Hi all, I have a proposal that I hope you will all like, the main objective of this proposal is to try and integrate CQC into Elite dangerous universe such that it becomes a fun side option that is more easily accessible, whilst providing a fun and unique play style and career path.
We can integrate CQC into the main ED universe by making it a flavour like Community goals. For this post lets call it community close quarters combat, or CCQ for short. Like Community goals, CCQ is something that only occurs in one location for a set period.**
So let me give you an overview:
You rock up to an orbital station and drift through the mission’s menu, you spot community goals, but you also spot a call to arms for close combat fighter pilots for your (or a) given faction, the pay looks good, just head on over to [specific station] and sign on up
**My friends mentioned it would be cool to be able to matchmake from anywhere by integrating it into a ship panel.
You sign up, head on over to the station to meet your specified quarter master and volunteer your services as a *ahem* combat ace *ahem
You sign up and the ‘quartermaster’ finds a squadron to put you in so you can get straight to the action.
Once a match is found, its pretty much CQC (perhaps with objectives like those mentioned below).
So, in more details:
Conditions:
The types of missions one can expect to find at a CCQ
A look at the technical aspect of this new feature, the aim is to keep the mechanics of the current CQC (assuming there’s not technical debt with the current CQC implementation), we just wrap it in some nice lore and incentivisation with direct access from an in game menu. I guess the brunt of the work would be implementing an entry point from the ingame station menu, but looking at how multicrew works, I’m hoping there’s reusable functionality.
This section defines loose ends and areas that I haven’t investigated:
Conclusion:
It would be really nice to integrate more CQC into the Elite Dangerous Universe. I love playing it for a quick bit of fun. making it a viable career path would open up all sorts of possibilities as well as potentially attracting new audiences what with Ace Combat showing that there is a market for such things
We can integrate CQC into the main ED universe by making it a flavour like Community goals. For this post lets call it community close quarters combat, or CCQ for short. Like Community goals, CCQ is something that only occurs in one location for a set period.**
So let me give you an overview:
You rock up to an orbital station and drift through the mission’s menu, you spot community goals, but you also spot a call to arms for close combat fighter pilots for your (or a) given faction, the pay looks good, just head on over to [specific station] and sign on up
**My friends mentioned it would be cool to be able to matchmake from anywhere by integrating it into a ship panel.
You sign up, head on over to the station to meet your specified quarter master and volunteer your services as a *ahem* combat ace *ahem
Once a match is found, its pretty much CQC (perhaps with objectives like those mentioned below).
So, in more details:
Conditions:
- User must be in a station ‘on the frontline’ (like community goal, it’s a station that has been designated for creating/accepting/rewarding War CCQ missions)
- User must select and accept the ‘fighter pilot volunteers needed’/’ace pilots needed’/’your emperor needs you’ * CCQ mission
- Multiple mission scenarios to meet different CCQ mission needs, similar to CG but the missions are personal goals. from simple, (destroy 10 enemy fighters) to more difficult (destroy capital ship/force capital ship to jump) to desperate (defend station till help arrives (n minutes). These are scenarios found in an instance of CQC
The types of missions one can expect to find at a CCQ
- Team Death match style (lore would be destroy x enemy fighters/ control the skies over planet X).
- Offensive Objective based (multiple lore, examples include target an enemy capital ship/base).
- Defensive Objective based (multiple lore, examples include defend capital ship/base).
- *** not sure if CQC could have maps for the following, but chucking them in anway --- Atmospheric CQC battles/bombing runs/Anti bomber fighter wings
A look at the technical aspect of this new feature, the aim is to keep the mechanics of the current CQC (assuming there’s not technical debt with the current CQC implementation), we just wrap it in some nice lore and incentivisation with direct access from an in game menu. I guess the brunt of the work would be implementing an entry point from the ingame station menu, but looking at how multicrew works, I’m hoping there’s reusable functionality.
- Users would sign up for the mission, then when they select next the mechanics will be largely the same as current CQC. They will be waiting in matchmaking mode:
- They will be paired up in matchmaking with and against players, with AI added for dramatic battle scale effect*.
- They will then be taken out of the game and loaded into the CQC map. The map will be based on the scenario.
- When the CQC battle is finished (incl the exp gained and all that jazz) the user is taken back to their own ship on the station where they can redeem their war bonds based on the CQC points they got or do it all again by re entering the queue.
- Users should be allowed to join CCQ from Elite Dangerous: Arena, this would reduce pure CQC wait times but changes the ‘end of match’ mechanics where users wait in a lobby for the next game to start (as CCQ users would be taken back to the main game).
- A Military rank that can be prepended to your name **outlandish but I thought I’d chuck it in. (So instead of CMDR Dwengo, it would read CPT Dwengo, ADML Dwengo, 1stLT Dwengo)
- Military campaign medals that can be viewed by other players that scan you. The medals will show what Community Close Quarter Combat Campain you took part in.
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- Other normal rewards (money, items, rep)
- Expose users to CQC by making it a more integral part of the ED experience.
- Provide pilots with a refreshing gameplay alternative if they’ve not tried cqc before
- Incentivise playing CQC
- Reduce CQC wait times.
- Allow for ‘quick and dirty’ fun (I play CQC mainly to have a quick bit of fun when I don’t have time for a long running mission).
- Allow users to join CQC matches from ED: ARENA
This section defines loose ends and areas that I haven’t investigated:
- Should users’ pick a side?
- CCQ is essentially CQC wrapped in a nice bit of lore and incentivisation (and accessible from the main game). As such there are two sides, should the two sides be fixed or should the user be able to pick a side when entering? (IE the game keeps the two sides evenly balanced by only allowing CCQ missions for the side with less active players).
- Should the rewards be straight up cash or ‘war bonds’ keeping CCQ similar to combat bonds/bounty hunting, CG ect).
Conclusion:
It would be really nice to integrate more CQC into the Elite Dangerous Universe. I love playing it for a quick bit of fun. making it a viable career path would open up all sorts of possibilities as well as potentially attracting new audiences what with Ace Combat showing that there is a market for such things
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