Earthforce Outposts and Immersion

MasterTrader · Fri Jun 20, 2014 7:05 pm

When you warp into the EF Wild Space/Perilous Outposts, what do you see? I'll tell you what I see, I see potential.

My suggestion?

Remove Fuzz's from EF Outposts. Replace them with intermittent spawns of lower tiered Earthforce/Pirate ships.

Wildspace would have Enforcers and Sergeant Enforcers.

Perilous Space would have Constables and Wardens.

Perilous Space Outpost currently has swarms of Basils and Rosemaries spawning, this should be extended to Wild Space, put Space Blue Alpha Advanced x1 and Space Blue Beta spawns in EF Outpost.

Finally, implement very short list of missions that are given to players depending on whether or not they have Earthforce Affiliation or Pirate Affiliation. These missions would be available to them based on two conditions:

1: They're over level 100 for Wildspace, 250 for Perilous Space.
2: They've warped into one of the Outpost galaxies.

You already have the ability to give players missions without having to dock, as well as the ability to complete said mission if they do certain things. These missions would be cycled through progressively before being reset back to the first, with a fourth mission added if there are enough players participating. They would only become available if a player/players from either side successfully completed the previous mission.

So what would these missions be?

1: Clear out Invaders/Defenders. Basically the first side to have no more presence loses.
2: Secure the area against reinforcements. A stronger wave spawns for each side.
3: Attack/Defend convoy. An East Vindia Convoy is passing through, they have "Very Important Cargo" that needs to be delivered ASAP. Help them deliver it safely... Or not.
4: Should enough players (maybe 3 or more) be participating on both sides, a nerfed version of each sides flag ships should be spawned. In Wild Space I'm thinking an Earthforce Cruiser and a Space Blue Gamma would spawn. In Perilous Space an Earthforce Dreadnought and a Green Battleship.

Whenever a player accepts the mission, one or two allied ships spawn as faction allies towards them. Reference ->http://www.starsonata.com/blog/calypso-update-4-15-14/

What does this do?

This exposes players to repeatable content, the rewards for the content should be tokens. I'm thinking Enforcer Ranks/Piece's O' Eight for Wild Space, and Constable Ranks/Gold Dubloons for Perilous Space. You would be able to turn these in for Gear/Ships/Money/Augmenters.

This means that new players who pick a faction have access to FACTION things and do not have to rely on other players to get weapons better than AI base stuff, they have a central place they can gather these things from. An important caveat is that you should be able to turn in lower level gear for higher level gear and Dubloons/Piece's O' Eight. The faction specific gear should have 3 tiers: Tech 10, Tech 14 and Tech 18 seems to be about right. You would be able to upgrade Tech 10>14>18 by turning the gear in, so it wouldn't feel like you wasted your time getting lower level stuff.

What does this do? 3 things.

1: Gives lower level players a flavorful benefit to picking a faction affiliation, this benefit will last them well into the end game and HIDES the fact that this game has no story at present. :roll:

2: Adds repeatable content that allows players to congregate and socialize, allowing new players to find others and giving Teams who want to recruit a central location to do so from. Just massive social benefits all around.

3: Exposes new players to pseudo PvP/bigger swarms of AI. I don't think I have to explain this one and why its good. It gets them a feeling that the game is a large universe.

And the best thing about it, is that it makes use of things the admins have already implemented into the game! The only thing that would be weird would be a timer system for the missions to be offered :!:

