Mission Series - Smuggling/piracy, Getting In With The Red Dragons

[Ryle [N7R]]

The idea behind this is that there are really only three ways to get RD faction in this game. You either start with a JD or JS and just have RD faction from go, you kill about 1000 chavez for hours/days, or you do about 1000 jobs out of the terminals which would take weeks.

I am proposing a content mission set, based out of say an NPC on some out of the way station that gives ascendingly difficult tasks, probably long in nature (on the same level as the 30 and 50 HU missions) that award chunks of faction on completion.

Im not talking about 1 little mission for 100 points that you would repeat, im talking about a full "themepark" style series of missions, say 10-15 of them that would take a while to do, but still be worth doing as an alternative to sitting in glenn massacring blood initiates all day long.

Say something like smuggling data disks, obtaining rare ores, fighting various mobs, intercept a convoy of agrippa ships, scan some nav you have to figure out the location of via a clue chain, solve a password puzzle like the aspiration mission to decrypt secret TadaO research, and so on. The possibilities for what the missions could be for is pretty endless, but the point would be that youd get large factional rewards for doing them. Say uncommon blacksun equipment at low levels +100 faction points and maybe rarer stuff +500 faction for the top tier chains.

The idea being that you could earn through actual content that isnt a total grind, several thousand faction points as you get in deeper with the red dragons, essentially becoming one of them by virtue of working for them as versus mass mindless shieldnova of swarms of chavez for no other reason. (especially for professions that dont have AoE omgz mass murder like any non PW/PP)

I know the idea is very skeletal, but id love to discuss it, in light of the factional changes we all had yesterday and the sheer grind of refactioning toons that were neutral etc before.


What do you all think? Im down to discuss all sorts of ideas, maybe the devs will dig it. Edited August 22, 2012 by Ryle

[Terrell [BT]]

Good idea Ryle. I'm definitely in favor of more mission types, and smuggling sounds like a good one. JE, Scout, and the TT would probably be the best classes at smuggling.

[Mynd [BT]]

Wow...you are "chock full" of ideas lol.

+1

[Shaddex]

I remember being able to gain RD faction from Tzu ? (Not the hampsters) who was in JOT station, and gave a mission or two.
Not sure if he is ingame still...

Good idea though. Would have to be High end missions though.
If you can come up with a mission or two, OR a story to go with the missions, im sure it will get looked at and validated.

[Ryle [N7R]]

Yeah I was thinking like a few level 50-75 missions to start for maybe 100 or 200 faction each and then it keeps progressing upward. Sorta like the idea of a hull upgrade bonus mission that you could only do once, but gave a good chunk relative to your level.

Say something like...

Tier 1/Level 30 missions (5 available) - 100 faction each (500)
Tier 2/Level 50 missions (3 available) - 200 faction each (600) requires completion of T1
Tier 3/Level 75 missions (2 available) - 300 faction each (600) requires completion of T2
Tier 4/Level 100 mission (1 available) - 500 faction T3 pre-req
Tier 5/Level 135 mission (1 available) - 1000 faction + a decent item. T4 pre-req
Final/ Level 150 mission (1 available) - 1500 faction + some nice unique/maybe even uber item reward for doing all 13 missions successfully


So total bonus for doing the whole questline would be 4700 RD faction, a nice item or two and prolly experience for each mission. It doesnt guarantee BBW access when youre done, but mix it up with some jobs and chavez killing and youve really gotten somewhere, even for progen. Edited August 23, 2012 by Ryle

[Shaddex]

is Tzu in the game anywhere ? Used to be in Arx Ymir

[HellHasArrived]

Use to be on two stations, Arx Ymir and Orsini Mining Platform... Whether he is still there or not I don't now. Haven't gone looking for him in awhile.

[Terrell [BT]]

Tzu is in Orsini Mining Platform in the Lounge. There's also a mission called Traitor, given by Meredith Lot in Aragoth Station that gives RD faction. In Live Tzu lived in OMP, then F7, then Arx Ymir. After Tzu moved to Arx Ymir, you had to have at least -1999 RD faction to get him to talk to you.

[Ryle [N7R]]

Level 30/Tier 1 Missions

(Warriors)
- Hunt down and kill 5 Infinticorp mobs 5 Sharim mobs and 5 Collegia mobs and gather intel/loot from the corpses
- Transport a crate of contraband to a location. Upon arrival 2 mobs around your cl will attempt to hijack/kill you. Delivery = success.
- Provide combat support to a small flotilla of RD engaging the Chavez in Jotenheim or Freya. Avoid friendly fire at all costs.
- Defend a Red Dragon outpost from a small attack group of Chavez
- Escort a Red Dragon diplomat through hostile territory in Venus to meet with the Venus Foreman. The RD NPC cannot be killed or you lose and must restart.

