16 entered.
When the roll has been completed a Capsuleers name would be called out in local to respond to the NPC challenge. If the Capsuleer is docked up they have 30 second to respond or lose standings with the challenging NPC corporation. If the Capsuleer is space they are given a minute to dock up and re-ship to fight. If the Capsuleer stays docked up they are given double the standing loss with the NPC Corporation.
If the Capsuleer takes the challenge then within 30 seconds an NPC fleet of ten ships will warp to them and combat will begin until either all of the NPC ships are destroyed or the Capsuleer’s ship is pwned.
The NPC ships would be the same as the local NPC corporation that would fit meta level 6 modules have DPS the same as level four mission sites and would have bounties 2.5x greater than the bounties on the local rats. The NPC Hunters would use scrams and webs but no other type of ECM.
Drops from the NPC Hunters would include skins from the event that are based on the NPC Hunters themselves, NPC Hunter clothes, boosters and Cerebral Accelerators. Other Capsuleers would be encouraged to jump in and help…or not.
So basically if you don’t want to take part in the event, dock up log off and leave EVE till it’s over.
This is frankly a stupid idea. You never ever want to drive your players away by forcing them to take part in content.
You never ever want to punish them for taking a toilet break, or any other kind of break.
You never ever want to ruin trade hubs with NPC’s.
And you never want to create a system that can be farmed by null groups to high heaven.
So yeah, this is a terrible idea, one of the worst I’ve read this year.
Noice idea. The implementation of could be adjusted for specific regions/constalations to be affected. The event could also be done in the way that the pirate strongholds have been implemented where they spawn across kspace and players flock to them and the NPCs attack everyone in the system. As you mentioned a penalty for it would be a loss of standings, you could approach it from the aspect of a boost in standings or LP for the given faction for those that participate. By what I described it would not a hunt but a proving ground for players to the NPC corps if they can defend empire space or not, which could in turn lead to another event which could actually tie in quite nicely with the pirate factions and their strongholds for a followup event or to enhance the priate stronghold PVE stuff. Keep it up and fly safe o7
Its not forcing anyone to take part. Its Eve Online, its the whole risk vs reward aspect of what Eve Online is.
So as long as you can dictate when and where you fight the NPC’s its okay, But as soon as the tables are not in your favor its all wrong.
How is the NPC’s hunting you down and making you fight or lose standings with them any different than a Null Gate camp that you warp into and you lose your ship and pod? You were forced into that situation against your will and lost, that’s a hard lesson to learn, but this is Eve Online.
Ignoring all the other stupid ■■■■ in your post, you do realize that in most areas of space, pilots ALREADY have bad standing with the local npcs? Yes, I’m ignoring Empire corporations because them “hunting” capsuleers is stupid.
Because NPC’s don’t care about their losses so it doesn’t matter if you kill them 20 times, they will still come for you the 21st time.
Players however actually care about their losses so there is something at risk for both sides.
So having an infinitely respawning NPC come after you is forcing people to take part in a totally different manner to PvP, and punishing you for simply wanting to do something else with your play time by inflicting any kind of penalties.
And it’s also so abusable by generating a large group in a system all in fleet in the same place then all engaging the NPC’s as soon as they land on grid.
So yeah, it’s one of the literal worst ideas I’ve read. Up there with some of the really bad AFK cloaky ideas.
Maybe people could enlist in this hunt/challenge through an agent ?
It would get rid of the negative gameplay of having to log off if you don’t like the event : just don’t enlist.
Otherwise the only limit I see is how to exploit the system : in a corp, only one would have to enlist, the others in corp not enlisting but helping, to make it a walk in the park.
Because players generate content. NPCs are a resource to be farmed. Stop thinking of them as characters, and start thinking of them as asteroids that you mine with different lasers.
Any risk that demands you take it regardless of any situation is not a risk but a penalty. Consider it a “you get out here and fight me while I hold this big stick or I’ll hit you with this big stick.”
Maybe no longer. You call the NPC’s a resource that is meant to be at your disposal.
The mechanic itself is geared towards those who would want to participate by ticking a box for the event.
The event itself is year around and would involve NPC’s having staging points in a system or surrounding systems that would need to be probed down. A timer pops a special dialogue box for those that are part of the event and that are in the region when a site is discovered and a Capsuleer warps to the acceleration gate, much the same as the Incursion channel pops up.
Capsuleers involved in the event would probe down the NPC base and then enter through an acceleration gate that is locked to everyone but them. Once inside they would have to face Incursion level NPC’s in a single dungeon environment that would be a DPS dungeon full of DPS NPC’s, ECM dungeon that has ECM ships and towers and the treasury room full of loot and even possibly the loot that NPC’s scooped up after an attack. The Loot Room would be occupied by both DPS and ECM ships and towers.
Once a site had been discovered and entered a timer would start in the other two rooms that would last for ten minutes. Once the timer expired the two sites would despawn while the activated site would remain for 45 minutes and then de-spawn.
There is no such thing as being safe in High Sec so why are the NPC’s not allowed to engage in the same activity, as long as the Capsuleer consents?
Because NPCs are a farming resource, a concession that players without mining barge V trained still need revenue sources. So CCP created asteroids you can mine with guns instead of mining lasers. If you want engaging content then that’s what other players are for. Perhaps, instead of trying to make a single-player game you should try interacting with your fellow players?