It'll never be implemented, I know, but I thought it'd be interesting to discuss.

Suddenly, ranked/ladder matches exist, because this gametype would be unfun if the teams weren't balanced by skill. Further, players would have to specifically queue for this match in teams of eight.

At the start of the match, two capital ships enter the battlefield, one for each team. These aren't the capital ships we know of today; their turrets don't utterly annihilate any player within a dozen kilometers, and they are instead very durable (high shield pool, hull, and armor values). They are a significant battlefield presence, but they are vulnerable to snubfighter assault. They can be attacked at various points: defensive turrets, shield generators, engines, hanger bays, and -- most importantly -- the bridge. The capital ships are approximately 75 km apart.

Players in this gametype get five ships apiece. If a ship they own is destroyed, it cannot be used again for that match -- the player must launch a different ship from the five flyable ships chosen in his hanger. A player may return a ship to his hanger and fly a new ship by accessing the map menu while within a certain radius of the capital ship and waiting fifteen seconds. While in the capital ship's hanger, a snubfighter's shields are instantly restored and hull is restored at a rate of 25/sec.

At the beginning of the match, both capital ships deploy a defensive screen of two dozen fighters consisting primarily (but not entirely) of strike fighters. These ships spread out around the capital ship at a maximum distance of perhaps 10 km, but will engage enemies up to 25 km away from the capital ship if they enter this range.

In the middle of the map, through a maze of asteroids and debris, is the Infinite Empire Vault. This is the reason why the Republic and Empire have arrived here: both wish to claim this technology for their side and deny it to the other. Activating the vault, however, is tricky.

Rakatan power cores spawn pseudorandomly within the area covered by the defensive screen of fighters. To activate the fault, a player must collect the power core and deliver it to the vault. This transfers control of the vault to his team. Should a team control the vault for 120 seconds, it starts reacting to their fighters -- all player fighters on that team gain a stack of Rakatan Energy, which increases their ship's shield power (per arc) by 5%, reduces the effectiveness of shield piercing by 2% (e.g. 9% shield piercing with burst lasers becomes 7% shield piercing against a ship with this buff), and increases rate of fire of primary weapons by 2%. This buff lasts until the ship is destroyed or the match ends and stacks up to three times.

After fifteen minutes, the vault begins reacting strangely to the ships in the area. With a great flash of light, it begins leaking energy into the nearby area. At this point, the admirals of both factions order all of their forces to close the distance towards the vault to secure it before anything more dramatic happens. Further, all remaining ships -- player-controlled and non -- begin gaining stacks of a new buff once every thirty seconds starting at 15:30. This buff increases damage dealt by 10% per stack.

When the NPC ships meet in the middle, they open fire on each other, preferring computer-controlled targets over player targets unless defending themselves or counterattacking.

The victors are the first team to destroy the opposing capital ship by collapsing its bridge. The bridge itself is protected primarily by the shield generators. Destroying the capital ship's engines before the fifteen minute mark will slow its advance to the vault. This puts it at a severe disadvantage: the defensive screen's orders are now to secure the vault, and they will race ahead into the opposing team's fighters and capital ships and likely die as a result.

Team strategy revolves around maintaining control of the vault while doing as much damage as possible to enemy starfighters. At the fifteen minute mark, the team with more stacks of the energy buff and more NPC starfighters has the advantage. This forces teams to balance resources between defense (preventing their NPCs from being killed and preventing the enemy team from gaining control of the vault) and offense (gaining control of the vault and killing enemy players and NPCs to deny them resources).

Does the map sound fun and interesting? Are there any dominant strategies that need to be addressed that are not present in other gameplay formats? Are there any strategies that should be valid but are not due to the map's mechanics? What changes or tweaks could be made to the map?

It does sound like something that would work better in PvE (due to the co-ordination that would probably be required), but it does sound interesting.

Yeah, this is why it would need to be ranked and why you would need to queue up with a group of eight instead of the current queue (which fills your group with randoms, up to twelve).

I might have missed something but with only 5 lives it seems like it would quickly turn into team deathmatch to see who can kill the other team off the fastest. Other than that you a great premise and some cool ideas. What if this were totally pve and players vs npcs?

I think a lot of people would get behind a total pve element in starfighter.

I might have missed something but with only 5 lives it seems like it would quickly turn into team deathmatch to see who can kill the other team off the fastest. Other than that you a great premise and some cool ideas. What if this were totally pve and players vs npcs?

 

I think a lot of people would get behind a total pve element in starfighter.

Yes, you can win by landing 40 kills. However, between similarly skilled teams and with a screen of fighters to fall back on for protection, this should be harder to do than it is in current TDM. In many competitive games I've seen, a player who dies five times in a single match is out of his league (either because he's significantly less skilled than his opponents, or he's significantly more skilled than his allies and thus draws fire from his enemies).

I would definitely find this fun in PvE with some adjustments. In PvE you can afford to stack the odds. Why not throw hundreds of baddies at the players? Why not make them face two or even three enemy capital ships? Why not make the vault produce more enemy ships if the players don't control it? PvE can be upped to eleven because people will still beat it.