Idea: Sky is Falling game event (sorry, long)

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Akkamaddi
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Idea: Sky is Falling game event (sorry, long)

Post by Akkamaddi »

Hi everyone.

I found an old post with an idea that I think is worth revisiting.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1144

I’ve been mulling this for about a couple weeks. Sorry, it’s a bit long.

The idea is a somewhat-randomized “The Sky is Falling” game event. This would not be completely random, and would require a little prep from Coops, so my ideas try to lessen change to existing code. I am trying to base these on things already in the game.

These are all ideas, any values presented would need tweaking.

The basic premise is a non-combat RAID like temporary event. Some big hunk of Falling Doom appears in a system. The first day, it is locked to most players (something on that later). There is a game announcement that “A rogue asteroid cluster moving at high velocity appeared in Bedlam heading to Ockker Station,” or “A failed planetary core, probably ejected from an ancient nova, appeared in Phidarin, and is an imminent threat to Hebid!”.

The next day, players have access to the Falling Doom. There are multiple ideas present here, essentially having a different kind of event for different kinds of job focuses. Players have ten days to destroy the Falling Doom in a particular way. The destruction of the Falling Doom is collaborative, like RAID combat, but the Doom does not regenerate.

The Falling Doom is heading towards a planet. If the Doom is not destroyed, one hour before planet-fall, the Falling Doom becomes inaccessible for further damaging. When it hits the planet, the primary NPC settlement on the planet suffers major damage and becomes inaccessible for up to ten days. The percentage of structure remaining for the Doom is the percentage of the ten day period that the settlement struck becomes too dangerous for players to land. So, an untouched Doom could disable a settlement for the full ten days, while a Doom that is nearly destroyed would only disable the settlement for a few hours.

Player settlements on the target planet would be struck for damage, if level 3 or higher, but the damage should not be crippling. This should not be a way to destroy player settlements.

The ideas below are each a kind of Falling Doom. Each section has a “Sugar”, to lure players into participating, and “Coopsy £ove”, an idea for a flash sale to coax players into spending at the shop. There is also a new CE store item at the end. When the sugar is cross-listed loot types, this should not be seen as diluting their value, as it would be for a short term event. The loots would be re-generated for each encounter, so if one Failed Core introduces Zenithius to the economy, the next one will likely not.

If a Falling Doom actually hits a settlement, that would be a good excuse to renovate that settlement. A falling Asteroid Field or Failed Core would also be an excellent reason to add an ORSA field to a planet. A crashed Wreck Hulk would be a good site for a Barter Store, while an Abandoned Megastructure would be a great site for a new ship device shop (or two)!


# Asteroid Field – Mining

The Falling Doom is a high velocity asteroid field. If the players destroy enough asteroids by mining them, the field is reduced to harmless rubble that will create a beautiful shower of falling stars.

The asteroid field has 100,000 “hit points”. It is damaged when ores are actually extracted. So, a player that ignores Ore or the cheap stuff doesn’t help. If the incentive is to save the settlement, it is best to grab everything. Simply hitting the mining laser does not help. Players could start being selective, but there would be increasing pressure to grab everything produced.

For the available resources, merge two different existing regions. If possible, do not eliminate duplicate entries, so the universal ores (Iron, Boron) are very common. However, a miner could find a greater diversity of ores, such as Eureka Ore and Pachysite together, and a good diversity of fragments.

If the Asteroid Field is not destroyed, players actively mining are ejected from the mining interface at the one hour mark.

If there is no Orbital Refinery, drones could be eliminated. Otherwise, the local governments and FoM could set up courier services to “link” the Asteroid Field of Doom to the nearest Orbital Refinery, and all drones deposit in that Refinery. Any active drones are returned to the players ship if the Field is not destroyed and the one-hour cutoff is hit, with the resources tied to the appropriate Refinery.

If drones are allowed, increase the structure points of the Asteroid Field.

