This is meant for higher ranks who dont have any use for RP except for legion missions and research contract (and CTL, in case their base dont have full discovery)
This also serves as research extension, since Dan stated that there will be no further research tier.
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Basically, there will be a new Mythical NPC for each NPC faction (or race?), containing a secret project of them. If you managed to disable it, you'll acquire an artifact that unlocks a Research Project on that race. The project itself is tiered, with increasing RP to finish the next phase of project. You can only do a Research Project at the same time.

Tier 1 : 1 million RP
Tier 2 : 2 millions RP
Tier 3 : 5 millions RP
Tier 4 : 8 millions RP
Tier 5 : 11 millions RP
Tier 6 : 15 millions RP

Crimson Blades : grants 3/5/8/12/16/20% bonus attack
Dark Smuggler Guild : grants 3/5/8/12/16/20% bonus defense
Drannik Automatons : grants ?
Lazuli Syndicate : grants 3/5/8/12/16/20% bonus hull
Rogue Science League : grants ?
Shadin Coalition : grants 3/5/8/12/16/20% bonus hacking
-- well, I realized that this is kinda dull, but I'm still thinking about a good unique ability for each faction

By "mythical" you mean Caelon-rare, right? Also, if the reward bonuses are permanent effects, the totals are way too high. Going in 1% increments up to 8% or so would keep this from being too overpowered.

I like the idea of this. Caelon-rare mythical NPC's would add something to the game for all players, regardless of how much NPC'ing that they do, since they are random.

A new use for research would also be a blessing. I am barely two-thirds of the way to the "In Your Infinite Wisdom" medal, but i've finished the research and my legion has all of the CT lab items, so unless I move to another legion (which I don't want to do), i've got virtually no chance of getting that medal. So having a new use for research would help me and others in a similar situation.

I agree with Darth's tweaks though. If this is going to have tiers, it needs to be a small, incremental bonus. Regardless of how many squillions of research you set the levels as, people will eventually reach them, and some players have massive research output, so it's not going to take as long for them to get it as you might think. So it needs to be an increasingly stretching challenge to achieve to prevent the top players getting the maximum bonus mere hours after this is released.

...

As a bonus for the Drannik, how about a reduction in the cost of Colonizing planets? We get some Drannik colony ships from their missions, so a Colonization bonus sounds logical. And Colonization is currently costing me 16 billion credits a pop.

idea coming to my mind :

Lazuli : since they were awesome builder, how about decreasing the cost of building modules and structures ?

I am thinking an ability that decreases invasion cost... what race is doing invasions ? Lazuli ?

That's the other side of my point. Even at my current research production (which grows daily btw), I could have an entire chain done (as specified in the OP) in about 1 month. And I get a 20% permaboost to a stat for that...

dont worry, you'll have to find the NPC first

--- oh, dont tell me you got 1m energy bar

It's called autoranking...

I am not one of the more avid NPCers but I could probably find all the mythical NPCs within a week without too much difficulty.

I could also do all that research in an 8 hour span
Add a 0 in front of each one
Tier 1 : 10 million RP
Tier 2 : 20 millions RP
Tier 3 : 50 millions RP
Tier 4 : 80 millions RP
Tier 5 : 110 millions RP
Tier 6 : 150 millions RP

And nerf the bonuses given.

how about 1 NPC for each TIER?

That would be fun actually.
Even make it so you can't hunt for the next tier until you finish the research for the previous tier.

got a fun (though, ugh, making me more difficult to get this) idea :

How about combining it with the Vortov ability?
A mythical NPC that can ONLY be hunted from Vortov ability - but no need to hunt NPC for each tier

Sooo... It is a caelon rare npc thats comes from the vortov... Thatd be like... 3 years before you find it?