Off Map Invaders

posted on June 7th, 2010, 2:07 pm

One thing I'd like to think is that most of fleet ops is like one huge war. So I was wondering....

"What if forces from other battlefields just come and join the fight?" Basically it is like this. At rare intervals, at least 30 minutes or more. A selection of ships all of a specific race will come into the system (sorta like warp-in). Basically they will automatically join forces with one team of its race. Meaning that if there is a MP came where Dom was feds, Funny was Rommies, and Boggy was Klingons. Incoming Klingon ships will automatically side with boggy.

But what if there is more than one team of the same race. Well, then the team is randomly chosen, but the entire group will be on the same team. So if say Mal and Boggy were both Klingons in one game. One group might side with boggy, but the next group might side with Mal.

It is a bit more like aesthetics and feature rather than strategic. But I'd think that this could easily make the battlefield seem larger if ships just warp-in from other battles to assist in the battle your in.

The only difference might be the Borg. Instead of warping in, they'd more or less come through a trans-warp conduit as if being sent from Borg space.

What do you guys think?

posted on June 7th, 2010, 2:12 pm

Isn't that what the planned hirable mercinaries feature is meant for?

posted on June 7th, 2010, 2:54 pm

The idea is neat in principle, but has too many issues with gameplay balance. If the team that randomly recieves these reinforcements is already powerful or in deadlock it could tip the scales in their favor.

Hiring mercs from a nuetral station on the map makes much more sense because map control is key. Players ships must be in the presence of the station to do the hiring.

posted on June 7th, 2010, 3:04 pm

I really like hat idea, but it has to be balanced, e.g. by giving the other fractions ship a temporarily shield boost, so that feature would mostly be for aesthetics and not for an offensive oportunity

posted on June 7th, 2010, 3:18 pm

What about an invader which doesn't join a side but just attacks at random. Kind of like the mysterious cloud in Command & Conquer Retaliation. At random moments during the skirmish, a cloud would form and roam the map at random. If anything got in it's way, it would blast it with a lightning bolt. Maybe you could have it so a random enemy would do a similar thing, exept in FO, you could have the ability to lure it by setting bait and guiding it to critical areas Your enemy might then try to lure it somewhere else until it gets bored and vanishes without a trace.

posted on June 7th, 2010, 3:24 pm

i dont like this idea.

if it was a fleet siding with someone then it would give them an advantage. turning fo into a game of luck which i dont like.

if it was a fleet that randomly attacked its the same thing. if the fleet appears near one person but not another then it creates random disadvantages.

posted on June 7th, 2010, 3:37 pm

Nah, it's a nice idea in principal. Just not practical. Like communism 

posted on June 8th, 2010, 3:47 pm

I should have known a topic like this would be started by 1337