I recently overheard... overread?... some discussion on the Starbase Discord about the woes of the game not really being able to be played in sessions of ~20 minutes like you can in many other games. This suggestion was inspired by that conversation.
Problem
This "problem" may not be considered a problem insofar as there is anything wrong with the current way things are. However, the solution I will provide does aim to increase the number of players who could enjoy the game and thus make the overall experience better for everyone.
What I would like to address is the current limited ability for players to hop into the game for a quick play session. If you want to mine, unless your station / capital ship is near the ore you want you can expect a 10-20minute minimum trip one-way, even longer for the rare ores and that is not including the time to actually find and mine the ore once you get there.
For combat things can sometimes be quick if you plan something in advance or are near the moon city. Then it might only be a 5 minute wait to get into some action, but that might require the random chance of running into a stranger who wants to fight.
I have almost 1000 hours in the game (CA+EA) but still feel like a noob most of the time and am always poor. I don't think I have ever played another game where I have put so much time in and still lack resources (whatever those resources are for each game).
Proposed Solution
Story
The Catylist. The Catylist is a mysterious NPC faction that seems to have only one goal in mind: catylize progress and war. They have access to powerful technology that is otherwise inaccessible to normal endos. The main thing they offer is the ability to link into their network of teleportation gates to move endos around, for a price.
Gameplay
Now, what does that mean in actual gameplay terms? The core of this concept are teleportation gates that can be placed on stations or capital ships. They would all link to a hub on either a dedicated station or on the origins. From the station/capital ship gates, players could be requested to come help with your fight, your mining, or whatever else it is.
From the hub side, players could browse the help requests, weighing the rewards offered, the types of help requested, and the expected durations. help postings could be made in advance so players looking for a fight might see that there is a siege in 20 hours and know to log back on then.
When the players arrive at the remote gate, they are automatically put into that company under a role that the company can define the access rights to beforehand.
The gates must be bought from The Catylist and transported to their end locations. They cannot be built or sold. They are owned by companies and could vary in price depending on the allowed throughput of players.
Rewards
The rewards for the players could be either lump-sum, time-based, items like weapons or tools, ship blueprints or even whole ships, entry into the company, or salvage rights. These could be combined or separate and could have different values based on the result of the event that help is requested for.
Players could come with their own gear or be provided it by those requesting help. I imagine some players who spend much of their time doing station defense having a loadout they like with rare equipment they eared from many battles, for example. I could also see other players with the base endo showing up and just being handed a shotgun to man a turret and defend against boarders.
Potential Issues
Item Teleportation
One possible abuse of this system could be a company using this to quickly teleport goods or endos back and forth between long distance locations. Perhaps this could be solved by not allowing items to go back to the hub that were not carried in from the hub. Another way to prevent this could be to only allow rewards to be received at the hub. If a company tried to move material via rewards, random players could also appear an take the requests and rewards.
Small Companies Outbid by Big Ones
Another problem might be the possibility for a large faction to outbid its competitor in a war. This would mean that a weaker company would be made even weaker because they would effectively have no access to extra help.
Combating this would be more challenging as it would require increase in the rewards for players who choose to fight on the losing side. Maybe the Catylist can provide those funds out of thin air or a war betting system could be put in place where betting on the loser will garner huge rewards if they beat the odds.
Conclusion
I think that giving players a way to quickly get to the action that is happening in the normal universe gets around the problems that proposed quick-play modes have with separating players. It also can be a gentle way of introducing new players into the universe by allowing them to join well established players without commitment. Those new players will earn rewards that can be used in the normal gameplay and are shown what the game outside of the short missions has to offer too.
Problem
This "problem" may not be considered a problem insofar as there is anything wrong with the current way things are. However, the solution I will provide does aim to increase the number of players who could enjoy the game and thus make the overall experience better for everyone.
What I would like to address is the current limited ability for players to hop into the game for a quick play session. If you want to mine, unless your station / capital ship is near the ore you want you can expect a 10-20minute minimum trip one-way, even longer for the rare ores and that is not including the time to actually find and mine the ore once you get there.
For combat things can sometimes be quick if you plan something in advance or are near the moon city. Then it might only be a 5 minute wait to get into some action, but that might require the random chance of running into a stranger who wants to fight.
I have almost 1000 hours in the game (CA+EA) but still feel like a noob most of the time and am always poor. I don't think I have ever played another game where I have put so much time in and still lack resources (whatever those resources are for each game).
Proposed Solution
Story
The Catylist. The Catylist is a mysterious NPC faction that seems to have only one goal in mind: catylize progress and war. They have access to powerful technology that is otherwise inaccessible to normal endos. The main thing they offer is the ability to link into their network of teleportation gates to move endos around, for a price.
Gameplay
Now, what does that mean in actual gameplay terms? The core of this concept are teleportation gates that can be placed on stations or capital ships. They would all link to a hub on either a dedicated station or on the origins. From the station/capital ship gates, players could be requested to come help with your fight, your mining, or whatever else it is.
From the hub side, players could browse the help requests, weighing the rewards offered, the types of help requested, and the expected durations. help postings could be made in advance so players looking for a fight might see that there is a siege in 20 hours and know to log back on then.
When the players arrive at the remote gate, they are automatically put into that company under a role that the company can define the access rights to beforehand.
The gates must be bought from The Catylist and transported to their end locations. They cannot be built or sold. They are owned by companies and could vary in price depending on the allowed throughput of players.
Rewards
The rewards for the players could be either lump-sum, time-based, items like weapons or tools, ship blueprints or even whole ships, entry into the company, or salvage rights. These could be combined or separate and could have different values based on the result of the event that help is requested for.
Players could come with their own gear or be provided it by those requesting help. I imagine some players who spend much of their time doing station defense having a loadout they like with rare equipment they eared from many battles, for example. I could also see other players with the base endo showing up and just being handed a shotgun to man a turret and defend against boarders.
Potential Issues
Item Teleportation
One possible abuse of this system could be a company using this to quickly teleport goods or endos back and forth between long distance locations. Perhaps this could be solved by not allowing items to go back to the hub that were not carried in from the hub. Another way to prevent this could be to only allow rewards to be received at the hub. If a company tried to move material via rewards, random players could also appear an take the requests and rewards.
Small Companies Outbid by Big Ones
Another problem might be the possibility for a large faction to outbid its competitor in a war. This would mean that a weaker company would be made even weaker because they would effectively have no access to extra help.
Combating this would be more challenging as it would require increase in the rewards for players who choose to fight on the losing side. Maybe the Catylist can provide those funds out of thin air or a war betting system could be put in place where betting on the loser will garner huge rewards if they beat the odds.
Conclusion
I think that giving players a way to quickly get to the action that is happening in the normal universe gets around the problems that proposed quick-play modes have with separating players. It also can be a gentle way of introducing new players into the universe by allowing them to join well established players without commitment. Those new players will earn rewards that can be used in the normal gameplay and are shown what the game outside of the short missions has to offer too.
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