PvE combat, Exploration, NPC housing: things to invite new players and make a wipe less daunting

[choxie]

I understand that a huge priority is making the game seem welcoming to new players, which is part of the reasoning behind a proposed wipe. I think I'm in agreeance with most people that a wipe made with special considerations for some of the bigger public projects is the best route to go.
However, I think the thing that would make the game most welcoming to new players would be some more "career" paths, or gameplay loops. I will be posting long waslls of text about my proposed ideas for the following:
PvE combat and missions: let non-pvpers enjoy combat and experience resource sinks.
Exploration system: New ship elements that will guide players to visit other spots, including other player's bases.
NPC housing system: Allow NPCs to populate your constructs, as well as provide bonuses to visitors who interact with them. Incentivizes travel and visiting other peoples' bases.

I will post more details shortly about these things. I strongly believe basic versions of these systems can be implemented with the game's current engine and assets. I know its always a lot of work, but if these types of busy gameplay options were available, then it wouldnt feel like a "total loss" to have to start over, even with blueprints. Most importantly though, it offers lucrative and exciting gameplay paths for people who aren't in to building, mining, or the high risks of pvp.

[choxie]

1. (c/ped from discord, sorry for funky formatting)
   The main goals of an exploration system are: To provide a means of income for players who do not take the path of building or mining, to provide reasons for all players to leave their base and visit the bases of others, to provide a fun experience for all players that they can do at any time, even while doing other tasks.

    
2. Income: Exploration would generate income in the following ways: Players will have the option to set up "welcome beacons" or something similar, that visiting players can access to gain either quanta or a new special currency used for purchasing other special items (more on that later) The player who owns the beacon will also receive a benefit, likely in the form of quanta but there are always options for this. The rewards on these beacons could reset after a period of time, and there could even be talents associated with reducing this timer.

    
3. Since DU is already capable of random generation in deep space, there could be alien-cores that are also sites of exploration. These could be in PvE space, either a new pve space or simply in some of the existing ones around planets. Instead of consuming them for resources, players could gain the aforementioned "exploration points" from them. If a new currency cant be created in this form, then they could be harvested for resources, making this form of exploration a way of gathering resources, as well. Either way, there could also be missions in the mission system that send players to find these cores for both quanta or "exploration point" rewards, if possible.
4. These particular cores would despawn shortly after a player finds them, so perhaps for lore reasons they could be some sort of decaying or fragile space-object.
5. Another possibility is to create new ship elements that are used in exploring. To keep it simple, an example could be a scanner that finds "hot spots", and then another scanner that scans this hotspot. This then creates a datafile that can be sold to NPCs for quanta. Like asteroids and the above-mentioned exploration alien-cores, these would despawn shortly after player(s) find them.
6. Exploration could become an entire lifestyle in DU, and one that tends on the pve side. Even if it doesnt introduce new elements or proprietary currencies, it would still scratch a lot of itches and make the game much more lively. Players would be venturing out of their bases more often (which I know is a priority for the devs) the mission system would be more populated and new players would see a profitable (and interesting and constantly changing) path besides having to build from scratch. They may end up using other player-made apartments such as those in Freeport and prioritize buying a collection of other player-made ships.
7. Players that want an immersive space-game but don't necessarily want to build have little to do in this game, but the potential is absolutely there. As the leader of a small org of friends who dont like building as much as me, I have created tasks and roles for them with occasional assignments but it is not quite enough.
8. if a new proprietary currency is introduced "exploration points", then they could be a currency that can be traded in for straight quanta, raw/pure resources, various parts, weapons and even blueprints at the higher quantities. I'm sure DU will have character cosmetics (not to mention ship element skins which already exist) and these could be eventual rewards as well. In fact, the "exploration points" could be a reward used in other systems as well. (See below)

    
9. I believe I have summed up the major points of a proposed exploration system: player-made beacons that other players can visit, ship elements designed to make players travel to various parts of space and explore, and if possible, a system similar to .29's alien-cores, designed around player exploration that can provide either a proprietary new currency or resources

[choxie]

1. A PvE combat system would have 2 main additions: a new type of zone where npc combat machines (dynamic or static/space) randomly spawn for players to hunt freely, and missions for players to hunt specific targets in pve space. Also proposed in this is a system for dueling and the hope that atmospheric combat becomes available.
   The reason for a "new type of zone" is so players who want to enjoy a combat-free experience can still do so. The new space-map can show regions in space that are dedicated to PvE combat which would be connected to pve safe space. "Drone" novean ships that have gone rogue due to some mysterious virus wander this space. Some can be rare and provide difficult combat opportunities with great rewards. Also potential to have abandoned constructs wind up in pve combat space as enemies.
   Additionally, this creates the opportunity for new missions in the mission system. Populating the mission system will always look welcoming to a new player, who will see that they don't have to rely on a playstyle of building and mining that many players have already achieved a veteran status in.
   This is also a resource sink for pve players, which is something a lot of us would find interesting to throw in, at the very least. I understand resource sinks are an important topic for the devs. This creates new markets for combat ships and ideas for ship builds. Running repair shops could be a business model, not to mention a ship model (repair units are still deployable on dynamic cores, right?)

