Deleting systems poll UPDATE

[Darius]

Probably a good idea to hold the vote off-forum, though, given the fact that alts can vote here. (as seen even in this poll)

[Egon Bigmemes]

Probably a good idea to hold the vote off-forum, though, given the fact that alts can vote here. (as seen even in this poll)

only if the means of finding the vote is otherwise accessible on the forums, instead of the discord where a significant number of people who voted here are banned from

[Reeves]

It would be prudent to run a public vote to see if people even read the ingame news articles before shifting the story development to this kind of style.

It might have been. I don't want to get bogged down on hypotheticals though. I think @Levenna pointed out a fairly ideal solution above. You'll see at the very least get the gist of upcoming story changes in the patch notes, or I might even just publish them separately in a story blog. For the actual full picture with all the neat details though, people will still have to do some investigation in the game. The consensus here is that there should be discoveries to be made in Discovery. So I don't intend to take that away.

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On indefinite hiatus because the current state of gameplay sucks - ping me over discord if replies are needed

[SnakThree]

Once the update is released, I am eager to discover what was deleted, dumbed down or merged.

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[Shimamori]

It would be prudent to run a public vote to see if people even read the ingame news articles before shifting the story development to this kind of style.

It might have been. I don't want to get bogged down on hypotheticals though. I think @Levenna pointed out a fairly ideal solution above. You'll see at the very least get the gist of upcoming story changes in the patch notes, or I might even just publish them separately in a story blog. For the actual full picture with all the neat details though, people will still have to do some investigation in the game. The consensus here is that there should be discoveries to be made in Discovery. So I don't intend to take that away.

I think the consensus is there should be discovery as in non-claimed systems with little to no presence where you can actually go ingame and pretend to be an explorer. I don't remember people saying they craved to explore the news. That is not called discovery, that is called browsing. And, tbh, it is not such an exciting activity because that is routine billions of people are doing every day to know what is going on in the world. Imagine going to Britain to read BBC instead of accessing it on a comfy website. It can be a tedious activity going for news in other house/region if you play, say, in one region and/or are hostile to some other bases. Instead, people will be looking for infocards on the navmap or extract news articles from the .ini just like they are doing it now. Whom are you doing the favour by locking the news ingame?

This news is less important, regardless, than the content itself: systems, coherent story narrative, PVP balance, sensible trade, etc. If content is cut without a good reason and what is proposed in return is already expected with caution (and rightfully so if we extrapolate the success of the previous patches and juxtapose it with the poll and feedback in this thread), no news articles whether on forum or ingame will save the receipt of the patch.

TLDR: focus on the content quality, news is secondary.

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[Leo]

I think the consensus is there should be discovery as in non-claimed systems with little to no presence where you can actually go ingame and pretend to be an explorer.

One of the things I always wanted to see in Discovery was systems where only snubs and freighters could go. Maybe a system that functions as a shortcut of some kind but fraught with extreme dangers like hidden anomaly or singularity fields, mysterious and highly aggressive alien ruins not seen before in Sirius, highly radioactive nebulae, a super massive blackhole threatening to swallow you up if you don't get out of there in time, destroyed planets with the cores exposed and the only route out being within the husk of the planet...places where sleeping leviathans lurk.

Of course that's just a pipe dream of mine. I realize that it's probable that none of that will ever see the light of day in the mod. If I had any skill in writing system files I would do so myself and propose them be added to the mod but I'm just a simple network engineer and not anything related to being a developer of any kind.

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You fear oblivion. Yet you forget. The universe remembers every atom of your being. Even dust hums your name in the dark.
Starlight Research Consortium | The Banished Legion | Astral

[Reeves]

This news is less important, regardless, than the content itself: systems, coherent story narrative, PVP balance, sensible trade, etc.

You're making a fundamental error in writing off a piece of what is supposed to be a package. A story is only as good as the material backing it up, and without world building there would be zero sense of fulfillment regardless of what specific avenue of gameplay you want to talk about. I'm not sure we need to get into throwing jargon around and trying to define what the difference between discovery and browsing is. I might as well rule out posting things on the forums if browsing is anathema to the consensus being made herein.

Once the update is released, I am eager to discover what was deleted, dumbed down or merged.

I'm going to let the tone of this post in particular speak for itself.

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On indefinite hiatus because the current state of gameplay sucks - ping me over discord if replies are needed

[Kauket]

I think the consensus is there should be discovery as in non-claimed systems with little to no presence where you can actually go ingame and pretend to be an explorer.