The Sugar: At three new entries to the ore table for that specific Asteroid Field, at effective scan rating of 20, 50, and 80. For the lower level entries, they can be resources normally available at a much higher scan rating. The Field could be plentiful in Novastone Gas or Xerinium Gas. For the higher rating resources, add ores normally not found mining. The description for Byzilliam Ore says it was once common in asteroid belts, and the other advanced refined ores are a possibility. These could be any (not explicitly named “Refined”) materials. (Dyterium Ore would work, but Refined Dyterium would not make sense.) The SR80 material could be a dark matter resource. Combat or Exploration loot (Bullon Gas or Amaranthine) would be a good addition.

Coopsy £ove: Ten day Mining flash sale! 10% off Fuel Packs, Rigal Scanners, and Mining skill pack.
Mining burns a lot of fuel, so all Fuel Packs are 10% off, and give a bonus 10% more fuel.
If a Rigal Scanner is purchased, get 1K fuel for each “level” of the scanner purchased, and a single month PA.
Each Mining Skill Pack also grants 1 month PA.


# Asteroid Field – Drones

This is similar to the Asteroid Field above, but it is moving at too high speed to allow players to dock. Players must deploy mining drones, and the Falling Doom Asteroid Field is only diminished by resources removed by drones, both normal and advanced.

The Asteroid Field starts with 100,000 “hit points”, and each unit of ore (including resources pulled by advanced mining drones) reduces it point-per-unit. (A player deploying five Hermes drones will “damage” the Field by 125 units per hour.)

For advanced mining drones, merge two existing asteroid fields so the drones procure very diverse ores, making it a valuable target.

The regional governments and FoM would set up a courier system to shuttle ores automatically to a designated nearby Orbital Refinery, which could potentially be a few systems away. If a drone is recalled, everything goes to the designated refinery. If the drones are ejected due to imminent planet strike, the drones return to the player’s ship, and the ore goes to the designated Refinery.

Sugar: This requires a bit of design work. The amount of ores each player pulls is tracked. If the Field is destroyed, FoM, ORSA, and regional powers are able to recover valuable resources, which are shared with the players, on a per-100, per-1000, and per-10000 basis. These resources are placed on a nearby settlement (with storage and transport) a few days after the event.

For example:
Per 100 units the player extracts, 5 Ozablese Fragments and 5 Ravenrock Ore deposited for the player.
Per 1000 units the player extracts, 10 Eureka Ore, 2 Ozablese units, and 2 Trigenite Ore deposited for the player.
Per 10000 units the player extracts, 5 units of Chromogen and 10 units of Uranium deposited for the player.

Coopsy £ove: 10% flash sale on advanced mining drones, Drone Point Expander License, and Drone Skill packs.
Each Mining Skill Pack also grants 1 month PA.


# Wreck Hulk – Salvage

The Falling Doom is a Wreck Hulk, a massive wreck of a star fighter carrier from an old war, a failed star base, a “failed” generation ship from the Core, or even something unknown.

The Wreck Hulk has 100,000 structure points, which are sheared off by cutting *and collecting* salvage. It is massive enough that dozens of ships can attach, requiring only the most basic Agro salvage scanner to dock. The captain then cuts away until his/her cargo is full, which is then emptied to start over.

If possible, and depending on the difficulty in coding this, give each section a cap of 25,000 or 20,000 structure points, so that some diversity of what is mined is enforced. This is entirely optional.

Once the structure is depleted, the Wreck Hulk is weakened enough that local governments can use demolition teams to safely destroy it.

If possible, make both standard (energy/kinetic) and plasma weapons work on the Wreck Hulk, so that sections of the player base are not excluded.

Sugar: This is an idea that may take some work, and may not be possible. Tie the wreck to one ship-type for combat loot, like “Cursed Raiders garbage collection”, or “Hades Barnacle pirate”. Each time the salvage weapon is fired, the captain has a 1% chance per mastery level of that section to pull one loot type from the combat loot table rather than the standard salvage loot. So, if the captain is at level 5 on Engine Room, and he is salvaging in the Engine Room, he has a 5% chance per salvage weapon fire of pulling from the prespecified ship combat loot. If he moves to Life Support, where he is at level 2, the chance per fire drops to 2%.

If that can not be done, add one new resource to each ship section (or distribute four or six among the twelve) at level 3-5.

