Donnerstag, 15. Oktober 2009

Epic ideas for epic missions, part 1

Apocrypha's addition of Epic mission arks using a new mission technology that provides more ways for us to interact with agents was great! For that it does merit the "epic" in its name. The possibilities with those new type of agents are endless and as of yet not fully realised. That is why I am starting a brainstorming list of my own with ideas for these kinds of missions:
These epic missions would be quite an interesting way to introduce new elements of the EVE storyline to players. Don’t get me wrong: Novels and Chronicles are all great and hugely appreciated (especially for the scholarly types like myself) but actually being involved yourself in one of the events would be even greater still!

Signature Characters


One vital element of the EVE storyline are EVE’s signature characters. So it was only fitting that my start into dreaming about possible epic arc missions began with these by posting an article about "Meeting Signature Characters in missions?" on the eve-o forum:

First of all I was quite happy to read the rediscovered scrolls dev blog and am really looking forward to see more epic mission arcs. In regard to players interacting stronger with the core storyline elements of the EVE universe I guess a highlight of some such arc might surely be the meeting of an EVE signature character (like as a mission "agent"). Examples might be:

For an Amarr character e.g. it surely would be epic to be able bring a report on sleeper activity to Jamyl Sarum herself.

For a Minmatar it might be as epic to step onto an Eldar Titan and get a nod from one of the legendary elders e.g. for helping in the survival of a forgotten Minmatar tribe.

A Caldari might be honored to get an interview with a megacorp CEO upon getting a report from Heth to deliver (with the choice of either helping the CEO or Heth).

A Gallente would surely be honored to get a letter from his President for a secretive meeting with and advisor who might propose a secretive mission.

And so on and so forth. Even if this interaction is more like PC-agent interaction (well cut-scene would also be HUGE but probably much more time-intensive to implement) I guess such an interaction with the EVE signature characters would help a lot immersing players in the interesting backstory of the universe they are playing in.


I do agree with Sep’Shoni (who replied to the post) that it would be overkill if used too often. It would just be a nice reward on its own to be able to meet an important character.

Storyline Events

The ideas for epic missions don’t end with signature characters though. Events in the storyline could also be integrated into these quite nicely to strengthen the bonds the players feel with the EVE universe and to make the story feel more lively.

This already has been realized as both the Empyrean Age novel and certain chronicles mesh quite well together with the events of the Blood Stained Stars epic arc which is great! Sadly we as of yet haven’t seen its continuation.

Further ideas would be:

Sleepers

All the vital questions about them and over ancient ones haven’t been answered yet. It would be really cool if we as players could discover a bit more info on that for ourselves (even before that said information gets released in a chronicle or novel)!
What about finding a mission item at a sleeper site that gives a clue as to what these mysterious beings are up to? It could even be the start of a mission (like the clues were a start to head to Sister Alitura)?

Jovians

Same as Sleepers I guess. We even had a bit involvement of these enigmatic evil beings already and they even got a cool mention during Torfi’s breathtaking Fanfest presentation.

Pirate Factions

We will also probably soon see these speed-boat missions for pirate factions which sound really cool. The possibilities for these are great as well - especially if it involves choices like to either try to enter a pirate fraction for real or just to try to infiltrate it. In that regard I btw liked the Caldari starter mission that does tempt you with flying with the Guristas.

So far a few first ideas. What would be your ideas for epic missions?

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