How to make official factions better?

[obnoxious1]

Official Factions receive their own ID's.

A person wishing to join the faction would start out as a recruit using the recruit ID. After a set period of time, If the Faction leaders approve of the person & is wanting to allow them full membership. a form is sent to Admin. The form being sent in by the person wishing to join with maybe a role play type theme. Admin get's ok from Faction leader. Then person gets his official faction ID.

Sorry this sounds like a job interview for work. Not a gmae that is meant to be fun to play. No flame intended,but i do not wish to "APPLY" to play a game.

Your Idea on the gun's though i do like.
Same for a Faction ship HF/VHF/Bomber/or even GB

But you ARE applying to join a faction. That's the entire point. Most factions have rules & guidelines & wont allow every person that applies in until they know if the person is willing to Role Play & follow along with story lines. Thus it would be like a job interview in a way, but for the betterment of the Faction & the community.

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Outcast Laws Outcast Reference Outcast Registry SOB / BLS Recruiting

[Colonel.Tigh]

Why does most post here read like : "How to FORCE people into official factions?" ??

Thats moronic people, if the official faction cant attract members, maybe they dont deserve them!
Saying, you cant play on this server properly, if you do not join one of the factions is the wrong way. factions should better think about their attitude and rules for new recruits, then crying, Admins, please force people to join us, or give us better things so we wtf pawn all the indies.

Official factions have the advantage to participate in the further development of the disco story line, do diplomacy with other factions, that should be enough.

Most of the time, i get better RP experience from indie players than from official faction players.
If a faction says, new recruits have to fly a mk 1 light fighter, i wont join, as simple as that, i want to play the game, not suck up to the ego of some faction leader.

[ryoken]

Why does most post here read like : "How to FORCE people into official factions?" ??

Thats moronic people, if the official faction cant attract members, maybe they dont deserve them!
Saying, you cant play on this server properly, if you do not join one of the factions is the wrong way. factions should better think about their attitude and rules for new recruits, then crying, Admins, please force people to join us, or give us better things so we wtf pawn all the indies.

Official factions have the advantage to participate in the further development of the disco story line, do diplomacy with other factions, that should be enough.

Most of the time, i get better RP experience from indie players than from official faction players.
If a faction says, new recruits have to fly a mk 1 light fighter, i wont join, as simple as that, i want to play the game, not suck up to the ego of some faction leader.

I could not have put it better.
Some people just do not fit into someone else's RP,and for this? they get nerfed?
Way i see it,if you give faction's all the plusses,then lets all get our buddy's together,and everyone make a faction.That way we all get good toy's for just having a name.

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[Thurgret]

How is flying a mk. 1 fighter not playing the game? Please explain. I'm confused. I didn't think they were available out of the game...

Anyways, would you mind citing some examples of people being 'forced' to join official factions?

Again, it seems what's been suggested the most so far (restriction of capital ships) is being overlooked by some. No-one is saying 'no capital ships for indies', that I can see. Just that they'll need an official faction's permission to fly one.

[Dab]

- restrict capship purchases to factions (enforced by admins in some manner)
- as above but only for the very biggest capships

I think it would be best to limit only the largest capital ship that faction has access to. For example; Outcast factions can restrict the use of Battleships (this includes both the BS and the Dread) by indy OCs. Red Hessians can restrict the use of cruisers by indy RHs. GC factions can restrict the use of gunboats/gunships by indy GC. Basically the largest ship the ID allows is the ship the official faction can restrict the use of. OC wouldn't be able to restrict a cruiser or smaller, just battleships, for it allows BSs. Since the Hessian Guard ID only allows cruisers, no battleships, cruisers are the largest ships they can use, so that is what they are allowed to restrict.

Note; Indies would be allowed to buy those 'largest' capships, but would need the faction's permission. This doesn't mean that only faction players can use them. There are factions where it wouldn't work to force faction play. The biggest example would be the Zoners. Many Zoners believe in working for one's self only. Some are more faction-oriented. It's a difference of RP opinion. So make it available with faction permission. The same is true for the idea below; With faction permission.

Another idea, instead of making official factions get a 'discount' on trade goods (which would require faction IDs and would NOT be compatible with other servers) we could simply restrict 5,000 cargo transports to official factions only. If you are not in an official faction, you can't use a transport with 4,500 cargo or more. That will give the official factions that trade edge and increase the amount indies join trading factions.

- restrict access to bases (through some sort of flhook thing I guess), i.e. LPI locking down Manhattan.

This could be very prone to abuse. Official faction players aren't always great.. They abuse stuff as well, so handing them this much power would be a bad idea.

- post in game news items

Definitely for this.

- allow factions to have one/some custom ships

Against this. Especially if the 'largest' cap restriction is put in place. Would also increase the size of the mod. Along with that, it'd increase the difficulty in making everything balanced.

