Forums » Suggestions
Mission trees and special ships
Generic mission ideas? Not a bit of it.
My idea is that ALL nation/faction-exclusive stuff should be obtained through special missions.
Eg, for Axia (when you reach +600):
"Our Guardian Wraith is universally renowned for its abilities to protect and serve our cause. We have decided after much deliberation to allow you to use the ship to escort an important convoy from here to Tunguska, however we are aware that Corvus is interested in the merchandise. If one of the transports fall, you must take the cargo and deliver it in person. If the majority of the delivery makes it to Tunguska Barracks (wherever) then you have our blessing to use our magnificent wraith in whatever way you see fit, and to buy replacements from our stations."
(defend the convoy, get at least 50% of the cargo to the destination while fending off a pair of corvus vulturii)
"We have recently developed a superbly advanced positron blaster. Since you have devoted your time and energy into supporting our... efforts, we entrust it to you for further testing. If you manage to defeat [NPC X] with the blasters we give you, we will grant permission for you to buy the Axia Accelerated Positron Blaster at any of our stations. Good luck, pilot."
(duel a strike force guard, with both of you equipped with AAPs)
"You may find this amusing, but we have been in contact with Orion and found a method of mounting two weapons on an EC-101. Axia and Orion have traditionally been rivals, and we would delight in bettering their "Revolution C" centurion with our... *special* variant of the EC class. We have invested considerable time and energy into improving every aspect of this ship... thrust, spin torque, turbo engines, and now we have the ability to match Orion in firepower. Go to [sector] in the (i forget the exact name) and defeat Orion's champion! Our gratitude will extend to small discounts at all Axia stations, and since we will be able to commercially manufacture our new ship, you will of course be one of the first to fly it."
(another NPC duel against an orion Rev C with you in the axia uberbus)
And finally...
"Pilot, Axia would like to profusely thank you for your tireless work and for repeatedly putting your life in the balance. We have planned one final reward for you, but first we must ask of you one final thing. An Axia medical frigate will be subject to imminent attack from a Corvus fleet. On board is our top scientist, who was recently injured in a laboratory accident involving a hand-held positron blaster. We will send with you two of our best pilots, and we pray for the safe return of all three. The medical frigate MUST NOT be destroyed, or critical research data will be lost forever."
{defend-the-capship with a couple of NPC wingmen against a squad of Corvus marauders and vulturii.)
If any pilot manages all of these missions, they will have access to all the Axia cool stuff, 20% discounts across Axia stations, free ammo refills, +1000 standing, and station guards/strike force moving into formation with you whenever you enter Axia space. In their eyes, you will be a god.
But it won't be easy to get that far.
Now imagine doing this for 10-12 factions. Thats a lot of stuff to do, and great fun too if the missions are varied enough, aye?
And some factions would require you to do missions that nuke your standing with rival factions- so you would not be able to get all the stuff for every faction all the time.
When it comes to the Serco/Itani specials, they should be reserved for the military only.
"Comrade, we believe you to be ready to join our ranks in the Serco Navy. If you can pass the tests we set you, we will admit you into our forces and issue you a Serco Vulture Guardian, the workhorse of our fleets. Passing these tests will commit you to our war efforts, and you may be called upon at any time to defend our homeland from both UIT renegades and the hated Itani.
Your nation will become your sole cause and your sole purpose. Are you prepared to accept the challenge?"
{small written test on weapons/ships/obvious backstory, racing track navigation *hint* *hint* and battle against a pair of tycorp assaults)
"Congratulations! We have seen you flourish among our ranks and your commander believes you ready to fly in our Prometheus heavy assault ship. We will be assigning you many more missions, and depending on your performance, we will award you more specialised and advanced variants of our nation pride. For now, we entrust the Prometheus to you. Use it well."
(PROM GET!)
