Our staff broke out the old whiteboard and wrote down our thoughts on what such an experience would entail.
- Players would join a Concord corporation to join this new experience.
- A requirement to join would be a high security level and/or good standings with a faction such as the Caldari State or Caldari Navy (all races would have an appropriate counterpart).
- Members of Concord would be given discounts on faction ships (Caldari Navy Raven), faction ammunition, and equipment.
- To prevent players from scamming this discount and just quitting the corporation after enjoying the discount, players may be required to serve for an amount of time before this discount is available.
- Concord members should receive a unique icon next to their name to signify their status as members of the law.
What does it mean to be a member of Concord? When flying in high security systems, if the peace is violated (i.e. by players not protected by Factional Warfare or a War Declaration) you will be given a distress call and a bookmark to warp to the crime in progress. If your response time is fast enough you will be able to stop the criminal. Perhaps you could receive information from warp gate sentries as to which gate the perpetrators use to escape? This allows for frantic chases, ambushes, and plans within plans.
But, this style of play is highly reactionary and not very satisfying. After all, waiting for stuff to happen is not nearly as fun as making stuff happen. The following steps should be taken to put the law in the hands of Concord pilots:
- Concord pilots have a license to kill pilots who have a security status below a certain amount in High, Low, and Null Security space. This is to encourage Concord pilots to form up and seek out criminals.
- Destroying such criminals will reward Concord Pilots Loyalty Points and ISK.
This makes the life of a pirate arguably far more dangerous, so they should also have incentives for continuing in their line of work.
- Pirates have a license to kill Concord pilots in High, Low, and Null Security space without the threat of additional NPC Concord forces arriving.
- Destroying Concord pilots will reward Loyalty Points and ISK.
The implications of such a change to the universe of New Eden are very exciting to the staff of The Daily Poddite. Honest merchants could contract and hire reliable Concord pilots to escort them through low-security space. Miners during Hulkageddon could breathe a slight sigh of relief at the notion of protection and pirates can enjoy the thrills of an increased challenge. Imagine the glorious rescue operations and hilariously tragic victories the Concord and pirate forces would enjoy!
The Daily Poddite feels the existence of piracy in EVE Online is one of its greatest assets, but that both the act of piracy and defense against it can be greatly strengthened.
The problem I see is that some systems would be devoid of CONCORD protection, simply because not enough players are acting on behalf of the police. And wouldn't this also make highsec essentially lowsec? Because players have to react to threats in a way much slower than the computer-controlled AI can react (since it doesn't react but is created when the event occurs), pirates would have an easy time killing people who are just going about their merry way.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that I think highsec should be safe, and I think there's something that could be done to make the different security statuses more meaningful, but it seems this would make suicide ganking far less suicidal.
You are absolutely correct, which is ultimately why I don't think you can remove NPC Concord entirely. And perhaps in .7, .8, .9, and 1.0 systems you still have a massive NPC Concord presence. And perhaps you increase rewards for missions and mining in "middle sec" to justify an increased risk.
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea. modified slightly. I do think that the exact same NPC responses should continue in .5+ systems, but additionally players who join/work for Concord (the system for doing so is already in place via Faction Warfare style "join up single or with a corp") could have the ability to shoot at people who concord wouldn't normally shoot at. for example, perhaps something like- if your security status drops to a point where you are no longer allowed in .8 and above all concord players can shoot at you, anywhere, regardless. I think it would be interesting if even tho NPC's might not shoot at you as a pirate, you still have to watch your back for player enforcement agents.
ReplyDeletesecondly, I really like the idea of Concord pilots being able to act aggressively against known criminals. i.e. If you are a pirate and someone has kill rights on you because you blew up their ship, not only does the person whose ship got blown up have kill rights, but all concord players do as well. This would give concord players incentive to "fleet up" and go on patrol, even tho you may not find anyone in distress or a crime in progress, you could seek justice for crimes recently committed.
third, and the big thing: piracy would have to be more profitable, doing something like this would essentially turn all low sec areas into a faction warfare like place. so I think player pirates should get equal compensation. Perhaps! omg idea while typing... they could turn ALL low sec areas into a type of faction warfare.. where player pirates could sign up to associate with an NPC pirate faction, and thus be able to occupy systems. just like current faction warfare conditions where the system's sov would always be "caldari state" but the occupation could be guritas. thus giving the pirates and concord players alike the ability to run missions and get rewards for killing each other.
iirc i think most of the pirate bases are out in 0.0 so there would have to be some sort of mechanic for pirates to get missions easier. perhaps if it was a "faction warfare" style occupation system pirates could spawn "deadspace space stations" when they occupy a system that would only allow players with low security to dock and get missions or buy stuff, and those stations would need to be destroyed for concord players to retake the system?
i think you are definitely correct that there is some untapped potential with law enforcement in the game.
I think this is a great idea. It reminds me of how APB worked, a little. When criminals would start doing criminal things, an APB would be put out on them. If you were available to PvP, you just accept the mission and start heading towards the scene of the crime. If not, you could pass on it, but if you pass too many times, your prestige/notoriety (used to unlock cooler weapons, vehicles, and clothes) drops.
ReplyDeleteI also like PsyKrow's ideas about integrating it into faction warfare.