Back in subject "Event Automation", and adding diversity to VO's activity while providing a periodic, frequently-occuring event to gather players. This is an complement (not replacement) to both CtC and Convoys family of missions.

Automated perioric event, should happen every (1...6)h (I prefer every 2h)

* Megavoys missions:
-Two opposing scheduled missions, as "(Escort vs Intercept) that Large Convoy". They start and end at given time, regardless of how many or when players join. Players cannot join after mission start.
-At given time a very large and slow, convoy, departs. Missions ends when players dock to required station.
-Convoy is composed of at least two connies and a dozen smaller ships, and fly slow on round trip

-Next 8 Megavoys Escort missions, with respective time and departing station, are advertised in game news. Intercept missions are not advertised, but deducted from respective escort.

* Cargo/Routes: (Round-trips, Cycling destinations
-Departs with with Purified Xith and returns with N3s
--- Ineubis' Odia Mining (Odia C-2) to Itani's Eo's Peace (Jallik M-6)
--- Ineubis' Odia Mining (Odia C-2) to Serco's Initros Border Guard (Initros O-12)
-Departs with Refugee Support Kits, returns with Purified Xith
--- UIT's Dau Senate (Dau L-10) to Ineubis' Bractus Watch (Bractus C-05)
-Random weapons and goods
--- Corvus' Bractus Stronghold (Bractus D-09) to Xang Xi's Ukari Outpost (Ukari M-05)

Escort/Intercept missions offerings per Nation:
-Itani: Escort from ineubis and Itani, intercept from Serco and Corvus
-Serco: Escort from ineubis and Serco, intercept from Itani and Corvus
-UIT: Escort from Ineubis and UIT, intercept from Xang Xi and Corvus
-Gray: Escort from XX and Corvus, intercept from 3 nations

-Escort missions pays as regular escort missions, while intercept pays for kills and recovered items delivered to issuing station
-Additional bonus/penalties from regular CtC when player transports Purified Xith

Only missing feature:
-Create SCHEDULED missions to be used for event deployment.

Last problem, integration with War convoys. For me, no change, simply let them battle!

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Flames, comments, improvements, grammar nazis, votes?

Holy fuck. That's even more complicated than getting a newb to give you mentor points.

Bout nah.

Kirky, those are detais... briefly, I'm asking:

-Periodic, very large convoys circulating with valuable cargo and two missions: one to escort, another to intercept those megavoys.

Why the heck would the Serco and Itani ship Neutron mk3s BACK to grey space?

It would be cool if there was some inside-job mission at Corvus available to outlaws (big-3 hated or something) that announced when convoy escort missions leave and their route... hmmm

It would be cool if there was some inside-job mission at Corvus available to outlaws (big-3 hated or something) that announced when convoy escort missions leave and their route... hmmm

Yeah right, how many people have tri-hate anymore? I remember a few guys from when conq stations came out that had tri-hate, vets wanting to see the stations, as well as a CLM guy that pops up every once in a while, but few of the modern "pirates" (in the most loose sense of the word) have hate with more than one nation, let alone all three.

too alloh; didn't read

Way more complicated than it needs to be. As far as the amount of work the Devs need to do to make this one a reality and do it right, NONE. The amount of work players need to do to make this happen and do it right, VERY LITTLE.

I used to host and run MegaVoys at least twice a month at the least and twice a week at the most.
An event like this is only worth having if you have lots of players involved. As a mission in a station, there is an overwhelming probability that you'd have one player taking the mission unopposed. This creates a very high pay situation for a nearly no risk mission... can anyone say hugely exploitable?

Now, way the hell back when I flew with PA MegaVoys were a fairly common sight blazing a trail from Dau to Sedina or Edras. How it worked was simple...

1. I would announce my intent on Guild Chat.
2. Within ten to thirty minutes I would have ten to twenty pilots gathered at varying stations in UIT space.
3. We would each select SEPARATE escort missions going to the same station or in some cases multiple stations in the same sector... (if the route was the same and there were not enough voys going to the same station.)
4. The pilots furthest from Dau would launch.
5. Pilots in Dau would wait until pilots entered Dau, launch and their voys would meet in the WH sector.
6. On a secure channel we would plan for the crossing of Sedina B-8... (In those days, all of Grey was extremely dangerous, and pirates could be found nearly anywhere a ship might be.)
7. Ten to twenty Phoenix Alliance pilots along other friendly pilots, each with their own voy for a total of between one hundred to our personal record... just over 500 ships, counting PCs, fighters, cargo ships and cappies. Always was a beautiful sight... hundreds of ships jumping in within seconds of each other.
8. Fight off any attackers. Some of us lived, others died... but, we never lost a whole MegaVoy.

In the end... we made some monies, had some great battles and brought sections of the community together for some great combat. And I managed to do all this without bothering the devs or making them waste their time on something that was incredibly easy for me to organize.

So... +1 for some one picking up where I left off and not wasting development time.

And... - a whole lot for the OP.

Hmm.. Ryan +1, thx for interesting post.

@RR
You don't understand automation, do you? Once that Missions/Events are created, they run "forever" unassisted. I really like your idea, but compared to what I propose here is a ugly workaround... while game improvements benefits all players forever.
Also, your proposal is way more complex than mine...

-What if no one joins those megavoys? No problem, more traffic in universe for other players interact, or watch
-What if only one escort join megavoy? Payment is similar to a regular escort mission if magavoy crosses unharmed. No abuse possible.
-What if only rats attend megavoy? They have fun and RP-wise targets to shoot. since it is very limited, scheduled, no abuse possible.

Risk of abuse for Megavoys is smaller than regular Escort missions... since you cannot take megavoy and attack it unharmed. And gives a much better Role-Playing reason to attack NPC voys than take a voy mission and abort it to hunt ducks without consequences..

@ARF:
You have a point... alternatives? Send back ore? Gauss3? Something nation-specific, as Spice, Ale or Flowers?
I prefer a round-trip for extended fun, but make it one-way as regular convoys now is better?

@Tarenty:
For me, requirements should be only relative to Corvus, no KoS required. Why? Corvus hires mercs and privateers for the dirty job, but only those with good local standing, trustworthy... And if someone takes "intercept megavoy" mission he still faces conseguences from factions and Guilds... like, I don't expect to see a VPR doing that, but if one decide to do so, he probably will face sanctions from VPR and other Guilds!

Even more if there are stats for Megavoys as for CtC, or maybe integrated with CtC...

@ALL:
This also can become an improvement to CtC, allowing UIT to participate as escort for one nation and not lose standing with its enemy.

About Devs' time:
Only required "new" feature is a scheduled mission start time.
All other features are easily done from PCC editor. I made a very similiar Proof-of-Concept family of missions in 4h...

I don't see how it is "too complicated".

I do like the general idea of occasional large scheduled convoys.