How to make official factions better?

[Cryer Pharmaceuticals!]

Hello it is me, the leader of an official faction!

I like my faction just fine as it is. It is basically just a collection of excellent dudes. So right now we can't do anything that other people can't do, but we can do it with a greater ratio of excellent dudes. So really, I am happy with how it has turned out so far.

But I did very much like cannon's locking down base idea, and Blodo's related 'faction leader ID' thing.

I guess this is partially from my perspective, because Atka is supposed to be fairly damn sercretive, no junker hoo-har onboard plz.
It would be cool if it worked both ways, though. Cryer gets on fairly well with Zoners as corps go, so it would be nice if we could let Zoner guards dock on Cambridge Research or something as well as stop riff raff from prying around Atka.

Setting people as red to your faction is a similar and also nice ability. Basically it's 'back up' for when you're trying to roleplay something and then some slaver ID'd atrain is 'whats up im docking atka after coming straight from alpha'.

Unique ships: It's cool, but not a big thing I suppose. We have some special request gunboat, and really it just sits around most of the time.

Restricting 4500+ ships to official factions: All I can really see from this is nooblet getting really really angry, and people that don't really want to be in official factions/will not behave properly in official factions suddenly joining official factions just to powertrade. Doesn't really improve anything.

Writing news articles would be really great, though.

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[Alex.]

Restricting 4500+ ships to official factions: All I can really see from this is nooblet getting really really angry, and people that don't really want to be in official factions/will not behave properly in official factions suddenly joining official factions just to powertrade. Doesn't really improve anything.

Nooblet? Don't forget 50 odd other people... You'd have a lot of problems if you only let official factions have this.

[kuth]

-No on capital ship restrictions. I am 100% sure some people will be denied the right to get one simply because they don't kiss the arse of the people that they need permission from. I'd be more in line with force registration so that the official factions know who is flying what, but that is a lot of work on some people.

-I love the idea of making it so members of offical factions (while on their offical faction characters) can make more money doing inRP trade routes and such.

Example: A member of the official DSE gets 10k per Copper Ore whereas a indie DSE only gets the normal 8300.

Not sure if this can be done without each official faction getting its own ID though.

-I like the idea of stronger guns for official faction members, but only slightly stronger, nothing over powering.

-Perhaps stronger combat/better trade vessels for official factions? Admins would hand them out or something similar.


I'm all for the official factions gaining more power....as long as indies are not forced to join them to even have a chance at playing. No zomg uber weapons or ships for official factions. I don't want to see some crappy official faction pilot beating a damn good indie pilot because of uber weapon/ship.

There must be balance!

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Lurker

[Cryer Pharmaceuticals!]

Really though, on the whole, the official factions are made up of decent people. I can't see any of the faction leaders running any abuse, and if they did, it would be clamped down on fast I think. Nobody wants that. You have to remember that the people in the official factions are the people willingly putting more responsibility and restrictions on to themselves. You might get the odd eppy or somesuch but on the whole it's good people.

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[Colonel.Tigh]

The Faction leader ID, is the only good idea posted here, that would be something, dont give them the "repfix him as i like" power, the name alone should pull some weight, but he can REQUEST changes done by admins.

The rest is as stupid as: "oh lets raise the prices on battleships so people have to slinetly powertrade a lot longer, and then raise the prices on big trains, so they have to powertrade silenty for even longer, so only the realy bad lowluts will ever get that battleship"-idea, they had lasttime.

You wont be doing anyone a favor by makeing indyplay next to impossible, neither the factions nor the playerbase in general.

[Cryer Pharmaceuticals!]

The Faction leader ID, is the only good idea posted here, that would be something, dont give them the "repfix him as i like" power, the name alone should pull some weight, but he can REQUEST changes done by admins.

pretty sure this is how it is right now. and it has been abused like zero times?

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[pipboy]

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?

Absolutely love this idea too, this along with the idea of better trade routes goth get my vote.

pretty sure this is how it is right now. and it has been abused like zero times?

Yes that is what it's like now. A faction leader can ask admins to "fix" people's rep.

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[Zeb Harley]

How about factionalized ships get a special installable item which grants some kind of a bonus? This of course related to the faction's main-theme of actions.

mining-bonus
trading-bonus
gunpower-bonus
shield-bonus
scanner-bonus
docking-bonus

this might be nice, even if the bonus grants only +5% of something.

The bonus items could be handed out by the faction-leaders (?) who receive them from one of the Admins. Would this be sensible?

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for those who missed it: the moral of it all is ----> traders with teeth are fun for pirates. - within reason.

[ryoken]

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.

Yup which mean's if in the past they upset anyone in said faction? they get nothing. I am not kissing any butt to play a game the way i want to.

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.

I agree. Now that peep's need to earn Guard ID's for the big ship's i think that is enough to stop most cap whore's. No need to have faction's restrict because i have seen as many faction Cap whores as i have indies. Reminds me of a OPG/vs SOB battle i was in Both "oficial factions" but both had a horde of BS's,and Dreads in this fight. (no direpect to either faction was just an example that came to mind. I was OPG).
People come to Disco to play,and fly what ever way they see fit.(within the rule's of course) Some have maybe an hour a day to play,and some never seem to leave. Why should people with more time here,get to restrict other's from playing the way they want to,and fly what they want to.

For example. A new guy comes to server after playing open sp. Finds he like to fly a Ohhh lets say Outcast desi. Now he has to join a faction to play this ship,but with his limited time,will never earn the rank to ever get it. What you think he is going to do? I will tell you. He will say forget it and leave.

I have seen some good idea's here, but limiting anyone in any way is just BS IMO. It was cost Disco number's,both good and bad player's.

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[lousal]

Let me try a different approach ...

Factions should be allowed to request special support by the admins for events, like special ships only needed for the duration of an event, or reserved player slots - basically things that would spoil a long prepared event when not available.

Factions should be obliged to send one player representative to a special forum where only according representatives of other factions would be discussing RP matters - Story of Sirius, NPC Faction Histories, changes in the future. This would not only be an opportunity to participate in the RP development of Disco, but it would also impose a kind of soft quality control on the factions. Opinions of other factions can help to improve the own faction RP. Also, this way the factions could really take care of NPC factions' purposes, intra- and inter-balances, general RP and similar topics. A faction based board could even elaborate standards and minumum requirements valid for every faction (I'm not talking about player numbers or affliation charts). Such things should belong to the duties of each official faction, and it should be reviewed regularly.

Bearing the responsibility for the server RP and having such duties the rights of official factions should remain exclusive, at all times.

Regarding the calls for better equipment, more wealth or similar bonuses are not reasonable from my point of view, because factions are already strongly benefiting from synergetic effects provided to the members of organized groups. Making factions more attractive means to determine their responsiblities very clearly and to grant accordant rights, in order to make them able to attend their duties. Properly established this can imply a kind and also an amount of reward actually nobody can give but those who are rewarding themselves by a deeper involvement into the creation development of this imaginary universe, which means the influencing of the imaginations of many players.

Summary:
What are factions good for?
What are their purposes, their duties?
Derived from this, which rights do they need to attend their duties?
What additional benefits or disadvantes are needed to balance their duties with their rights?

Forget equipment, credits, ships, commodities and IDs.