Mind you, these are my subjective opinions. Nonetheless, they may be more or less on the mark.
[quote name='Crackpunch' date='Mar 30 2011, 09:46 AM' post='1368375']
Why do people hate capital ships so much? It's just another type of ship to be flown./quote]
Here are a few reasons:
1. Caps are highly visible. Let's say player x owns both a VHF and a BS. Let's also assume he RPs equally poorly in both vessels. More often than not, he'll catch more flak in his BS, due to it's size, power and ZOI restrictions.
2. Many players, often of ages between 14 and 20, believe a cap owner is compensating for something. If someone is piloting a large cap, he obviously can't PvP himself out of a paper bag. If you're skillful at PvP, especially at snub PvP, it compensates for mediocre RP skills.
3. Many players, or at least the louder ones, fervently believe you have to "earn" a larger cap with stellar RP. So apparently there's a "fighter/bomber/freighter/transport" -level of RP and a "cruiser/BS" -level of RP. The only problem is, who gets to define what is "capship-worthy" RP?
4. Some players are jealous of those who have caps. Maybe they don't have enough time to save up for their own. Maybe they don't have the patience to endure the mind-numbing drudge work of trading and mining. But since they don't have a cap, they opt to ridicule those that have them = sour grapes syndrome.
Quote:I don't see the point in making them so expensive either.
"I wanna RP as *insert something needs a cap here*, but first I gotta RP as a miner for a few weeks (I say weeks because some of us don't have all day to spend on FL) to earn the cash I need." I think it sucks that people are forced to RP as something they may not like in order to fund their other characters. What does the server gain from powertraders and powerminers?
1. The high prices of larger capships help keep them exclusive and rare. But only in theory.
2. What does the server gain from power miners and traders? Targets for pirates and community derision. It's fun looking down on others, feeling smug and superior. And if you're an unlawful, you get the golden opportunity to "instruct" those silly lolwuts and make good money at the same time. It' a win-win situation.
Quote:If everyone had infinite cash (or near limitless so that there is still a little motivation to trade), all power miners and power traders would disappear. They'd already have the ships they wanted. With all of them gone, what's left? The people that actually enjoy Rping their trader/miner! Wouldn't that be great!? People that aren't just out for credits, but actually want to meet someone along the way. Facepalming at the "wut you want?" traders/miners would be a thing of the past.
1. Human behavior is an odd thing. Now, I say the following without a trace of sarcasm: There is a certain gratification to be had when you set a goal and work to achieve that goal, be it a vessel, an armor enhancement or the development of your character(s) in game. We need opposition and risk to make achieving that goal meaningful.
Quote:Now I see a lot of opposition to mining being profitable. Most of this opposition comes from the people that already have all the ships they want. Being selfish, they think "Well I've got my stuff, so I don't care what other people want." You notice how low the server population has been with mining nerfed? It's a ghost town. The amount of less-than-RP-capables on the server is about the same though; so that really did nothing other than scare off a few players.
1. You may have a point, unfortunately.
2. The mining nerf/adjustment was made to compel miners and haulers to work in teams, as well as increase the number of traders. Anyone who tells you different is either in denial or just being insincere.
Quote:Ranting about all this serves no purpose other than to let other people know my view. I do offer a solution however. Everyday, all players are given 2 million credits. Enough for those who don't wanna do any money making, but not enough that credits lose their value. Buffing credit making ventures allows those who want <strike>something big</strike> to RP something that unjustly costs a lot of money to do a lot less grinding.
1. A big "no" to server welfare. Not conducive to the game and probably a pain in the tuckus to implement. We need a steady flow of traders in order to have something for unlawfuls and lawfuls to do.
2. A moderate reduction (15-20%) of the cost of all ships and armor enhancments would be the way to go.
And now for some parting thoughts on the current state of Disco:
For a server claiming to be an RP server, I've witnessed a few things that have absolutely nothing to do with RP and everything to do with getting credits. The OP got me to thinking about these things once again, since the gist of Crackpunch's opinions involve the server economy.
Could someone tell me how the following things enhance, support and development an RP enviroment on the server?:
*ship and equipment auctions
*ship and equipment sales
*commissions for sigs and ship models
*codeweapon camping
I'm going to go out a limb and say that none of the mentioned things really have RP primarilly in mind but a lot to do with making good money without having to resort to the grind of trading/mining.
1. Ship and equipment sales are attractive due to dismal server resell prices.
2. Someone with talent can invest his/her time in modeling/signiture design instead of grinding with the rest of us slobs. Not terribly fair or RP.
3. There are people who roleplay arms merchants which is cool and acceptable. However, the way they obtain codeweapons is probably some the most OORP activity that goes on on this server. Camping wrecks and waiting for restarts does not make for riveting storytelling.
