Let's discuss parallel realities

[Tenacity]

In other words, what 'could have been'. Do you think that, at some point in the past, discovery could have or should have gone a different direction? What direction would you have taken it, if you were the one making the calls? What would you change about the mod, at any point in its history?

BTW, keep in mind this is purely a thread for fanciful discussion, so (and yes, you're actually seeing Tenacity say this) try to keep it positive.


What I would have changed:

Story/Focus of the Mod:
Discovery began with more of a focus towards the development of the Nomads (aka Slomon K'hara), essentially a continuation of the single player story line. That, IMO, was the best time the mod had - being an order player during that progression, and then a K'hara myself, the environment was rich with RP, personal backgrounds, faction-scale wars, and the air of consequences that could have profound effects on the entire Sirius Sector. It was even a thrilling time for individuals not directly focused on the Nomad war, as any trader or police pilot could say "Yea, I really did see a nomad, and it scared the bejeebus outta me", and have that impact their own personal progression.

The downfall, in my opinion, was when the mod shifted focus away from that story arc and towards the invented Gallic house. Personally, I felt from the get-go that this was stretching really far for something that, in the end, didnt capture enough players to even fill the footsteps of the Nomad war. Sure, it effected a lot more areas of Sirius on a daily basis, what with kusari and bretonia being pulled into the conflict, but it just didnt seem as 'epic' to me, and the whole of the storyline makes little sense to me still. Vengeful french from earth-that-was storming into sirius to conquer the galaxy, simply because they're pissed off they got left behind? Stretching, really stretching.

So, if it were up to me, I'd have done two things:

1. Continued the story arc with the Nomads. Expanded that side of Sirius with new nomad systems, additional nomad ship types, an entire nomad culture to rival a Sirian house (at least) - and, in turn, expanded BHG Core, Zoner, and Order controlled systems and presence to make them competetive with the new Nomad content. Zoners would have a hayday exploring completely new systems with the threat of Nomads lurking at every jump. The Core and Order would have plenty of opportunities to both fight and work with one another in regards to alien technology and possible invasion.
The Nomads would be able to expand with deadlier, terror-instilling vessels and stations that would make the entire breadth and width of humanity seem small in comparison because, let's face it, what we really adore about aliens is the fact that they make us seem like insects, and we like the feeling of pride we get from fighting overwhelming odds.

2. On the opposite side of Sirus, add a slew of new, unexplored systems ready to colonize. This would have given explorers, militaries, and enterprising individuals alike the opportunity to go to a completely new, never-before-seen place and claim it as their own. I'm sure that, through some FLhook magic, we could add proper territorial claims and ever-changing ownership of static objects like planets or stations.
Eventually, this expansion could even have lead to contact with either new aliens (enemies or allies of the nomads, either would be interesting), or with human explorers and colonists from past expeditions who were cut off from contact with Sirius. No lost house ships though, that was a bad idea that should never be re-explored.



Ships:
Discovery has added countless new ships. Every little faction has their own vessels now, and honestly it can get downright confusing for a new player (or even a veteran player after a bit of shoreleave).

I'd have taken an entirely different path with ships for the mod. We already know that customizable ships are possible, done through other mods (essentially in the same way that the vanilla transports have customizable cargo pods). The idea is that you buy a core ship, and can then add different parts to customize it's appearance (parts being the equivalent of cargo pods). A modular system with a slew of different wing shapes, chassis shapes, engine types, so on and so forth.

How feasible this would really be is probably up for a debate of it's own, but it would've been an interesting path.

Alternatively, I'd have avoided adding so many nonconsequential factions in the first place, so that we could focus on creating second, third, fourth, etc. generations of the original freelancer ships. For conceptual purposes, imagine that this is Discovery 1.0, and you've just purchased a vanilla (first generation) Liberty Siege Cruiser. Well, you fly it for a bit, and then Discovery 2.0 comes out - you still have your First Generation siege cruiser, but now there's a second generation siege cruiser available. The second generation cruiser looks sleeker, a little more high tech, maybe has slightly greater power core efficiency or speed or additional equipment slots for new types of technology.
Now obviously the first gen cruisers are still around, they're the core of the liberty navy, but gradually players would upgrade to the second generation, then the third, the fourth, so on and so forth. Ideally each ship would look very much like it's vanilla counterpart, but with improved accents, made more streamlined, more advanced looking - in the future, you'd be able to compare a first generation cruiser to a fifth generation cruiser and say "well those are definitely formed on the same basic concept, but they're completely different ships", in much the same way that a heavy fighter or VHF looks very similar to a bomber from the same line, but you can tell they're not the same.



Economy:
Just in the time that I've been gone from the mod (a year or two, maybe?) The number of commodities for trade seems to have doubled, along with the number of buying and selling locations. I know back in vanilla it was hard enough finding good routes, but now it's just overwhelming. You practically have to download flcompanion or flstat just to be able to figure out what to buy and sell without bankrupting yourself.

I think we've gotten a little too far away from the idea that each of the major houses and factions is a consumer of certain commodities, as well as a producer of others. I think a focus on the major commodities would have been more practical - focus on starship parts from rheinland, or raw materials from bretonia, or fuel from kusari, or consumer goods from Liberty, or black market goods and alien artifacts from the borderworlds. Leave the 'everyday items' to the NPC traders, we dont really need to be hauling around candybars and matresses.

To me, the best economic system here is one where you have three points of transaction:
1. Harvesting Raw materials for the production of goods
2. Production facilities that turn raw materials into a product
3 (a). Consumer locations that buy said product
3 (b). Unlawful locations which require the product as well

This way you've got miners harvesting raw materials and taking them to production facilities, traders taking the materials from production facilities to sell at consumer locations, and pirates intercepting traders to provide the product to their own. Preferrably this system would somehow encourage the piracy of cargo, rather than the piracy of credits.

---