Though I'm sure many people may disagree, I think this game will enjoy a much greater sustained playerbase size if dgs were revamped in a significant way. Basically, even though the AI do vary from dg to dg, dgs are essentially identical in appearance and approach from the day you start the game until the day you decide to quit the game. Really, they're pretty much extremely minor variations of the exact same screen.

In other rpgs and mmorpgs, this is not quite true. There is generally similarity between game dungeons, but most successful games make use of varied topography (ie a forest dungeon vs. a cave dungeon vs. a lava dungeon). Others try to make a variety of "quests." AND the AI varies. This keeps the game feeling a little less grindish for a decent while longer.

Since SS demands such a high level of grinding, I think this is essential. I will post a different thread soon about ways to vary the environment of dgs, but I think that dgs can be divided into multiple types to make the interest in the experience last longer for new clientele.

Here are a couple suggestions of different types of dgs that can be created. Many of these would need to be instanced:

1) Classic - the current dgs
2) Timed attack - you start a mission outside the dg and have a limited time to complete the dg. Each class would have a different time limit. The time limit would also be affected by DF. Loot quality is determined by a combination of df and the completion time.
3) Progressive Waves - AI comes at you in clockwork growing waves (a 3-5 increase in number with each wave. The AI type is determined by df. The loot quality is determined by a combination of the number of AI you survive and DF. SPawn size cap of 32.
4) Race - Obstacle course dgs. Multiple jump courses, randomized from a series of pre-made race "galaxies" (the number of these can be small at first, but slowly increased with updates). You race against 3-4 AI opponents. All AI ships and players in this dg will be invulnerable to damage. They (and the player) will use tweaks, tractors, and physical weapons to de-rail each other. The difficulty of the course, speed and aggression of opponents will be determined by danger factor. The quality of loot will be determined by what you place in the race, your completion time, and DF.
5) Squad Classic DG - This dg bases its difficulty on the number of players and their level. More AI/ higher level AI/ stronger equipped ai based on squad size and level. These dgs will need to remove the spawn cap up until 32 ai to ensure high levels of difficulty can be reached. The number of bosses on the final level will also be based on the squad size to ensure that squads are actually worth bringing to dgs.

Unfortunately, I'm out of time, but I think you get the idea - will suggest more later.

Oh, and these new types of dgs should be locked to all F2P except the basic "classic" - and maybe the squad classic.

Lord Runningclam

oh, and yes, this would take a decent bit of coding. I think a significant number of people have expressed that certain aspects of the game could use revamping, and that will take a good bit of coding no matter how you slice it.

If they can code it, hell yes on waves attacking you

/signed

the idea for waves of attackers is awesome.

This is an awesome idea

/signed x 10

/s s s signed!

Waves:

Sit in a DG with MF Reavers.

One spawns every 56.25 seconds when you hit the cap of 32.

= Broken.

We have a tag that makes every subsequent kill give less exp

Useless when you're going after loot. MF Reavers have been historically the AI that drops the most Dem and Dfrags for random kills. Many people have agreed in the past they'd skip the boss to camp the MF Reaver levels because of how many pieces of Dem they and their team needed per uni.

Who gives a shit how many levels you could have gotten if you need 500+ dem per uni?


Of course, the simple solution is to only make the boss(es) drop drop loot.

Another simple solution is to instance it, and make the levels only spawn once. No camping! Though you can ravage the levels as many times as you want, as fast as you can kill them, unless there's a lockout. Which imo isnt a bad thing.

There's a tag for that(tm)

Why camp? Also if you do it right, delquads drop way more dem.

I could get 60-80 dem per day in about 3 hours of doing delquads DGs.


But either way, why camp? Actually doing several DGs increases the amount of reavers you kill probably ten fold.