And, if that is not possible, just double the chance of “wreckage found” events and let it be a random loot haul.

Coopsy £ove: Ten day Salvaging flash sale! 10% off Fuel Packs, Wreck Extender, and weapon skill packs.
Salvaging burns a lot of fuel, so all Fuel Packs are 10% off, and give a bonus 10% more fuel.
If a Wreck Extender is purchased, get 1K fuel for each “level” of the device purchased, and a single month PA.
Each Weapon Skill Pack also grants 1 month PA.


# Failed Planetary Core – Extraction

The Falling Doom is a failed planetary core ejected from a forming planetary system, or damaged core ejected from two stars colliding.

The Failed Core has an emergency promenade built, with the one structure being an ORSA field. The Failed Core has 100,000 structure points, and is destroyed by planting extractors. Once enough resources are extracted, the core will become porous and unstable enough that demolitions experts can blast it into large chunks, and sent far away from the known space lanes, or into giant stars.

The ORSA field will be tied to a nearby planet with Commercial Storage and CSTS. When an extractor is pulled or expired, everything is automatically moved to the linked planet. For the resources available, mix two current region lists. (You can get resources from Sphere planets and The Forge planets simultaneously.) It should also be a very long list.

Every unit extracted reduces the Failed Core’s structure by one point. Because of this, quickly extracted, cheap resources do more “damage” than rare, expensive resources.

Sugar: Since the Failed Core is planned for destruction, safety and environmental restrictions do not apply. The base extraction rate of everything is +25%.

Further, three resources normally available from other professions. Add one with a Survey rating of around 40, one around 80, and one around 120.

Coopsy £ove: Ten day ORSA flash sale!
Survey Skill Packs are 10% off, and each gives 1 month PA.
All CES Extractors are 10% off, and each one purchased gives 1 month PA.
Also, all CES Factories, as well as skill packs for Manufacturing, Production, and Refining, are 10% off, so the resources don’t simply stockpile (no PA boost).


# Abandoned Megastructure – Derelict Exploration

The Falling Doom is a massive Abandoned Megastructure from an old war, or even the Core. Unlike the salvaged Wreck Hulk, the Abandoned Megastructure still has some power, including defense systems, so it cannot simply be salvaged.

This one might be the most work for Coops, as it is based on derelict exploration. Several derelict maps must be created, but they should be somewhat random. They are just small sections of the massive structure, and so can just be blocks of rooms. Or, use the same coding for planetary exploration and just make it infinite.

The player needs a derelict scanner and docking ring, and docks to the Megastructure. The player then explores the section to which he docked.

The Megastructure has 100,000 structure points. It is “destroyed” by exploration. When sufficiently explored, authorities are able to safely destroy the structure. Note that while map sections are reused, each time a player docks, the section is considered new. (Unless Coops can come up with a clever way to make small, random maps of 9-12 blocks.)

Events that do one point of structure damage are entering a new section, a Search action, or a successful Hack, Loot, or Combat action. Unsuccessful Hack, Loot, or Combat actions do not inflict structure damage.

Sugar: For the Search action, increase the “More Luck Than Skill” even occurrence significantly. Also increase the odds of Hack, Loot, or Combat initiating an action.

Coopsy £ove: Flash Sale on Exploration upgrades! 10% off all exploration related items and captain upgrades for 10 days.
Purchasing one of the Regen upgrades or the Health/Stamina Boosts gives 1 month PA.


# Ejected Planetoid – Planetary Exploration

A Microplanet has been ejected from a failed or destroyed planetary system, and this is the Falling Doom.

In short, this works just like the Abandoned Megastrucutre doom and Exploration, but it uses planetary exploration instead of derelict exploration.

Coopsy £ove: Flash Sale on Exploration upgrades! 10% off all exploration related items and captain upgrades for 10 days.
Purchasing one of the Regen upgrades or the Health/Stamina Boosts gives 1 month PA, as does the ECO Repair Manager License.


