[Theoretical] Official Faction Challenge System

[Binski]

Have you heard of deduction? Look at the current POB sieging and put pieces of the puzzle together - defenders' side won't magically be filled by Indies. Firstly, there is nothing in for them. Secondly, it is cumbersome and not interesting for the defenders as the attackers have more ways to cheese their way to victory. Thirdly, the population is small and spread around the time zones. Me personally, if some LR would declare a siege on, say, Norfolk - I won't show up for either of the sides for a very trivial reason - I simply don't play in liberty and it will not be interesting to me. And I know a bunch of people with similar preferences.

Also, RtS you provided as examples before are quite simplistic in terms of economy and devoid of diplomacy, mostly focused on tactical control rather than strategic planning. If this kind of system is implemented without political, diplomatic, financial, administrative , technological, etc etc reasoning and gameplay, then it defeats the To purpose of this system you are praising.

I've been to a bunch of sieges where indies made up most of the defenders. Sometimes it survived, sometimes it didn't. Maybe indies wont win every battle but there will be more than none. I cant believe you don't find actually defending stations from agressors intersting. Not even if in the form of supply? The bottom line on population is, we may be small still, but this may help turn it around, in combination with other things. We cut to address shrink, but it causes shrink. If we open up some room for people to move around, we'll get a happier player base all around I think.

I believe if Norfolk was attacked by the rogues, the people from every Liberty faction, BHG and freelancers and even corporate defenders would show up. If this were to be a regular thing, people would know they could help by joining the OF's that can fight back. At the very least, the OF can challenge to retake it, if the rogues succeded. I don't believe that even with a fleet of scyllas they could take norfolk. Even if the rogues did take the base down to 0 in 7 days, I doubt they'd be able to hold the base long. But that would generate an epic battle scenario and inrp the rogues would be launching terror attacks against navy bases or corporate bases. I'd say if rogues rp for allies like hackers to help, that would make sense to help their chances. So if you won't bother and dont care, why not let others simply proceed? If the rogues want to keep grinding and keep spending scidata, let them try again. But if they keep failing I doubt they'll waste 2500 units of scidata every 7-10 days on a hopeless siege. (I think the real threat in Liberty would be the Insurgency).

As to Rise of Nations, yeah its much simpler that Freelancer. But in Discovery we already have these things established, we just need some more reasons to appy them within a real system. This system creates a driving force that will allow for a major burst in activity, realistically for 2-3 years. I continue to wonder why players are opposed to this idea when they should be willing to try a lot more to attract and hold players.