what i would like to propose is a

CT Lab Artifact-
100 Ship Bots, 150 Drannik Saboteurs, 75 Repair Nanodrones
Produces a consumable artifact that when used generates an NPC called a Sparbot

the Sparbot will be a replication of the player's ship who generated it, but with 100% to 200% of the players Hull, Shields, Attack, and Defense.

The sparbot will be a shareable elite with no minimum lock, but it requires a player to do 10% of its total hull/shields to guarentee a reward. The reason that it has no max lock amount is that it has an ability to regenerate 25% of its total hull/shield value. Each 100 levels the Sparbot will yield different rewards (so a rank 1000 sparbot will give out much nicer rewards than a rank 200 sparbot.) Sparbots can yield anything from new modules, planetary buildings, and buffs to debuffs, invasion attack artis, and even a 10x version of the lazuli parts vault.

Or, make the Sparbot a 1 person 'elite' that drops similar rewards to what i suggested above, but have the same stats as the player who attacks it. And, to prevent a player from uninstalling everything then using the artifact, it will be scaled to the players ship when they attack it. so if they summon a sparbot and then reinstall everything, the sparbot will 'install' more modules to replicate exactly what the player has on them at the moment. They would also have 4 abilities that translate to about what battling an online player would give.
*Cage- wipe all current debuffs on the ship
*Disarm- a stackable debuff that gives -10% attack to the attacking players ship
*EMP- a stackable debuff that gives -10% defense to the attacking players ship
*Repair- repairs 10-50% of the Sparbot's hull. (Occurs when player repairs their own ship with either a credit repair, legion repair, or nanodrone)

either way, it poses a challenge. the player has to 'kill themselves' and see how easy or how hard of a ship they have. This would not only allow more new artifacts to be implemented outside of the ct lab as 'easter eggs', but it would also offer a randomness aspect that would cause players to burn more and more ship bots as they level to see what they get from these elites.

EDIT: to avoid the loophole of removing defenses and attack when battling this npc, the npc will not be bound to the player's damage cap. that way if they remove their defenses, they will take much more damage than the sparbot will take. if they remove their attack, they will spend much more energy. This way it will be most beneficial to leave attack and defense modules on.

In the case of removing shields and hull to reduce the sparbot's hp, any time a shield or hull module is removed, the sparbot will mimic the action, but each time a shield or hull module is added, the sparbot will not only mimic the action, but will also refill the difference (so if a +300 hull module is added to the player's ship, the sparbot will also gain 300 hull, and repair 300 hull).

Idea sounds nice (though I know nothing about higher levels), but one problem.

It would potentially be the easiest NPC ever.

Player removes all/nearly all hull/shields/defenses. Leaves only weapons and cloak installed (cloak to stay off the BT). Spawns Sparbot, takes it almost to almost no hull, repairs, finishes it off, and then reinstalls the previously uninstalled modules.

Now like I said I know nothing about being a high rank - the module's repair costs might easily make this method unfavorable as to the kill your own ship method.

while i see what youre saying for the shareable elite version, for the 1 player version, i had stated it would scale to whatever the player has on them currently, even if they had already spawned the sparbot.


if they want to have to repair often by removing their defenses, thats their decision... but theyll always have their helmsmen, which would translate to defense on the sparbot.

i will agree though that this poses quite a loophole in the build of this npc...

perhaps the npc will ignore the damage cap when battling a player. the player will still have to deal with their damage cap on the Sparbot, but will be taking potentially much more damage if they remove their defenses. if they remove their attack too, they will be spending much more energy. that way it will be most beneficial to leave the defense and attack modules on.

Yes, what I was saying is that the player would simply NOT reinstall the hull, defense, and shield modules until AFTER killing the NPC (which would take few attacks as the player would almost certainly be dealing the same amount of damage to it as it to him). Of course, this would leave the player vulnerable while killing it and put the module 1/10th closer to a repair, but the NPC would not be quite as tough as envisioned.

well, shipbots are extremely useful. by the time players begin to get excess, over half their attack, defense, hull, and shield is made up of artifacts. i think by making the npc ignore the damage cap, while still requiring the player to observe it, it would make this npc much tougher. so if they do decide to weaken themselves, thus also weakening the sparbot, they would also be taking much more damage as the npc would be going over their damage cap, thus depleting their hull and shield at a much faster rate then them.

the only other solution i can think of is to have the sparbot automatically equip the equivalent of all the modules from npcs, all the modules from missions the player has completed, and the maximum amount of all the top tier tech the player has researched, and only mimic the player's crew and hull/shield stats to compensate to their level. that would force the player to have to equip all the modules they have to battle it efficiently.

guess my post got merged with this one... disappointing, but not surprising. either way, hope this gets implemented.