This will be a hefty post, TL;DR at the bottom.

I made this suggestion about a year ago, and thanks to erman's prodding will remake it with various improvements now that C2 is out. Emp runs need to reclaim the attention they deserve as it is one of the features that recruited many of the older players. It is also a concept that differentiates SS gameplay from any other MMO's: a massive Battle Royal for control of the universe between all of the strongest teams simultaneously.

The Emperor's Way (TEWay)
To start off, there would be a new layer named "The Emperor's Way" or something similar. Only accessible to P2P, requires w3. This layer would be shaped like a grid with the galaxy Valhalla(or named something as appropriate) residing in the center of the grid.

Valhalla
Inside Valhalla there will be dozens of planets and moons all surrounding a central sun. On the largest planet closest to the Sun, there will be a player station called The Emperor's Forge (TEForge) that comes pre-equipped with dozens of blueprints for building Praetorian Defenses and war machines.

The planet that TEForge is attached to will have special commodities that can only be found inside this layer, and are too large to fit inside any ship. TEForge will come equipped with extractors to harvest these commodities automatically(so you can regulate and standardize the potential amount of Praetorian defenses being built over a period of time, from a dev's standpoint), which will allow you to build Praetorian defenses. Every planet and moon in Valhalla will have Praetorian Defenses pre-attached when the cycle starts, making it very difficult to assault and kill initially.

The blueprints will build 3 categories of defenses: Drones, Fighter Generators, and Stations. There are various tiers of each, which are reflected in the naming conventions and the cost.

Types of Drones
-Warp Interdiction (aura/splash or single hit, randomizes target)
-Assault Platforms (raw dps)
-Healers (dedicated healing platforms that put out powerful HPS)
-Gremming/Annoyance (powerful splash gremming)
-Support (powerful support auras; no defenses and fragile; potentially energy transference/vampire drones?)

Fighter Generators
-Essentially drones that act as fighter bays and generate/launch fighters based on a timer that depends on the tier of generator built. The idea behind these is to be able to assault a fleet with squadrons of potentially lethal fighters that function similarly to the drones that have been outlined, except in mobile form.

Stations
Praetorian Aegis
-At least 1 Aegis is required to own each galaxy in TEWay
-You can't deploy anything inside the galaxy unless you've already deployed an Aegis and the galaxy has been owned
-While expensive, Aegis' come equipped with a variety of weapons and a powerful healer; a solid kit to support your other Defenses.
Praetorian Extractor
-In TEWay, you may discover planets that have the unique commodities required to build Praetorian Defenses. Once you've established an Aegis and owned the galaxy, you can deploy an Extractor on a planet with commodities available to boost your resource intake, which in turn allows you to build more Praetorian Defenses.
-Commodities extracted from planets or moons in TEWay will automagically be available in TEForge for instant use(the reasoning behind this is to do away with actual player losses, including trade slaves that would be perma-griefed if they were used in this layer).
-Extractors are fragile and expensive, so supporting them with extra Defenses is a must.
-The Extractors will be more similar to drones in the sense that you can't interact with them and they function automatically, but they will be portrayed as bases for ease of target-ability.

The Objective
-The objective is to control and hold all 4 Praetorian Beacons which reside in the 4 corners of the layer. To control a Beacon, you must own all of the adjacent galaxies. Inside the beacon galaxies are 2 deactivated invincible Aegis' (until activated), and a variety of Drone defenses. Once the adjacent galaxies are owned, all of the defenses inside the beacon galaxy become active, and will open fire on intruders.
-Breaking the link at any time from the beacon galaxy back to Valhalla will deactivate all defenses inside the beacon galaxy and will cause all defenses to be vulnerable to attack.
-Once all 4 beacons are owned and controlled for 24 hours together, the layer is locked and the emp team receives 1% of all extracted commodities and credits scooped for the remaining duration of the universe as a tithe.
-TEForge then "resets" to default with only 1 blueprint equipped, and no commods available for use. The new blueprint allows construction of Imperial Seals using the extracted commodities. Having more extractors up and running when you control all the beacons is obviously very profitable, but potentially more time consuming.

