All I hear about is how Ray's working on the mission editor. He's also adding events and triggers. It has been his project for the past few months it seems.

Hopefully once it gets up and fully functional the content will be added to the game at a quick pace. This has been one area that has slowed downt he progression of the game.

I feel the emptiness in the game now that I'm spending time playing it. I'm trying to advocate for everyone behind the scenes.

I keep asing for more things and actions for the guides but he's been busy.
But I haven't actually gone into work to verify this. He could be making paper airplanes all day.

However the guides did get awardstanding and award faction commands a few weeks ago.

Spellcast's idea solves some problems, but I think the original point of this was to metaphorically put three "Mad DOGS" in a cage (ONE system) and let them fight with only the tools they have available to them in THAT cage (system): No Valks, No SCP's, No IBG's or Rev C's. (At least, until they die once.)

Opening the contest to the whole universe spreads the players out across everywhere and it becomes more a "scavenger hunt of mild discomfort" than the "Scavenger Hunt of DEATH".

Ideally, having a hard-coded "counter" of some kind would be awesome, but I don't want this to distract the devs from the making of paper airplanes. (hehe no, I KNOW you must be working hard on the whole mission and hive thing...)

I like this idea.. and remember its not mine its LeberMacs. :) Hes planning this not me.

So lebermac you want all of the cargo delivered at the same time? I think it might be easier if teams can deliver a little at a time and the event coordinator keeps track of how much a team delivers.

And to have the cargo just time out is a waste i think. After all that effort the team should make a little profit on it.

How about if you do it at a station like i suggested earilyer. All cargo is counted as it comes in. The teams unload thir cargo at the station. And to make sure they didn't cheat the event coordinator recounts at the end.

Spell i also like your idea too, but we should try to plan this without needing and dev or guides. It will be easier that way.

JB

I'm planning this? ME?!? The whole point of this was to find a new way to stroke Jestatis' Ego! Ha ha ha haaaaaa. I'm just the idea guy. Jestatis is the planner guy.

Yes all cargo must be presented at ONE time - delivering all the cargo at the same time means:
a) There are many ships out there with the specified ore in them, hanging around until that team is SURE that they have at LEAST 120 cu of the ore. People will really try hard not to die if they have 30 cu of the ore in their hulls.
b) Less work for the event coordinator, he/she just sits in the "HOME" empty sector and waits for a team to present themselves. I don't think keeping track of multiple ore shipments is a good idea, especially if the shipments are small and things start moving fast.

Teams of 7 is good. Whatever the max for one group is. Is it 7 or 8? I think teams should be split along nation lines, just like the capship battles. Although it would be cool to have guild teams. Very cool, indeed. Although some guilds could not shoot each other (I imagine IDF vs. IA using nothing but concussion mines. Speaking of concussion mines, do they affect floating cargo?)

As far as having the cargo time out...
If a team presents itself and it does NOT have the required 120 cu's, then the cargo is forfeit. The event coordinator will sell it at the nearest station and add the amount to the reward "pot?" I think that makes sense.
Remember the ore won't always be apicene, pentric or heliocene. Perhaps it'll be Ishik Ore, or VanAzek. The VALUE of the ore is less important than the FINDING of the ore and the accumulating of 120 cu's of it. Of course, using a rare ore would be best, since what we WANT is to have 20 people duking it out in order to get to a single 'roid and mine it.

I don't know how counting the cargo in a station would work. Doesn't really matter - as long as the amounts are 120 cu or less, we can just do it in empty space.

What should the reward for this be? Every team antes up a million credits? Winner takes all, plus the pot, plus they keep the value of the ore they harvest?

The announcement for the event's system would come at a specified time when the game is supposed to start, along with what "BASE" sector to meet up in. 5 minutes later all players meet in the "BASE" sector, after homing in that system. The WH refs warp to the WH's and report back when they are in-position. Then the type of ore is announced, along with a "suggested" sector to mine it in, where the event coordinator KNOWS there is a big roid that could easily give out 360 cu's of the ore without getting to 300 K. Carnage ensues (hopefully). Mining in other sectors is perfectly legal.

We could make it even MORE interesting if you had to get 120 cu's of Heliocene FIRST, 120 cu's of Denic SECOND, and then 120 cu's of Pentric THIRD. But that might be a loooong hunt.

/me planner NOOOOOOO I've planned enough :)

I like the idea of differnt ores. But how about 60 cu's of Heliocene FIRST, 60 cu's of Denic SECOND, and then 60 cu's of Pentric THIRD. Or make it so that you have to deliver all the ores but not in any order. The only problem i would see is that you might not be able to get those ores in one system.

