Discovery "RP" 24/7

[CommodoreShawn]

I think Haste has a bit of a point here, and I'd like to bring up something related. This thread has already mentioned the server & communities approach to pvp (see threat, ping alerts, log, fight, unlog), but I think theres another side of the problem to tackle: Power-Trading. Logging into the server with the intent to make credits, and minimize any interaction that harms their credits/second. I get that not everyone likes trading (I do), but this attitude sucks for RP, especially if you're a pirate or unlawful.

My suggestion, to make Discovery a better Roleplay Server would be to reduce, or even straight-up remove the credit cost from all equipment and ships. Except in a few very rare cases, we don't even earn the credits to buy new stuff In-rp. How often you you see Ensign John Doe of the Liberty Navy flying around trading to buy his next guardian, or a defiant etc etc. I know some factions (only LH~ off the top of my head) have closed economies, but everyone else? I'm pretty sure we all just log our fave corp 5ker, and start hitting up Pobs for ore. Theres no incentive to RP when power-trading, which affects the RP quality of the server. And I do think, grinding out hours of trading won't improve the quality of someones roleplay once they do buy that shiny new cap or ship or gun. If credits are made out-of-roleplay, why even have them? If the credits won't affect how soon you can buy that cap8 siege turret dreadnought, why not get pirated for a few mils?

The other option would be to enforce making all credits in-roleplay, having everyone on closed economies, and making every credit count. While I do think there could be an argument for this option, I think it would be better suited for a more hardcore-RP crowd than Discovery is atm.

I don't think it's feasible, but the "remove credit cost" idea is very interesting.

Ages back, I played on a private freelancer server running a Halo inspired mod called Freelancer: Combat Evolved. The crux of it was the conflict between the UNSC and Coventant prior to the events of the first Halo game. Players technically money to buy ships, but grinding cash wasn't the limiting factor on ships. Instead each faction was limited by ships, and they apportioned them out within the faction. So for the Navy 3rd fleet, for example, there was a super carrier, 3 carriers, a handful of cruisers, and then everyone else got frigates.

This means that, effectively, RP was the limiting factor in how powerful of a ship you got to fly. Factions managed their own fleet composition as well, so there wasn't the equivalent of dreadnought spam, because there were a limited number of large capital ships. This system worked well for a small, tightly controlled server, but unfortunately I don't see how it could scale well to Discovery, without an inordinate amount of effort from the admins and devs.

I really think that you've struck close to the heart of the problem. The incentives for players are at cross purposes. RP players want to RP, power traders want to trade, and PVPrs want to PVP. RP isn't really rewarded, if you want the best equipment, you need a pile of money. RP interactions slow down your money gain. The system is fundamentally broken.