How to make official factions better?

[Ironfoot]

I prefer the idea of only letting official faction players into certain bases, and yes as mentioned before restrict the guard id to only faction players.

Special ships for faction would be a good twist, for example: the Black Dragon Fighter could only be sold in Tattori, the Hogosha guard system and the base that sells it could be made only accessible to the guard ID.

Make it so that only an admin can give out the ID and you can't buy it, you must request it like I believe the situation is with the Nomad ID.

Of course on these guard restricted bases, you could have other benefits like better prices for goods, which might suit trading based ID better.

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[Boss]

I was talking in-game to crta about an idea that's been bouncing around in my head a bit.

What if Keepers/Wilde didn't show up on people' contacts list? They'd still be visible, targetable, and shootable, but they just wouldn't show on scanners.

It'd definitely change the "Look, keeper, KEEL" into a "Oh God, Keeper, WHERE IS IT?"

I do, however, realize this might be difficult/impossible to do without a cloaking device which Alex has set in stone won't happen.

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Just go play the game and have fun dammit.

all in all the conclusion is that disco doesn't need antagonist factions, it doesn't need phantoms, it doesn't need nomads, it doesn't need coalition and it doesn't need many other things, no AIs, the game is hijacked by morons to confuse the game with their dickwaving generic competition games mixed up with troll-of-the-day.

[barrenwzste]

who is them, who is us for that matter? - people are so quick to associate "us/we" with the "good" guys - and "them" with the "bad" guys. - people so quickly tune it down to a very simple scale - which in turn means they fail to consider each player separately.

not every faction player is powerhungry, not every non-facitonized player is an ooRP jerk. - but i predict.... that this will happen sooner or later - if the idea of "us" and "them" is enforced and included. and once its in the heads of the people - it ll stick there and is very hard to remove.

Good point, but it's to late to worry about that. There is already a we/them mentality. It started when factions limited the amount and type of equipment it's members could use. In a player faction, which is the basis of our rp, each individual must work his way into ships, pass tests and roll play. Where as an indie only has to drum up the cash. It isn't fair, and therefore a we/them mentality already exists. Throw in the fact that most, not all, but the vast majority, of indie capships are lolwutters and you have a situation that must be resolved or it will eventually destroy the community. What that resolution will be, I don't know. I have my doubts about any decision that doesn't limit the indies more than the factions. After all, the rp of the game is based almost wholly in the factions. Even Trent, the ultimate Freelancer, was in a faction or two.

Restricting the capships to factions, and then restricting the number of capships available to each faction will do a couple of things. It will increase faction membership, because if you want a capship you have to be in a faction. It will stop just any idiot from getting a ship, thereby eliminating the lolwutters. And it will increase the social dynamic as the smaller factions are given a chance to fully explore the limits of thier stated rp without getting trounced every few minutes by roving capship patrols. Many won't like this decision, we may even lose a few. But if a few lolwutters leave, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. Balancing the game, and giving reason and reward to those who follow the rules and rp well, that's far more important.

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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.

[Sprolf]

Mollies and Corsairs would, if being played by responsible roleplays, fight over who got you, kill each other, and probably see you escaping the fight later if they weren't watching you carefully.

They're never team up with each other..

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[ryoken]

Just throwing an idea out there I've partially thieved from I-have-no-clue-who.

Changing cap licenses;
-To enter certain (rare) bases, you'll need to be friendly with the guard faction
-There is no way of becoming friendly with the guard faction aside from the faction's official faction approving it. Eg, like Nomads, Wilde, Phantoms, Administrators, etc, your rep to them doesn't change further to neutral in this case (should be possible right?)
-There's some thread stating who the indies are with permission to fly a capship
-Those player names are made friendly to the guard faction by the admins (once a day, once a week, whatever), at the official faction's sole digression
-Other players are only neutral to the guard faction (possible right?) and hence unable to purchase a cap ship (possible?) or a cap license (possible?)
It'd then be up to the official faction to post once a day/week/whatever who needs to get friendly with the guard faction (or lose their capship if neccesary)

That way, work for admins would be minimal, eg one admin checking the thread and doing the repping once a day/week/whatever, is all.

