Suggesting some new NPC's, that require teamwork, cooperation, and coordination between legion mates. Not simply a matter of "he who whores enough damage, profits" mentality. I cannot recall the name off-hand right this moment, but I vividly recall a ship that has a great big super cannon I had to specifically target. Every so often it would fire and knock about 50% of my ship down. What I'm suggesting is an NPC, that has similar "you should lock these module parts and destroy them" features... but, and this is the important bit. Regenerating shields, just like a player or legion base does.

So just being the first to attack means nothing, the NPC would simply regenerate it's shields. Whoring damage would no longer guarantee you a loot slot. Taking out sub modules would be your loot lock in feature, with each module having enough hp to be similar in nature to the current lock mechanic of: deal x damage, wait for npc to die, profit.

Now obviously some players who have just insane amounts of energy and attack could still probably solo these NPC's, and there will have to be a balance between total shield, regen power, and module hp. But in a way, these NPC's become trainers for a pvp. My home legion of AU long ago mastered the swarm method, lots and lots of lower ships swarming a much higher rank ship. Clearing traps (particularly when Halcyons affected the attacker, not the attacked), and paving the way for that higher rank to die. Whether to the swarm of little ships, or for a heavy hitter to step up and chew through the target's (for the time) tremendous hull for the kill.

Currently NPC's are simply getting larger, and larger, with ever increasing hitpoints in both hull and shield, with more and stronger abilities to make them difficult. But in the end, brute force always wins. My new NPC, sure brute force can still win. But it's going to make you fight for it a lot harder, with its regenerative shields. You can no longer just equip some relays, and come back in 8, 12, 24, 48 hours and finish the NPC off, you have to do it all in one sitting (to minimize shield regen), or in burst (deplete shield, kill 1-2 modules, stop and recharge for next burst)


The nature of "locking in" for loot will be the tricky component. At one level, this can permit someone to "help" without wanting loot by just depleting the shield for someone who does want loot to kill a module, like a gun or engine. On the other hand, you will at others who deplete the shield as part of the teamwork nature. So it would almost take a legion mission style sign up list. Sign up as a shield runner, and your only job becomes to keep the shield depleted for others to hit. Then you get loot when the NPC finally dies. Don't sign up at all, and you could solo the whole thing, and get absolutely nothing.


Suggestions for improvement.
None as of yet.



Thoughts, comments, suggestions to improve below.

It's not always brute force. There are NPCs for higher ranks that require cooperation - Silthion hybrid clusters and Grivv prime come to mind immediately, but I'm sure there are others. However, these require large enough amounts of energy to take down that it's difficult to offer the same types of NPCs to lower ranks.

In addition, a lot of the seasonal NPCs require cooperation as well (Bio-con, the lepus base, from the last event, was a bit brutal...... 500 energy to disrupt and much more than that to lock)

The Easter NPC and to an extent the Lazuli Carrier are also teamwork NPCs.

I like the idea, though I'm not a fan of the whole "not getting anything for soloing it" part. I never solo NPC's, but the ones who do deserve a drop, for doing massive amounts of damage and putting in the effort.
Also, based on what you're writing it sounds a it like you want there to be someone deciding who gets rewards, which is a horrible idea. Just awful. I can't think of an easier way for a power-hungry leader to abuse power.

It is an interesting concept, and I would like to see something like this implemented.

+1

Yes, there are already NPC that take coordination between the legion but Id like to see more.
I actually like the idea of an NPC that regenerates shields. would mean people would have to try and lock at the same time to avoid having to keep taking out shields. I think this would work best as a 3 or 4 man NPC. easier to get 3 people hitting at the same time than 10.

That is true, in my mind I'm picturing something similar to legion mission NPC's that you signup for. I'm also picturing at least 3 parts on the NPC that need to be destroyed.

The Gun - This specifically targetted gun will be similar to the NPC I stated in OP, very hard hitting but fires infrequently. Think of it somewhat like a very underpowered Death Star weapon. Fires once, then takes a while to recharge. After the shields drop, this should be the first system targetted to assist the shield-dropper the most.

Overcharged Engines - Specifically targetted engines, that boost the NPC's defenses, to challenge the whole process. Once these bonus engines are taken out, the NPC's defense will drop by a considerable factor, as it no longer has extra engines to maneuver and dodge.

Command Center - The heart of the NPC, only targetable after all other modules have been taken out. Destroying the Command Center takes out the NPC, and loot is earned.


Possible to make the NPC have loot earned for each portion, so top 3 damagers for the gun, top 3 for engines, etc. Or just a plain and simple, most damage (or killer) of each sub component, and possible loot (if registered) for the shield dropper. I see the shield runner as optional, because like many legions, I'm sure you have a few really high rankers, and some considerably lower. So if you attack an NPC 400-800 ranks below you, you're not really getting anything valuable for your time. But you're forced to accept the loot, because you can't voluntarily not take it.

Example A: It's been a few weeks after release, you've earned the rewards and no longer really need the loot from these NPC's. You're rank 900+, and a rank 400 of these critters gets alerted. You wait for legion mates of the right level to organize, and then you say you'll take the shields for them. You target the NPC, and just start hammering away at it. Once the shields drop, your lower rank buddies do their thing, and then you let a 4th guy "sign up" for the shields, and everyone waits to let it recharge a bit, and the new shield dropper does a bit of work, and then 4 people who needed the loot get it. But you, the rank 900 did most of the hard work.

Example B: Same as above, but you as the high ranker who may need the loot, can register as shield dropper, and you'll actually be rewarded with one of the drops.



TL:DR I don't think it's abusable, if it's kept as a registration method for shield runners. You either register and do the work thus receiving loot, or you don't register and can still do the work but you're doing it out of boredom or to help lower ranks.

you can already do this with the pressent NPC
if you have 1 or 2 rank 600 players in a legion who needs the drops from a Sha'din Hyperport, but have problems actualy locking it them self

all you realy need to do is have 1 to 5 high rank players help to put dammage on it, but making sure they all stay below the dammage the players who actualy needs the drop have done

Sha'din Hyperport is a 10 players boss, but nothing is preventing you from having 12, 15 or even 20 members help kill it, to make it easy for your rank 600 members to get the drops


to some extend even the legion mission NPC's Strazi Combatant + T.O. Dropship Carrier are also Teamwork NPC's
top 3 + the player who actualy kills them gets credist for the legion mission task that spawn them, so you can have 3 of your high rank, do 33%, 33% and 30% Locks, leaving 3% dammage for a low rank member so he can compleet the task easily

and as long as he dont finish the task himself, one of your high rank players can keep hunting for these until the legion have enougth of them for everyone on the task to finish it

so theire are already plenty of oputunityes for team Work in the pressent system


I do like the Team Work NPC Dan have made so far, Silthion Hybrid Cluster , Bio-Con Prime, Lepus Base, Hub-GMU3, Scruuge Base etc and would like to see a lot more NPC's like those
but we dont need a system, where a high rank player is needed to take out the shield without getting credits for the dammage he have done or raiderble locations on NPC's

Yeah, those already exist in the higher levels. And in fact, I do think one of them happens to be legion mission spawn(crulean base or something?)

And rightfully so, they should be higher lvl content only, because that's where you are more likely to be in a legion that have lots of active peeps.

That said, more different types would always be interesting.