Kinda like the mini-game idea too. Rather than using character skills (perhaps requiring an "investigator" alt)  players could use their NPC followers with different skills.

Then the strategic choice is between getting gun servitors and other stronger combat NPCs to defend your base or interrogators and agents better suited to earning you more missions. 

You might be right, a bit too MMOish and would probably require a lot of resources.

A more abstract idea that fits more with what Neocore have already announced and achieves the same sort of thing might be a map based system.

For example, an investigation starts as a "Rumor" that an important Arch-Heretic may be in a particular system or might be preparing to head there for some reason. 

The system contains 4 planets and a moonbase.  The player can then spend resources (on spies, bribes whatever) on a per planet basis.  

The player might decide that the Prime planet (having the highest population) is the best place to look and spends big on setting up a listening network there (or sending an Interrogator NPC?).

Alternatively a player decide to might spare no expense and spend the maximum resources setting up extensive networks on every planet in the system to maximise chances of getting to Phase 2 in the investigation.

Phase 2 might be the random (modified by the above choices) chance of discovering a cabal recruiting on the moon base - no sign of the arch heretic , but sources indicate some event  of significance is planned sometime in the next 30 minutes/4 hours/Days (realtime or not?) .

Player can choose to launch mission at this point (and invite friends) with little chance of seeing the Arch-Heretic, but high probability of stopping whatever the cabal is planning before the devastation is unleashed.

Alternatively the player can wait and observe giving mutliple possible outcomes:

- Finding out more about the conspiracy or getting a sighting of the arch Heretic (making a new better rewards mission available)

-The heretics complete their planned sabotage/assassination/ritual and inquisitor is too late to stop it, but a mission to capture or kill the perpetrators becomes available.

-The Heretics complete their nefarious agenda and escape (either without a trace, ending the investigation, or leaving a clue and the investigation continues in a new system giving you a second chance at generating the "Epic mission" you ideally want).

Basically it functions the same as the previous idea, individual players can fiddle around in their base finding (crafting) missions and then invite their group to play once they believe they have an interesting or rewarding mission to play. 

Yeah for sure. I'm hesitant to move to far from the classic ARPG gameplay of just killing stuff all the time, but I think some kind of representation of "investigating" and "interrogating" rather than just executing everything seems like a good idea, otherwise it could just be a Space Marine game. 

I'm not suggesting a Bioware RPG or anything,  but I feel like Inquisitors are meant to find and uncover things. Maybe if they work a bit more of that in it could be a point of difference from the other ARPGs on the market and it might lead to some really unique ideas for the "end game" stuff. 

Hey Hydra, all great points you have made here, I particularly like your thoughts about end game. 

Neocore have a proven track record with Van Helsing already, and I'm pretty confident they will work out  all the basic stuff. 

Had a couple of extra ideas to throw in the ring about end-game and keeping the excitement going.  In particularly I'm a fan of randomness and the sense of discovery  as big things in ARPGs.

The points you made about different enemy types  being needed were spot on. 

Something like a treasure goblin could be good -  a high value, wanted heretic appears, and promptly flees, if the inquisitors hunt him down and kill him before he escapes they receive -not loot - but evidence that leads to a special Epic dungeon Investigation.

The Path of Exile system  of finding maps that you can then  clear seems to really fit with Inquisitor. I think it would be really cool if a big feature of the meta game was devoting energy to uncovering foul plots or menacing hints that then unlock special Epic Investigations for you and your friends. 

Friendly mobs in the dungeon's would be interesting too (like Admech. Magos doing solo research with their loyal servitors, or a unit of guardsmen cut off from their platoon) these could offer optional secondary objectives. 

Having friendly mobs could open up some really interesting map opportunities , for example: 

Investigating reports of Heresy in Imperial Guard Command in the middle of a Warzone.

The Inquisitor cannot tell which guard units are Loyalists or  Traitor until you get close, so you need to fight the obvious servants of Chaos, whilst trying to help the loyalsts take their objectives, but also need to be alert for treachery, because an apparently friendly guard squad could suddenly turn on you at any time. 

Hive city missions - the Hive is made up of three factions - Adeptus Mechanicus, Imperial Guard, Local Gangers, all start off as apparently friendly but one or more of the factions have been secretly infiltrated by Chaos. All is calm at the start of the level, then full scale civil war will break out at some point. 

I was thinking you could even go a step further and have almost fully peaceful "Quiet" missions, where the Inquisitor can go to an apparently loyal, calm  population centre and just sort of wander about looking for clues or hints of heresy.  

You could visit the local governer, beat some information out of local thugs, search for Xenos contraband...basically the map would be fairly safe, mainly filled with friendlies/neutrals. Possibly with a slight chance of being lured into a trap by local hidden big-bad or you could assasinate the odd bad egg....but generally the point would be something relatively low stress to do whilst waiting for your group to get online...where you have the chance of finding rare dangerous investigations to then go on with your full group off allies. 

Anyway, just some randomn ideas to get the conversation going. 

Great vids by the way Hydra, keep up the good work :)