(01-10-2017, 02:50 PM)Haste Wrote: People used to be able to play Nomad characters with 200 players on the server, without permanent cloaks, and have a good time with both PvP and RP opportunities. What need is there for a compromise if the past has already proven it's perfectly possible to play a Nomad "fulfillingly" with much larger numbers of enemies around, and without permanent cloaks?
I was around to see cloaks rapidly "ruin" the K'Hara faction, and I think it's a huge shame that that happened. My Nomad ships were my favourite ships to fly for a long time, and for the first time in years Nomad gear is also reasonably PvP-capable. But by now, nobody wants to fly - with, or against - Nomad characters.
@the post above me: I specifically balanced the Rabisu to be top-tier. It's very likely to be better than top-tier. It's not really used enough to be able to conclude anything and do a second balance pass on it just yet, though.
One important thing is to not compare the current situation with how it was years ago. What counts is the current situation, the current playerbase and the current mentality behind the community. Many good people have left, and what remained are groups of extremes that are unable to regulate each other without administrative intervention. Right now, as a result of the decreasing player counts, people don't log to see what can happen. Right now, people are staring at the player list, pick someone they want to "interact" with and then move there. What has changed? People have become more extreme. People throw in their engagement lines and that's it with the RP. And those who care about RP know each other, they know how to deal with each other, even when they are in hostile-to-each-other factions. I die every time I see things like Kalh positioning his Order Geb or Operator his Oracle right next to Auzari's Eidolon Wraith, knowing why they don't deal with each other or are rather hesitant instead of dealing with them like they do with people they don't know behind the game. Then you have people that log only for the pure PvP. Is that bad? No. Is it bad they want to force people to PvP with them? Yes. People are getting blamed for flying cloaked, off-plane or in systems where other people don't want them to be, because they are too far away. Good morning, people, it's a sandbox game and taking away systems isn't the way to go. Taking away the stuff to allow people to choose themselves when to interact is not the way. I'd rather simply not log anymore when I'm not allowed to fly around off-plane or cloaked to avoid certain encounters. The game is about having fun, and everyone is defining fun different. Let people have fun in PvP, that's okay, But forcing them to it? To be honest, the cloak is currently the only viable option to prevent people from getting hunt down by all the people that look at the player list and pick their targets rather than to go where the crowd is.
The use of the player list was different in the past than it is now.
So, yeah, don't remove stuff completely. Rather make sure people finally stop being lazy and log for the sake of playing the game and not for the sake of blues. Play fluent and not stubborn.
