Some final considerations.

[Wesker]

Firstly, thank you all for your kind thoughts and words in the leaving thread I made a little less than a year back. The journey was long and difficult, but I managed to prevail and accomplish a major life goal.

Fortunately and unfortunately, that goal comes with a lot of responsibilities. I don't think I will ever return to Freelancer in full capacity, I do not mind poking my head in and practicing with people who want to learn and or improve when I get the spare time to do so. My skills will probably dull, and others will surpass me, but that is the goal ultimately.

I've poked my head in here and there over the months and thought of some things that (maybe) would do well for the freelancer server. Times are changing, and the people who come in to play are greeted with what seems like an ultimatum to follow in the footsteps of previous players.

I had some thoughts on things that could isolate and encourage different types of players to start playing again. From what I've seen, we have a lot of "roleplayers" or people who prefer to fly and talk. That's fine; everyone should be able to do their own thing if you ask me. But that works both ways; it can't just be in favor of those who only want to fly and talk.

For years, I, and I think a handful of others, have laughed at the whole idea of "needing to talk" before you attack other people. I can understand in certain scenarios why this rule is set in place. That way it's clear in cases of friendly on friendly engagements or neutral on friendly/hostile engagements so the people are not completely unaware. However, I think there are certain situations where this is really really unnecessary. Here are my thoughts:

Bounty hunters (BHG ID) -> Unlawfuls (& vice versa)

This, to me, seems really unnecessary; the lines of engagement are really just cringy if nothing else. The circumstances for a bounty hunter attacking any unlawful are usually cut and dry. They're doing it to claim a bounty. The sole purpose of bounty hunters is to hunt bounties. Now, I think this works vice versa as well. It would not be fair for bounty hunters to attack unlawful targets if the treatment couldn't be returned. Unlawful and bounty hunters are hard rivals; there should really be no need to justify a reason to attack them.

The roleplay for this is already set in stone; it (as far as I've seen in discovery freelancer and vanilla) has never changed or had any exceptions put into it. Unlawfuls & bounty hunters are out for each other's throats, and I think the idea of having to verbalize an attack is ludicrous - especially when chasing fleeing targets.

I think this idea could be applicable for lawfuls and unlawfuls to some degree, but history has shown that RP alliances or neutrality pacts come into effect. So it would be off putting for any new player who's unaware of what's going on.

Something I've also noticed in regard to bounty hunting:

Bounty boards are a dying mechanic, and understandably so. Why would a faction leader(s) invest his/her time to create money for other people (not flying the faction tag) to hunt and kill their enemies, when instead they could just solely compensate their own members on a "rewards board"? Instead of encouraging bounty hunters to do their jobs, they encourage people to wear their tag and do the same thing. This makes the bounty hunter ID obsolete in many (if not all) situations.

I don't think factions should have to get rid of their rewards boards; in fact, I think the admins could do something about this instead.

What if: The Admin team created a universal bounty board explicitly for the bounty hunters guild ID and no other IDs. No registration would be required and no loopholes could come of this. The Admin team would list unlawful factions as targets for bounty hunters and pay out a base rate for them per kill; there would be no varying rewards between ship classes. This "blanket board" would pay out once every month by the administration since admins can print money from nothing. There would be no strain on faction leaders to provide loads of cash for bounty hunters every couple of weeks. If factions TRULY want bounty hunter support, they could sponsor their own boards and offer higher rates. That way, the blanket board doesn't take away from the faction's ability to use boards themselves. This concept also applies to rewards boards, so this "universal blanket board" would not be paying at rates high enough to take members away from factions. It would be an option for people who want to fly the BHG ID and hunt on their own terms.

This "blanket board" could isolate certain unlawful entities to certain parts of Sirius (e.g. Hessians in Rheinland, Rogues in liberty, Mollys in Bretonia, and so on).

Just some random idea I've thought of for a long time; again, this prompts activity for those who want to hunt. Just as much of the rules today safeguard and in turn (prompt activity) for those who want to fly around Sirius and chat.

TL;DR: Provide incentives for bounty hunters, and for people who want to fight on their own terms. We provide so many options for many players who argue for a "risk-free" Sirius. But we don't provide any for people who decide they want to fight.

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[Saronsen]

we've had the means to just offer automated payments on kills thanks to FLHook for a long, long time. discovery of discovery had payments for kills long before we did kill events
you dont even need an admin ran bounty board, just check the ID for BHG, and check that its an unlawful ID, and money made with no intervention. slap on a timer so that player isnt worth money for a little while, and theres your anti abuse
simple as

also risk free sirius is easily one of the primary causes of the lack of interest in actually playing the game

[Nika]

I think I have heard, on multiple occasions, about bounty plugin implementation that would work about the same way event bounty plugin, but for BHG and on all variety of unlawful IDs, making automatic payouts on kills.

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Peace, being the distant dream it is, comes inevitably, and goes hand in hand with justice.
Cursed be the war.

Heroes never die! @Vitoniz30 @Connor

[monmarfori]

It would be simple. The event plugin that allows you to earn instant money for kills can be adapted for the BHG ID. The only problem would be to adjust the plugin so that the money can only be applied to the unlawful factions' zones of influence.

Ideally, things like killing a Hessian in Texas wouldn't result in the plugin activating.

[Chronicron]

While I do agree with the general concept of letting some factions go off the hook of necessity of dropping /1 /2 before engaging in a fight, I'm afraid BHG ID isn't one of them, due to the fact that it has unlimited ZOI.

But, this exclusion from the engagement rules should be applicable to the Nomads and Wild Pawns. Or, simply put, alien IDs. You have to agree that it's kind of silly when a Nomad has to drop two engagement lines before opening fire. Especially when it has to be right after the said Nomad drops out of its cloak.

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[Oprixy]

I don't think allowing any faction to just un-cloak and kill someone would be a good idea to be honest

[Lemon]

It's just so you know someone is shooting you, no fun being shot not knowing by what - heck we have people complain they get shot in preset events after seeing 30 attack lines .


As to what is cringe - you have adults playing make believe in a twenty year old abandonware game pretending like any of this matters - we are all absurdly cringey lol, just do your best with it.

[Corile]

A general bounty hunting board is an idea that might warrant a trial run.

However, removing even the two lines of RP required before you shoot someone in that specific case makes no sense.

Even NPCs let you know that they're going to shoot you. IRL you can tell because of body language. In game it has to be explicit.

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Reflections on the Revolution in Gallia
Custodi // High City of Heraklion // The Cult of Archangels
Log Filter // Post Creator // Manhattan

[Toaster]

I'd rather not be in the middle of an interaction with another player only for a third one to uncloak right behind me and open fire point blank before I even get a chance to register what's happening. The minimum requirement of /1 /2 is little enough to ask for and should remain.

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Olivia Sable

[Serpentis]

Oh god no, please let me at least know I am gonna be destroyed before I do.

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