I was going to take a poke at starting a thread like this Pace, but since you beat me to it, I'll just stick my idea(s) in here:
I was going to write out an outline for this, because I don't think I have worked out the holes yet, but since I have not done that yet, and the thread is here, I'll just wing it.
Here are 2 things I would love to see implemented:
I really love flying in SWG...really. The problem is, there are very few occasions where flying in space feels like Star Wars. One of which is the tail end of the quest for the Actis...you know, where Vader sends you up to smack some rebels down, and all these ships are in the mix...large battle (I think my friend and I both spawned ours at the same time, and man that was a lot of fun)...point being, it felt like a Star Wars space battle should. I want to see more of this, so take a read, and say what you think about it.
I would like to see an instanced space zone, accessible by a minimum of 4 person group, up to a full group. Any same-factionship, including POB's, are valid,and for simplicity, freelancers can joinwith a group of either faction. The point of this mission is to destroy a somewhat large capital-class ship...maybe not as largeas the ISD, but something much deadlier than a corvette, and maybe having 20-30 guns. As you approach this capital ship, it will become *aware* of your group's presence, and begin to discharge fighters/bombers inwavesfor defense...and it will start toturn/move so that once engaged, the players cannot easily *pull* the defendingfighters away from the capital ship. Personally, I would like to see the waves being something along the lines of(player group times 5, 8, heck even 10)...maybe 3 waves offighters in defense, making a maximum of like 80 defending fighters in total for a full group. Once they are destroyed (or, for highly skilled/good group composition groups while the fighters are being destroyed), the assault on the capital ship begins.The first thing to go is the shield generator, then pick it apart however you want. In order to complete the mission, all enemies must be destroyed.
The second is a more complex variation on the first: same scenario, except it requires 2, maybe 3 groups, with at least one POB...because the players will need to board and capture this vessel. Same procedure, the POB(s) dock when the capital ship is disabled, kill the crew, take over the ship (no repairs, just get into a few important stations and start moving towards a randomly generated *exit hyperspace point*. No worries for those not in the POB(s), becausevery shortlyafter the capital ship has been taken over (this should take no more than 10 minutes total, btw), more fighters are going to start spawning, with the intent of destroying the capital ship (and you). I would like to see gunboats and vettes in these waves. Capital ship needs to reach the exit point. Specifically, the folks that boarded from the POB(s), after killing maybe 20 CL-appropriate crew, will have to man a navigation, Ops, and however many gunner positions as there are people left...and they should be somewhat evenly distributed around the ship. I don't mean to say they need to run 2k to get to these guns...for the sake of simplicity, there should be a central *gun access* center that works like our own POB's do...hit the console, and decide which gun to take, regardless of where in the ship it is, and start shooting. And btw...if you are part of the POB crew, you do not need any pilot skills whatsoever to take part in this scenario...you have to man a gun on the capital ship, but you can stilltake part.
The rules for these scenarios:
1) Master level pilots only, maybe even have a prestige minimum as well
2) If you die, you are out. You are free however, to form a different group and try again from scratch, but there will be no re-entry into the same instance once the cycle has begun.
3) Loot/reward(s): On this I have no idea...that's what the devs get paid for, heh.
4) If you successfully complete the mission, you obtain a special badge/title (maybe a holo, too)
5) Upon successful completion, all surviving members are flagged, and cannot do the instance again for an hour or so, real time.
The problems:
1) This would probably be a nightmare to code, especially the second scenario, and would most likely be bug-filled for quite awhile.
2) This might very well be very hard on some people's machines
3) Done improperly, this encounter can become tedious...this should be designed to take no more than an hour-start to finish (both scenarios), preferrably closer to half an hour, if the pilots are good.
4) This would need to be done *right*. Meaning, this instanced zone must be on it's own hardware, running nothing else...no cutting corners, here, this area needs to be able to handle what I am proposing.
5) After some time passes, it may be hard to find anyone to do these encounters anymore...kind of like DS is on a lot of servers...so there needs to be some incentive to keep doing it...maybe some really good space loot for the top 3 players *most instrumental* in completing the mission...how this would be decided, I have no idea.
Anyway, chew on this a bit, and please say what you think. Personally, I would be ecstatic if they put in something like this.
Please do not take this opportunity to nit-pick at the holes in my presentation of these scenarios, but please do say what you would think about something like this being implemented.
Domingo