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MasterTrader Contributor Team: Rank: Soldier Main: Hober Mallow Level: 4886 Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm Posts: 3191	Earthforce Outposts and Immersion When you warp into the EF Wild Space/Perilous Outposts, what do you see? I'll tell you what I see, I see potential. My suggestion? Remove Fuzz's from EF Outposts. Replace them with intermittent spawns of lower tiered Earthforce/Pirate ships. Wildspace would have Enforcers and Sergeant Enforcers. Perilous Space would have Constables and Wardens. Perilous Space Outpost currently has swarms of Basils and Rosemaries spawning, this should be extended to Wild Space, put Space Blue Alpha Advanced x1 and Space Blue Beta spawns in EF Outpost. Finally, implement very short list of missions that are given to players depending on whether or not they have Earthforce Affiliation or Pirate Affiliation. These missions would be available to them based on two conditions: 1: They're over level 100 for Wildspace, 250 for Perilous Space. 2: They've warped into one of the Outpost galaxies. You already have the ability to give players missions without having to dock, as well as the ability to complete said mission if they do certain things. These missions would be cycled through progressively before being reset back to the first, with a fourth mission added if there are enough players participating. They would only become available if a player/players from either side successfully completed the previous mission. So what would these missions be? 1: Clear out Invaders/Defenders. Basically the first side to have no more presence loses. 2: Secure the area against reinforcements. A stronger wave spawns for each side. 3: Attack/Defend convoy. An East Vindia Convoy is passing through, they have "Very Important Cargo" that needs to be delivered ASAP. Help them deliver it safely... Or not. 4: Should enough players (maybe 3 or more) be participating on both sides, a nerfed version of each sides flag ships should be spawned. In Wild Space I'm thinking an Earthforce Cruiser and a Space Blue Gamma would spawn. In Perilous Space an Earthforce Dreadnought and a Green Battleship. Whenever a player accepts the mission, one or two allied ships spawn as faction allies towards them. Reference ->http://www.starsonata.com/blog/calypso-update-4-15-14/ What does this do? This exposes players to repeatable content, the rewards for the content should be tokens. I'm thinking Enforcer Ranks/Piece's O' Eight for Wild Space, and Constable Ranks/Gold Dubloons for Perilous Space. You would be able to turn these in for Gear/Ships/Money/Augmenters. This means that new players who pick a faction have access to FACTION things and do not have to rely on other players to get weapons better than AI base stuff, they have a central place they can gather these things from. An important caveat is that you should be able to turn in lower level gear for higher level gear and Dubloons/Piece's O' Eight. The faction specific gear should have 3 tiers: Tech 10, Tech 14 and Tech 18 seems to be about right. You would be able to upgrade Tech 10>14>18 by turning the gear in, so it wouldn't feel like you wasted your time getting lower level stuff. What does this do? 3 things. 1: Gives lower level players a flavorful benefit to picking a faction affiliation, this benefit will last them well into the end game and HIDES the fact that this game has no story at present. 2: Adds repeatable content that allows players to congregate and socialize, allowing new players to find others and giving Teams who want to recruit a central location to do so from. Just massive social benefits all around. 3: Exposes new players to pseudo PvP/bigger swarms of AI. I don't think I have to explain this one and why its good. It gets them a feeling that the game is a large universe. And the best thing about it, is that it makes use of things the admins have already implemented into the game! The only thing that would be weird would be a timer system for the missions to be offered _________________ http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions Last edited by MasterTrader on Sat Jun 21, 2014 2:55 am, edited 2 times in total.
Fri Jun 20, 2014 7:05 pm

MasterTrader Contributor Team: Rank: Soldier Main: Hober Mallow Level: 4886 Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm Posts: 3191	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion Now I know this isn't a terrible idea... _________________ http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions
Sat Jun 21, 2014 1:48 am

Sk1rm1sh Team: Rank: Director Main: Sk1rm1sh Level: 2032 Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2013 7:48 pm Posts: 549	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion I wouldn't call it a bad idea, it's definitely very specific though TL;DR version available? My impression is that content devs work on the nitty-gritty finer details _________________
Sat Jun 21, 2014 2:08 am

MasterTrader Contributor Team: Rank: Soldier Main: Hober Mallow Level: 4886 Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm Posts: 3191	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion Sk1rm1sh wrote: I wouldn't call it a bad idea, it's definitely very specific though TL;DR version available? My impression is that content devs work on the nitty-gritty finer details I've noticed the admins are very good at telling us what they can't/won't do, I figure if I lay everything out there in detail they'll just axe everything they aren't interested in and keep what they are. _________________ http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions
Sat Jun 21, 2014 2:51 am

yclepticon Dev Team Team: Rank: Officer Main: yclept Level: 2002 Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 11:47 am Posts: 534	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion MasterTrader wrote: I've noticed the admins are very good at telling us what they can't/won't do, I figure if I lay everything out there in detail they'll just axe everything they aren't interested in and keep what they are. Actually, Skirmish is right on this one. I am afraid your post was just too much of a wall of text for me to be able to identify the basic ideas and gauge its merit. We do appreciate well thought-out suggestions but there is a limit to how much we can absorb as we read through them. _________________ Hi, I'm Anil, a long-time player turned developer. You may know me in-game as enkelin. I am Star Sonata's lead content developer, which means that I run weekly dev meetings and make sure that any proposed changes to the game receive proper review before going live.
Sat Jun 21, 2014 2:54 am

