(10-28-2014, 10:48 AM)Snake Wrote: Back in Starlancer, the Coalition clearly say "The French and Italian Fleets have been destroyed" and there was no single sign of any French "rebuilding of the fleet" or anything and I'm very sure that the French, after loosing their Fleet, didn't have any more resources to build themselfs an own Sleeper Ship, the Gallia. Thus I'm not sure how Gallia even made it into 'Sirius'.
But, I was thinking about a possible conclusion. Italy was aboard the Hispanic sleeper ship, so we could say, and it was very crowded. The french were left behind since hispania didn't have any more place. This madness towards the Alliance started then, when Gallia was still trying to build a Sleeper Ship as fast as possible. But of course the 5 Sleeper Ships launched, Gallia was near it's finish of the Sleeper Ship and the Coalition Units surrounded them, cause clearly, you don't easily escape a superior force which conquered almost whole Sol with 1 Sleeper Ship. 5 Sleeper Ships might've crushed the blockade but a single one wont handle it, face it people.
The only problem with this is that the Coalition did not surround the French. 'Murica and Britain throwing Gallia in as a bait for the Coalition is what gave them enough time to finish preparing their sleeper ships for launch, but contrary to their beliefs, what they thought of as France's sleeper ship was actually a decoy, an empty bulk, and the real Gallia has been constructed in secret, away from everybody, on an other moon of Jupiter (don't remember which one). France knew of the plan of the two other, planned their decoy accordingly, and fled Sol before the Coalition could get to them.
And I did not make this up on the fly, old info I already have no idea where exactly I read long ago.
The only problem of Gallia is that it doesn't fit into Freelancer's already set-upped universe. I mean it's pretty full without it. Gallia have no real place in the game and with that it adds to the overall mess.
Too many new systems AND too many added factions to spread out the playerbase. Like Tunicle said, I'd have preferred if the GRN, Police, and GMS could all have been made into one monarcy faction, Solar doesn't even need to exist, the Junkers schism wasn't really necessary, and the Maquis are redundant with there already being a revolutionary group in the Council.
I also agree that the lore estimates of the Gallic fleet seem ridiculous and should be retconned to make GRN not be a steamroller group. If anything, I think making their fleets smaller in size, but more advanced technologically (better than Liberty, but not quite Nomad level) would have been better in making them a dangerous but not seemingly insurmountable opponent.
The only problem with this is that the Coalition did not surround the French. 'Murica and Britain throwing Gallia in as a bait for the Coalition is what gave them enough time to finish preparing their sleeper ships for launch, but contrary to their beliefs, what they thought of as France's sleeper ship was actually a decoy, an empty bulk, and the real Gallia has been constructed in secret, away from everybody, on an other moon of Jupiter (don't remember which one). France knew of the plan of the two other, planned their decoy accordingly, and fled Sol before the Coalition could get to them.
And I did not make this up on the fly, old info I already have no idea where exactly I read long ago.
And I presume they launched from the star dust of the destroyed solar system after the nomads purged it? The idea of gallia is absurd.
(10-28-2014, 04:40 PM)Vredes Wrote: And I presume they launched from the star dust of the destroyed solar system after the nomads purged it? The idea of gallia is absurd.
Nah, they launched before Nomnoms arrived. The idea of launching after it is absurd.
I really enjoyed Gallia. The systems are beautiful and well-made (from .87 when most of the absurdity in them was fixed). They're colorful and nice to travel through. It's overly large, yes...but that's a problem with Disco in general, not the house in particular.
As regards the lore...with the absurd parts rolled back for the most part (fleet size in particular...) it's an interesting House if you understand the background it is based on. There's no polite way to put it, most of disco has no idea about that time period at all even though it was a time of great upheaval and a time when France was indeed a major world power and events occurring within her shook the world.
St.Denis said it best, I think. The problems with this mod are many and varied, and Gallia is just a convenient scapegoat since it was the largest addition made to the mod.
"Hey, Frank...why are the Sigmas so dead these days?"