"Our MkII variant of the Prometheus has an increased hold to allow it to run blockades and fight off assailants with brutal force. If you manage to take this shipment of Xi-Rite alloy to BioCom, they will indeed be grateful to our nation, and your standing with them should improve. In addition, we will inform personnel at our military stations that you have our permission to purchase the Prometheus MkII so that you may use it for the glory of Serco... should you succeed. Fail, and we will disavow knowledge of this whole transaction. And we may have forgotten to mention- the United Independent Traitors have allowed the enemy to set up blockades at wormholes in their space. Good luck- as if you'll need it."
(Run a shipment to a BioCom station through Itani squads at wormhole sectors.)
"Ah, we were afraid we had overestimated your abilities. As it stands, we have heard that you have been marked as a serious threat to the Itani, by the Itani. We would enjoy making you into even more of a threat. Our MkIII prometheus is slightly trimmed in armor and lighter in weight, as well as being more maneuvrable in order to better combat enemy fighter pilots. However, you may have heard of the Itani Valkyrie by now. We have word of a pair of lone Itani elite pilots on the run in Geira Rutilus, heavily damaged. There will undoubtedly be a repair ship sent out covertly to meet them under Serco colours- we have decided to ignore this blatant deception and allow you to prove your true worth. Follow the repair ship as it enters our space from Deneb, and defeat the damaged Itani Valkyries. Be warned, if the repair ship is allowed to do its job, your mission will become a lot trickier than it already is. Of course, your reward for this assignment will be access to our advanced MkIII prometheus... although we feel you will enjoy the opportunity to put the Itani in their place. Good luck, pilot- as if you'll need it."
{Follow a repair ship from the Geira-Deneb w/h to an empty sector with 2 valks in at 30% each, stop it repairing them, beat up the valks, and get the MkIII. woot.)
"Your name is truly feared among our enemy and admired among our own ranks. You WILL become a Skycommand pilot, and fly the flag for our nation on our front lines. There is, naturally, a matter to attend to before we allow you to fly such a monster of a ship, but we know you up to the task. Itani are resurrecting one of their Goliath Cannons. We CANNOT ALLOW this to go ahead. DESTROY THE CONSTRUCTION SITES AND ALL ENEMY RESISTANCE. We know there to be eight stationary turrets guarding the Cannon, and a fleet of three Border Guard Centurions and two of the Itani's best in their own Defense Force Valkyrie. We will of course be providing you with wingmen to accomplish this rather challenging task at hand, and they should be able to combat the enemy fighter pilots. The Cannon is protected by an Energy Shield, of origin unknown. Destroy the turrets and enemy fighters, locate the shield generator, and destroy the cannon. Good luck."
(Big mission. Go into sector X with the cannon after losing the strike force, call in your wingmen to back you up (2 SVGs and 2 SCPs), help them finish off the fighters, destroy the 8 turrets on the cannon, get alerted to an Order of Akan in the area, find him, defeat him, go back to the cannon and destroy it. SCP GET! and +1000 Serco standing, and -1000 Itani standing.)
I have more ideas, but I'll leave them for now...
My idea is that ALL nation/faction-exclusive stuff should be obtained through special missions.
Eg, for Axia (when you reach +600):
"Our Guardian Wraith is universally renowned for its abilities to protect and serve our cause. We have decided after much deliberation to allow you to use the ship to escort an important convoy from here to Tunguska, however we are aware that Corvus is interested in the merchandise. If one of the transports fall, you must take the cargo and deliver it in person. If the majority of the delivery makes it to Tunguska Barracks (wherever) then you have our blessing to use our magnificent wraith in whatever way you see fit, and to buy replacements from our stations."
(defend the convoy, get at least 50% of the cargo to the destination while fending off a pair of corvus vulturii)
"We have recently developed a superbly advanced positron blaster. Since you have devoted your time and energy into supporting our... efforts, we entrust it to you for further testing. If you manage to defeat [NPC X] with the blasters we give you, we will grant permission for you to buy the Axia Accelerated Positron Blaster at any of our stations. Good luck, pilot."