And i was suggesting having the event coordinator counting the cargo before a team enters the station to deposit it. Not counting it in the station.

And i was suggesting having the event coordinator counting the cargo before a team enters the station to deposit it. Not counting it in the station.
Oh, gotcha JB. I think if a team has the required 120 cu's of ore, then they'll win and just take the ore wherever they want to sell it. No need to have the "BASE" sector be at a station. Instead, I think that there will be quite a few stationkills, since hiding one of your players in a station might be a useful tactic for this gane.

I don't want the ore quantities to be so small that there is never a critical battle surrounding a specific 'roid. I envision a roid of 75% pentric in a sector with Arklan Guardians and around 15-20 players, trying desperately to mine in a hostile situation, and there are so many cargo containers that you can't tell which ones are the pentric and which ones are the scrap metal...

I think we'll try differing quantities later if this catches on. Keep it simple for now, one or two roids in a system that have the requisite ore.

The really cool thing about this event: The MINERS are the heroes.

Ok lebermac.

But do you really want 15 to 20 players in a sector. You already know that with only 5 players in a sector the bot counts jumps to more then 25. With so many players you are talking maybe 100bots. I think will be almost impossible to mine successfully.

I know about defenders distracting bots, but 100 bots that will be kind of hard to defend/distract the bots.

I hope that the sectors have more then 1 or 2 good roids. Even with a “good” mining beam you can reach 100 or 200k by the time you get 120c of “good” cargo.

Just my 2 cents.

JB

I think it would be cool if this event was centered around teams (groups) rather than nations... we already have two major nation competitions: the cap ship battles and CtC.

Yah OK, so perhaps we'll try to stay out of the bot sectors...

The problem with not being nation-specific combat is that Serco can't shoot Serco, Itani can't damage Itani, etc. I think this needs to be nation-specific combat.

I hope that the sectors have more then 1 or 2 good roids. Even with a “good” mining beam you can reach 100 or 200k by the time you get 120c of “good” cargo.

That's just if one person mines. If you've got a couple people in Moths, then you'll get much more ore overall.

.....or you would have to choose a team of mixed nations.

The thing about this type of competition is that you don't *have* to damage other players to win, so friendly fire may not be a huge issue at any rate. It just seems like nation competitions have been done so many times before... but that's only my own opinion, I guess.

Well, the whole point of this event is to encourage massive group PvP with a goal in mind. The mining is only a structure upon which to build a massive fight between nations.

Unfortunately, it's not possible for people of the same nation to harm each other unless their standings are extremely low. So, in order to make the event feasible, we have to make it between nations. (AGAIN).

I wonder if it would be possible to temporarily suspend the inability to damage players of your own nation?
[EDIT] Because I would LOVE to kick Jestatis' ASS in this event... Coward! Coordinate this event! [/EDIT]

What is the reason to set a cargo limit instead of setting a time limit and then at its end counting all the cargo everyone brought back and declaring the side with the most cargo the winner?

I think you would then only need to judges, one for each wormhole during the competition. At the end, they both could come back and count the amount each side collected. Additionaly, the winning team could get all of the cargo everyone else mined to do with as they please.

That's not a bad idea, Pixelcat. I was trying to make it easy on the event coordinator so that we don't have to sit and count a lot of cargo at the end of the event, delaying the win. Kind of anti-climactic.

I like the "play until you have 120 cu's of ore" idea better because:
a) You don't have stragglers "cheating" to get that one extra cu of ore at the last minute. Tough to keep track of 20 people jumping into the sector.
b) You don't have a lot of people who were JUST killing each other waiting around in the same sector for the event coordinator to count ore. I'm sure there would be fights that break out. Cargo gets confused, etc.
c) This way, even Holden Caulfield can be event coordinator - instead of counting, he can just look to see if his 'Moth can't accept any more cargo. (See "Pirates failed Math" thread...)
d) The players will look at things in terms of CARGO instead of TIME. I think that this may be a subtle psychological effect, but if you are carrying 30 cu's of cargo around while trying NOT to die, you will try harder than if you know that it's just a accumulation of ore. My way is more like sudden death overtime. Pixelcat's way is more like a whole game where you don't know your opponent's score until it's over.

I think either way can be good. We'll try both in the weeks ahead and see what happens. Jestatis, you ready to coordinate this? C'MON!

..wow, this sounds like it has the potential to be the most fun event, yet..

