Omegas Rework Poll - Omega-9

[Teerin]

I'm not going to "tl;dr" this post, and it's fairly important to many of you, so read the whole thing please. Then vote, not vice-versa.

For about three quarters of a year now (early last summer), the systems/story planning team have been working on planning a large number of update packages to rework most of Sirius. This involves cutting down on guard systems, excess systems, and making sure those that remain have proper use and functionality. Instead of a massive "4.88 Final" with everything, we're taking things a chunk at a time, hence the "4.88.#"s that you keep seeing. And we're are glad to see the changes already developed by the system modders, such as Gallia and Rheinland, are doing well. But I digress ...

To be transparent about the premise of this post, the initial Omegas rework was planned by Echo, Blodo, Durandal, and myself. It moved about some of the Omegas (& Omicron-91) in such a way that tried to give each system at least two of the following gameplay qualities: transit, destination, and encounter. We also debated economy and trade route aspects, roleplay, etc. (all of these we do, whenever we plan for any system in Sirius). When in consulting Corsairs and Omegas leaders, however, a flaw was pointed out in our plans. Realizing it was a potentially major problem, we discussed possible solutions and have a few to present.

The issue was that in the planning process, Omega-41 lost some links, including the Vanilla Freelancer connection to Omega-5. This was done at the behest of one of the developers, who believed the route made it easy to circumvent and thus obviate the purpose of many other Omegas as a shortcut. Omega-5 would then link to 3, 9, 47, 52, and Cambridge. It was pointed out by the Corsair leadership that, while they actually apparently didn't mind the slightly increased route to Bretonia (Gamma-41-9-5-Cambridge) (also other shorter raid routes to other enemy territories were created), they were adamant about Cadiz being cut off from the rest of the Corsair Empire.

While some threat of danger is good as a means to spark activity, in order for a faction to protect their installations in-roleplay and in-game, it being an "island" of Corsair presence that is past/within hostile territory was deemed too unnecessary. Or is it? Here are our ideas ...

A) Switch around Omega-5 and Omega-9 on the map, and swap their connections. The system of Omega-5 would then connect to 3, 7, 9, 41, and 47. It would lose the Cambridge and 52 link, but perhaps to everyone's benefit, as 9 would then lie between Bretonia, the Corsairs, and the "Socialist Triumvirate" meaning that the parties could be fantastic! Omega-5 would then border Corsair territory, while being slightly closer to Rheinland (thus the Hessians) as well with the link to Omega-7. This is honestly my preferred option.

B) Remove Omega-9, give its two different connections (7, 41) to Omega-5 so that it connects to all six (others being 3, 47, 52, and Cambridge to be clear). I'm not keen about this option, though. While Omega-9 might seem like an excess system, a region like the Omegas could really benefit from a well-placed barren system where people transit a lot through, but don't have any NPC bases to dock on (which would encourage more tactics, less base hugging). Also, removing a central system like Omega-9 could have massive economy ramifications, meaning @Xoria would want to kill everyone.

C) Keep things as planned, even if that means Cadiz is cut off. Probably my least liked option here.

D) "But wait, @Teerin, you forgot XYZ about ABC. Listen to this idea!" Okay, I'm all ears, but keep in mind that there are a lot of considerations that take place, so different proposed suggestions may be rejected even if they initially sound decent.

E) There isn't actually an Option E, but congrats on reading this much of the post.

Please feel free to vote in the poll and leave a comment, suggestion, recommendation, complaint, shoe size, or compliment below.

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"You see what your knowledge tells you you're seeing. ... how, what you think the universe is, and how you react to that in everything you do, depends on what you know. And when that knowledge changes, for you, the universe changes. And that is as true for the whole of society as that is for the individual. We all are what we know, today. What we knew yesterday, was different; and so were we."
- James Burke, The Day the Universe Changed (1985)

[Durandal]

I really don't want to move the Corsairs further away from Bretonia. Cadiz to the (active) parts of Bretland is already quite the haul. We could swap the two, but only if we could throw a 'sair base in O9.

[Xoria]

I'll have to give this a lot of thought over several days before reaching a final opinion, but here's my initial thoughts. The historic problem with the Omegas dating back to vanilla has been that Cambridge to Honshu was faster via Omegas-Theta-Sigmas (and of course vice versa also) than via Rheinland. Obviously the Corsairs have no complaints about that since it brings tasty morsels right to their doorstep, but it's not healthy for Rheinland. There has also been a problem of Rheinland bases in its "southwestern" region taking the same Omegas shortcut: Solarius, Omega 7 bases, even Baden Baden. All my efforts over the past years in getting Omega jump holes moved around was to shift traffic into Rheinland because House traffic benefits far more factions than outer rim traffic does. Especially when those outer rim factions have lore reasons to enter the Houses anyway (Corsairs in Bretonia and Rheinland). So everything I might eventually say about this topic is based on this: preventing an Omegas shortcut for Cambridge-Honshu traffic. It's ok if it's close, I just want Freelancer Companion to say that the fastest path runs the trade lanes through Rheinland. This also has to do with pricing, since only the fastest path gets paid for. I don't want traders penalized for using trade lanes as the longer route and being paid less for it.

[Teerin]

@Durandal, you (as well as the Corsair leaders) are already aware of alternate plans to bring the Corsairs closer to Bretonia, without placing a station in an intentionally baseless system.

@Xoria, all good points, and the plans do actually factor that in. Thanks for clarifying your/our stance!

[moebus]

I believe there are too many systems in comparison of the average number of players. Any system removal makes sense to me since it contributes to increase player density in remaining systems.

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[shutbug29]

I voted keep. Put a base and a mining zone in there.

[Karst]

Unless a rework of Omega-9 is planned, it has to die. In terms of interesting features, it's not far off the mercifully killed Franche-Comté, Savoie and co.
Radial symmetry, no dockable bases, literally nothing interesting....that system is an appalling waste of space and a genuine insult when you remember the brilliantly designed, unique, interesting system it replaced: Omega-15.
Any solution that forces people to go through that featureless mess of a diarrhea colored system should be avoided.

While option A does sound the most attractive geographically, if it means Omega-9 stays, I'm against it. If Omega-9 would be changed to something interesting, for example something like Omega-15 was, that'd be the option to choose. Until then I'd prefer B, because it's the option that explicitly mentions the removal of that awful place.

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[Kaghuros]

Have you considered a modified Option B in which the Corsair and Hessian stations are simply moved to a different strategic location? From my perspective I'd say the same as Karst, the more systems you can eliminate the better it will be for the population. I'd love to see a few more crazy bottleneck areas in the fringe worlds so that the factions in those areas have to rub shoulders with their peers eventually or invest time in staying hidden.

[Xenon]

I'm not going to "tl;dr" this post,

What does this means? can you explain this expression meaning please?

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[Moberg]

I'm not going to "tl;dr" this post,

What does this means? can you explain this expression meaning please?

It means "Too long. Didn't read."
A "tl;dr" is basically a short summary of the post if you can't be bothered to read the whole text or don't have the time.