[choxie]

1. NPC Housing:
   -This proposal would require a bit more innovation and potentially brand new systems, but i think it may be possible to do this with the game's existing engine and assets (and can always be built upon later)
   -This idea is for a means of having some sort of NPCs populate player bases and structures. The idea is that various NPCs will stay at constructs under certain conditions, and be capable of a variety of functions. One of which is that players who visit the NPCs of other players should receive some repeatable bonus, therefore incentivizing players leaving their bases.
   so, this idea is broken up into two parts: A system that makes NPCs "move into" your constructs, and a system of interaction with these NPCs
   -There could be various conditions for getting NPCs to come to your base, and this could be done in many ways. One way is to do what games like Terraria do and have preset parameters that a "room" must meet in order for an NPC to live there. ie, must be at least X x Y x Z voxels in dimensions, must have a bed, a door, a light source etc. Another is to have the "NPC" actually be an element that can be bought, traded, placed and interacted with. Another is for NPCs to be found in the "wild", but these ideas could easily be used together as well. For simplicity's sake it could be a placed element for now (this opens the opportunity for some silliness but maybe the "NPC" could at least be programmed to always stand on a solid surface) 
   The NPCs could take the form of the novean character model or some sort of friendly robot. Or both! Hopefully customizable, but in its simplest form, a placed-element that projects a novean that you can talk to. There would also be a limit to the number of NPCs a player can have, much in the same fashion as the current core limits. There could possibly even be talents to raise this limit and allow for more NPCs. 
   -As for what these NPCs do: In their simplest form, they'll provide some passive income for your player/org. Added complexity could be that they provide more tax income (lets call it donation income) depending on the quality of their surroundings: ie, more space, more furniture elements (t2+ furniture perhaps?) Perhaps with some sort of upper-limit so people don't have entire L cores devoted to single NPCs... although, why not, I suppose? If there will be a limit on both cores and NPCs, maybe some players could have the option of making a significant portion of their income in the form of lavish NPC housing. If nothing else, its an example of where just this part of the system can go. 
   -Additionally, NPCs could provide missions or be sent on missions, in idle-game fashion. You could even have the option of assigning a ship to them for deploying on missions. It would work like you imagine: they disappear for a while and return with spoils and rewards. The better parts the ship has, the better the returns, but also the risks (the ship may or may not have the potential to be destroyed or at least heavily damaged) 
   NPCs could also ask for resources on a timed-basis, taking raws/pures or maybe even more complicated crafted items. This could be another resource sink. To get even more detailed, they could have some sort of experience system that grows over time, allowing for better rewards and/or missions. The most complicated idea would be to have NPC crewmen on ships, which could possibly be implemented with this system or with elements of my proposed NPC passenger missions. 
   -Finally, there should be some incentive for players to visit the NPCs of other players. In its simplest form, it could work like the "welcome beacons" I proposed in the exploration system idea: you interact with them, receive some reward, and the owning player does too. They could simply be a larger pool of turn-in style "missions" but if they provided something unique, then they'd be much more appealing to other players and thus be yet another heavy incentive to leave ones own base.
   -Of my proposed ideas, I imagine this one to be the most complicated to implement, but I think a bedrock form of it could still be implemented with the game's existing engine and assets, and still be less complex technically than even the mining units.
   In it's simplest form: An element that can be placed that looks like an NPC. The NPC will provide passive income to the player or org that deployed it. The player will have a limit to the number of these they can deploy. A player can visit other player NPCs and receive some sort of unique reward on a timed basis.
   In its more complicated form, NPCs could "arrive" at rooms that fulfill certain parameters and you can "accept" them as tenants. The bonuses they provide could be increased by better living conditions. There could also be different types of NPCS and different means of recruiting them. Some could stay on dynamic cores and be considered "crewmen", some may be able to be found in the "wild" or at spaceports etc and can be "recruited".
   -If unique proprietary currencies could be introduced, then the unique currency from exploration could be rewarded in a lot of these NPC interations
   I believe this idea could be the biggest draw to the game for a huge new audience as well as an appealing new feature for current players. In addition to providing yet another avenue for new players, it provides countless opportunities for build projects and playstyles. It could add new value to the act of building and decorating, not to mention ship collecting, as well as unique resource sinks and generation. It is definitely a tried and true gameplay loop for games of this genre. I know it does betray the "no NPCs" feature of the game, but this would still all be optional. So "no (necessary) NPCs" 🙂