Topic: an island for solo/small group scavenging and pvp

I had a moment of inspiration which I will now sacrifice to the internet tongue

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.

+1
-Confucius

Re: an island for solo/small group scavenging and pvp

I like this idea, but making it PVP enabled seems like trouble. I know you added the mechanic in there to keep groups small, but all that will happen is larger groups will break up into squads to roam the island, and converge on the small PVE'ing groups. Or will group up and farm the Observers.

A simple rule; PVP enabled area, PVP and PVE players are enticed to participate/gather in the PVP enabled area, event will be over-run with PVP starved players and PVE players will stop using it.

Maybe limit the number of players that can be on the island at anytime, or have sections of the Island that can't be reached from other sections, and randomly TP players in. This is also important so you don't have 1 player bringing in 3-4 alts, as they couldn't be sure they would all end in the same section; and if they go to seperate sections that's OK. Large groups would just be naturally broken up amongst the sections, and it would just be bad luck then to be a PVE player in a section with all PVP robot vampires with drooling blood red hydraulic fluid.

Re: an island for solo/small group scavenging and pvp

Sounds very PvE free stuff mode.
I don't mind having "Pockets" but I still think they need to be found somehow and that another small gang can enter the area as well if they wish and PvP.

We already have alpha and new alpha for small gangs of assaults to roam around and find roaming NPC's and observers so that's pretty much covered and artifacts are now much better than they used to be.

I am all for more newbie content and 'My first steps into PVP' areas but I don't think this type of content where small gangs can lock themselves away (When beta islands are already empty). I like the sound of this kind of content but at the same time I can see it doing more harm to an already frail community. I'd rather see features that announce what's happening. The game is active but you just don't hear about it. This is why we needed a public AC run killboard and achievement (Progression) system. You could add a NIC sink so that you can delay your losses being posted but up to 48 hours depending how much you pay for loss.

I think everyone is far too focused on making content for small gangs when it's already in the game. It's not hard to take 5 assaults to beta island and have some fun. They're cheap and they're useful. You won't be able to kill enemy heavy mechs all that well but at least you can run around, get a few nice kernels, modules and feel like you have some ba-.. *cough* those things.

Re: an island for solo/small group scavenging and pvp

As an additional:

It would be 2-4 hours in random time (once a 1-3 days) some high solar activity that interrupts teleport mechanics. As a result you can be teleported in some random teleport, with random (but not lesser than a 1/4) amount of hp and ap.

Have a productive day, runner!
R.I.P. Chenoa, you'll never be forgotten.
DEV Zoom: Line, sorry, I was away for christmas.
http://perp-kill.net/?m=view&id=252086

Re: an island for solo/small group scavenging and pvp

Better idea. Make "rifts" that appear randomly. players entering it are warped to a (predetermined) random location (Think wormholes in stEVE...). This location can be on alpha, beta, wherever. The rifts can also appear wherever. They have a masking value of 300 and as such are very difficult to see on landmarks, but are incredibly visible to anyone with LOS to them.