IMHO, dynamic hive should, eventually, replace all instances of static hive... but the concept of static queen hunting is pretty fun. So, here's my opinion on how hive queen hunting, similar to static queen hunting, should function under the dynamic hive:

Anyone who has taken a Hive Skirmish mission and won it knows that the end sequence, where the hive bots are retreating while you and the rest of the skirmishers are chasing them down and picking them off whilst the mission computer is spamming bug puns into your PDA and vomiting all kinds of credits into your account, is really fun, satisfying, and immersive. I think that Critical Hive Skirmishes should not be available automatically, they should be discovered via following the retreating hive bots from a protagonist-won HS... as soon as a player enters a Hive Queen sector, a skirmish should start there and become available at the station (or, when the feature is implemented, offered to the person who found it while he is still in flight).

This would be one way to discover a Hive Queen sector. If someone is too dull to figure out that they have to follow the bots, the Critical Skirmishes will also become available if all the regular skirmishes are completed (this time, all at once and not one-at-a-time).

Leviathans would be discovered in a similar way, just a tier up from Hive Queens. Defeated hive bots from a Critical Skirmish will go to the Central Skirmish sector and if all Critical Skirmishes are completed, then regular hive skirmish bots will retreat to the Central sector.

That sounds really cool. I cant think of anything against it, so I say do it :)

I don't like the idea of replacing static hives with dynamic. As it is the dynamic hive missions tend to disappear making the static hive the only thing to fall back on.

But you do propose some interesting changes for existing dynamic hives. I do have a few concerns and would make suggest the following changes:
1) With Critical HS missions not available initially from stations there is no longer any indication of how many critical missions are currently active. I'm not sure what a good fix would be -- perhaps indicate the number of crits in the text for small/large/common HS missions or maybe dummy missions for unrevealed crits...
2) After a HS mission ends the NPCs tend to camp the exit point for the bots and shoot them as they try to leave. It makes it hard to follow the bots if they all get destroyed. Maybe a simple AI change is all that is needed here?
3) It doesn't really make sense for the critical mission to only be available to the person(s) who followed the bots back to the queen. Realistically, once the station knows the location of the queen they'd post the mission and send NPCs to attack the hive. Why would the station only make the mission available to a select few? (maybe I'm misreading what you are proposing)

And on a side note, being the person to discover the location of the crit and finding yourself alone in a sector alone against the hive with the message "Good job locating the queen, back-up arriving in 60 seconds" would be sweet!

+1!!!!

+all

only change, one must take a HS, then find a queen.

aiming at queen one must send msg "queen found".Same ith Levi.

Then it unlocks a widely available mission where group leader is discover.

Rewarding for RECON/intel roles!!

I believe Shanktank meant the mission becoming available at the station for everyone. The note was (I think) there because the pilot would have to return to the station to take the critical mission, unless they put a button or something in the other mission...

+1

Aye. As for point number two, I guess I forgot that bots can only be followed after they jump and only players can be followed right as they're initiating their jump. :/ Perhaps that's the thing that could be fixed. It's always been an inconsistency that's bothered me, anyways.

Oh yeah, and I wasn't suggesting anything about the absolute replacement of static hive quite yet, I was just hinting that it should happen and taking a few concepts from static queens.

+1

Recon missions:
1. Get out there, follow bots and find the Queen for us.
2. Once 3 queens are discovered within 2h, it unlocks a "Find Levi" near sectors Xn-Ym
3. General recon/prospecting mission

* When taking Recon mission, it should give a Surveillance Pod, similar to a scanner, but reach 3km. Aim at Queen/Levi/Enemy cappie and 'fire' to report back to base.

Unlocked mission become widely available (for anyone), but who found also gets bonus if those are destroyed.

... I think that counts as something for a separate thread, Alloh.

I do think the static hive should be maintained for the newb systems simply for game play reasons. It makes it easier for them to start out.

Alloh: I believe he wanted to combine the small/medium/large hive skirmishes with the recon/prospecting for queens/levi role.