(Covenant) NPC Mission Discussion

[Faclan]

Just because it says Covenant don't be afraid to post questions/suggestions if you mainly play UNSC. You could always play an NPC Human

Annnyway the poll I had about NPC missions was a resounding 'yes we want this'. So the time has come for them to be put out into the community to discuss and plan before they are released proper. As we (staff) would like you all to enjoy them as much as possible and to launch with as little confusion as possible.

This will be the discussion for the Covenant led mission. Meaning that the Covenant players will be using their PC characters for it and the opposition, the Humans, will be NPCs. This means that the Covenant will win and have the huge share of the power in this thread - to give them a time in the spotlight without sneaky Humans trying to fill them full of holes (that much).

The main idea for the thread, that you are welcome to suggest additions or edits too, will be as follows;
After a tip off from a Luminary (I believe the artifact location devices are still called that) equipped small ship the Covenant team, fresh off the morning of Great Lord Til (If Huka is going through with that o7) decide to try to do something more 'simple' to try and get their footing back and not just dive into the deep end with a new commander(s). As such they decide to assault a smaller Human infested world with a ship or two. This is our PCs. After zooping close to the planet depending on the Commander(s) they could give the Humans a chance to leave or just start bombarding stuff immediatly but it soon becomes apparent that the Artifacts are hidden in a Metro/oldruins/underground. With the artifact not just being out in the open bow tied the forces will have to do some close combat searching to get it secured and try to find some way to get it up onto the ship.


You could suggest some civilians that are hiding in these tunnels. Or maybe some sinister miners trying to collapse the tunnels and bury the artifact or squish Unggoy with steamrollers. Or perhaps some native giant bat things make it much more tricky. Or a 'freak' surface storm that cuts off the ship from those on the ground. Lots of stuff to discuss and plan

[AlphaWolf]

As far as NPC antagonists, I'd expect to see civilian law enforcement, an Army garrison, and possibly a militia like was formed on Harvest. I don't know how common those were afterwards. Of course, there'd also be the miners and civilians hiding, and possibly even some civilians trying to be a hero and fight, only to get speared by a Sangheili's energy sword. Plot developments could include the freak surface storm, and maybe the ruins or tunnels collapse and the ground forces have to find an alternate way out of the tunnels.

[Mr. Prezident]

Heyyyy i might be willing to join up as well and contribute my characters. Graveyards have been been brutal and my PC is messed up but i am contributing more time to the forums as much as i can manage :3

[MrKill]

Like I said in the UNSC thread, the threat of humanity shouldn't be written like they're brain-dead soldiers. It shouldn't be 'easy' to win in a NPC mission, yadda-yadda-yadda.

To sum everything up:

NPC missions should still have variables that make it challenging for PC characters to write.

[Faclan]

I didn't intend for this to be a walkover MrKill. I just said that 'x will win' just so people know from the outset so we dont have 'well no we win because *blank*' arguments like we've had before. This isn't a social thread its a main combat just with only one main playable side. Otherwise it will contain the same kind of hurdles and dangers as normal missions.

Glad to see you about Mr. Prezident - feedback and the like will always be appreciated <3

AlphaWolf Police would be a good little challenge for covies. Less pew pew more gas and flash grenades. Just a different type of human that we would probably all be 'pfft what are these unarmoed people gona do ARGAHSGSGAHAG *tazed*' and the like :>. And if there are miners tunnel collapses would be a real and big threat for the Covie troops...nice evil ideas

[Mr. Prezident]

Considering the missions and me working on the supreme commander, I would be fully willing for any portion of the fleets to be used in the RPs :3

Its still WIP but here it is:
Flotilla of Irrepressible Clarity
Fleet of Divine Cognizance
Fleet of Recalcitrant Purpose
Fleet of Vehement Replenishment

Im not going into any more detail than that so people can be creative if they roll with it. I will have Fleet Masters written up soon enough



EDIT: i think staff/gms just needs to keep mixing things up thats what seems to make a lot of missions enjoyable. Just as things start to sway to one side (or sometimes just unexpectedly) throw the metaphorical curveball in there.

[Llau]

Mar 9, 2018 5:00:47 GMT -6 Mr. Prezident said:

EDIT: i think staff/gms just needs to keep mixing things up thats what seems to make a lot of missions enjoyable. Just as things start to sway to one side (or sometimes just unexpectedly) throw the metaphorical curveball in there.

Well, that's what Faclan has been doing in mission 9.5. In any case, we know. lol

[Mr. Prezident]

I dunno dont listen to bad advice from prez xP

Swat and some armored apcs could add to the fun. Russian style swat if you will...

[Llau]

I'm an evil writer, I can turn things really bad for everyone if I wanted to. >;3

[Faclan]

Oh don't worry there will be surprises and general badness in the thread ;D

And thanks for the possible fleets to use. That will help put a name to things.

[BetaWülf]

I'll commit my Pack to this, since given the nature of the Mission thus far and the current year in the timeline, it seems to make sense to have a noticeable Jiralhanae presence. Maybe it'll even spark a fun rivalry in the troops.

As far ideas for possible happenings in the Mission, I shall ruminate upon it so if I do have a thought to share it will ideally be a good one.

[Faclan]

Aww yeah we can have sweet barbecues now!

Be sure to let us know if you have any sinister helpful ideas for the thread of us covies having a fun little mission for us.

[Mr. Prezident]

Mar 11, 2018 18:13:07 GMT -6 BetaWülf said:

I'll commit my Pack to this, since given the nature of the Mission thus far and the current year in the timeline, it seems to make sense to have a noticeable Jiralhanae presence. Maybe it'll even spark a fun rivalry in the troops.

As far ideas for possible happenings in the Mission, I shall ruminate upon it so if I do have a thought to share it will ideally be a good one.

If you are bringing Garatus Field Master Nertetzu might make good for a little rivalry

[Faclan]

ayyy sweet species dynamics as we edge closer to the schism.

So it seems like peeps are ok with perhaps this as a basic plan?
- Great Master Lord Emperor God Til is dead dead - sadness as we mourn his loss.
- As we are mourning we are on our way to a slight off the beaten path Human world for a sneak attack - Papa G and his boyz as well as Field Mastah Nertetzu are discussing the best cooking tips.
* Said Human world has Maguffin X on it that we want, so we dont just blast it from orbit.
- We arrive to minimal resistance in space and are soon shuttling down to retreive the item/person/thing in question.
- Due to the smaller Human world we encounter minimal ships in orbit so it SEEMS like this will be easy.
- However we find that the Humans are different than the normal green jarhead we normally interact with. Instead of just a million MA5's and hoo-rahs we instead are faced with troops types like; Local police, with less direct guns but more flashbangs, tasers, breaching charges, and riot shields. As well as miners, with even less direct guns but coring charges, large hard to stop underground machines, and intimate knowledge of the underground. There will be some Army to have the normal jarheads too don't you worry.

And then we try to work it all out from there? That sound ok? Feel free to make more suggestions or ask questions if you got um.

[охотник]

As I have a ranger we could have a ranger deployment somewhere? I dunno, I felt I should chuck the idea in.

[Faclan]

Perhaps after a big miner caused cave in a whole lot of dust and gas could be released? Which would be a good place for the already helmeted and sealed up Rangers to go in to work out a fix to stop the gas?