(duel a strike force guard, with both of you equipped with AAPs)
"You may find this amusing, but we have been in contact with Orion and found a method of mounting two weapons on an EC-101. Axia and Orion have traditionally been rivals, and we would delight in bettering their "Revolution C" centurion with our... *special* variant of the EC class. We have invested considerable time and energy into improving every aspect of this ship... thrust, spin torque, turbo engines, and now we have the ability to match Orion in firepower. Go to [sector] in the (i forget the exact name) and defeat Orion's champion! Our gratitude will extend to small discounts at all Axia stations, and since we will be able to commercially manufacture our new ship, you will of course be one of the first to fly it."
(another NPC duel against an orion Rev C with you in the axia uberbus)
And finally...
"Pilot, Axia would like to profusely thank you for your tireless work and for repeatedly putting your life in the balance. We have planned one final reward for you, but first we must ask of you one final thing. An Axia medical frigate will be subject to imminent attack from a Corvus fleet. On board is our top scientist, who was recently injured in a laboratory accident involving a hand-held positron blaster. We will send with you two of our best pilots, and we pray for the safe return of all three. The medical frigate MUST NOT be destroyed, or critical research data will be lost forever."
{defend-the-capship with a couple of NPC wingmen against a squad of Corvus marauders and vulturii.)
If any pilot manages all of these missions, they will have access to all the Axia cool stuff, 20% discounts across Axia stations, free ammo refills, +1000 standing, and station guards/strike force moving into formation with you whenever you enter Axia space. In their eyes, you will be a god.
But it won't be easy to get that far.
Now imagine doing this for 10-12 factions. Thats a lot of stuff to do, and great fun too if the missions are varied enough, aye?
And some factions would require you to do missions that nuke your standing with rival factions- so you would not be able to get all the stuff for every faction all the time.
When it comes to the Serco/Itani specials, they should be reserved for the military only.
"Comrade, we believe you to be ready to join our ranks in the Serco Navy. If you can pass the tests we set you, we will admit you into our forces and issue you a Serco Vulture Guardian, the workhorse of our fleets. Passing these tests will commit you to our war efforts, and you may be called upon at any time to defend our homeland from both UIT renegades and the hated Itani.
Your nation will become your sole cause and your sole purpose. Are you prepared to accept the challenge?"
{small written test on weapons/ships/obvious backstory, racing track navigation *hint* *hint* and battle against a pair of tycorp assaults)
"Congratulations! We have seen you flourish among our ranks and your commander believes you ready to fly in our Prometheus heavy assault ship. We will be assigning you many more missions, and depending on your performance, we will award you more specialised and advanced variants of our nation pride. For now, we entrust the Prometheus to you. Use it well."
(PROM GET!)
"Our MkII variant of the Prometheus has an increased hold to allow it to run blockades and fight off assailants with brutal force. If you manage to take this shipment of Xi-Rite alloy to BioCom, they will indeed be grateful to our nation, and your standing with them should improve. In addition, we will inform personnel at our military stations that you have our permission to purchase the Prometheus MkII so that you may use it for the glory of Serco... should you succeed. Fail, and we will disavow knowledge of this whole transaction. And we may have forgotten to mention- the United Independent Traitors have allowed the enemy to set up blockades at wormholes in their space. Good luck- as if you'll need it."
(Run a shipment to a BioCom station through Itani squads at wormhole sectors.)
"Ah, we were afraid we had overestimated your abilities. As it stands, we have heard that you have been marked as a serious threat to the Itani, by the Itani. We would enjoy making you into even more of a threat. Our MkIII prometheus is slightly trimmed in armor and lighter in weight, as well as being more maneuvrable in order to better combat enemy fighter pilots. However, you may have heard of the Itani Valkyrie by now. We have word of a pair of lone Itani elite pilots on the run in Geira Rutilus, heavily damaged. There will undoubtedly be a repair ship sent out covertly to meet them under Serco colours- we have decided to ignore this blatant deception and allow you to prove your true worth. Follow the repair ship as it enters our space from Deneb, and defeat the damaged Itani Valkyries. Be warned, if the repair ship is allowed to do its job, your mission will become a lot trickier than it already is. Of course, your reward for this assignment will be access to our advanced MkIII prometheus... although we feel you will enjoy the opportunity to put the Itani in their place. Good luck, pilot- as if you'll need it."
