As it stands now, Vendetta seems to have very little in the way of special events. I know there's the occasional dueling ladder, but those are run by players; there's a real lack of admin-created opportunities.

A special event could be any of a number of things. Basically, an administrator decides to hold one. He may or may not announce it in advance, depending on the type of event.

For example, a possible event could involve a nation capital ship and/or escorts, which attempt to clear a particular gray-space sector of a bot "infestation". Such an "infestation" would consist of at least 2 hive queens and a big swarm of advanced bots. Since the nation task force can't deal with it on its own, it calls for player help. Participants receive a sizable XP reward when the sector is cleared... et cetera, et cetera.

Many variations are possible. I'd just like to see scheduled and/or unexpected events that serve to draw people together. Hopefully something inventive and new, not just a CtC remake.

An interesting idea regarding a bot infestation. Perhaps a hive swarm in a station-occupied sector would be one scenario and bots camping a wormhole as a second. Neither would be fun for players spawning at that station or coming through the wormhole. But that's why a player-based task-force would be required to resolve things.

For those interested in mining endeavors what about a cataclysmic event where a planet is impacted by a *massive* asteroid, the planet either blows up or loses a significant chunk of its mass and the resulting debris field is full of highly valuable ore -- for a finite period of time. There is the danger of many rotating 'roids; the danger of other-nation prospectors mining in the same sector and the constant risk of hive bots investigating. This type of event could also create new 'roid fields in existing systems/sectors.

Special events could also involve things (ships, ores, tech) that are not normally present. They could be automated to happen once a week (random day, time) and be pre-announced in the news (such and such a thing spotted heading toward X, expected to arrive at Y). Here's some examples that borrow from Master of Orion:

Space Crystal attacks sectors: destroy it for special ore
Antaran Fleet attacks sectors: destroy it for combat XP
Defender of Orion discovered: destroy it for new weapon

Heh... I remember the Space Crystal. The easiest way to deal with it was to massively missilespam. (i.e. put 1 Hyper-X missile launcher on a small chassis and build 10,000 of them) What about the giant amoeba?
I'm not sure about this idea; it would serve to add an unneeded factor of randomness to the game, but it would also probably be quite fun to participate in the events.
-:sigma.SB