MasterTrader Contributor Team: Rank: Soldier Main: Hober Mallow Level: 4886 Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm Posts: 3191	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion yclepticon wrote: MasterTrader wrote: I've noticed the admins are very good at telling us what they can't/won't do, I figure if I lay everything out there in detail they'll just axe everything they aren't interested in and keep what they are. Actually, Skirmish is right on this one. I am afraid your post was just too much of a wall of text for me to be able to identify the basic ideas and gauge its merit. We do appreciate well thought-out suggestions but there is a limit to how much we can absorb as we read through them. Change EF Outposts to dynamic battle zones where players who are affiliated with Pirates/Earthforce are able to accept a dynamic mission that spawns Faction Allied AI in order to further goals specific to Pirates/Earthforce. Remove unkillable police officers and replace them with a few killable police. Remove swarms of pirates and replace them with a few pirates. Implement missions to turn Outposts into Battlezones. These missions would involve players interacting in the same galaxy with AI. These players would not be allowed to interact directly with each other. These missions would progress from clearing the galaxy, securing the galaxy, interacting with a convoy, and finally destroying a flag ship of the enemy faction. Each mission would reward successively larger amounts of tokens. (1,3,5,10 for instance) Allow the completion of these missions to award tokens that can be turned in for faction specific gear. Allow this gear to be upgraded as the player progresses so that an F2P can access level appropriate gear by turning in old gear and extra tokens. This allows new players to play the game alone if they are the type of player who wants to do so. Make sure they are informed that the most powerful gear can only be acquired by roaming the universe/playing with others. In order to lessen the work required, adapt the current Pirate/Earthforce lines of gear to this tiered progression system. _________________ http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions
Sat Jun 21, 2014 3:17 am

JeffL Site Admin / Dev Team Team: Rank: Director Main: Jeff_L Level: 1969 Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2005 2:21 am Posts: 3894 Location: Santa Clara, CA	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion This could definitely be cool. I especially like the potential of giving the affiliation some lasting meaning. I kind of dislike this taking place in the central hub of the universe where everyone gets between layers. This might make travel too difficult. I would say maybe re-theme the hub galaxies as Paxian or something, and then put these battleground galaxies elsewhere, maybe to one side of the hub galaxies, with pirate home galaxies out in the tips of the spirals. _________________ For support, please create a support ticket here and I will get back to you as soon as possible. About Star Sonata.
Sat Jun 21, 2014 5:54 pm

MasterTrader Contributor Team: Rank: Soldier Main: Hober Mallow Level: 4886 Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm Posts: 3191	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion JeffL wrote: This could definitely be cool. I especially like the potential of giving the affiliation some lasting meaning. I kind of dislike this taking place in the central hub of the universe where everyone gets between layers. This might make travel too difficult. I would say maybe re-theme the hub galaxies as Paxian or something, and then put these battleground galaxies elsewhere, maybe to one side of the hub galaxies, with pirate home galaxies out in the tips of the spirals. If thats the case, why not put these hub galaxies in a galaxy off of the Earthforce Outposts? I guess reskinning them to Paxian outposts would be really cool, and would let the player know that Earthforce and Paxius are working together. They would be very similar to the idea Recaps made, viewtopic.php?f=3&t=59076, except there would only be 3 galaxies. 1 for EF, 1 for Pirates, 1 in the middle. Whichever side wins the first two missions in the middle gets to push into the enemy teams territory and a chance to complete the next two missions. One thing to please remember, if you are going to make factions more meaningful, is to give the Pirates their own headquarters in the same way Earthforce has a headquarters. Putting Blue Outpost/Brigands Stronghold off of that galaxy would be very useful. Give players who are attracted to Piracy a place to call home. _________________ http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions
Sat Jun 21, 2014 9:51 pm

MasterTrader Contributor Team: Rank: Soldier Main: Hober Mallow Level: 4886 Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm Posts: 3191	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion So is it something that you guys would consider? _________________ http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions
Tue Jun 24, 2014 10:54 am

JeffL Site Admin / Dev Team Team: Rank: Director Main: Jeff_L Level: 1969 Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2005 2:21 am Posts: 3894 Location: Santa Clara, CA	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion Sure. I would say make it an official suggestion and propose it for voting? Or else talk more directly with Calypso, because if anyone is going to actually do this, it would be him leading the effort. _________________ For support, please create a support ticket here and I will get back to you as soon as possible. About Star Sonata.
Mon Jul 14, 2014 3:43 pm

MasterTrader Contributor Team: Rank: Soldier Main: Hober Mallow Level: 4886 Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm Posts: 3191	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion Looks like I'll be bugging Calypso for a little while. _________________ http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions
Mon Jul 14, 2014 4:16 pm

MasterTrader Contributor Team: Rank: Soldier Main: Hober Mallow Level: 4886 Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm Posts: 3191	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions/m ... sus_player Made a suggestion! Help make something like this possible people! If they take the time to implement this at the lower levels they can scale it up for higher end game content, with the possibility of making it dynamic and giving people like Daedalus something to do! (Imagine a No Win Scenario in which the mission doesn't end until you and your squad fail it because the AI you're defending dies! Kobayashi Maru!) _________________ http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions
Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:38 am

MasterTrader Contributor Team: Rank: Soldier Main: Hober Mallow Level: 4886 Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:08 pm Posts: 3191	Re: Earthforce Outposts and Immersion With Calypso dipping out, I'd hope the admins could take another look at this and see how it fits into their plans for the future. _________________ http://www.starsonata.com/suggestions
Wed Nov 05, 2014 2:34 pm

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