Topic: an island for solo/small group scavenging and pvp
I had a moment of inspiration which I will now sacrifice to the internet
Lore explanation:
A catastrophic electromagnetic storm temporarily wrecked havoc with the teleport networks. In the aftermath archaeologists examining the network discovered nodes, which lead to an island contested by all three Nian empires. The island consist of the remains of a once prosperous but now largely ruined city. Wrecked pylons discharge enormous arcs of lighting into the atmosphere. Pipelines leak gases submerging the metropolis in a murky smog. There is consistent background interference (Baseline masking is also increased). The teleport network on this island is disrupted and unpredictable. The locations to which the teleports lead have become scrambled and are, as far as anyone can tell, randomly chosen every time the teleport is activated
Squads of robots from all three empire lead by observers roam the island and occasionally clash. These squads usually follow specific routes unless they detect a sufficiently dense gathering of intruders. Early explorers swiftly discovered that gathering into groups of more than 3-4 assault bots, or even fewer mechs, attracts the attention of these small armies.
Searching through occasional wreckage initially drew only the bravest or most foolish scavengers. This was until a certain innovator designed a small automated deployable device which would crawl through inaccessible ruins coming out at a different location with as much valuable material and/or data as it could salvage.
Gameplay details:
Randomised teleporting locations would prevent people from entering the island in large groups at a single location. It would also discourage gate camping to some degree.
Players could deploy a device, which would after a period of time come out at a nearby location with random loot. The value of the loot would be adjusted based on the survival rate of player visitors to the island to ensure that its worth the risk/time but not imbalanced. The time delay would encourage pvp as players could attempt steal each other’s salvage. No special module and few skills would be required to operate this device. The point of this would be so people can fit their bots for pvp, and not have to gimp them if they want to scavenge as well.
Large groups would be impractical on these islands due to interference and aggression from NPCs. Also sites where the salvaging device could be used would be scattered far enough apart to make it not profitable for too many people to wait around for a single salvaging device.
TLDR: Several new telporters become available on alpha islands. Each time one of these is used the robot is teleported to one of 10-20 randomly chosen locations on a special beta island. This beta island is a ruined city maze with high background interference and groups of NPCs which will converge on clumps of intruder bigger than 3-4 assaults or 2 mechs. The island is rich in nuggets of resources which do not need special skill to be extracted but do need to be found.
The point being to encourage solo/small group exploration, and to create exciting but easily accessible content for everyone.
-Confucius