{Follow a repair ship from the Geira-Deneb w/h to an empty sector with 2 valks in at 30% each, stop it repairing them, beat up the valks, and get the MkIII. woot.)
"Your name is truly feared among our enemy and admired among our own ranks. You WILL become a Skycommand pilot, and fly the flag for our nation on our front lines. There is, naturally, a matter to attend to before we allow you to fly such a monster of a ship, but we know you up to the task. Itani are resurrecting one of their Goliath Cannons. We CANNOT ALLOW this to go ahead. DESTROY THE CONSTRUCTION SITES AND ALL ENEMY RESISTANCE. We know there to be eight stationary turrets guarding the Cannon, and a fleet of three Border Guard Centurions and two of the Itani's best in their own Defense Force Valkyrie. We will of course be providing you with wingmen to accomplish this rather challenging task at hand, and they should be able to combat the enemy fighter pilots. The Cannon is protected by an Energy Shield, of origin unknown. Destroy the turrets and enemy fighters, locate the shield generator, and destroy the cannon. Good luck."
(Big mission. Go into sector X with the cannon after losing the strike force, call in your wingmen to back you up (2 SVGs and 2 SCPs), help them finish off the fighters, destroy the 8 turrets on the cannon, get alerted to an Order of Akan in the area, find him, defeat him, go back to the cannon and destroy it. SCP GET! and +1000 Serco standing, and -1000 Itani standing.)
I have more ideas, but I'll leave them for now...
/me thinks somebody stole the devs developpersnotes...
Great ideas.. damn...
the only problem with the last mission is that EVERYONE who wants a skycommand cant destroy the itani goliath cannons. And how many times would the itani rebuild the cannon with the EXACT same defenses in place.. so I would think maybe a different SCP mission.
other than that, great ideas, with subtle variations on the themes they could all work out for multiple people.
other than that, great ideas, with subtle variations on the themes they could all work out for multiple people.
Ok, for something like the UIT TD hog and marauder, how about a short chain of missions?
1) "The senate has been watching over your progress and requests that you join the UIT militia in order to defend our territories. However, we must make sure you are versatile enough to meet the standards we set and will not put the territories in danger. Deliver these advanced targeting systems to [TPG station.]"
2) "Ah. You must be the new recruit in the UIT forces. We need to conduct some research on a new weapon to be mounted on a new breed of automated defense ship, and to do this, we require premium xithricite ore. Collect 30 crates and bring them back here. We will inform BioCom that you are working on our project."
3) "Excellent. Now take this weapons blueprint to [Valent station] so they may incorporate it into our design."
4) "Superb. This should fit with Corvus' recommendations. Biocom have been working on an AI program to be uploaded onto the new defense ships- bring the datapad from [Biocom station] back here."
5) "Orion have been working on a way to mount another weapon on our defense ships. Report to [Orion station] and check on their progress."
6) "We believe Axia have been mounting surveillance operations on our research facility. Use this scanner to check if any of the traders in the area have surveillance equipment on board- if any do, destroy them covertly and retrieve the components."
7) "We apologise profusely for the last assignment- Axia were testing guidance systems for the UIT defense force robots. The components you received can luckily be re-assembled reasonably quickly- take the guidance systems, along with our weapons datapad, to [Valent station].
8) "The UIT will truly be well-protected from any threats from either nation now- we may conduct our business in peace! We have shipped the prototype defense robot to the Dau Senate- report back for your reward!"
