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[Akillius]

Summary: Academic exercise about expanding MWO +game-play and +revenue.

So Let's have some fun constructively looking at adding space to MWO.
Any values MC/CBills I put here are not accurate, I just randomly added stuff to start this topic.

Grab a coffee, this is a very long post that goes into a lot of detail.
PS: Don't bother writing won't happen/it'd kill mwo/not lore/etc. because it's a given. It's MWO!


Let's say MWO has a new button called "Space"
It brings up new interface with some options to click on:
"Exit Space", "Space shop", "Trade", "Rental", "Jump Ships", "Drop Ships", "Guard", "Misc.", "Space Reputation"


Details:
"Exit Space" a way to exit space and return to normal MWO.


"Space shop" which has jump and drop ships are available for C-Bills, MC, and direct buy.
Jumpships: (Hardpoint = docking collars for dropships)

IS/Clan Scout Jumpship (1 Hardpoint, range 4.6) value 60,000 MC or 300,000,000 C-Bills

IS/Clan Merchant Jumpship (2 Hardpoints, range 4.2) value 77,000 MC or 385,000,000 C-Bills

IS/Clan Invader Jumpship (3 Hardpoints, range 5.2) value 100,000 MC or 500,000,000 C-Bills

IS/Clan *Tramp Jumpship (3 Hardpoints, range 12.5)

Clan *Odyssey Jumpship (4 Hardpoints, range 25.0)

IS/Clan *Star Lord Jumpship (6 Hardpoints, range 5.2)

IS/Clan *Monolith Jumpship (9 Hardpoints, range 7.1)

Limited Jumpship distribution ideas:

*Limited Jumpship = only a dozen or less would are available in all of MWO, CD is 44hours.

*Limited Jumpship initialization randomly give 2 of each type to players

• Perhaps players that play mwo 24 hours (or more) in previous 3 months each can get ticket# via mwo website.
  
• Those Players must request/click-to-get a ticket# via mwo website.
  
• Ticket# is randomly chosen (streamed event) and results posted on MWO website.

*Limited Jumpship: once a year MWO puts a fresh ship for sale by special online auction???

*Limited Jumpship: can not be sold, but they can be traded...

Dropships:

IS/Clan Leopard DropShip (holds 4 mechs) 30,000 MC or 150,000,000 C-Bills (available in 2537)

IS Leopard DropShip PPC (holds 4 mechs) 31,000 MC or 155,000,000 C-Bills (available in 2845)

Clan Broadsword DropShip PPC (holds 5 mechs) 31,000 MC or 155,000,000 C-Bills (available in 2979)

IS Lion DropShip (holds 8 mechs) 50,000 MC or 250,000,000 C-Bills (available in 2595)

Clan Lion DropShip (holds 10 mechs) 55,000 MC or 275,000,000 C-Bills (available in )

IS Excalibur DropShip (holds 12 mechs) 68,500 MC or 342,500,000 C-Bills (available in 2786)

IS/Clan Fortress (holds 12 mechs) 68,500 MC or 342,500,000 C-Bills (available in 2613)

IS/Clan Union DropShip (holds 12 mechs) 68,500 MC or 342,500,000 C-Bills (available in 2708)

***Dropship models have different weaponary/speed, some hover-drop mechs, others land and mechs walk out, etc.


"Trade" lets players sell/buy their ships to/from other players
Uses auction format where ship has a user set starting price and number of days.
Bids increment by 1/10/100/1000 MC or 5,000/50,000/500,000/5,000,000 C-Bills (sellers choice)

• To put 1 ship up for auction for 1 day costs 10 MC or 50,000 C-Bills (players choice)
  
• Each additional day costs 1 MC or 5,000 C-Bills (players choice)
  
• Optional "buy now" price can be set by seller (at no cost).
  
• Optional "Make Offer" lets bidder put in a price allowing seller to accept/reject (costs 10 MC or 50,000 C-Bills).
  
• Seller can choose [ ] MC or [ ] C-Bills price or [ ] Both in 1:5000 ratio

(choosing both would show both amounts ie. 100,000 MC = 500,000,000 cbills

Players can bid for free but...

When placing a bid the auction system will automatically withdraw-and-hold the amount bid.

Also the winner will pay a ship registration fee 10 MC or 50,000 C-Bills (Reg. fee)

When placing a bid the auction system will also hold the Reg. fee either 10 MC or 50,000 C-Bills (players choice)

When player is out-bid the held fee's are returned by a notice, clicking okay returns it so player can see.