Basically official faction leadership deciding who gets to fly capships, possibly with some variable to turn it off server-side or something, for other servers.

In a nutshell, bye-bye to all lolcaps.

...Input?

EDIT: Note, indies would also be able to have caps, but ones approved by the official faction leadership with the sole requirement being able to RP well & having been around for more than a week.

I'll add a couple of the random ideas we've argued about over the last 12 months:
- restrict capship purchases to factions (enforced by admins in some manner)
- as above but only for the very biggest capships
- restrict access to bases (through some sort of flhook thing I guess), i.e. LPI locking down Manhattan.
- post in game news items
- allow factions to have one/some custom ships

That's all I can remember right now; I'll post others as I remember them

Many of these do have the problem in that they take something away from existing players. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself but it would hurt a number of players. We'd want to be very sure the advantages out weigh the disadvantages.

Agreed, no need to Force people into joining factions. That would simply destroy the game name would it now?

But for this to be a creative post:

The faction's main problem is capital ship control is it not? Make them special Rp only, I mean, if you have no time to write a short story up, the hell are you even here?

All these Idea's so far just benefit faction player's,and screw indies. I play both. I have been on server's who restrict people if they do not join a faction,and guess what? they are no longer around. Also you might as well change the name from discovery to "join us or we screw you" server.
If limits are placed on non faction/clan player's? all you will get is .....
1/ a huge burst in faction creation,and who is to say which faction gets what?(probly the vets will screw newer player's)

2/ a drastic drop in player count(I myself will be gone,and talked to many in skype that will also leave)

I think giving control of a guard system is enough for faction's, you limit other stuff to indies,and they will just stop playing,and all you got is "clan wars server" which was around,and sied after a few short month's.

My rant/2 cents worth.:angry::angry::angry:

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[Thurgret]

So, basically, what you're saying after having read that is:

'I am incapable of RPing well enough or of communicating well enough with others who play here for an official faction to permit me to use a capital ship.'

Is it?

In the event that I'm wrong, I suspect it's down to you not reading the posts properly. The majority of the 'restrict capital ships' posts are not saying 'no indie capital ships'.

ETA: the tone of the post in no way reflects my current mood. Just seeking to get a message across.

[Cannon]

All these Idea's so far just benefit faction player's,and screw indies. I play both. I have been on server's who restrict people if they do not join a faction,and guess what? they are no longer around. Also you might as well change the name from discovery to "join us or we screw you" server.

This is the idea - that's what the original post said. This is for the benefit of official factions because official factions add several good things to the community.

There is a related point of discussion: get rid of official factions and let players do what ever they like (seriously).

I think indes (of which most of my characters are) also add stuff to the community but they rarely organise themselves to support more inclusive role play. There are exceptions to this but by and large the factions do a lot more of this. Most indes play for themselves. This is what I personally prefer to but at the same time I want more and better role play and I find that factions are better at this.

I must re-enforce this isn't about making a decision any time in the near future; we just want to get more ideas and suggestions and comments.

EDIT: And please stay calm. Don't put angry faces, personal attacks, etc in this discussion. I don't want it to degenerate into a flame fest. If it does, it'll get locked.

EDIT: Another edit, for any significant change we make, the advantages of it would have to significantly out weigh the disadvantages. We are concerned about potential abuse - who wouldn't be - we are concerned about not unncessarily restricted indes. This is a hard problem to solve. Ideally, we'll find things to add rather than take things away from players.

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Proud member of "the most paranoid group of people in the community"

Old Avatar #2 | Old Avatar #3

[obnoxious1]

Been thinking this over a lot lately..
Between loss of players due to just boredom or frustration from various incidents in game concerning newer players or just those that don't care to RP as much as they wish to PVP, I came up with a few idea's. Some are the same idea's others have mentioned, some may sound a little harsh at first, but in long run may pay out for all.

Anyway, here is what I have..

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.