9) "Pilot! The new defense robot is out of control! Its weaponry is vastly superior to any we have designed before! We believe this to be a Corvus plot to weaken us- luckily we did not start mass production. You must search for and destroy the corrupt AI at once, before the Hive discovers and adapts the weaponry for its own use. Take our Territorial Defense Warthog and turn it to scrap metal!"
10) "The senate applauds you- a true hero. Henceforth, all we have designed and will design will be available to you, and we believe your standing with our neighbor factions has increased as they have heard of your bravery and quick action in resolving this issue. We hope that use of our UIT marauder and Territorial Defense Warthog will help you make the Territories a safer place."
This is just an example of how missions could be easily chained...
1) "The senate has been watching over your progress and requests that you join the UIT militia in order to defend our territories. However, we must make sure you are versatile enough to meet the standards we set and will not put the territories in danger. Deliver these advanced targeting systems to [TPG station.]"
2) "Ah. You must be the new recruit in the UIT forces. We need to conduct some research on a new weapon to be mounted on a new breed of automated defense ship, and to do this, we require premium xithricite ore. Collect 30 crates and bring them back here. We will inform BioCom that you are working on our project."
3) "Excellent. Now take this weapons blueprint to [Valent station] so they may incorporate it into our design."
4) "Superb. This should fit with Corvus' recommendations. Biocom have been working on an AI program to be uploaded onto the new defense ships- bring the datapad from [Biocom station] back here."
5) "Orion have been working on a way to mount another weapon on our defense ships. Report to [Orion station] and check on their progress."
6) "We believe Axia have been mounting surveillance operations on our research facility. Use this scanner to check if any of the traders in the area have surveillance equipment on board- if any do, destroy them covertly and retrieve the components."
7) "We apologise profusely for the last assignment- Axia were testing guidance systems for the UIT defense force robots. The components you received can luckily be re-assembled reasonably quickly- take the guidance systems, along with our weapons datapad, to [Valent station].
8) "The UIT will truly be well-protected from any threats from either nation now- we may conduct our business in peace! We have shipped the prototype defense robot to the Dau Senate- report back for your reward!"
9) "Pilot! The new defense robot is out of control! Its weaponry is vastly superior to any we have designed before! We believe this to be a Corvus plot to weaken us- luckily we did not start mass production. You must search for and destroy the corrupt AI at once, before the Hive discovers and adapts the weaponry for its own use. Take our Territorial Defense Warthog and turn it to scrap metal!"
10) "The senate applauds you- a true hero. Henceforth, all we have designed and will design will be available to you, and we believe your standing with our neighbor factions has increased as they have heard of your bravery and quick action in resolving this issue. We hope that use of our UIT marauder and Territorial Defense Warthog will help you make the Territories a safer place."
This is just an example of how missions could be easily chained...
[enthusiastically stamped]
[original stamp of approval]
[mostly]
What I think you're forgetting is that this isn't a single player game. Those ideas are EXCELLENT beyond anything I can provide. But all over you use NPC wingmen, NPC enemies. How about some real players?
[mostly]
What I think you're forgetting is that this isn't a single player game. Those ideas are EXCELLENT beyond anything I can provide. But all over you use NPC wingmen, NPC enemies. How about some real players?
Have you ever gotten real wingmen to fly in formation with you wherever you wanted to go? For that matter, have you ever gotten real wingmen to fly in formation at all? Looking at what the Proms and SVGs guarding the frigate do, I can see that formations are possible.
Plus, what pirate wouldn't want a fleet of Valkyrie runes following him around?
Plus, what pirate wouldn't want a fleet of Valkyrie runes following him around?
we fly something approaching formation when we fly CtC... Or at least the SAF did occasionally...
Rogue: single-player missions for single-player ships. :P
Anything that adds new and interesting content to the game I'm all thumbs up for. I would be nice to see more group missions too that did not involve botting mindless drones.
I love it.
Yes.