# Flack Swarm – Combat

The Falling Doom is a massive fleet of low-level combat ships. It could be a Combat Drone or Mining Drone factory has gone awry, mass producing a fleet that will cross paths with an innocent planet. Or, the A.I. forces could have hacked a massive fleet of garbage scows, which are descending on a planet.

The Flack Swarm works something like the current RAID, but it places the captain in combat with one of the 100000 units in the Flack Swarm. Captains must work together to defeat 100000 mining drones or garbage scows.

Captains do not get a Waste of Ammo message if they are high level. Anyone can wade into the Flack Swarm to destroy these ships.

Sugar: A tally is kept for each captain. If the Flack Swarm is destroyed, captains get a reward for every 100 and 1000 ships destroyed. This can be resources, fuel, or even repair drones. Perhaps every 10000 flack units destroyed grants one month PA status.

Coopsy £ove: Flash Sale on weapon skills! 10% off all Weapon, Shield, Scan Tech, and Device Tech skill packs, and each one purchased grants one month PA.


# Media Diva – Player Torment

The unimaginably wealthy child of a powerful tourist destination magnate, who is a prince / princess of social media, has summoned an entourage with an intent to party. The Falling Doom is a Diva.

The Diva has set his or her sights on a particular settlement to party, and is wealthy enough to pay off any government or legal official. The last time the Diva settled into a party, Serphia was such bedlam, that is how the system got its name.

Further, the Diva dominates social media. If the Diva parties, not only will the settlement be shut down to any riff-raff captains of lower stature than Rexx Shredd, but social media will be so saturated with news sordid details that view screens on far flung settlements will randomly switch to the parties to which no captains are invited.
The Diva does have a weakness. While craving attention, the Diva does not like too much media presence. It is possible to actually inundate the Diva with too much attention.

The easiest way that anyone can stave off the Party of Doom is the Diva’s weakness for the social media platform Twiddle. Every 6-12 hours, all captains will be sent a message from Twiddle’s messaging server. (Everyone’s messaging system will be updated by the boffins at Truly Wonderful so that the Twiddles look like regular messages in the captain’s ship’s native message system.) If a captain simply replies to the message, that will re-Twaddle the Twiddle message on Twiddle, generating one Attention Point. Also, the Diva’s publicity manager will forward the captain one of the Diva’s Photographs

The second way is to dock at the settlement at which the Diva intends to party. The Diva does not like too much riff-raff in the area, and a busy port is not an appealing location to lick Vomicine or drink Isomorphic Retrosium gelatin shots. Each time a captain docks at the Party site, one Attention Point is generated.

The third way is to take pictures of the Diva. The player simply approaches the Diva’s entourage and is given the option to take pictures. The captain can take up to three Photographs, though captains who are in good PA status can take up to five, as they classy riff-raff. Each Photograph burns one ship’s Fuel point, as the captain must weave around the hoard of paparazzi and shallow, classless fans who think a selfie in the Diva’s proximity are a sign of meaning and value. Each Photograph acquired this way is worth 10 Attention Points.

Each Photograph, a tradeable non-cargo item, will capture one of the Diva’s twelve most common poses.

If the Diva accumulates 100,000 attention points, the Diva’s craving for attention will but sufficiently sated (for a time), and the location can be declared “not as ‘bazziz’ as I thought” (too rife with commoners) without loosing face.

Sugar: A handful of paparazzi will appear at different settlements in the same galaxy as the Diva intends to Party. Each Photograph individually is worth 1,000 credits and 100 XP. However, if a full set of twelve is turned in, which can be done multiple times, the captain is rewarded with 15,000 credits and 2,000XP, as well as 5 of Sally Longstrom’s Festive Tokens, as Sally is a huge fan of the Diva. If the Diva is turned away, each full set is one entry in a drawing for Fuel and a few months PA.

Coopsy £ove: Be one of the Classy Riff-Raff! In a ten-day Flash Sale to show the Diva how classy the exiled captains are, all PA Account Upgrades are 25% off!