(Explorers)
- Obtain several types of ores for the RD, amounts and locations to vary
- Locate a hidden Chavez base in Ragnarok and report findings back to the contact
- Map a safe passage route through some gravity wells in Lagarto so the RD can establish a base near the Appian Gate
- Locate a missing Red Dragon informant somewhere in Odin Rex
- Infiltrate and obtain secret transmissions from the three trader commercial centers (somerled, nostrand vor, ishuan station) through spy contacts already in place. NPC question/answer game based on game knowledge.

(Traders)
- Deliver a shipment of goods to the RD bases in the Aragoth system originating from OMP (2 or 3 dropoff points)
- Construct items for the RD using whatever build skills the trader has. 10 weapons, 10 shields, etc
- Acquire through negotiation or force of arms some Chavez weapons technology and deliver to the RD so they can reverse engineer it
- Acquire through negotiation Collegia/Sharim/Infiniticorp secret technology as a spy and report your findings to the RD
- Using whatever means necessary, make 500,000 credits and pay it as a tithe to the RD cause. Edited August 25, 2012 by Ryle

[Ryle [N7R]]

(Level 50) Tier 2 Missions, some building off of tier 1

Warriors:
- Kill 20 of the Chavez in Venus around the venus foreman to clear the way for an RD invasion of the sector
- IC/Collegia/Sharim have identified you as an agent of the RD. Kill 10 of each in self defense and take their gear to the RD contact
- Return to your contact you delivered the crate to, and he will send you off on a mission to deliver more crates, and upon arrival you will attacked by 5 more unknown mobs

Explorers:
- Assist the RD in Lagarto by mining ores from the field in the western gravity well, and returning them to the budding base as building supplies.
- You are tasked with discovering why the Informant went missing. Using the information from your previous encounter, backtrack the route the informant took and discover who he is actually working for.
- The spy transmissions in Tier 1 pointed to an alliance of the traders forming with the Chavez. A plot to destroy the red dragons? Certainly not. You are tasked with traveling to 4 chavez mining stations and monitoring their transmissions to find out when the alliance is meeting

Traders:
-
-
- Edited August 25, 2012 by Ryle

[Ryle [N7R]]

I know this is all very raw so far. Theoretically I am trying to actually write a storyline for Chavez aligning with the trader factions to go after the RD everywhere, culminating in a warzone in Ceres (which could lead to that old thread we all had going a couple years ago about a chavez sector similar to BBW in Ceres)

The idea is for players to align themselves on the side of the RD to thwart the Chavez Alliance and ultimately invade and defeat the chavez leadership for good (epic raid) Edited August 25, 2012 by Ryle

[Ryle [N7R]]

Tier 3 Missions (Level 75)

Warriors:
- War is breaking out in the Venus sector as the RD and Chavez begin to fight over the venus/ceres gate. You are tasked with going to nav ceres 1 and holding the line for 20 minutes while swarms of chavez attack your small group of you plus a few RDs. If all of the RD die, you fail the mission.
- The unknown mobs are being identified as undercover agents of the IC/Sharim/Collegia alliance to destroy the RD. They have discovered the new base in Lagarto sector and have dispatched a small assault force to destroy it before it can threaten progen space. Destroy the assault force.

Explorers:
-
-

Traders:
-
-

[Falstar [MOD]]

Although I love the mission ideas and stories you've outlined, these are the BAD guys and there should be some downside to being friendly to the RDs. Currently there isn't unless maybe you gain faction by killing your own. Maybe it should be more along the lines of - align yourself with the RD or the Chavez. RD gets you the gate QAR etc, join Chavez and you get something good, access to something, that will actually make you think about which side you want to be on.

Make both sides dynamic like Terran Alliance/Progen Combine looks like it will be, although now you only miss missions for the other side & both gain access to Moto.

Still, love the mission ideas as big multi mission stories and tying things together are awesome!

[Terrell [BT]]

There is more than one possible downside arrangement. It could be something like the thing with the Terran Allinace & Progen combine, though it's possible to get both gates open, if done right. As I also favor more different missions in game, some of which should IMO reward recipes that cannot be obtained through drops, perhaps some of those missions could do faction checks. I think this idea already exists in Agrippa tech. The misson givers could say, "I don't like x faction" if you're too friendly with them, the NPC's actions could vary from requiring you to do extra things to get the mission in question, to not giving you the mission at all. It should depend on how much the NPC dislikes the faction in question and the personality of the NPC in general.

On the RD issue, allying with humanity in general against the V'rix will get you RD faction. While they're the "bad guys" sometimes the there are "worse guys". From the perspective of humanity, the V'rix would fall under "worse guys" when compared to the RD. Nothing wrong with a little moral ambiguity in the game, things aren't always black and white in real life, some things are shades of gray.