Official Activity Q4 2025

[Luke.]

"Just log in" is a mentality that has been lost, and would drive a lot of things that people think can't exist anymore.

We can point at things staff did wrong, devs did wrong and players did wrong and we all have a part to play for sure. I just don't enjoy the same points being regurgitated as a retort to being told the direct and demonstrable contrary. OFs are the main topic of staff discussion at the moment, we very much do want to revitalise them in some way. We agree that the current system doesn't work, and doesn't incentivise their existence.

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[Chenzo-]

OFFICIAL FACTION ACTIVITY
2025 Q4

[/indent]

Factions Stripped:
These factions were previously warned for failing the check in the last two quarters,
and failed this activity check.

Gas Miners Guild GMG| 5:50:30

[/indent]

Lejima in Sigma 13 will require removal from Core 5.

Edit: Factions losing "officialdom" due to inactivity really is what it is. Everyone has to abide by th4e same rules.

Enough back door lobbying & circle jerking exists as it is, the staff involved will never be held accountable nor will anything be done about it.

let this activity report be a stern reminder that everyone has to play by the same rules, not just get away with things because you have an admin/staff friend.

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[Lemon]

This is grim, so many factions lost, you don't even bother using proper formatting to announce their OF death, and there's a lot more non-OF who are under their requirement and should be removed too.

I'll finally have some time just to help my boys who still are around, but this is not good - caps were murdered for solo PvP and PvE, the heavy decision staff approach that lead to countless mistakes has driven a lot of people away, and it just looks bleak after losing the people who were holding the mod up with events that were needed after solo PvP and PvE play was butchered by balance.

I don't think this is about reworking OF system itself however much that'd help - like honestly if you are on staff: why should people come back now, why put so much effort into holding an OF, why should new folks join and stay with solo play at the all time hardest outside of hauling, and a loose sanction system that can make a public shameful example of you at any time if the votes align

This isn't the thread for this debate but, blaming staff for everything is absolutely insane. There's been times of inactivity, and times where mistakes have been made, but everyone on the team cares about Discovery and its players and suggesting otherwise is frankly just bitter at best.

There was a time when Discovery had a lot of players. Many, including yourself probably remember it. This offset a lot of underlying issues such as the aforementioned lack of "things to do" because player interaction was the core driver of...well, activity. It's what led to the proverbial world spinning and people logging to see what would happen that day. Factions however good or bad, thrived, RP'd and attracted people to join their cause. Over time, that golden age died out. There is no doubt that some have been driven away by changes they do not like, pleasing everyone is very difficult after all, but failing to recognise any other reasons is incredibly disingenuous. The game is old, people grew up and life took over, there's a lot of games to play, the modern generation don't want to engage with a forum and a genre like RP that requires more attention to detail and conduct. The decrease in players causes a spiralling effect where the game just becomes less fun because there's less to do as a result of less players.

But instead of acknowledging the many external reasons for the games decline, instead you choose to blame devs for not working fast enough to compensate with a plethora of ways to entertain the playerbase when they too have lives and do this for free on the side, with an engine that can only do so much without a metric ton of work. You choose to blame staff for utilising a public sanction system that has been in place since the inception of the mod and had zero effect on the player numbers for many, many years. A product of an older, more stoic time perhaps and yet you'll complain all the same if action is taken privately because you didn't see your report get explicitly actioned. You choose to blame us all for OFs getting bored and slowing down, meanwhile there's many people using various Discord servers to slander each other and create huge rifts in the real world that demotivate each other from playing, or logging simply to spite others and ruin their time in the game.

If you ever wonder why some feedback is not taken seriously, I'd honestly suggest taking a good look at how its presented. Even I, as someone who prides myself on finding something valid to take onboard amidst seas of unproductive word-salad and slander, find it hard to be motivated when every decision is met with backlash without anything constructive, no solutions and no care for the fact that we too are players and want the best for the mod as much as you do.

The current staff team is, at least in my eyes, the most fair and balanced in terms of opinions and discussion that's been seen for a while now. Boiling everything down to the fault of authority is indicative of blindness. There's been mistakes, missteps and ill-fated decisions. There's been apologies and situations that could have been avoided. There's been accountability for that. We are not and will never be perfect. But it's a two-way street. Always.

I came well after any Golden age, and the reason and 20+ people who I flew with don't play are
1) Caps are very solo and small group play unfriendly
2) There is a loose sanction system that picks on people selectively and then makes them examples
3) Event organisers are gone.

The game experience was made actively worse by balance - caps log times have been obliterated by making them slow unfun bricks that are more relistic and balancing the game around large mixed composition fleet fights. This all crumbles as server numbers get even lower and you lose Barrier and others willing to make events.


Balance killed off solo mission farming too - it's just, sad and bleak and I don't see any way out of this for the very large group who used to fly caps without big fleet fights.

The staff approach where an error after error are made with the arbitrary sanction system don't help, but honestly the broken mechanics are the main issue, devs are just detached and want to move from the arcade freelancer that was well...fun and why recreational players played in the first place.