Make Offer amount plus reg. fee are likewise held by auction system.

"Rental" This section is for players who want to rent their dropships out to jumpship pilots.
Owners of rented dropships do not get to automatically drop (unlike dropship owners who are friends of the jumpship pilot.)
Rental fee can be [ ]CBills, [ ]MC, or dropship pilot getting [ ]automatic invite to join any drops, or any combination thereof.
Owner (pilot) of a rented dropship will get a very-very small amount of space rep. per drop.
Drop ships can be rented per day or a number of days with rental fees paid up front.
Afterwards the rented dropship can not be altered/sold/traded/selected by owner.
If owner gets banned the renter still gets to use the dropship for the amount of time agreed upon, unless renter had anything to do with why/how the owner got banned.
Dropships still in cooldown (re:22 hour CD), or already rented, can not be rented out to anyone else.



2 sections that (work similar how Mechs are selected) "Jump Ships" and "Drop Ships".
"Jump Ships" and "Drop Ships" section lets players see and select a ship.
(later on: Both sections let players modify weapon load outs, same as mechs.)

Next the player must load a jumpship with at 1 or more dropships (quantity is hardpoint dependent).
Player can also add friends dropships by sending a add dropship request (?irregardless if both are online?)
The add dropship request allows the friend to choose a dropship which then appears to jumpship player.
Then chosen dropship can be allowed or refused by the jumpship player.

When jumpship has at least 1 hardpoint loaded by any dropship then player can then choose a planet.
Player selects a planet (as jump point) [uses faction map of planets] then confirms to send the ship there.
Player can not select planets in their faction.
Other planets can not be inbetween ship and selected planet (collision)
Jumpships have different ranges and can only move so far per 22 hours.
Starting planet is either faction homeworld/mercs Terra, or a random planet (players choice?)

Jumpships and Dropships can only be used once every 22 hours and can't be loaded/used if still on cooldown.
(Each jumpship and dropship a player owns can each be used once every 22 hours)
(Limited Jumpship have 44 or 66 hour CD size dependant)

On arrival the jumpship player sends invites to friends to join either as a "Mission" or "Raid".

• Any friends that gave use of their dropships are automatically added to drop list.
  
• Also the jumpship player can sends invites publicly to fill any last spots to faction+mercs.
  
• The number of players who can accept invites is first come first serve,
  
• and is limited by the number of mechs that the attached dropships can carry.

For Example:
Scout/Merchant/Invader with 1x Leopard = 4 person drop
Scout/Merchant/Invader with 1x Lion = 8 person drop
Scout/Merchant/Invader with 1x Union = 12 person drop
Additional options with a 2nd ship:
Merchant/Invader with 2x Leopard = 8 person drop
Merchant/Invader with 1x Leopard + 1x Lion = 12 person drop
Additional options with a 3rd ship:
Invader with 3x Leopard = 12 person drop



Jumpship player can choose to drop with as few mechs as they wish but...
If not 4, 8, 12 players then there will be 1 or 2 confirmations to do partial drop.
When a jumpship player clicks Drop button then the:

Raid occurs 1 minute plus 15 seconds/mech in drop (min 1.5 - max 4 minutes/12 players)

Mission occurs 2 minutes plus 15 seconds/mech in drop (min 2.5 - max 5 minutes/12 players)

Planetary Assault occurs 5 minutes plus 15 seconds/mech in drop (max 12 minutes/48 players)

Jumpship size/type will ± drop time ie. Scout= -1 minute wait, Odyssey= +2 minute wait, Limited= +5 min.

Now each player who had joined can edit what mechs to use in their raid/mission deck. (Not same as FW deck)


Also clicking drop will also alerts guards (players in that planet's faction+mercs) with a guard against raid/mission popup (like faction alerts) but

mid-screen.

Any guard (player) that clicks the popup will see a mech selection screen

after choosing a mech the guard (player) be automatically be taken to one of the locations randomly to guard.

The number of players that can accept to be guards is equal to the number of raiders.

Mission uses a drop deck the same as FW, but it's not the same deck.

"Mission" uses faction maps and is similar to capture the flag.

There is 1 flag location per 4 players, each map has 3 central locations that flags will randomly appear at.

If there is 12 players then flags will start at all 3 central locations.

