I believe the game could use some fresh mission types, and since the next few updates are planned to include such I would like to throw a suggestion here. Plus I would really love to see some more organized fleet battles, as combat zones tend to be quite chaotic never ending "blastfests" fought over empty space, with no real objective or goal, other than to rack up kills.
So I'm approaching this from the angle of minimal devtime (without knowing how everything works under the hood of course), so aiming for max the bang for our buck and attempting to re-purpose existing things.
The reason for this suggestion (apart from the cool factor) is that, I'd like some missions that are structured and have actual objectives other than "farm faction ships". So the main point of the mission is to attack a pirate raiding base or similar smaller starbase. Starbases would be much easier to bulk up in terms of difficulty than ships, and could offer a much larger spectrum of difficulty for all ranges of player skill levels. Starting from ramshackle pirate bases, built from stolen and salvaged station and ship components all the way up to perhaps military outposts. Bigger stations are likely out of scope, as they could require way more development to be entertaining.
On the technical side, we already have capital ships in combat zones that essentially act like space stations in combat, being largely stationary fortresses, so it could be possible to just create a station lookalike capship. These stations would have subtargets, that the mission would require the player to destroy to succeed, this would likely first require the player to fight the defense wings of the station and it's actual gun emplacements. The station could have several fighter bays, on top of actual ships defending it, which would make for an extra thing to keep in mind, while adding some constant threat projection from the station. Once the objectives are destroyed the starbase could lose power or detonate (or something similar, yet clearly indicating victory). Bonus points if it's a visual spectacle that in of itself would serve as a small mission reward.
On the player side of things, they would accept the mission from a mission board, the mission would be labeled according to the station in question, with matching yet adequate rewards to boot. The fluff could be that the local government wants a rival or pirate supply/raiding base crippled, and need able pilots to assist in it. These could be offered as wing missions as well, which would either provide a much more dangerous station as the target and/or remove NPC support.
The actual mission flow would start with a specific planet indicated as the body that the station is within close orbit of, similar to assassinations. The player would then fly near the planet until the mission objective signal source spawns. The instance the player spawns in already contains the station and its defensive forces. The player may (depending on the mission) receive backup in form of NPC ships, that spawn with or shortly after the player has entered the instance.
The stations themselves could, for starters, be built mostly out of current small station modules, with added hardpoints and gun platforms. Perhaps some extra modules could be modelled to provide for a better visual look and play experience. Another interesting feature would be that different station layouts could have vastly different play experiences. For example a largely "U" shaped station could have the most important elements tucked away in the concave with a much denser hardpoint concentration around the area as well. Or another station that has massive amounts of guns near the weakpoint, but a nice trench or some negative space to maneuver through to avoid the firing arcs. And of course, you'd better kill most of the defensive fleet before attempting a "trench run", as they'd just tear into you.
Extra non essential goodies and fluff could be:
-Some light voice acting in form of a fleet commander ordering the player to engage the starbase, and warning whenever the base launches more fighters and acting as a sort of announcer for objectives.
-Fleet chatter
-Community event revolving around a massive fleet battle against a big starfort, trying to either defend or destroy it. And for the traders a mission could be "blockade running" aka. kitting out your tradeship to tank some damage and deliver goods through the siege of said station, for massive profits of course. Which could actually encourage the use of smaller nimbler tradeships, as the big guys would have a tough time dashing/punching through.
I do think this is doable, and would really like some actual objectives in missions. Or fighting over something, this would offer some of both. Any feedback is welcome!
So I'm approaching this from the angle of minimal devtime (without knowing how everything works under the hood of course), so aiming for max the bang for our buck and attempting to re-purpose existing things.
The reason for this suggestion (apart from the cool factor) is that, I'd like some missions that are structured and have actual objectives other than "farm faction ships". So the main point of the mission is to attack a pirate raiding base or similar smaller starbase. Starbases would be much easier to bulk up in terms of difficulty than ships, and could offer a much larger spectrum of difficulty for all ranges of player skill levels. Starting from ramshackle pirate bases, built from stolen and salvaged station and ship components all the way up to perhaps military outposts. Bigger stations are likely out of scope, as they could require way more development to be entertaining.
On the technical side, we already have capital ships in combat zones that essentially act like space stations in combat, being largely stationary fortresses, so it could be possible to just create a station lookalike capship. These stations would have subtargets, that the mission would require the player to destroy to succeed, this would likely first require the player to fight the defense wings of the station and it's actual gun emplacements. The station could have several fighter bays, on top of actual ships defending it, which would make for an extra thing to keep in mind, while adding some constant threat projection from the station. Once the objectives are destroyed the starbase could lose power or detonate (or something similar, yet clearly indicating victory). Bonus points if it's a visual spectacle that in of itself would serve as a small mission reward.
On the player side of things, they would accept the mission from a mission board, the mission would be labeled according to the station in question, with matching yet adequate rewards to boot. The fluff could be that the local government wants a rival or pirate supply/raiding base crippled, and need able pilots to assist in it. These could be offered as wing missions as well, which would either provide a much more dangerous station as the target and/or remove NPC support.
The actual mission flow would start with a specific planet indicated as the body that the station is within close orbit of, similar to assassinations. The player would then fly near the planet until the mission objective signal source spawns. The instance the player spawns in already contains the station and its defensive forces. The player may (depending on the mission) receive backup in form of NPC ships, that spawn with or shortly after the player has entered the instance.
The stations themselves could, for starters, be built mostly out of current small station modules, with added hardpoints and gun platforms. Perhaps some extra modules could be modelled to provide for a better visual look and play experience. Another interesting feature would be that different station layouts could have vastly different play experiences. For example a largely "U" shaped station could have the most important elements tucked away in the concave with a much denser hardpoint concentration around the area as well. Or another station that has massive amounts of guns near the weakpoint, but a nice trench or some negative space to maneuver through to avoid the firing arcs. And of course, you'd better kill most of the defensive fleet before attempting a "trench run", as they'd just tear into you.
Extra non essential goodies and fluff could be:
-Some light voice acting in form of a fleet commander ordering the player to engage the starbase, and warning whenever the base launches more fighters and acting as a sort of announcer for objectives.
-Fleet chatter
-Community event revolving around a massive fleet battle against a big starfort, trying to either defend or destroy it. And for the traders a mission could be "blockade running" aka. kitting out your tradeship to tank some damage and deliver goods through the siege of said station, for massive profits of course. Which could actually encourage the use of smaller nimbler tradeships, as the big guys would have a tough time dashing/punching through.
I do think this is doable, and would really like some actual objectives in missions. Or fighting over something, this would offer some of both. Any feedback is welcome!