External factors are one thing - but sadly the game is made actively worse and decline supported by staff making the wrong decisions. You can burry the head in the sand, but look at the tracker, see where caps are now and where they used to be a couple years back in relation to other ships - this and low confidence in staff are why tens if not hundreds of players aren't here.

You need to find a new barrier, or someone like him, fast, and treat guys like MHS like gold because the balance is made for a full server and large numbers and hostile to solo play and fun experience.

I see you are utterly pointless to argue with and would rather sit in your own bubble with these beliefs born of an echo-chamber, ignoring anything that you are told because you want to believe your own agenda instead.

I've lost count of the amount of systems that I or someone else has said "people that break rules more often, get sanctioned more often". If you know all these people like you claim, then maybe you happen to hang with the crowd that enjoys pushing boundaries or causing trouble for others. Not much to be done here, those that are sanctioned are those that have breached the rules. It's really that simple. The list of sanctions over the past year alone speaks for itself in debunking this stoic belief that the same people get sanctioned and all because staff don't like them. There's no evil cabal in the staff team, no decision-affecting bias and no will to make any particular person miserable. You just think there is, because your friends keep being sanctioned for valid reasons. It's clearly impossible to change your mind on this, because you'd rather believe their side of the story rather than any evidence. That's fine, you are perfectly entitled to game with whoever you wish, but genuine friends hold their companions accountable for their own mistakes rather than blindly defending them.

As for balance, as much as it would perhaps make sense to balance for smaller numbers instead, if the server were ever to climb once more, suddenly that philosophy is outdated too and requires yet further work to reverse and rebalance for more players again. The devs fight an uphill battle and acknowledge that there's much to be done with the current state of affairs, but people like yourself make it far less desirable with this unshakeable will to blame volunteers for trying their best, and who likely have much better knowledge than you do.

We have a new event dev, I'm sure they'll take the time to come up with ideas in the near future. Perhaps try to be nicer to them than you have been to just about any other member of staff in recent memory, failing to read a single word and responding with a convoluted "nope, i'm right".

You are set in your ways so I have no desire to continue this discussion, but then one has to wonder why you're still here if it's really that bad. You clearly aren't willing to listen to the other side, much like those you adamantly claim are so cast aside by us. Funny how that works.

Well, I'm not here and haven't been here - that's the thing - a lot of my guys left, the [GN] guys are still around and doing a great job, I'll try to help them when I find the time, because they care and make it work even when sharing a lot of the same points, and I came back home after 9 months of travelling for work.

The "heavy decision" admin system is open to human error, has singled out people way too often, and punishes those who create a lot of activity; mistakes have made folks worried about logging - it was much more rigid before, but fair, even if it let the Dariuses and Sallys roam free. I've been at the wrong end of this when I was told I'm intentionally cheating when I just tried the game after a long break and wanted to test a new patch

It's been much harder to keep OFs than when cap players were a big part of the log times - and it's much harder to onboard new people with the added complexity - I hope you wouldn't be defensive, I do hope staff would look at the hard data in cap log times since the changes and act so people who left would consider coming back - maybe it's not worth trying.

Event dev coming in great - everyone knows I've always praised and supported anyone in that role, they always have been vital for the game and kudos to anyone who takes this challenge where everyone has burned out in sooner or later on. Please forgive not seeing admins and devs who make the game less active in the same way when it feels like they act in a way to suit them and not to make people actually log in.

[Darius]

The "heavy decision" admin system is open to human error, has singled out people way too often, and punishes those who create a lot of activity; mistakes have made folks worried about logging - it was much more rigid before, but fair, even if it let the Dariuses and Sallys roam free. I've been at the wrong end of this when I was told I'm intentionally cheating when I just tried the game after a long break and wanted to test a new patch

[Lythrilux]

Balance killed off solo mission farming too - it's just, sad and bleak and I don't see any way out of this for the very large group who used to fly caps without big fleet fights.

The hate against solo or even just profitable missions for capital ships is something I will never understand. Arguments have been made that Discovery lacks progression (and it's true) and in my opinion one of the few ways we actually had some progression was going from trading in a transport, getting a capital ship, and then grinding money in caps. Without giving trading significant overhauls to make it more exciting than watching paint dry, I just never saw the logic in undermining a form of money-making that was actually somewhat fun. You're not going to make me go back to the lanes if you take that away from me.

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[Chronicron]

@James Greed Share your wisdom on this matter

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[Enkidu]

@James Greed Share your wisdom on this matter

Okay, you originally linked to @Greed!

I clicked on it to see who this guy is... cool cool...

...and he had this as his PFP.



xD

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THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's outlawed trade unions, determined to take the underworld for themselves.)

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(Links pending redevelopment).

[Locksmith]

caps were murdered for solo PvP

was fun to take vs 5 snubs

If you can't 1v5 people, it doesn't mean caps are broken. Quite the opposite, actually. There should be a reason to play snubs.
There actually should be more reasons to play snubs than there is now, in my opinion.
Caps should never be jacks of all trades, they should be a tactical asset for specific tasks.

a loose sanction system

If you don't break the rules on purpose, you don't usually get a sanction. Somehow I managed just fine for about 2 years. Huh.
Cheating, being an asshole, trying to have fun at the expense of others — these things should remain sanctionable.
Would personally suggest, for example, not going into pvp fights abusing a glitch that makes you fly 2x faster than you should. That might help.