Mech caps the flag like a data point in FW scouting, then has a tall flag appear on mech (?in hand?)

When a Mech with flag is destroyed, the flag then reappears at any of the central locations.

Players for both teams have a flag drop-off location often near where their middle lance dropped.

Flags keep appearing until 1 team has 20/35/50 flags(depends on drop size 4/8/12), or until a team is destroyed.

"Raid" uses quick-play maps, players must get to a few locations each guarded by a few enemy turrets.
- Raids may have multiple locations that can be raided by doing a random number of different things like:

• (Data Point location requires a raider to gather 1 point from it, but each raider can get 1 point from it)
  
• (Search location requires raiders to search an area for hidden crate/equipment/vehicle/etc.)
  
• (Search and Destroy location requires raiders to eliminate all enemy Turrets/Buildings/Vehicles at a location)
  
• (Deliver cargo location requires raiders to escort/protect an armored land vehicle to a location.)
  
• (Recce location requires any 1 raider to reconnoiter a location without firing for 30 seconds while at location.)
  
• (Delivery location requires any 1 raider to make it to the other side of a turreted/guarded area)
  
• (Forward Firebase location requires raiders to cap the location and hold it for 1 minute)

[The number of raid locations would also depend on size of drop 4/8/12 players.]

"Planetary Assault" only preformed by Limited Jumpships.
Only Limited Jumpships allow for large drops? ie. Odyssey with 4x Union = 48 person drop
Suggesting a planet sized raid/guard event 48vs48, or 4 raids of up to 12 mechs apiece?

Assault team must attack a fortress or brain cache or other hard defence location.

Planets faction Guards get a slightly different notice as a Miltia's Call to Arms.

Militia drops individually after 30 seconds and randomly along outside of map

Assault team drops more central to the map and target is not far away.

Assault team must destroy fortification, find information, then get to dropship.

each member for Militia/Assault team has Drop deck 20 ton min 100 tons max for 1 mech



"MISC" section
Section to allow list of Copilots per each individual Jumpship and/or Dropship.
Has an option that allows players to opt out/in of Guard duty for Raids/Missions/Planetary Assault
Players can edit mechs to use in their 5 space decks: Raid/Mission/PlanetaryAssault/Guard/Militia decks.
*Suggest 2 of each deck (IS/Clan) like regular MWO decks
Additional settings to customize how long the alerts stay on screen, and how frequently they re-occur.

Copilot must be on friends list, Copilots can't ships on cooldown, and can't use rented ships.

Rented ships can't have copilots, but owner's list of copilots stays intact and returns when rental period is over.

Copilots can use ship same as owner except no trade/rent, copilot gains skills, owner gains small amount of space rep.

If a player hasn't logged in MWO for 9 months, any limited ships will return to MWO and raffled off by random ticket# again

"Space Reputation" work the same as merc/faction reputation rewards.
A raid or mission will give C-Bills, MechXP, General XP, and Space Rep points.
As Space Rep. ranking goes up the rewards are similar to merc/faction ranks for Stuff and Achievements.
ie. Guarded 1000 games = "En-Guard" title, Raided 1000 games = "Rick Roller" title,
ie. Captured 10000 flags = "Flagon!" title, Jump Pilot 1000 times = "Hot Shot" title,
ie. Used your Dropship(s) 1000 times = "Drop the Needle!" title, etc.
[suggest divide space rep section into 4 areas of rank: Raider, Guard, dropship pilot, jumpship pilot]

============================================

Errata:
Notices to join Guard/Militia continue until the group is full or mission is over.
ie. 10 raiders drop with 4 Guard joined before drop therefore those 4 guards drop at same time as raiders.
But up to 6 more guards can still join to help stop the raiders.

Notices to join Planetary Assaults or Guard/Militia continue until the group is full or mission is over.
Group size is determined by number of mechs the dropships can hold (that were attached to jumpship).
ie. 39 Assaulters drop and 42 Militia, up to 9 more Assaulters and 6 Militia can join in


Half-thoughts:
notes from writing this that I might want to refer to later, please ignore below this line.
[should there be a cost to launch Raid/Mission/Planetary Assault???]
[jumpships probably should only be usable every (randomly) 6-9 days (ref: sail recharging), and dropships could be used much more frequently depending on distance to planet from jump point. Perhaps dropships should be usable once per 22 hours???]
[???Should jumpships be rentable too??? Probably not.]