Ok so, as of right now there is a big movement going on with people and admins trying to figure out how to get trading factions more active. Of course there always has been debates and such regarding limiting capships.
Now... what if traders had more to do with Capships then to simply grind for the cash?
Firstly, I propose the price of capships be reduced. (By 100 to 200 million for a battleship as an example)
Secondly, we change how one can purchase a capship. As it is right now, it is too easy to get one. Guard IDs have done nothing.
To get a capship, one will have to collect the parts and materials needed to construct it before they can get it. By this I mean, there will be a "shopping list" of commodity items that need to be brought to the shipyard constructing the ship.
This is where the the reduced price and trading factions come into play. The list would likely be huge for the larger ships, so one would want to likely contract out the job to traders.
Example:
Bill wants to buy a Liberty Dreadnought, so he begins to prepare.
First thing he sees is that he needs to bring 50,000 hull panels to Norfolk Shipyard. He doesn't have the time to do this, so he seeks out a trading faction, DSE and Universal both bid on the contract, but DSE wins and Bill pays them 150 million to haul all of these hull panels (and screenshot the evidence!)
Now that Bill has supplied the needed supplies, he can freely purchase his Dreadnought (at the reduced price to compensate for paying DSE)
Now of course, the "shopping" list would be more comprehensive and could be made more realistic, but that can come later.
Benefits?
Firstly we give Trading factions something to do. They get paid to do something, instead of mindless trading for no real reason. They also get cash from the contract + what they make selling the goods.
Second, any capships created, will require some RP to start up.
Third, pirates/rivals can intercept such shipments and delay the construction of enemy capships
Forth, Escorts, Mercs, Freelancers can get jobs protecting these important shipments.
As for a downside, really there is none besides having to deal with more players before you get your ship. There would also need to be some sort of system set up like SRPs or a FLhook command to control this.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Iâll carry this flag
To the grave if I must
Because itâs flag that I love
And a flag that I trust
To be honest, I can't think of any possible way to code this. You could possibly code it where you transport goods to a shipyard, but, something where someone else can move things and it counts for you? That just sounds like a lot of headache and hullabaloo. If you can make some kind of flowchart on how to code it, really, it might be a neat idea, but otherwise, I don't think it's really possible.
Also, before something like this is contemplated as the main way to get a capship, I think there should be an alternative to delivering goods like this, like just paying the amount we have now for a capship. I would rather trade in places I like than move 50,000 hull panels (Jeez that's a lot) to Baltimore Shipyard, tell you what. I'm fairly confident other players feel much the same way. Really wouldn't kill the concept if it were cheaper to pay players, also, but, that's where all that greed headache comes into play...
Ah, well, flowchart or it didn't happen.
[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:49:19 AM] Elgatodiablo: You know its nice that you have all that proof and all, Bacon... but I just don't believe you.
The idea doesn't make sense. When Bill becomes a captain of a battleship he doesn't have to procure the materials for it so it can be built - the Navy builds one first, then appoints Bill as the captain. You're putting the horse before the cart. Commands are given based on merit, not on the ability to collect the necessary materials.
"commands are given based on merit" if this was true in discovery we wouldent have to have the dev team keep castrating capital ships because anyone can get them. if they were given based on merit, there would be a LOT less around.
And most importantly... this idea is good. just because you traded silently for hours doesent mean you deserve a battleship or such.
Force people to join official factions by enforcing caps from gunboats and up official faction only. Responsible officials will teach newcomers how to roleplay properly and avoid the "lolcap syndrome", hopefully.
Indies will be stuck with puny gunboats and down, maybe not even including gunboats.
its been there forever - capital ships as well as small ships will not be restricted or given out by factions.
Quote:2) Player factions cannot rule over other player groups and indie players affiliated with the same NPC faction.
Selected players may have special RP for them, player faction on the whole may also have some differences in RP from what NPC faction does. But this doesn't mean that other players should follow this example.
Some unofficial diplomacy changes may get hardcoded into the mod, IF they don't contradict official story and IF they are logical and suitable for further development.
Neutrality between Order and Liberty does contradict official story, and can be approved only for specific characters or groups, but not for The Order as whole.
As for The Order leadership, I'll leave that matter for future discussions. It should be clear enough acts of The Order players should be determined by Order's diplomatic status (hardcoded into the mod) and Discovery RP rules prior to everything else.
3) Player factions cannot prevent other players affiliated with the same NPC faction from using the guard system.
Another complex issue, and also requires further discussions. This will limit the rights of a player faction in their home space. However, it seems to be unavoidable for the future 4.85 release, since many capships are getting moved into guard systems.
Our general opinion is that player factions, regardless of their participation in server events, should not dictate how other players of other groups are playing. Special RP that differs from/expands on what's present in the mod is OK. Enforcing special RP for players who don't want it, and are not even supposed to be aware of it, is no good. Also, the fact that we allow this special RP does not guarantee that it will get hardcoded into the mod for future versions.
that freedom has always been applied to disco and shall hopefully remain there. good roleplay comes from within - forced roleplay ( as a prerequisite to get stuff ) can hardly match voluntary roleplay.
No player faction (official or otherwise) is allowed to prevent a correctly ID and tagged player from entering the guard system to purchase any ships, equipment or IDs that may be contained within the Guard system. They may, however, prevent anyone from entering if they have a hostile ship, hostile IFF or hostile or neutral ID to the NPC faction that owns the system. ( Kuraine )
about the OP:
illogical - and while it has its attraction, it may easily turn out to become a grind. - cause the believe that it gets trading factions busy is just guesswork. maybe it does nothing to the cooperation with trading factions but only increases the annoyance with the purchasing process - which is topped by a reward ( capital ship ) that is easy prey anyway. - its not like having a capital ship is an unbalancing factor that needs to be monitored strictly. for many people they are a lot easier to kill than a pair of fighters.
edit:
don t you EVER believe that ... if capital ships were given on "merit" - they would become as powerful as the may / ought to be! ( thats laughable, really ) ....
for the player that was just killed by a capital ship - it matter very little if the other player has earned any merits or is a basicly responsible person... what the enemy of this person cares for is how fair the combat was.
so if capital ships were only vulnerable to swarms of bombers ( compare to lets say nexus, freespace 2, darkstar one, sins of a solar empire etc. ) - it would totally upset the balance of any fight, no matter how great the player is.
so - even if battleships were only given once a year - by igiss himself... they wouldn t be as powerful as they "ought" to be - thats reserved to stationary NPC battleships.