I don't agree with most of your takes here, but these two stand out in particular.

[Major.]

Get a group of people together, then play the game.

Or, play by yourself and take it as it comes.

The key part here is to play the game.

It really is that simple.

While this statement is true, it's only true for newish and medium-timepart members.

As someone who is here for a good amount of time (same as you), the issue becomes, what am I even supposed to do? I roleplayed, I Pve'ed, I PvP'ed etc. I did everything the game/mod has to offer. At some point, the only thing that this mod provides, is the RP. And sadly the quality dropped significantly. (Sure, as someone who did minimal RP for a while just to get his PvP, I might have been part of the problem.) The forum RP is still good, you have your meme and low quality posts from time to time, but overall the forum RP is still high. The ingame RP on the other hand is utterly trash.

"Just log in" is a mentality that has been lost, and would drive a lot of things that people think can't exist anymore.

We can point at things staff did wrong, devs did wrong and players did wrong and we all have a part to play for sure. I just don't enjoy the same points being regurgitated as a retort to being told the direct and demonstrable contrary. OFs are the main topic of staff discussion at the moment, we very much do want to revitalise them in some way. We agree that the current system doesn't work, and doesn't incentivize their existence.

Not blaming the devs/staff here; you are doing a good job, even though some stuff is slow.

But, even if I log in, and play my IMG in Tau-23, the number of encounters is sometimes 0. I switch to a Liberty Navy char, have low RP traders, or people who are just actively avoiding you because they know you are a lawful dude.

We had these people in the past, but out of the 200, only like 20 people did these. You could just ignore them and move on to a way better activity / RP.

Now you don't really have that anymore, because the amount of players is low, and the low balling RP is high. Even I have to sometimes chase people, because I know who is roughly behind that char, to get some quality RP. And saying that from me, should be a thing.

I miss the 200/200 times, with utterly garbage balance, OP stuff, broken stuff and server lag of doom. But only because of the amount of players.

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[Enkidu]

Get a group of people together, then play the game.

Or, play by yourself and take it as it comes.

The key part here is to play the game.

It really is that simple.

While this statement is true, it's only true for newish and medium-timepart members.

As someone who is here for a good amount of time (same as you), the issue becomes, what am I even supposed to do? I roleplayed, I Pve'ed, I PvP'ed etc. I did everything the game/mod has to offer. At some point, the only thing that this mod provides, is the RP. And sadly the quality dropped significantly. (Sure, as someone who did minimal RP for a while just to get his PvP, I might have been part of the problem.) The forum RP is still good, you have your meme and low quality posts from time to time, but overall the forum RP is still high. The ingame RP on the other hand is utterly trash.

Thank you for the argument.

As someone who has 'beat the game', as it were, I'm still reaping high quality roleplay, and it's not from people who are seeking me out, or are a component of what we might pathologize as my "bubble" (the group of people that reinforce my opinions because I encounter them regularly).

I'm getting literate, engrossing ingame roleplay from random encounters. At the same time, RP from ESL people, who are uncomfortable with their characters, or new to the universe, or the very idea of "roleplay", still has noticeable merits. Not everyone needs to be eloquent to compound someone's sense of immersion in the world.

Really, I rarely feel like I've done everything Discovery has to offer for me. I have not played, or role-played, the perspective of every single faction on offer, or even a fraction of them. I've barely played as anything in Bretonia. There's a smorgasbord of untouched content out there; the platter hasn't thinned because I've been eating from it for over a decade.

Look, I have two unique ships, five SRPs - I've beat what some people might call "the endgame" from a personal "pixel power" perspective. Yet I logged back in after a bunch of years away from Disco, and I found myself a wide-eyed noob again - barely able to fly, unaware of the current roleplay developments, intrigued by the new shape of the community...

It's not about endgame content because there is no endgame. Universe of Possibility might be a long-obsolete marketing line conjured up by Digital Anvil, but for some of us it does ring true. That's the nature of sandbox roleplay.


So, ultimately, the question: "what am I even supposed to do" is a question only you can answer.

For me, the answer to "what am I even supposed to do", is to play Discovery, and interact with the players, the roleplay, and the gameplay, as and when I run into it. I'm having a good time. Your own mileage may vary.


It's a bit nostalgic; I remember back in even 2013 there people who were posting in forum threads just like this one, about how the community was broken then, and how the old days were long behind them.

This argument will always remain credible, because it's natural to feel a good time has come and gone. That's the human experience. But the end and start of a journey is always deeply personal, and, without analytics software, we can't really prove this zeitgeist stuff one way or the other.

But there are still the ingredients for a good time latent within the Discovery community. The only advice I can give is to try roleplaying in a completely different part of Sirius, doing a form of activity you'd never previously contemplated.

Or, failing that, taking a break. Time away can restore the magic.

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THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's outlawed trade unions, determined to take the underworld for themselves.)

Information | Recruitment | Message Dump |
Feedback | Diplomatic channel

(Links pending redevelopment).