Guide "Commodities"

[eyvind]

My suggestion is to add more commodities such as the "Welcome to Discovery" and server rules ones that are added to new characters and sold on Planet Erie. These commodities would have brief quickstart-type tips on various subjects, for example: bounty hunter, soldier, miner, pirate, police, smuggler, trader, and so on.

The bounty hunting one could explain where player bounties are posted, and perhaps the NPC pilot commodities.

The military one could explain the responsibilities of the military, and since the military factions are more controled than others perhaps also provide links to information about the official military factions.

The mining one could explain mining bonuses, and mention the large mining factions at the same time.

The pirating one could explain the general practice of both player and NPC pirating.

The policing one could provide a link to the Laws of Sirius thread and explain the general responsibilities of police characters.

The smuggling one could explain the general concept as applied to Discovery. I think smuggling may be one of the areas with most confusion between in-role-play and out-of-role-play, perhaps the difference between house and server laws and such should be included as well.

The trading one could outline the various shipping corporations, and perhaps even mention some of the common generic transports.


Each should likely tie in points about the role-playing nature of each occupation; it simply can't be emphasized enough.

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<span style="font-family:Agency FB">Good Morning!</span>

[SigCorps]

Not a bad idea. A newbie help guide in your hold.

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Formerly Sam Nichols, creator of OSI

[worldstrider]

Great idea.

It would be really nice if a system similar to the Shrine was set up with a "central base" that had almost nothing but basic gear and "commodities" that covered the rules and all.

Maybe make the basic rules that you receive as a new character have a reference to it and make those "unique" commodities that sell high at the "Guide/Rules" station.

You could even make wrecks there that have various rules that could be sold on the base for a modest profit.

What do you think?

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[eyvind]

Great idea.

It would be really nice if a system similar to the Shrine was set up with a "central base" that had almost nothing but basic gear and "commodities" that covered the rules and all.

Maybe make the basic rules that you receive as a new character have a reference to it and make those "unique" commodities that sell high at the "Guide/Rules" station.

You could even make wrecks there that have various rules that could be sold on the base for a modest profit.

What do you think?

Sounds like you want to make an area full of unique newbie funness. I think that's a nice and balanced concept.

On that note, why don't we have any theme parks in space?

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<span style="font-family:Agency FB">Good Morning!</span>

[DeathsOverture]

Wow I love this idea so much!

What are we going to name them?
I like:
Starflea's Guide to Bounty Hunting
Starflea's Guide to Mining
etc

We should also have one that has short info on important people in Sirius, such as Herr Reinhardt, Emperor Jien Kogen, Queen Carina, etc... and of course Mon'star.

@Tinkerbell The wrecks would only be able to give out the rules once to one person until the server resets, it seems kinda pointless to go about the trouble of adding them in.

@eyvind: You said that the commodities could provide links; It'd be annoying for them to type out /forums/index.php?t=blahblah, perhaps we could just point them in the direction of the Wiki, and have a link on the wiki homepage that has more information or important links. That is, unless someone comes up with a way to put hyperlinks in-game to minimize the game and open a browser - or has this been done?

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[tazuras]

Wow, no one has critiqued this idea yet, well, guess someones got to do it:

The benefits of this idea are obvious, they are nice, but I dont know if they outweigh the downsides:

• They will be harder to update and add more suggestions to, unlike the forums, where people can also ask questions.
  
• They may keep people from visiting the forums becuase it is all layed out in game.
  
• They may keep people from interacting in game to begin with and asking people in game questions.
  

I counter this proposal with the following:

A link to the wiki included in the rotating messages or the items and all these guides on the wiki.

An item that is a brief guide on how to RP, so new players can ask other players all these questions in RP.

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[eyvind]

Wow, no one has critiqued this idea yet, well, guess someones got to do it:

The benefits of this idea are obvious, they are nice, but I dont know if they outweigh the downsides:

• They will be harder to update and add more suggestions to, unlike the forums, where people can also ask questions.
  
• They may keep people from visiting the forums becuase it is all layed out in game.
  
• They may keep people from interacting in game to begin with and asking people in game questions.
  

I counter this proposal with the following:

A link to the wiki included in the rotating messages or the items and all these guides on the wiki.

An item that is a brief guide on how to RP, so new players can ask other players all these questions in RP.

These guides would be meant to outline the very general basics, tips and pointers that are largely independent of day-to-day changes. They would still be specific enough that they might change now and then, but not more often than the mod is updated.

To keep them this general, they would need to provide links to the forum or wiki since that is where the core of information can be found, and most of that information changes often. Newbies following these links would end up where they would end up if they found the forums and searched by themselves, but guiding them this way would be significantly more convenient.

A link to the wiki included in the rotating messages or the items and all these guides on the wiki.

The idea is to create something that is as newbie-friendly a guide as possible. The limiting factor will be the interface with a knowledge base outside the game, so such links should naturally be given as part of an in-game guide rather than in-place of one.

In my opinion, your link could still be included but as part of guides rather than instead of them.

An item that is a brief guide on how to RP, so new players can ask other players all these questions in RP.

Role-playing is not a skill that can be taught simply and generally like that, it requires experience. A compromise that I think could work is -- as I mentioned briefly earlier -- to describe the role-playing aspects of each occupation in their respective guides.

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<span style="font-family:Agency FB">Good Morning!</span>

[worldstrider]

It would actually be cool to make customized "fun" station and ship designs for the system NPCs. Maybe even place Connecticut JH there so people could watch when they log on. Many many many will not do forum or read wiki till long after playing. And I have been here awhile and I can't find more than half the things on the forum worth reading.

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[farmerman]

The major issue I see with any helpful commodity is there also needs to be a better ways to alert their presence to people. It's really easy to overlook that sort of thing.

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Faction info links: Samura Heavy Industries : LWB : Watchers

[ArthurDent]

Great idea!

You loose your cargo, when you get shot. Some newbies get killed during their first mission. It would hep if you could buy the server-rules (and other guides) on Planet Eerie. I saw many players who never visited the forum. They should have a chance to read the rules, they are supposed to know them.