The Rules
-Once certain prerequisites are met, the director of a capable team can dock at TEForge to start the cycle.
-The 8 galaxies surrounding Valhalla come pre-installed with 2 Aegis' each once the cycle is started.
-1 hour owning time limit once you've laid an Aegis in a neighboring galaxy
-All Praetorian Defenses (including Aegis' /Extractors/Drones etc.) are 1 size each.
-Anything developed or extracted in this new layer decays when you leave the layer, or on uni reset with the exception of built Imperial Seals.
-You can scoop any Praetorian defense or station, but it will trigger a mandatory cooldown for redeployment.
-Breaking the link to ANY galaxy that you have defenses in will deactivate those defenses until the link is re-established. To break the link, you must kill all Aegis' inside the galaxy.
-Any Praetorian Defenses killed will explode; no repairing in this layer.
-If a team fails the run(which requires their forge being destroyed), they cannot start another run that universe.



TL;DR
-Return Emp runs to their former glory
-New layer that promotes PvB and cooperation among the attackers
-Promoting the new RTS system even further with a unique PvB system
-Unique commodities are extracted and used to build "free" layer-locked Drones and Stations to guard the central galaxy against would-be attackers.
-Owning and controlling strategic galaxies for 24 hours will finish the run.
-Incentivized reward system for teams that manage to accomplish the feat of ruling the universe.

I'm sure i left a few things out; feel free to criticize or comment as necessary. If this is something that is seriously considered, I will flesh it out a bit more including names/various tiers of appropriate defenses/commodity quantities etc. Props to church for original Praetorian idea long ago (I think it was church anyways...).

Looks like you are trying to limit player liability apart from credits spent, which I think is pretty good. This area would become the playground for endgame teams to duke things out without necessarily getting personal and killing each other's colony gals and trade slaves.

Also,

It will, and should always be personal.

A team can't be everywhere at once, and breaking 1 link deactivates all defenses in all galaxies off of that broken link. Pretty easy to assault imo. Also, you're limited by extraction time; you can only make so many defenses. I was thinking ideally like 1 Aegis per day initially, which would equate to maybe 4 Drones or 2 extractors. It would take weeks to claim all 4 corners with an active attacking force.

Why would we shoot this down I think its a great idea. Its an endgame pvp insetive and something fun to do when you ulitmatly bored will ubers

That's not really an issue with this suggestion, more of a broken game mechanic. If you have a way to fix it, please feel free to make a suggestion altering the way teams are constructed, but not in this thread.

Bvb not pvp really. Right?

Want to make it pvp make an inner colo with an objective like keep a uber ai alive against non emp running teams etc. Give it low dps crazy resists and shield slow regen and it warns in eventchat when it's being shot. Essentially a Zeus of 2x resists and 3X shields with dps of mmm.... Emp.. Surround him with a pos healing drone with next to no shields. Would give 'Babying' new meaning.

Essentially something to kill that will take half hour + and allow for a pvp playground without bases... Colo with an objective.

My idea is so so in detail. But a huge dps sponge to signal the dinner bell of pvp would be awesome. Long as every noob can't sound the bell awesome.

Bigs idea sounds crazy complicated and drawn out. I like parts but that's so involved. The detail is very well thought out I just don't feel the spirit if the thing.
That's me tho.

The end result is unless you make it so there are uber ai you have to defend against for emp then there wont be any contest.No one will try to stop a emp run because they don't want to be steamrolled.The emp system is flawed and should be removed until a new system is put in place.

Also with the current ownership system no one would dare to attack a emp run because all the team runing for emp has to do is bvb and lay outpost and you start loosing all of your gear.

Unless there is some kind of reward for the people who stop a emp run no one will ever try.So how about stop tring to make emp easier to get and defend and make it so people will want to stop it.

While I agree a massive PvP incentive of that scale would be a good solution, I don't see it as epic enough to justify the current emp rewards (seals, custom emp item, tithe etc.), and I think the incentive for claiming emp would be lost if those rewards were removed.

I think the emp system should be a long arduous journey that the entire team can contribute to, and see real-time results based on their commitment.

What about something like killing Praetorian defenses and players on the emp team yield some kind of drop that can be traded in for non-neurobound shards? Essentially an alternative to farming Oly for t21 skills.

/signed with love

No nobody will be assed the to do the hours of BvB, i prefer this idea It's like an endgame PvP with actual consequences (so not like colololo). Which I think this game really needs.