How to make official factions better?

[barrenwzste]

who is them, who is us for that matter? - people are so quick to associate "us/we" with the "good" guys - and "them" with the "bad" guys. - people so quickly tune it down to a very simple scale - which in turn means they fail to consider each player separately.

not every faction player is powerhungry, not every non-facitonized player is an ooRP jerk. - but i predict.... that this will happen sooner or later - if the idea of "us" and "them" is enforced and included. and once its in the heads of the people - it ll stick there and is very hard to remove.

Good point, but it's to late to worry about that. There is already a we/them mentality. It started when factions limited the amount and type of equipment it's members could use. In a player faction, which is the basis of our rp, each individual must work his way into ships, pass tests and roll play. Where as an indie only has to drum up the cash. It isn't fair, and therefore a we/them mentality already exists. Throw in the fact that most, not all, but the vast majority, of indie capships are lolwutters and you have a situation that must be resolved or it will eventually destroy the community. What that resolution will be, I don't know. I have my doubts about any decision that doesn't limit the indies more than the factions. After all, the rp of the game is based almost wholly in the factions. Even Trent, the ultimate Freelancer, was in a faction or two.

Restricting the capships to factions, and then restricting the number of capships available to each faction will do a couple of things. It will increase faction membership, because if you want a capship you have to be in a faction. It will stop just any idiot from getting a ship, thereby eliminating the lolwutters. And it will increase the social dynamic as the smaller factions are given a chance to fully explore the limits of thier stated rp without getting trounced every few minutes by roving capship patrols. Many won't like this decision, we may even lose a few. But if a few lolwutters leave, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Balancing the game, and giving reason and reward to those who follow the rules and rp well, that's far more important.

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"Two things I know; Gravity sucks and Ion Storms blow. And that proves the universe is trying to kill us all" - Barren Waste, Captain of the Wasteland Wanderer

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