On the Mission Terminal a new separate area is added to its main screen (let’s suppose to its left upper corner), with 4-6 missions slots in it
Any player is allowed to “purchase” (“fund by donating”) a new mission that will go into one of those slots for everybody to play, spending various ingame currencies and resources; the cost needs to be substantially high, so that everybody would have a chance to create their own mission, once in a while (if it will be just 50k everybody and their mom will be able to spam missions all day long, making it impossible for others to create theirs if they can’t stay online for hours, sniping slots); I’m thinking of something like 500k dockets, plus probably also some plasteel / diamantine; or make starting mission to cost just dockets, but to additionally customize it (see below) you need to sink some resources in too; some additional limit of 1 or 2 missions per 24 hrs per player could be enforced too
When initiating a mission like that, the player is allowed to draft every aspect of it, including what mission it will be (choose any existing one) and what modifiers will be applied there (they can purchase additional modifiers’ slots, and choose any modifier existing in the game, including Havoc modifiers and the ones with mechanics used in previous events, there)
The mission stays in its slot for designated amount of time (possibly with player being able to choose for how long it will stay, paying extra for each additional hour, up to 24 hrs total)
In each mission’s details there should be a name of its drafter (so that we could recognize our favorite authors and stick to their creations )
In Quickplay’s settings there should be a new option to exclude such missions from pool of games you can join via it (as its difficulty will be inconsistent, and many people will get frustrated when accidentally getting into one of such missions they can’t handle); or possibly this mission category should have their own Quickplay button, to make it easier for people who prefer to play one of those to drop into one of the ongoing custom missions games
Aside from being yet another solution for oldtimer sitting on piles of money and resources they can’t spend on anything, this could also increase players’ involvement with the game and provide additional interactivity aspects the game lacks (imo).
Trust me, I didn’t try to rip off your idea or anything This thought had been haunting me for a while (“how can we have our custom mission games - but without being secluded into private lobbies at the same time”), so I’d been drafting the proposal for some time already. You were the first though, I admit that.
When drafting this proposal I was inspired by certain mechanics that exist in Helldivers 2. If you don’t play the game, in a nutshell, there is a sort of Spacestation you can move around the strategic map by voting for its next destination - and when it’s orbiting a certain planet, players can donate various resources to unlock temporarily available powerful tools (“stratagems”) they then can use when doing missions on this planet. So comunity, sort of, participates in the narrative and interacts with it, they don’t just being fed it by “Game master” (or at least it creates such illusion).
I only explain that all so that my intention would be more clear: I wanted to create something DT community could feel like making a dent on something bigger than your group of friends. And something that would allow people to be creative - and see other people appreciating their efforts. A social glue for the community.
But I see your point, and perhaps you’re right - two options could coexist, so that you could pay lesser amount and just play it with friends; or you could pay a few times more - and let other people experience your perfect creation Unfortunately, for the later, there needs to be some limiting factor so that people wouldn’t start to spam badly thought missions, taking all the slots. And I don’t see a better way to make it both affordable for everybody (everybody can amass money and resources in time), and not affordable enough to abuse it. Some combination of high cost plus hard limit of 1 custom mission a player a day is my only idea atm.
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