Official Factions get their own guns.
As it would take a lot of time & flood the game with even more ships to confuse you. Why not make certain weapons "Faction Only" & give them a slight 5% buff up? Role play wise it would make sense, as to Official factions would hold onto there best equipment for their use & not hand them out to every space jokey that asks for one. Most NPC groups have a top of the line weapon, usually more than 1.
Common weapons used by many would of course be excluded. But for Example. Outcast have two damn good fighter guns. Wrym's & Krakens. Allow it that only Official Factions could use the Krakens & with a 5% buff up. Same could work on Cap ships. Allow only Official Factions access to primaries with exception of basics. This may actually slow down alot of the aimless cap fleet attacks. As Indy caps ships would not have the punch a Faction ship would. Yes I know it don't seem fair, but role play wise, it would be logical that Military or House ships under faction command should have more fire power than your average Joe.

Universal Capitol Ship Registration.
Read all of this before you flame please.. This is just a suggestion, but I think it could work.

Getting a capitol ship is not that hard to do. That's part of the problem. I am not proposing restrictions on capitol ships. I am proposing a criteria to obtain a battleship license.
Most of us in Disco GC use Skype. Why not create 1 channel. place in it the leaders of ALL official factions. Representatives from Admin & create a Battle Ship License Bureau.
Create 2 Battleship Licenses. The first being a Temp license for evaluation. It comes with the ship & no restriction as far as purchase. However, it wont allow owner of ship to mount any heavy fire power such as Motars, Pulse cannons & missiles, & can not mount armor over a cap 5.
Second would be the normal battleship license. After owner of ship applies on forums ( a section would be made for this) the Bureau of Admin & Faction leaders will review the application, discuss it, review any complaints, research any role play & make a decision. Have it that at least 65% of the Bureau has to approve & then Admin grants the license. Could also apply fee's to this, but don't see the point, Other than to possibly fund the Angels, ( if they still exist) this should apply to Factions as well.

Now in all fairness, some things should also be added to those wishing to remain Independent.

Independent Trade Advantage
Change the ID info card for Independents. Allow them access to about any ship that is not a House or Faction Military exclusive ship.
Give That ID a buff granting it 25% more profit on mining or trading.


Add a "Trusted" ID
For those that do not wish to haul items all over Sirius, & maybe wish to use combat ships with out joining a faction. A new ID or SUB ID could be created that allows them to use certain weapons & ships that only Official Factions can use, but with out the power buff.

**EDIT** New idea for Indies..
Only Independents can mount Codename Weapons:
Equaling the weapons balance from my above idea to grant Faction Only weapons to Factions, If Faction ID's are created, make them to were they can not mount Codename weaponry, Having it exclusive to Independents only.

As I haven't had an independent character in awhile now, I am sure there are more things that could be done.

Anyway, this is what I suggest...

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Outcast Laws Outcast Reference Outcast Registry SOB / BLS Recruiting

[ryoken]

So, basically, what you're saying after having read that is:

'I am incapable of RPing well enough or of communicating well enough with others who play here for an official faction to permit me to use a capital ship.'

Is it?

In the event that I'm wrong, I suspect it's down to you not reading the posts properly. The majority of the 'restrict capital ships' posts are not saying 'no indie capital ships'.

I play both Indie,and faction. I even led a faction for a short while year's ago.
I prefer to RP in game,and "not" write stories,as i hate writing something up,and having to follow it without comprimise.
I also personally being in a couple large faction's in the past found that just because you are in a faction? really means nothing. I have had to yell and scream at faction mate's to shut up,and RP instead of trying to just pwn someone. I really do not think faction player's,are any better,or offer anything more then indies do.
Saying that... I do enjoy playing in a faction,and being able to ask for help when needed. OPG was great that way,and i loved being OPG.
The server right now is great. There is some bad apple's,and OORP's, but guess what? that will always be,cuase you will always have fresh player's. You will also always have player's indie or not that will be abusive,and OORP until an admin ban's them.

1 thing i think maybe a Faction should recieve over indie's,is maybe a faction ship.(non that curently exist) A ship that as a faction should design for thier use only. Just not a cap,and maybe have it with a non changeable set-up with faction weapons already mounted.

I myself spend my free time playing,and only skim these forum's in free time while eating,and such.I will not make a "story" for my char's just to get a ship. I think if you work in game for it? you should get it,and not have another player saying we do not like your story/RP so you cannot fly that. It limits the game,and just reading this, is truly making me sad for the server.

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[ryoken]

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

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