Diversifying Money Making Opportunities And Removing Activity Reliance

[Lemon]

I would love battle transports be more useful than trolling someone once per hour when you get an interaction yes

[Thyrzul]

literally right as the rework dropped activity shot up

2012.01.01. saw 225/225 activity when 4.86 dropped, yet later many argued that said version was one of, if not outright the worst. Just because something creates huge activity on its first day doesn't mean it's good, it means it's new, and people are flocking to try it out. Come back with that arguement later if the generated activity persists.

Whilst trading isn't reliant on other players, it's built around a need (a great need at that) to login to grind cash whilst simultaneously not being very enjoyable.

Any moneymaking activity is built around a need for cash. Missions are no different. Rewarded PvE and trading are better than the other examples because they don't require other players for cash generation. Because of that they are also good first steps on a food chain, generating basic player presence to support the other activities requiring it.

About what's fun or enjoyable and what's not, it's all subjective. You can't really argue for or against something dependent on personal preferences, but the more you repeat it the more your post looks like an opinion, less a recollection of observations and conclusions.

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[sajuuk111]

I don't know why people hate solo AFK traders so much
As long as the trader stops for interactions
And it got totally killed now

It was just cool and relaxing to work and fire up relaxing click F3 in a window with occasional interactions

Nobody hates Solo AFK traders, go buy ore from a PoB, sell, go buy ore from PoB again. Endless money.

There's nothing wrong with doing it and people have been doing it from the start, and people keep doing it. Its not killed. It did not change because missions came along.

[sajuuk111]

literally right as the rework dropped activity shot up

2012.01.01. saw 225/225 activity when 4.86 dropped, yet later many argued that said version was one of, if not outright the worst. Just because something creates huge activity on its first day doesn't mean it's good, it means it's new, and people are flocking to try it out. Come back with that arguement later if the generated activity persists.

Whilst trading isn't reliant on other players, it's built around a need (a great need at that) to login to grind cash whilst simultaneously not being very enjoyable.

Any moneymaking activity is built around a need for cash. Missions are no different. Rewarded PvE and trading are better than the other examples because they don't require other players for cash generation. Because of that they are also good first steps on a food chain, generating basic player presence to support the other activities requiring it.

About what's fun or enjoyable and what's not, it's all subjective. You can't really argue for or against something dependent on personal preferences, but the more you repeat it the more your post looks like an opinion, less a recollection of observations and conclusions.

You can not increase the playerbase without forcing people to play the game to make an impact.

Stories are decided by developer teams, and most of the actions done by players doesnt matter at all.

You literally need to play the game in forums to change things. That is unhealthy and that is what plaguing this game from the start.

Unless we find a way to incentivize people to login to game if you want to change things and not just earn money, the RP side of the game will just remains as a "tip" of the iceberg, because 90% of it is in forums, and causes people to handle the faction works in forums rather than logging.

How about this? Destroy 1000 NPC pilots and you weaken the defenses of a base, then you go to forums and plan an attack, then you go there and you see a Titan Armor'd NPC Battleship, which players can defend to keep the base.

Indies can help you with the start, official factions can take over the other aspects. Voila.

Of course this idea is silly but just an example of how we can make the server breathe without focusing too much on credits, because if we only think that "earning money" is going to make people login, people wont, at some point they wont.

And it was the reason i left the game in 2011, and probably it will be the reason why I will leave in 2021 as well. RP, piracy, trading, fighting will all get boring unless you see something coming out of it. Credits are not enough.

[Lemon]

No it's dead now, PoBs get filled way less, and why should they be really unless someone cares about their PoB RP and wants to help Indies

[Pennyfield]

+1

I like the idea for it is well written and explained. It would certainly bring some excitement and unpredictability back into the game for truth be said, my trade runs are nowadays F2/F3-ing forward or supplying a PoB (not watching Netflix though).

And just a brainfart here for all those pirates out there: Perhaps demand cargo and while you do so have a friend on stand-by in a transport vessel at just the right distance and time so you can actually transport the whole lot or at least a significant amount. Maybe future builds can be so that hijacked loads get a small bonus (for it would be harder to sell it at a hotspot trading location when flying a pirate ID). But that last paragraph was again, just a brainfart....

Great idea Lyth!

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The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it's still on the list...

