I had an idea for a concept regarding Open Field PVP which I want to get out there.

Imagine this:

A new sector, which allows access to both Federation and Klingon players. This sector would have and instance cap of 100 Players (50 Federation, 50 Klingon) and could be "controllable" by the faction with the most support in the sector and wins in the sector.

First and foremost, this would not be like Wintergrasp (World of ********) where the combat is scheduled. Instead, this would be live action, 24/7 PvP combat.

I see this working in a manner where there would be some systems which could be controlled (ground and space arenas) as well as open PvP in the sector space view which would operate similar to Deep Space Encounters. Essentially, when you enter this sector for your faction, you are on patrol or on defense. If you spot a Klingon (or Starfleet) you move in close, and you can engage. This would take you into a small instance where you would fight your enemy contact. This would send out an alert in the sector which would tell all ships in your faction that a ship has been attacked and requires assistance. The first 4 ships of each faction that arrive would be taken into the instance to assist their commrade. At that point, the fight is locked and is limited to 5v5. The winners emerge with PvP reward points and points towards a "control" score for the sector.

Ground and Space systems which could be controlled would act similar to current PvP maps, but instead of being on a queue, it would be totally open (up to the cap limits for the instance) and could be joined or left at will. After every hour, "control" points are awarded to the faction who contolled it most during that hour. All this, combined with the Open Field PVP would lead towards a end of the week score, where the side that controlled the sector longest gets some sort of reward. An equipment token or something.

I feel this system would certainly encourage fleets to be more active and more coordinated. Imagine your entire fleet heading out into this sector and working together to patrol the sector and engage the enemy! Your fleet would have a reason to develop strategies that would allow you to control the sector, where some people could be assigned to patrolling open space, while others might be engaging in coordinated attacks to gain control of the controllable systems. Your commitment to your faction and your fleet would have a direct impact on the end result each week, and to the victor goes the spoils!

In this zone, I would also consider adding a station, similar to K7, where both factions could take "shore leave rights" and congregate to boast, to trade stories of the war, and perhaps even engage in bar fights. On this station, you would be able to talk openly with your enemies and friends alike, as there would be no restrictions on cross-factional chat. I could see the bar in the station being a zone where at certain times, the bar would no longer be a sanctuary zone and you could openly engage the enemy. Of course, you'd have no weapons, so it would be a true bar fight! (think "Trouble with Tribbles)

I could even see this idea as being a revamp for Eta Eridani.

Please, feel free to share your thoughts! And if you have better ideas or suggestions to make my idea better, then please share!

I'm not a pvper myself and you wouldn't see me there. I play for the storyline and ships..(surprise) what story there is at the moment. If the sector was open 24/7 and always pvp, and if you get credit for winning there to raise your reputation, what would stop people from waiting until it had just a few players and bringing in a fleet to wipe out everyone just for the raise in reputation? It might become a cheat of sorts for more organized players.Like I said it wouldn't make any difference to me, but to many other players especially new players starting out, it would lean heavily towards the experienced and the fleets,giving single players no chance,IMO.

I agree with this idea. I don't PvP mainly because of the queues.

Another thing I'd like to see is open ship to ship fighting. It would work similarly to DSEs. For example, you're a Fed flying through sector space when you come across a player controlled Klingon cruiser. Like NPC enemy contacts, you chase the ship down and once you get close enough you're both pulled into a small space combat instance. He who dies first loses, and then you both exit to Sector Space. A debuff could even be applied to the loser for x minutes. I think it might be a good idea to make the loser untargetable for a certain amount of time to prevent bullies from attacking the same guy over and over and over. (The loser could always use Transwarp to Space Dock or Slipstream Drive to get away I guess.)

There could even be group against group battles. (As long as the group numbers are somewhat even.)

For example : group of 3 ships flying through sector space encounters group of 3 ships flying in sector space. All 6 ships get pulled into a battle instance. ( For simplicity's sake, and for scalability, the space battle maps should just be an empty star field.)

In order to keep griefing to a minimum I would suggest any bonuses for having control be temporary (time limit) and locked to the sector only. CoX had a similiar thing in thier pvp, and I liked that concept, don't see why with tweaking- the OP's idea couldn't be used.

While I understand that you want things to be fair and ballanced, the whole idea of 24/7 Open Field PvP is that sometimes the fight will be unbalanced. Sometimes, you may get a fleet that will move 25 people in, obliterating the enemy there. That's just a simple fact of war.

As for "bonuses" based on control of the sector, I wasn't really intending for any bonus powers or boosts to power as a reward. Your rewards would be points or tokens towards getting some gear or some cool non-weapon prizes the devs might think of. I specifically would want to avoid the buff/debuff route because of the issues they presented in WoW / Wintergrasp.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Spendible tokens and the like seem like a good idea.

I absolutly agree with this concept. Provided there were adequate protections and perhaps some PvE default to allow for low-faction population at various times, It would only serve to enhance the game as it stands, encourage dynamic *team play* as well as provide a dynamic *game area* so it's not the same old mission over and over and over.

What you could do is make it so there's always 50 ships per side, with NPC's filling in if there aren't enough players. But the trick would be, that the names would be hidden so you'd never know if you were fighting a group of Players or AI controlled ship.