Brainfart incoming:

Create a new set of "Leader" IDs for each and every faction. For example: "Liberty Navy Admiral ID", "Liberty Rogue Boss ID", "Corsair Elder ID", "Red Hessian Commander ID", "Kishiro CEO ID" etc. These IDs would be given out to leaders of official factions by the admins. Normally they would be a carbon copy of the normal faction ID, however these IDs would enable their "wearers" access to a bunch of nifty flhook commands, like for example:
- A repfix applicable to any player that will turn them to hostile/neutral/friendly for his own faction and/or guard faction.
- An ability to lock down select bases.
- Anything else that you can think of (within reason).

Good idea? Bad idea?

I very much like this idea. An ID only for the leader and maybe the High Command of official factions, with the three listed abilities in FLHook. Earlier in this post I noted that locking down bases could be abused. However, I am for this ID getting that ability. Faction leaders are oftentimes more responsible than their members, and can't be on 24/7. The possibility of abuse is much lower when only select people have the power. Furthermore, faction leaders are scrutinized much more severely than the faction members, so they are unlikely to do something that will get them in a lot of trouble.

Thumbs up to this idea, best one yet.

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[barrenwzste]

Official factions have the advantage to participate in the further development of the disco story line, do diplomacy with other factions, that should be enough.

Colonel.Tigh

That isn't enough of an incentive, and everybody will agree with it. Heck, your comments further down your post prove it. You state later on that you won't play factions because they place limits on what you can do within the game. As far as I last checked, that's what rules are for. To limit actions and provide balance while ensuring fair play. Basically, what most every indie I have talked with is saying is, "But I don't want to play by the rules, I want to make my own rules." A player who doesn't read or obey the role play for the LPI but gets a Navy ship and starts enforcing his/her own rules is ruining it for those who do follow the rules. The factions are there to help enforce role play, and that is the basis of this server after all. Without the factions, and thier storylines, then we would all just be random people running around killing each other randomly. Why is your character a pirate, where did he come from, where is he going, who does he target. If you answer these questions, you'll find that there is a player faction that fits. The only reason I have heard for indies is, "I don't want to obey the rules and guidlines of faction rp, I want big powerful ships and I want them now."

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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.

[NonSequitor]

As this is an rp-server, I was under the impression that role-players find role-playing to be it's own reward - both as an indie and/or player faction member.

I'm probably being cynical, but many of the pro-player faction ideas seem to me to be only thinly-veiled attempts to wield power over others. Lording over others is fun, especially if you really aren't in a position to lord over anyone in RL.

With the exception of my membership in the BHG (a non-typical player faction in some respects), I have played indie characters. They all have belong to some faction, without being in player factions.

Sure, I can fly most any class of ships that I want. In theory. I don't have to jump through any hoops and "prove" my worthiness to some group of individuals I don't even really know. In addition, I really don't have the time to dedicate to a player faction, even as a grunt. Thus, I am an indie.

Being an indie isn't all roses. Player factions can be veritable forces of nature when working together for common goals. An indie is pretty much all by his lonesome.

@Cannon: I respectully choose to disagree with your premise that player factions contribute more to the rp-development of this server. I believe that those with the most time at their disposal tend to contribute the most. The people that write character stories, news flashes, after action reports, diplomatic messages, etc.

The lolcap menace is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Honestly, there aren't many places or situations that you can use them in anymore. If someone is being a dunce in his cap, write up the sanction report. Pretty simple. If a player faction sees someone misbehaving in one of their caps, same process. While there are many decent faction leaders out there, they are still, nonetheless, subjective and human. Giving player factions the power to judge a player's rp-worthiness prior to allowing him to fly a relatively easily killed ship, does not earn my unconditional trust.

[Panzer]

Lemme thinq...

My wish is to extinguish the indie species.

And shift all the newly acquired manpower to the ofishul faqshunz.

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[Alex.]

I'm probably being cynical, but many of the pro-player faction ideas seem to me to be only thinly-veiled attempts to wield power over others. Lording over others is fun, especially if you really aren't in a position to lord over anyone in RL.

Being an indie isn't all roses. Player factions can be veritable forces of nature when working together for common goals. An indie is pretty much all by his lonesome.

/signed.
And I think you lot are forgetting something - how would you possibly RP restricting base docking, when players are fully part of the faction? (Not player faction, but carrying an ID means you are role playing a member of faction x).

[gafiaiiu]

Why does most post here read like : "How to FORCE people into official factions?" ??
...
Most of the time, i get better RP experience from indie players than from official faction players.
...

I agree with you on that first one, that it should be actually trying to encourage people to join factions, meaning making the lower ranking positions more freeing and appealing to be in (I know this is sort of self adverting, but other than the few 'leader' positions in the congress, much of everyone can fly all suitable ships and are all of the same rank, thats why I like it.) as opposed to making those bigwigs at the top feel better with more toys (no offense intended). Almost all of the suggestions so far have been primarily restricted in their benefits to faction leaders.
On that third comment of yours, I'll make a log and put it to the test, in my experience so far, I've seen a mixture of both good and bad, but I don't have the best memory, so a log might be better.