To initiate battles between factions, we could use the mechanic of loot crates from Rust.
Have a small lightly armored transport vessel with tons of resources randomly spawn somewhere.
And show a message or something to players in close by systems with the coordinates.
The players would be more inclined to battle because there is a lot to gain.
Shattered Skies tried to do this and it failed to encourage faction battles, just slightly increased skirmishes between random players and the occasional faction. The kinds of people who go to fight at these events don't care about the resources of the drop, they're just there for the fight. You could just have an announcement on the server saying "go fight at X Y Z" and people would go even if there wasn't a reward.
There need to be actual reasons to fight over territory.
Shattered Skies tried to do this and it failed to encourage faction battles, just slightly increased skirmishes between random players and the occasional faction. The kinds of people who go to fight at these events don't care about the resources of the drop, they're just there for the fight. You could just have an announcement on the server saying "go fight at X Y Z" and people would go even if there wasn't a reward.
There need to be actual reasons to fight over territory.
It's a loot crate. It's got 20 asteroids worth of capsules in it. Or a bunch of shield caps, rechargers, an ion computer, and a few modules. Some new player's gona want it, and a lot of other people would like to spend less time mining too.
This is the type of thing that could be highly specialized. Not like pirate loot, which is totally random, but with a bunch of packs, like a pack of 1ion computer and 20 modules(A computer and some modules would be a bit rare, so people don't have a billion computers lying around. Most packs would have 30 modules instead[Thats equivilent price, btw]). Or 100 reactors. Or 1000 of each capsule. Or 5000 of each mesh and composite. The list could be endless. Each of the packs would have a certain value, some would be worth more(100 shield caps), some would be worth less(100 reactors).
You may have noticed that each pack is small. Thats because multiple packs would be in each crate. The announcement would state the point value of the crate when it anounced it's location. Each drop point would apear within 1 system of a player that started less than 1 hr* ago on the server, or 2 or more players. Crate value would be randomized but based roughly on how long a player was on the server. Spawns would occur about every hr or two per player. So if you had more players you will get more crates, but if it's sp you aren't spammed out. Notices would go to every player within 3 systems of the crate.
This would create some compitition for these modules and would offer both a good startup for early players and a great alternative to mining for later game players. This could, if near a bunch of players or by spawn, create big battles for major factions(bc the play time for all the players would be so large, the crate would be much bigger), but also allow little startups to try and sneak in and steal some of the loot before they get noticed.
I had to stop the wall of text.
The crates would/could be a random unfactioned(but would prohibit building, ship from the catalog. It would have to be classified as a crate ship by mods or admins(so they have a ship with a storage to use) Crate ships would not fight back, and might go slowly back and forth a sector or two. The size of the ship spawned would be regulated by the power level, smaller crates would have smaller vessels.
If the power level was high enough then multiple smaller ships will spawn, going in a random formation spread out from eachother by at least their longest dimension(to prevent pileups. Standard AI fleet and formation mechanics should work for this when it's implimented).
Some standard ships to start would be things like the tg ships Chris is working on, but run down and/or damaged with discolored armor.
Everything would be configable
*I based crate power on time in game/server, bc I didn't want to mess with how much they had or any calculations like that.
Theres your random loot crate base idea. Now throw it at a wall and see what sticks.
It's a loot crate. It's got 20 asteroids worth of capsules in it. Or a bunch of shield caps, rechargers, an ion computer, and a few modules. Some new player's gona want it, and a lot of other people would like to spend less time mining too.
This is the type of thing that could be highly specialized. Not like pirate loot, which is totally random, but with a bunch of packs, like a pack of 1ion computer and 20 modules(A computer and some modules would be a bit rare, so people don't have a billion computers lying around. Most packs would have 30 modules instead[Thats equivilent price, btw]). Or 100 reactors. Or 1000 of each capsule. Or 5000 of each mesh and composite. The list could be endless. Each of the packs would have a certain value, some would be worth more(100 shield caps), some would be worth less(100 reactors).
You may have noticed that each pack is small. Thats because multiple packs would be in each crate. The announcement would state the point value of the crate when it anounced it's location. Each drop point would apear within 1 system of a player that started less than 1 hr* ago on the server, or 2 or more players. Crate value would be randomized but based roughly on how long a player was on the server. Spawns would occur about every hr or two per player. So if you had more players you will get more crates, but if it's sp you aren't spammed out. Notices would go to every player within 3 systems of the crate.
This would create some compitition for these modules and would offer both a good startup for early players and a great alternative to mining for later game players. This could, if near a bunch of players or by spawn, create big battles for major factions(bc the play time for all the players would be so large, the crate would be much bigger), but also allow little startups to try and sneak in and steal some of the loot before they get noticed.
I had to stop the wall of text.
The crates would/could be a random unfactioned(but would prohibit building, ship from the catalog. It would have to be classified as a crate ship by mods or admins(so they have a ship with a storage to use) Crate ships would not fight back, and might go slowly back and forth a sector or two. The size of the ship spawned would be regulated by the power level, smaller crates would have smaller vessels.
If the power level was high enough then multiple smaller ships will spawn, going in a random formation spread out from eachother by at least their longest dimension(to prevent pileups. Standard AI fleet and formation mechanics should work for this when it's implimented).
Some standard ships to start would be things like the tg ships Chris is working on, but run down and/or damaged with discolored armor.
Everything would be configable
*I based crate power on time in game/server, bc I didn't want to mess with how much they had or any calculations like that.
Theres your random loot crate base idea. Now throw it at a wall and see what sticks.
Yeah, like I said- essentially what Shattered Skies did, just with rewards varying based on how long you've been playing.
I'm telling you from personal experience that these do not encourage large scale faction warfare. You need some sort of longterm territory claim bonus to fight over, like planets with renewable resources.
Yeah, like I said- essentially what Shattered Skies did, just with rewards varying based on how long you've been playing.
I'm telling you from personal experience that these do not encourage large scale faction warfare. You need some sort of longterm territory claim bonus to fight over, like planets with renewable resources.
My random idea that I had just a moment ago for an incentive to hold regions are trading guild routes.
So the trading guild exists and is a big part of the universe, right? Why not expand that role to encourage territorial divisions between factions.
Factions controlling territory containing Trading Guild routes could have several benefits, such as lower prices, increased resource count in shops, or the ability to tax the Trading Guild/some other way to generate revenue.
Additionally, by holding and blockading a system through which a trading route passes, a faction can cut off Trading Guild access to a certain area, and could possibly have that suppressed flow of goods and money instead be distributed along the still-working trade route.
Think of it like the wormhole web, only more common, with many lines of trade running throughout the galaxy, each one containing a node that services a cluster of systems. Those nodes could also be locations for large Trading Guild stations and fleet activity.
Actually, using TG stations as nodes for this trade-route system is a neat idea. A TG station spawns, and creates a series of trade routes with planetary populations (Whenever we get them) and other TG holdings, including shops. Every time you visit a TG station, you learn the location of all the stations it trades with, and can see the trade routes (Which will avoid stars, pirate bases, planets, and player bases as much as possible....and hopefully will change based on changes to the galaxy).
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