The "Nomad Planet Killer Event" (for a lack of a better name) is going to be an upcoming automatic server event prototype.
Prototype because it might be the foundation for many more similar events or events with a different structure but same automatic nature.
At this point I have to mention everything is highly experimental and most certainly will have to be rebalanced during the first few iterations.
There also might be unforseen technical issues that have to be sorted out after the first event runs.
Background/Idea
The FL intro describes the exodus of the Alliance fleet from the Sol system and the extended non-canon Intro shows that Earth is destroyed by the Nomads right after that.
In Crossfire I went with the version of the original Intro and some aspects of the extended version. Here the Nomad attack happened... but did not destroy Earth. Instead it only whiped out the remaining humans on it (cleansing it).
With the return to Sol and the recolonization of it the Event scenario is based on the return of the Nomads to once more whipe out all human life in Sol.
For the duration of this Event the task is to destroy a Nomad Planet Killer which is escoted by Battleships, Reapers, fighters, bombers etc. (the whole variety of Nomads).
Destroying any kind of Nomad capital ships will lead to a reward drop.
Damaging the Nomad Planet Killer by x% will periodically lead to a reward drop. (e.g. do 5% damage you get a loot drop, do 10% you get another... 15% etc. )
Destroying the Nomad Planet killer will eventually lead to a much bigger amount of rewards.
The Event will last for 24 hours.
Not destroying the Planet Killer atm has no consequences but once I have figured out how to log stuff like this a kind of penalty will be introduced. (this whole thing still is in an early stage)
What will the reward be like?
For the first tests of this event probably just dummy rewards will be used to avoid that wrong balancing lead to an unwanted flood of reward drops. Maybe some energy crystals... dunno yet.
Later on I was playing with the idea of introduced a reward currency. Some kind of token that can be collected accross multiple kinds of automated events and once the player has collected enough token there would be a reward shop where special stuff can be obtained. This in the end would work similar to how cloaking devices are currently assembled.
The token system would allow players to prioritize on what reward they want or need and reduce the "bad luck" part of the looting. I also think that the replayabilty of these events will increase.
This event will repeat periodically once tested and balanced.
The server news (on the launcher and on stations) will inform players when this event is active.
Future events might be based on similar invasion type structures but also might add an exploration factor into it. One idea of this would be to have time limited wrecks which contain token or even mining operations (which only can be done using Mining ships), kinda like a gold rush scenario.
However, first this Nomad event.... and more information about it will be published here once available.
