Community thoughts: Faction ranking systems

[Mímir]

I see a problem in just one thing: Indies have ship/weapon/whatever access like faction HC members or leaders. Joining faction has no point for some people, because it would only restrict them. Ranks and restrictions in official factions are good both ooRPly and inRP, if an applicant don't feel disadvantaged. Char Aznable summarized it.

I wonder how Disco would have turned out if dedicated faction players had listened to what people have been telling them countless times, rather than rest on the ever-convenient self-serving "indies no rp, just want big ships - no restrictions"-story. Funny how that story is only ever put forth by self-declared faction loyalists. In fact, it's statements like the one above that sometimes make me have second thoughts about being part of official factions, and it has kept me from applying for more than one official faction for NPC factions that I liked.

People don't want to join your faction because they don't want to fly with you.

That's mostly the reason why people do not join factions, and that's not going to change unless faction players get their heads out of their behinds. Which will be never. God knows a lot of us tried with reasoning and common sense over the years.

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On topic: I think ranks is a bad idea. I never cared for any rank I obtained, I never cared for anyone else's formal rank save for the faction leader and 2IC. I think most sane people use their better judgement - who has experience? Who is reasonable? Fine, those are the guys I'll listen to.

I think ship restrictions are insignificant as well, as long as you don't put huge nubs in caps or pull them out of them if they turn out to be unfit for it. I know a lot of players who never wanted to fly anything but a VHF for their faction, whilst it would seem dumb not put someone like Impy, for instance, in a GB or cap day one. The usual "you must write 5 reports before you can get into a gb/cap" also leads to exactly 5 shoddy roleplay posts (I've written some personally) that might bolster "forum activity" but adds nothing to the overall atmosphere or the fellow player.

Have people roleplay their characters - if they are roleplaying rogues with ambition, you can do forum or in-game roleplay settling rivalries and such. Do away with the subgroups - there's plenty of room for a blood-thirsty killer, as well as a sucidal torpedo-slamming Rogue, within the main LR- IMO. People will soon know which Rogue will pirate you for a song, and which will kill you.

If you need goals to add excitement, donate a percentage of your loot to a shared account, like Sails did. That will not only show which pirate is bringing home the bacon (and thus gaining reputation oorp and inrp), it will also give you a bunch of legitimately roleplayed credits you can use for any purpose you like. You could build a pirate castle, buy a Sarissa or whatever you feel like will move you forward.

We all know that credits are so easy to come by in this game that ships and such have no real value other than what we decide to attach to it. When you roleplay the credits instead, whatever you buy will be of that much more value to you. Then you know you wouldn't have that SRP ship if it wasn't for that massive ore convoy Larry the Rogue busted up, and the Junkers for buying the ore off of you. Other stories can spin off of that. Maybe Larry the Rogue wants to be at the controls of the ship he was instrumental in obtaining, but you eye someone else more loyal to you for command or whatever. Maybe Larry has no ambition at all, but just a penchant for shooting traders. No dumb ranking system to kill off whatever story your players want to tell. If you look at a faction like LH it is indeed possible to have a tight-knit and well-working faction where players have the individual freedom to go their own chosen directions with their characters, without everything falling apart (although there's an elaborate ranking system, but the way I experience it, the ranking system isn't about being able to boss others around, but more about personal progression or a journey - the goals seems to be cleverly created with that in mind).

You create legacy that way, shared stories that have a meaning. It will actually be a special ship, rather than just a SRP ship based on shallow words on a forum and a clichéed story that is painful to read. The same with ranks, they are so unimaginative and uninspiring for a Rogue faction (save for positions that have an actual meaning, like Warlord, advisor, target man and so on).

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