One of the things I always wanted to see in Discovery was systems where only snubs and freighters could go. Maybe a system that functions as a shortcut of some kind but fraught with extreme dangers like hidden anomaly or singularity fields, mysterious and highly aggressive alien ruins not seen before in Sirius, highly radioactive nebulae, a super massive blackhole threatening to swallow you up if you don't get out of there in time, destroyed planets with the cores exposed and the only route out being within the husk of the planet...places where sleeping leviathans lurk.

Of course that's just a pipe dream of mine. I realize that it's probable that none of that will ever see the light of day in the mod. If I had any skill in writing system files I would do so myself and propose them be added to the mod but I'm just a simple network engineer and not anything related to being a developer of any kind.

I personally wanted to do such things, such as anomalies or blackholes done more with a sense of depth - new light graphs, playing with ideas of impeding player movement etc. I did somewhat get somewhere when goofing around with these ideas, but it would require a lot more of work, and learning more technical knowledge, to pull it off without making it seem like another visually repetitive system (similar solar assets being used like arch asteroid chunks, etc. )

I would rather fully implent something with a believable sense of difference, meaning I want to create quality and new assets specifically for that area, to really sell that idea of it feeling unusual.

Of course there are several issues, such as the tools like the ale editor have to be updated before making larger scale projects as results from using the editor usually comes out inaccurate. Or the fact that lots of time commitment is needed, on top of that, also need to do all the alchemy that's also needed for the mod, weapons - guns - etc. Always a lot to do. Manpower shortage makes it tremendously harder to explore different areas without delaying the patch. So for now, these ideas will have to just simply remain on the backburner.

As for system design, I would personally keep some exploration systems that are optional, on a different path - or that the connecting path is longer down the series of systems that it doesnt permit for travel deviations.

I think it should be noted that the Dev team is always looking for a new helping pair of hands, since it wasn't particularly announced that we don't rely on these 'seasonal recruitments' that open and close anymore.

[Shimamori]

This news is less important, regardless, than the content itself: systems, coherent story narrative, PVP balance, sensible trade, etc.

[align=justify]You're making a fundamental error in writing off a piece of what is supposed to be a package. A story is only as good as the material backing it up, and without world building there would be zero sense of fulfillment regardless of what specific avenue of gameplay you want to talk about. I'm not sure we need to get into throwing jargon around and trying to define what the difference between discovery and browsing is. I might as well rule out posting things on the forums if browsing is anathema to the consensus being made herein.

Your hermeneutics is wrong here. Comparing something and concluding it is less important is not equivalent to writing something off which presumes one dismisses it completely. As a lawyer, you've got to know that the devil is in the details before you make an assumption. The point was that without the actual content in-game, which you can play around (as the word "game" implies) no descriptive storybuilding represented in the news will attract a player. News as a tool of storybuilding remains relevant, just less significant than the actual game content. Ask people around here what would they rather see: new news items or new systems, ships, or trade routes. Having good news is cool too, but it is secondary. There are tons of good text-based quest games out there but not as many players flock to enjoy them for some reason. It would be cool to see high-quality news in game for sure but when there are so many concerns about tons of content being cut without a good reason, and the direction of the story in general, the news is not the priority.

Moreover, the crux of what I was discussing was that the news should be easily accessible to let people know of the patch changes. That is what every game I know out there does: balancing, fixes, new content, you name it - everything is listed in the extensive patch notes. You mentioned persuasive story building, so parts of the patch can be simultaneously covered in "inRP" language through news, CNS or otherwise, in addition to the dry ooRP list of changes. But hiding changes on a few obscure stations in game? This would be an example of media studies 101: a message missing its target audience because of wrong communication means.

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[DocPepper]

I might as well rule out posting things on the forums if browsing is anathema to the consensus being made herein.

When I first decided I wanted to try playing on the server again a couple a weeks ago the first thing I did was check the news and announcements section of the forums. The fact that the most recent CNS article was from 9 months ago and the length of time since the last patch gave me the first impression that interest in the server had finally died down enough that development might have ceased.

The news articles posted to the forums are a great and quick resource for folks like me who are checking in after a long while to get a general idea of what went on in the interim, both as a sign that the server's still alive, and to get a better understanding of the state of the galaxy before jumping into roleplay. The last time I played was around the time Kusari had invaded Gallia, and it was one of those articles that drew my attention to the fact it was happening and got me participating for a short time.

The browsing analogy used was a poor one. I think that the articles being posted for major events are both a good resource for returning players, as well as a sign that the server's still alive and kicking for those on the fence about trying to get back into it.