# New CES item: Emergency Responder Certification
The Emergency Responder Certification is a one-time purchase upgrade for the Captain. It has two benefits. First, on the first day when a Falling Doom is present but not yet available (day -1), First Responders are able to begin work on the Falling Doom. They have one extra day than everyone else. Second, when a Sky Is Falling event is announced in the galactic news, all Emergency Responders get 1000 fuel units deposited in their Fuel Depot account.
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Re: Idea: Sky is Falling game event (sorry, long)

Post by Coops »

I think I need a fresh mug of Tea. Made good Sunday morning reading though ;)
A Walk in the Woods helps me relax and release the tension from a hard day at the code.
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Re: Idea: Sky is Falling game event (sorry, long)

Post by pikolinianita »

read some (not Diva Part). I miss player cooperation. In raid you have to cooperate, cannot do RAID "solo".

In your examples player will get most rewards if he don't tell about Falling Stuff to anyone. I'd like more opposite: The more players takepart, the better rewards. So doing stuff "solo" Should be ineffective somehow...
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Akkamaddi
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Re: Idea: Sky is Falling game event (sorry, long)

Post by Akkamaddi »

I personally like the diva one. :-)
pikolinianita wrote:In your examples player will get most rewards if he don't tell about Falling Stuff to anyone. I'd like more opposite: The more players takepart, the better rewards. So doing stuff "solo" Should be ineffective somehow...
Actually, no. I will have to re-read. The post should discuss game-wide announcements. What I mean is the system Coops uses to announce updates, sales, etc. This is a game-wide event, not personal.

Something like this is too big to be a random event for one player.

What I imagine is a few system-wide posts, that *everyone* would see in login.
It would start with "Deep Space scanners show gravometric disturbances affecting space lane beacons. It appears to be a high mass, high velocity object approaching the Talsamar system. Stay tuned for more.

Day -1, all players would get the login post: "Scans show a massive object, which scientists believe to be a Failed Planetary Core, entering the Talsamar system. It is headed to Toyila, and can do tremendous damage if it hits. Evacuations will begin. The Gal Fed and Alliance governments are working together to build a landing platform and ORSA rig. The core is rich in dense minerals and heavy metals. If enough of these can be extracted, the government coalition believes the core will become fragile enough to crack with planetary bombardment, and the largest chunks could be diverted to Talsamar's sun for safe destruction."
(This is the point where players who have purchased an Emergency Responder Certification would get 1000 fuel and have access to the ORSA field.)

Day 0, all players get the login post: "The Failed Core, which scientists are calling Pikolinianita's Purge, is now equipped with a makeshift landing platform, and ORSA engineers have worked to create extraction fields. We are asking all captains to lend their efforts to this endeavor to save Toyila from massive damage. Any captain who is able to lend extractors to the field is encouraged to do so.
"In light of this tragedy, the respected corporation Truly Wonderful has lowered prices on their fully automated CES extractors, to help the captains destroy Pikolinianita's Purge. See details at [link to forum sale post]."

Additional updates would go to ALL players, perhaps also by game-mail, every other day or so.

The point of this is that the information would be spammed to everyone, and it would take a concerted effort by multiple players. Players buying an ERC would have an advantage, but the structure points should be high enough that it would take 5-8 days of work, even with some players getting an extra day.

Also, I tried to make it so low level players would be just as valuable. For extraction, things like Ore and Iron have a higher extraction rate, so a low level player pulling Iron and Ore could potentially do more "damage" than a high level player selectively pulling Tryonite and Dylithium Ores. With the Mining, I explicitly said that the damage is ore actually taken by the captain, so a low level player who pulls only ore is doing just as much "damage" as me pulling Tungsten or one of the Game Gods pulling rare gasses. With Exploration, movement and search do consistent "damage", making low level players without looting equipment just as valuable.

In keeping with notifications going to all players, this is something that would be randomized, but not random. Coops would have to design events (which is why I kept things parallel to extant stuff in the game), but I think he should leave some things to random dice rolls. (I have a feeling Coops has a d20 in his closet he doesn't talk about. 8-) ) However, once, say, one Asteroid Field event is done, Coops should be able to recycle the work by updating tables. Even if only a few of these ideas are used, they can be re-randomized enough to be recycled every 4-8 months.

And as always, thank you for input. :)
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