How to make Discovery better?

[barrenwzste]

First, I apologise. My last post was intended for Shryke, not Nooblet. I am human and make mistakes, and for this one, I am sorry.

Nooblet,

I cannot believe that, you too, will sit there and deny the facts. Let me give the definition again, and break it down to show how it all works together.

Faction:
Main Entry: faction
Pronunciation: \ˈfak-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French & Latin; Middle French, from Latin faction-, factio act of making, faction more at fashion
Date: 1509
1 : a party or group (as within a government) that is often contentious or self-seeking : clique
2 : party spirit especially when marked by dissension

factional \-shnəl, -shə-nəl\ adjective

factionalism \-shnə-ˌli-zəm, -shə-nə-ˌliz-\ noun

factionally \-ē\ adverb

Nowhere there does it express the need of leadership. The only requirements being a group of people within another larger grouping that have a dissenting or differing view, often self serving. Groups of anarchists are still groups whether they have a leader or not. You can keep your civilian ID past 40, now, but all that means is that beyond level thirty you become a faction, rather than a game device.

Now here is the chart showing how this relates:
Sirius = Encompassing Social Entity
Liberty = One large Political Faction within the Social Entity
Liberty Navy = A large Political Faction within Liberty
LSF = A small faction within the Liberty Navy.

I think a good portion of the problem is that players think that being an Independant equates to being an individual with no ties and no set role play. This just isn't true. You can be an individual in even the most tightly controlled faction. Individuality is expressed by choices and attitudes expressed within the society the individual is part of. For example, junkers, for the most part, do not like big corporations. There are several ways to play that, you dislike all associated with the big companies, you only dislike the companies the people are just doing a job, you only dislike the heads of the companies the poor working stiffs are in the same boat as you. The list goes on. And this is just one choice that can be made, within the framework of the faction, that expresses your individuality. That said, you have to remain within the framework of your chosen faction. Independants do not get to ignore the limits and regulations of thier faction ID in preference for thier own limits and regulations. You have to mount an ID, you have to follow the rules of that ID.

I didn't say get rid of rules, I said make them stricter. In particular, make Right 2 of official factions have more sting so it can actually do what it was designed to do. Nor did I say I wanted to get rid of Administrative controls. I believe that ooc violations should be handled by the official factions, yes, but the rest of the infractions should remain in the hands of the Admins. This will lighten the load on the admins and put the power and responsibillity of dealing with bad role play where it should be, in the hands of the players. What would be the basis of what is good role play, your faction ID of course. If your role play falls within the scope of your ID, you are fine, if it does not, you are in violation. Simple and, with screenshots being required, very hard to abuse.

We very definately do not make up Cannon as we go. Cannon has to be tried, judged, and accepted by the community as a whole. What this means is that, no matter how brilliant your role play is, if it isn't part of the written and accepted storyline, it isn't cannon. For example, you could develop a story line to role play where the nomads are paying for kidnapped scientists from the houses because they are engaging in research they don't want thier allies to know about. As a result your character, being the upstanding and community oriented pilot that he is, decides to stop all the traitors transporting scientists to the nomads. With this firmly in mind, you proceed to force traders to dump loads of scientists or you kill them, role playing it brilliantly. However, what you are doing isn't cannon. You are forcing your own made up role play on others. Role play that is in clear violation of rules and regulations. It doesn't matter that you put a lot of time and effort into it. It doesn't matter that you role played it to the hilt. What matters is that what you did negatively impacted the game for others and violated the rules. Being an Independant does not give you the right to change the role simply because you do not like, or do not want, the various limits and regulations attached to it. It simply means you do not have to follow the even stricter limits and regulations placed on you by the official factions.

I already pointed out the reasons why it is difficult to deal with the majority of ooc violations. The fact that it is so widespread proves my point. If it were easily handled, we wouldn't be having the problem we now face. There will always be a handful of violators, of course. But it is so rampant now that we are loosing good, role play oriented, players over it.

By all means handle the ooc violators in-game and while role playing. That is exactly what the admins were asking. The problem is, the devices that the players have for dealing with the problem do not work. The problem characters are not the new players who, in ignorance, committ ooc violations. The problem is the players who know very well what they are doing is a violation, and do not care. Some of those claim they are Independants and can play thier role how they want. Some are simply trying to get around faction limits to make more credits or find more action. It doesn't matter, they are intentionally violating, and most continue to do so even when bounties are placed on them. A good start would be if you changed the bounty so that with a screenshot of the violation anybody can collect the bounty, but untill then, bounties just don't have the sting they need. It's to easy to aviod the bounty hunters and getting killed a couple more times a day just isn't much of a deterrent. If one of the strongest measures you can take against violators is that ineffective, then there is something wrong with the system. The punishment has to be severe enough that when players contemplate violating, they discard the idea as not worth the consequences.

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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

An approximation of my reaction when I see my next victim...er, these forums.