[Darkseid667]

Would just love to grab a miner again if I get a miniscule amount of credits for every rock I shoot.

[Lemon]

literally right as the rework dropped activity shot up

2012.01.01. saw 225/225 activity when 4.86 dropped, yet later many argued that said version was one of, if not outright the worst. Just because something creates huge activity on its first day doesn't mean it's good, it means it's new, and people are flocking to try it out. Come back with that arguement later if the generated activity persists.

Whilst trading isn't reliant on other players, it's built around a need (a great need at that) to login to grind cash whilst simultaneously not being very enjoyable.

Any moneymaking activity is built around a need for cash. Missions are no different. Rewarded PvE and trading are better than the other examples because they don't require other players for cash generation. Because of that they are also good first steps on a food chain, generating basic player presence to support the other activities requiring it.

About what's fun or enjoyable and what's not, it's all subjective. You can't really argue for or against something dependent on personal preferences, but the more you repeat it the more your post looks like an opinion, less a recollection of observations and conclusions.

If the missions weren't made relevant I wouldn't be here plain and simple. Same for a lot of other people. They are and should be a viable way to make money

So should be trading though

[LuckyOne]

Are you a mind reader? ( Of course you are not, it's that all of you are figments of my own imagination and I'm just a crazy man living in his own imaginary world )

On a serious note, I was planning to make a detailed suggestion regarding just this topic over the upcoming weekend. I've got loads of ideas, but I'm not sure how much can the current Freelancer systems be stretched to implement some diversity. That's why I was planning to do it over the weekend to have more time for research.

To whet your appetite I was thinking about these:

• "mining" missions
  
• "mining" roaming comets / asteroids (actually neutral NPCs in disguise)
  
• courier "missions"
  
• missions where you destroy transports for cargo instead of people smuggling 1 unit of mutagenic weapons
  
• smuggling "missions"
  
• special locations where players can go "steal" some interesting cargo while fighting weapon platforms / NPC patrols / disabling shield generators
  

The quotes are for things that would not be implemented in the existing mission system because it's impossible AFAIK, but they could be implemented via a few creative workarounds and reusing the existing mechanics (for example NPCs scanning / demanding cargo from the players) and some creative station / system building.

I really love that the new beefier server gives us all the opportunity to experience the great atmosphere that was present in vanilla Freelancer where every system felt "alive".

How about this? Destroy 1000 NPC pilots and you weaken the defenses of a base, then you go to forums and plan an attack, then you go there and you see a Titan Armor'd NPC Battleship, which players can defend to keep the base.

This would be the next logical step, an actual interactive universe where you would have an algorithm analyze player activity vs NPCs and make adjustments automatically. For example shooting lots of lawful NPCs would make their spawn rates lower while increasing the spawn rates of unlawfuls. Systems could slowly fall into anarchy if no lawfuls bothered to do any lawful missions. The same mechanic could also be extended to cargo prices, NPC spawn zone radiuses, NPC base takeovers etc..

The main story would still be in the devs' hands but players could actually make certain systems more or less dangerous to travel through, even asynchronously, without having to be logged on at the same time, because let's face it the days of full 200 people servers are long gone...

[Langolier 2.0]

I wonder if NPC transports with real stats and real escorts would would be beneficial. It definitely would feel better for a pirate bomber to destroy those escorts and that transport if they posed at least some threat and while they couldn't pick up the cargo they could still get some payout from the plugin. I'd definitely make more pirate bombers if I could simply fly around and make passive money on lanes while also potentially meeting a player.

And about trading, I've always wanted trading to be more dangerous in general. Hauling from A to B wouldn't be so brainless if every once in a while an NPC Barghest dropped your lane and started shooting EMPs and Energy Cannons at you. Depending on the area you could increase the difficulty of these types of NPCs so that they pose more of a threat, meaning you would potentially be required to have a player escort you or something.

Mining would also be improved by a similar system, simply spawning NPCs that are dangerous in asteroid fields that not only give money when you kill them but that also encourage you to do stuff with friends. You could even add friendly NPC patrols that you could stay close to for defense if no player is around to help you out.

Plenty of things you can do with NPCs to improve gameplay and immersion without garbage like NPC gunboat patrols with CDs near Missouri.

You make several good points yourself there Pillow. Some good additions to Lyths I'd say.