Game overhaul needed?

[Binski]

To reply to a couple of points, this place has always been pretty tough. People are often torn between the stance of sticking to only balanced fights, or an 'anything goes' perspective. I usually lean towards the latter, sometimes you just have to deal with surprises and accept that everyone is trying to do their best to come out on top.

As to the chat list, I always wished it would be changed to show only a person's 'region' instead of system. It would be much better all around, there would still be the same ability to see who and how many are online, and generally where, but not work well for direct camping, or avoiding of others. It would mean there would be little point to waiting out others, people would be forced to just trade. Pirates would be forced to just choose a spot (jump point/mining field/trade lane) and take their chances. All around trade would flow better. Might even bring back the use of freelancers for scouts!

As to your plasfoam conduit problem, remember that they are also a useful commodity in building bases and their core upgrades. So, sometimes their value can be construed as higher than their market value due to their functional value, which can contribute to a base/player/faction's tactical and strategic situation. If it means the survival and increased defensability of a real base, the value most certainly goes way up, despite the low profitability. The value is in the real achievement possible, and the player risks going in the negatives in the short term for the chance it will pay off on the other end, like a successful POB (which can make or break a faction).

Most problems here could be fixed by bringing up the player population in general. All of the effort was shifted into weekend events, short term, one time events that hinged on some 'thing' that goes wrong and it gets ruined anyways. They need to go back to long term events that last weeks, and allow for a player faction driven challenge system where they can earn siege events of NPC bases, finally let players make some purpose for themselves and drive more of the story. Give people something real to do, worth logging in at any given time to work on, outside of just POB's. If effort is being made to keep the place alive, make it truely worth everyone's time, and add that basic system to bring up population. Make it enticing enough for players to stick it out and keep at it. The current set up makes making official factions barely worth it. People would play far more any day of the week, or time of day, if the system we all used to determine story was the actual game, with some guarantees around what can be achieved.

Thus far, after more than a decade, this place has a pvp environment, and commensurate roleplay, but really we only pretend to play discovery freelancer, mostly flying around aimlessly hoping for a decent encounter. No wonder so many leave after hitting the 'ceiling'. If we added a player driven system, every encounter would be caused by a necessary activity, or actual sieges that would last days, requiring supply, and all kinds of consumption. If only we had a team of people willing to administer and develop such a system....

---

The Further Exploits of Captain Antares (August 2015) │ (alt) JonasHudson
*Argo | Special Operative ID (Approved Request)* | Argo Compilation Video
################ *Proposed OF Challenge System* ################
############### The Book of Piracy (Piracy Tutorial) ###############
############### Binski Alamo (Youtube Channel) ###############