The overall purpose: This idea needs fine tuning - it is off the top of my head - but I would love to see a game play dynamic where a solo player or squad is faced by wave after wave of increasing difficulty.

Basically, this would be a galaxy chain. You warp in, and there are 5 gates - one for tech levels 1-5, one for tech levels 6-10, one for tech levels 11-15, one for tech levels 16-19, one for t20 and above.

Each warp would be instanced.

So, lets say you warp into the 16-20 warp. You and your squad face a spawn of 4 AI with a hull level from 16-20. You defeat them. Then, you face a spawn of 8 AI with a hull level from 16-19. You defeat them. Then, you face a spawn of 12 AI with a hull level from 16-19. Then 16 AI. Then 20 AI.

None of the AI drop loot except the last one you kill which would drop a piece of dg loot and creds. The loot gets better with each successive level up until however many AI can be spawned in a swarm (would be interesting to see a squad take on 30 or 40 omega battlestations for example).

This idea needs fine tuning - it is off the top of my head - but I would love to see a game play dynamic where a solo player or squad is faced by wave after wave of increasing difficulty.

Edit: by the way, I realize that the tech levels of some ai that I picture are higher than I may be referencing here - but I think the general idea is pretty clear.

Kind of Like a Literal Labyrinth Oo Ilike it !!! Dungeon sort of deal. That could give use to the Warps In micron ?

Signed if mentioned gals contains 0 suns

Every galaxy should be filled with giant red suns to improve the survivability of snipers.

bump

It's similar to a DG, but not a DG. It's similar in where there are tougher enemies in each new level, and similar in where there are "boss"(baos) AI's that drop loot.

The difference is that unlike a DG, this thing can be instanced and made a special series of galaxies. Call it a "Defend the Hill" game. You sit on a hill with a few soldiers and some light defensive positions and face wave after wave of enemies coming TO you, instead of exploring a dungeon and invading THEIR territory.


That being said, each "Area" should have some respawning but destructible cover (pillbox drones)

Except in his scenario, every level gives you loot.

The difference between this and a dg is the number of AI you face - dg caps AI at 8 ai per level - this would allow much larger numbers. The longer you stay, the more intense the combat becomes, whereas in a dg, it is always the same. Also, the dg ai are fixed - once you run through the dg, you know what every level contains. This would include a randomized element where you know what variety of ships you MIGHT face on any given level, but you don't know specifically which ones.

Personally, I like the idea of having to face 24 mf picks or 24 mf forgones rather than having all battles always restricted to 8. It is a simple way to generate challenging and repeatable content for all levels in a way that provides a new type of fight.

And to make sure that Seer get nothing of this content that we add.....

I envision a gauntlet to be more skill/strategy based instead of just tank and spank. In the same idea vein as clam - as you go through, each successive level would be a similar set up, but with a harder boss, harder obstacles. With that in mind, I have an idea to make a series of mini courses (that in some ways are a bit of a nod to classic arcade gaming):

• you (or your squad) in a galaxy with bunches of moons on different orbits. Each color coded moon has a different type of effect similar to perpetual motion. Two possible strategies in here: you could try to avoid the moons or you can try to keep track of which moon does what effect and use them to your advantage. Throughout this there'd be a boss trying to kill you. As you go through different levels the moons effects would get worse, and the boss would get harder (and the loot would get better). I'd probably do something nasty like give the boss grav blockers.
  
  
• A cosmic whack a mole tractor fun galaxy. You'll be engineless and tractoring off planets, asteroids, ai, etc. The ai will have tweaks that make them completely invisible (and unable to shoot) most of the time. When they're not tweaking, you can see them, shoot them, tractor them. I can see a few different strategies working pretty well in here - tractor yourself around becoming a ping pong and killing ai as you go or try to stay still and tractor ai to you to kill.
  
  
• A sniper friend requested this one: you are facing an ai that will always stay between slightly out of your range, and just within your range. It also will stay within a certain distance of it's homebase (so kiting will be tough). You're going to need to position yourself in such a way that you'll be able to hit said ai around a bunch of obstacles - asteroids, planets, debris fields, etc. You'll have to use tracking and slight kiting to your advantage to get off decent shots. You'll use your squad to try to herd the ai where you want it to go.
  
  
• A series of long galaxies kind of like micron. Your ship will have forced thrust through the whole boss fight. The boss himself isn't going to do much damage, and he's going to fly circles around you the whole time so you get a clear shot. The challenge is there are going to be nasty planets at annoying spots with auras that will mess you up. You'll need to do some dodging. If you can keep enough Dps on the boss while dodging, he'll die before the end of the course. If you don't, you won't get the key to the next level, and you'll have to go to the exit wormhole. I figure this to last about 2 to 5 minutes per level so it's a fast and dirty fight and dodge. If you went through the whole thing it might take you 30 minutes.
  
  summary: avoid the bad moons and kill the bad dude, whack-a-mole, strategy shooting range, pitfall.