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+--- Thread: OF Perks/Requirements (/showthread.php?tid=210390)
OF Perks/Requirements - Stewgar - 12-23-2025
Hello everybody!
Here's another PM thread for discussion about OF perks and requirements. I'm still getting responses from the Gank question so I'm waiting until after Christmas to open that thread up for discussion.
This is similar. You are the leader of Discovery for a day, how would you change the OF system of perks and requirements (to include faction creation)?. This is your opportunity for your feedback to be heard.
Thank you for your participation!
(Please title your PM as (OF Rework). Thanks!
RE: OF Perks/Requirements - Stewgar - 12-24-2025
Bumping for visibility
RE: OF Perks/Requirements - Stewgar - 12-29-2025
One last bump! This thread and the gank thread will be unlocked for open discussion either tomorrow or the day after.
Until then, Happy New Year everybody! Stay safe and have fun!
RE: OF Perks/Requirements - Stewgar - 01-04-2026
The responses have been brought to the team and thread is now open for discussion.
RE: OF Perks/Requirements - St.Denis - 01-04-2026
Maybe worth putting a list of bullet-points down, of what has been has been presented to the Staff, so these can be discussed and start the ball rolling.
RE: OF Perks/Requirements - Enkidu - 01-04-2026
(01-04-2026, 04:07 PM)St.Denis Wrote: Maybe worth putting a list of bullet-points down, of what has been has been presented to the Staff, so these can be discussed and start the ball rolling.
That would be amazing, thank you, Saint Denis.
RE: OF Perks/Requirements - Chenzo- - 01-04-2026
(12-23-2025, 07:15 PM)Stewgar Wrote: Hello everybody!
Here's another PM thread for discussion about OF perks and requirements. I'm still getting responses from the Gank question so I'm waiting until after Christmas to open that thread up for discussion.
This is similar. You are the leader of Discovery for a day, how would you change the OF system of perks and requirements (to include faction creation)?. This is your opportunity for your feedback to be heard.
Thank you for your participation!
(Please title your PM as (OF Rework). Thanks!
What would really be a step back in the correct direction, is Official factions re-gain control over their faction's ID.
If the leader of the official faction doesn't like a suggested lore/story change, system change etc etc which effects their faction- It doesn't happen. Instead, the faction leaders have full control over which direction the faction goes- within reason.
RE: OF Perks/Requirements - Lythrilux - 01-04-2026
IMHO I think the fundamental issue with OF Perks is that at the end of the day the perks themselves often are only particularly beneficial or are only interesting to faction leadership or those most invested in a faction. Given how OF ID mining bonuses have been scaled back, short of solid gameplay advantages, it's hard for me to imagine if this system will ever really be worthwhile at all.
IDs are such a complex system that if you give an OF ID a perk that is actually worthwhile, suddenly you have one ID that is significantly better than the others. Whilst I would consider it worthwhile as far as 'perks' are concerned, if something like a Core OF ID had 5kers that would be hilariously unbalanced - even though at a glance it's a simple addition. There's also the balancing act where you don't want your OF ID to be outright better than the NPC ID really, because then where are your indies going to be?
The agency of official factions over their NPC faction has also been significantly reduced in the past several years. I would genuinely argue that at this point being official has zero benefit and is a pretty useless thing to have for NPC factions. The only groups that really benefit from it are generic or semi-generic factions that want to make themselves more distinct and get a unique ID/IFF that is more fitting for their roleplay.
Honestly, remove the system entirely, open the floor for tracked tags with a modicum of activity to have an easier and more streamlined access to SRPs and requests. I think that might be the best things can get whilst taking away the pressure from people to meet a time requirement.
RE: OF Perks/Requirements - Enkidu - 01-04-2026
(01-04-2026, 07:07 PM)Lythrilux Wrote: IMHO I think the fundamental issue with OF Perks is that at the end of the day the perks themselves often are only particularly beneficial or are only interesting to faction leadership or those most invested in a faction. Given how OF ID mining bonuses have been scaled back, short of solid gameplay advantages, it's hard for me to imagine if this system will ever really be worthwhile at all.
IDs are such a complex system that if you give an OF ID a perk that is actually worthwhile, suddenly you have one ID that is significantly better than the others. Whilst I would consider it worthwhile as far as 'perks' are concerned, if something like a Core OF ID had 5kers that would be hilariously unbalanced - even though at a glance it's a simple addition. There's also the balancing act where you don't want your OF ID to be outright better than the NPC ID really, because then where are your indies going to be?
The agency of official factions over their NPC faction has also been significantly reduced in the past several years. I would genuinely argue that at this point being official has zero benefit and is a pretty useless thing to have for NPC factions. The only groups that really benefit from it are generic or semi-generic factions that want to make themselves more distinct and get a unique ID/IFF that is more fitting for their roleplay.
Honestly, remove the system entirely, open the floor for tracked tags with a modicum of activity to have an easier and more streamlined access to SRPs and requests. I think that might be the best things can get whilst taking away the pressure from people to meet a time requirement.
As an enormous fan of the Official Faction system, and somebody who's seen it benefit people who are not the leadership over and over again (case in point, the entire existence of OSI, one of the longest running factions in the mod's entire history), I strongly disagree with your argument, Lyth'.
Remember, we're all talking from our own experience, and we should be careful not to extrapolate our own experiences to the experiences of everyone.
Perks might only benefit leadership if the perks requested are only of benefit to the leadership.
This should not be used to sweep away the Perk system. It's extraordinarily useful as a creative tool.
RE: OF Perks/Requirements - Enkidu - 01-04-2026
I'm going to drop this here for context.
I have, in past years, used the Official Faction perk system to create:
* The Military Salvage Commodity
* The Zoner Militant ID and IFF
* ZOI modifications (buffs) for factions I do not personally play, but wanted to interact with.
* System design improvements
* Democratizing capital ship access.
Probably more things I'm not remembering.
Throwing out OFL perks would be a terrible, terrible idea. They give the community some agency over development and administration without overriding the developers or the admins. They are a literal carrot for storytelling.
The fact that not enough people feel like going for the carrot, is not a reason to remove the carrot.
This is the exact kind of thinking that decreases activity rather than builds it up. Discovery has had decades of precedent to prove that constantly cutting good things only hollows out possibility.
It doesn't matter that the majority of the community will not use these mechanics - because they are often used to the betterment of the entire community regardless. It is a highly regulated mechanic with zero history of abuse. That's rare in Discovery.
Perks enable factions like Auxesia to exist. They reward longterm commitment from any section of community willing to tell the very kinds of stories that are fundamental to discovery - teamwork between characters. They add flavor.
Cutting the perk system would be like removing the concept of table salt because you don't personally add it to your food.