"Gallia man. Taking up so much space and being inactive as hell, that's the reason."
"But..if it's inactive, that'd mean it's not taking many players away from other activity centers and nobody is forced to play in it. How is it the problem then?"
"You ask too many questions."
That being said, Some of the most fun I had was as Gallic characters and my efforts (in conjunction with the efforts of others...) did prove that the House could be pretty interesting to play in. People who choose to ignore said efforts are welcome to do so, but keep in mind that your claims of Gallia being pointless would be wrong, and quite frankly it's shameful that members of the community engage in such casual derogation. I'm sure that if I suggested the casual removal of say, Bretonia or Rheinland I'd be lynched. However, this is something I'll never do...because I do not make a habit of demeaning the efforts of others or passing judgement on where and what kind of character they have fun with.
It is worth remembering that this mod was developed with an increasing playerbase in mind rather than a shrinking one. This makes a huge difference to the decisions made in terms of plotline, scale, and the amount of space, systems, and so on...
As Rod mentions above there are many regions that have been under-used or under-developed. Plenty of buffer systems that would have been necessary when there were tons of players operating in an area - For example, the various buffer systems between Corsair-land and the outcasts in the Northern Omicrons. At one point, when the corsair/OC war was in full swing, they were required to give each side a defensive bonus. You could see a raid forming and, due to travel times, would have the time to prepare a defensive force and rally the troops.
This is a necessary addition when you have a couple of hundred players online and huge battles occuring in various places. However, with 50 - 70 players online (I'm not sure about player numbers these days, I can't say I've checked lately) this becomes an inconvenience, and makes action and interaction happen less frequently. In the vastness of space, people pass each other like ships in the night, or just outright can't be bothered with travelling to the other guys to fight/talk with them.
Down-scaling the mod and combining systems together into fewer but larger 'mega-systems' may well be a wise move, and possibly attract more players or increase player retention by making places feel more alive. This goes for the whole mod, not just Gallia. Note, I do not suggest the wholesale removal of factions or regions, but rather a five system region is merged/down-scaled to two or three systems.
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To address some of the other criticism gallia has gained over the years...
I was one of the founding members of the GRN, forming it with Exile wthin the first few weeks of Gallia appearing in the mod. We took something that was new, fresh and under-developed, and started to flesh it out, creating fictional social structures from the framework that was laid out by the dev team.
It is worth remembering something about freelancer in general and the RP which exists on the server currently... Your RP is the product of literally years of development of stories, ideas and so on. Freelancer's base lore is far more sparse and sketchy than the lore which disco has developed through YEARS of player interaction and dev-led changes. The primary example would be the nomads. Yuri (Treewyrm) and various others took something that was a token badguy that had the virtue of "other-ness" and difference to the protagonists but not much more, and gave it depth and detail, forming it into something which we now operate upon as the basis for a great many other related (directly or indirectly) things.
The same could be true of Gallia. The work that was started by the devs in creating gallia was intended to be fleshed out by the players, so that over time the devs could assist in filling out the gaps.
When you are given something new, it is down to the players to make something of it. Do not expect everything to be handed to you on a plate. Players make activity, players make deth, and players make something come alive. if gallia is "failing" then it is down to there not being enough input from the wonderfully creative minds that you guys all have.
If you invest time and energy into something, then other people will join in, and something of worth can be created. however, gallia has had a lot of flak over the years due to people taking an orbital dump on the work that players are doing, and asserting that those players interpretation of things is in some way wrong.
This whole game, this whole environment is about interpreting something, running with it, and seeing what comes out in the end. don't knock people down for giving it a go, just because you may not like the dev provided framework they are creating within.
Just effin' join in, interact and create something alongside it.
In the scheme of things, Gallia is still young in the history of disco's development. The people who tried to make something of it got a lot of criticism from those with a conservative and static mindset. Drop it and create stuff instead. It's your job to flesh it out, giving the dev team ideas to run with. Creativity feeds creativity.