Welcome to the thirteenth installment of the
EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by
CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the
EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other
EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
The first banter of this 2nd year of EVE Blog Banters comes to us from Zargyl from A Sebiestor Scholar, who asked the following: On the EVE Fanfest 2009 page are pictures of prizes for the Silent Auction that was held during the event. One of these photos was entitled “Design your own EVE mission”. My question now would be what kind of mission would you write if you got that prize? What would the mission be about? Would it be one using the new system of epic mission arks? What would be the story told by it? Feel free to expand upon his questions and put together your very own mission!
My first blog banter!! That does make me a proud Scholar I guess. And then I am probably the last one to post on it .. not so proud anymore but I can blame my missing game-time to that. Anyway here it goes:
The reason for my idea as well as a few quite general ideas for missions as well can be seen in my
previous blog post but there are quite a few others as well. As the actual question does aim for a more specific mission below is a short possible plot for an exploration mission I would try to create if I’d get that cool price mentioned:
The investigation
Dear friend. I hope I can already speak to you thus? After all the other missions you did for me and my company? I would ask one more of you which I wouldn’t trust to anyone else. Please just don’t tell the media, but we have lost all communications with a research starbase in a deadspace pocket in . We don’t know what happened, but we do fear the worst. We would ask you to investigate the research center and find out what happened.
I have one further piece of information for you, which is to be kept between you and me. I am only divulging it in case it might be vital for your investigation: The research team there was investigating the eruption of wormholes and a possible connection between them and the EVE gate.
Fly safe!
The mission site itself would show a ruined research POS in a glittering cloud of debris within a ring of telescopes - some wrecked and in pieces and one intact. Around the site there are a few clues strewn about that get drawn from a pool of clues by chance (so that even if a pilot should get this mission twice or thrice, the actual subject studies by the company and the actual dilemma that happened is different).
This is the vital part as I am not a fan of repeating missions. One of the first missions I got myself was Rancorous Researcher, which was great the first time I went through it! (As it wasn’t just about blowing some npc ships up). But it felt a bit strained after I got it the fourth time from the same agent.
Ideas for clues for the missioner to find (and how to get them) are (not a complete list, just 3 ideas to see what type of clues I would like to put into the list of possible hints that are chosen randomly):
The intact telescope houses a container that can be hacked open revealing a document that gives the hint in its description:
Datalog day 38: Finally our long-range telescopes scanning the Genesis region found something worth mentioning: There does seem to be a correlation between the energy spectrum of the anomaly called the EVE gate and the anomalies called wormholes. We will investigate further.
Datalog day 42: Our investigation into the spectra is going well; we hope to be able to send
our data soon.
Datalog day 43: Our scanners are showing the same energy lines emitting quite near us. Could this be a wormhole opening in this very system?
Datalog day 43 part 2: It is confirmed, we are getting a spectra that has an incredible correlation with the ones we are investigating!
Datalog day 43 part 3: We have located the source of the newest emergence: Its growing stronger as well. It seems we have found a way to find wormholes before they open up! But this one it’s opening … oh no it is opening right here … *transmission lost*
Aside from the wrecked POS there are also industrial shipwrecks and among those a small wreck that can get salvaged (like in a salvaging site). Only this time you don’t get normal salvage but a piece of “mysterious salvage” that gives a hint to its origin and the fate of the station in its description (and that has an icon similar or even identical to a piece of sleeper salvage):
Unknown damaged drone processor block: This piece of hardware shows it has to come from a drone, but it looks like it has been modified by some unknown source.
A third hint / or option for a random hint would be a lone surviving scientist in a cargo/escape-pod that hopes to get rescued. His pod is hidden between two other wrecks and when flying near the passenger send’s a tight-beam message to the player’s ship (which gets displayed in local): Mayday, mayday I am in an escape pod near you, please help!
A few seconds after that the local chat says: But please be careful THEY are still near ..
When rescued (when the can is opened and the scientist transferred to the player’s ship) the scientist says via local chat: Thank you very very much . I owe you my life! But please let’s go away fast before THEY find out that we are here.
Gathering the hints the randomly chosen hints completes the mission (getting the data core with the log, getting the mysterious salvage or getting the scientist – at least those three would be my first ideas for a list of hints). But the mission doesn’t end there. When aligning to warp away, rogue drones de-cloak/warp-in/spawn (mostly frigs that do have warp scramblers and immediately try to use them) blabbering in binary in local: No information shall escape.
When the player returns after the fight to the agent he would be highly interesting in the findings and perhaps mumbling to himself about them (in the text message when ending the mission). The text itself would be dependent on what clue was gathered and would hint (perhaps at a still further mission).
Examples for that might be:
- Who would have thought that? Sleeper tech modified drones? Was it the Sleepers themselves …
- So something form the EVE gate is messing with space continuum and creates the wormholes? But why just now? Has the EVE gate been modified? If so, who was it? Perhaps Jovians?
- Interesting report from that scientist, rogue drones overwhelmed the facility, rogue drones being directed by a Sleeper drone?
So much to that mission of mine. Which could hint at quite a bit storyline stuff, or even provide a hint to contact some other agent (like the certificate missions do) who might start the PC on an epic arc or that does reveal a bit of the EVE backstory through missioning (which would be a nice way to involve players with it). It also might be the first of a new type (encounter, courier) of mission: the exploration type.
List of Participants:
1. CrazyKinux's Musing - Your Mission, should you decide to accept it...
2. Zen and the Art of Internet Spaceship Maintenance - First Blood
3. The Elitist - Guristas Invasion
4. The Wandering Druid of Tranquility - ...It's another episode of Design Star: EVE Style...
5. Level Cap - Epic Battles
6. Roc's Ramblings - The Cave of Time
7. Aether - Teach a man to fish...
8. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah - Mission: Tangled Webs
9. Adventures in Mission Running - I can haz spaceship?
10. Nuke Thoughts - EVE Blog Banter 13
11. Diary of a Pod Pilot - Distressing The Damsel
12. Guns Ablaze - Dynamic Missions
13. Achernar - Confidential Report
14. Escoce - EVE Trader - Missions with player adversaries
15. Hands Off, My Loot! - Blog Banter #13, no witty title
16. Inanity and Doom - A question of impact
17. Cle Demaari: Citizen in EVE - See the Universe
18. A Starry Eyed Pod-Pusher - Wormhole Extreme!
19. Mike Azariah - Missioneer, not mouseketeer
20. Casiella - EVE Blog Banter 13: FW Epic Arcs