-I'm sure someone, somewhere in this thread mentioned something like this, but I like the idea of an empty "cargo counting sector" that a team jumps into, announces "Team One ready to be counted", then everybody waits for team cargo totals to be unloaded and counted in the order they announced their readiness. This way, event leaders wouldn't need to play around with verbose logging; though there'd still need to be three of them

Regarding the picking of ore in sectors with bots, why not? Even with 100 bots, fighter escorts could distract a majority of them while the mining ships dodge and extract. Not all mining ships are as slug-like as the moth, ya know. :)

This also encourages playes to practice active flight while mining... very good for learning VO's flight controls.

I can already imagine 3-4 different roles that teams could be divided into:

Miners to get the cargo and either transport it back to a station stash or hang on to it until the end. Centaurs and Behemoths probably.

Defense Fighters: their sole purpose is to defend the miners from bots and other players. They would fly light ships like the vulture, centurion, and valkyrie.

Search, destroy, and recovery: these guys would hunt for other mining teams and try to steal their cargo, bringing it back either to the mining ship or the stash. They would probably fly a mix of fighters, some with higher agility (vult, cent) for blowing stuff up, and some with larger holds for stealing cargo (prometheus, warthog, wraith, centaur).

Because of the high level of communication needed for all these components to work effectively together, organizing into groups would be essential.

Thurisaz: Yep. We'll count in the "HOME" base sector, once someone says "BINGO!" or whatever. Team One presents itself for counting and the event coordinator gathers up the jettisoned ore. Other teams stay OUT of the sector, and in fact should be encouraged to continue attempting to find ore, just in case Team One does not have enough. If Team One has enough, they win! If not, the event coordinator tells the team to leave, and spaces the cargo far far away, Team One's cargo is forefit and they must start over.

LeadFist: We should try to stay out of heavy bot sectors since the lag will already be enormous with 20+ people in-sector PLUS two extra bots for each player PLUS the original complement of bots, plus 'roids. At least for the first event. The next one we can try it.

Phaserlight: I think that, for now, we have three teams (Red, Yellow, Blue) with a full group for each team. (Is that 7 or 8 people?) If this catches on, perhaps we can have bigger ones with 20 players per TEAM, but I think the Serco might have a hard time with that, and the numbers need to be even. So, baby steps. Start small and grow.

One more thing: This will be an "ante-up" kind of event. 100,000 cr entry fee for each player. Entry fee paid to the event coordinator, he/she holds the money. This will:
a) Keep n00bs out, since inexperienced PvP pilots have no business really in this event.
b) Keep the event coordinator from generating all the prize $$ him-or her-self.
c) Make it "interesting". Don't wanna lose 100,000 cr do ya? On the other hand, the odds are very good that you COULD WIN - 3:1!

Plus, the winning team will get to sell their ore, which should be relatively profitable, perhaps another 100,000 - 200,000 cr. I guess the losing teams can also sell their ore.

Jestatis is chickening out on coordinating this. So - any suggestions for times/dates? When to hold this? How about NOT on Saturday afternoons?

I didn't chicken out man. It is your idea and I have faith you can make it work. :)

How about this Sunday 10pm GMT. That shouldn't be to late for most people.

Or have you abandoned this idea?

JB

Hrm. I can't think of a way to prevent the following:
1) Stockpiling ores at every grayspace system to cheat.
2) Having "outsiders" come through the system with a "Oh, don't mind me, just passing through" and then drop the ore in an EMPTY location where other cheating teams can pick it up.
3) Coming in with ships already full of different types of ore
4) JUST BUYING the ore at a station in-system...

The only way to address some of these issues is the following:
1) Instead of making the event system-wide, it must be a sector-wide event ONLY. Only one event coordinator will be necessary.
2) It will have to be at a station sector. Everyone who participates must be homed there. If you die you re-home at that station.
3) No stationkilling allowed, since you can't leave the sector to avoid the strike force bots. Technically this won't be ILLEGAL, but the strike forces that spawn will take care of the rulebreakers as-is, since you won't be able to dock and you'll have to dodge seekers for the rest of the game, and not die. So be careful.
4) Leaving or entering the sector is not allowed by ANYONE, even if they are not on the team. If players do so, they are disqualified. The station will have to be "quarantined." So we'll have to pick an out-of-the-way station that is not usually visited.

The event coordinator will sit in a Behemoth near the station, instead of an empty sector. The first team to yell "BINGO" (or whatever) will get to the station area and drop their cargo for the event coordinator. If it fills up the Behemoth, then that team is the winner. If not, the game continues and the coordinator sells the ore.

Plus, I think this way the ore does not have to be so rare, since everyone will be in such close proximity, we can mine silicate if we want to.

Okay, everyone: Get your standings up! I'll announce an event soon(tm) and we'll see how this goes. Hopefully we'll have fun and not trash our standing with the station sector that we play in...

Comments/suggestions/critiques/flames welcome.