Does Disco still have enough player base to keep running all factions ?

[Swallow]

the factions are only unattractive if you're not creative. do we need 11 thousand zoner factions and no planetform faction?

I've told youu over Skype that PFI group is operating currently.


[propaganda]
If you are interested in joining Planetform inc. contact me via Skype channel (in my profile there is a name), I will add you to the PFI group...and if you'd like it - you are accepted! Yes, yes, we facilitated our recruitment to help you to join us.

And yes, we are desperatly need players.

[/propaganda]

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FL MOD(EL)MAKING: TOOLS, RESOURCES, TUTORIALS AND MY SHIPS (OLD)

I am on discord: Roal-Yr#5994, I don't log on forum more than a few times a year.

I am not making ships for FL anymore, I am making my own space game instead:
https://github.com/roalyr/GDTLancer
https://roal-yr.itch.io/gdtlancer
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5HQB...cdH45LZgjj

[dodike]

So instead of knowing your faction really well and getting to know another faction through Roleplay and interactions with consequences, you join the other faction with another one of your characters. Great. Sounds like a recipe for Metagaming to me.

Reading the forums is also a recipe for metagaming yet we all do it.

[SnakThree]

15000

OK. Your argument is valid, since it has numbers that are totally correct.

When I play the game, I play it to have fun for myself. It is the main reason why people play the games.

If I started concentrating on how to please others, I would soon find myself driven to insanity because one players wants PvP instantly, but does not want to lose; the other wants 20 minutes chat before engagement takes placel the third one goes "no englis" when he does not stop after 2nd demand to stop and 4th cruise disruption.

If I play to have fun, there is high probability that others around me will be able to get some pleasant experience via interacting with me, unless the other person cannot comprehend the fact that every single person is differenct and has his own opinion on how to have fun.

To sum up, you are in no position to forcefully guide players into the way YOU think the game should be played when the community is alive due to the current freedom the game provides to choose how you obtain your fun. Be it 15k zoner factions, where players are happy to play in and cause no harm to fellow players, or be it indies, who have fun having no responsibilities but to abide the rules

Zoners are popular faction because the role is so unclear and leaves huge freedom to choose the way of the faction.
Liberty Navy is popular faction because it provides opportunity of great battles.
Golden C. is not popular because their role is not the easiest one to comprehend and Kusari lacks constant and stable activity for interactions.
Bundusch... is not popular because it is hard to spell it! /jk

People MUST be allowed to choose the way they want to have fun, while not harming others, freely. Otherwise there would not be big enough playerbase to keep constant interactions possible, even if they were top quality and exciting, but you would need to put a lot of effort to search for those interactions.

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Now to answer the question in topic, there is enough players to fill factions, but the factions might lack the attraction to be in as opposed to being indie, due to numerious possible reasons.

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[massdriver]

Does Disco still have enough player base to keep running all factions ?, I doubt it.

I doubt too. RP needs changing environment, at least a bit, to be able to support people with new situations and actions. Most of people want high dynamic gameplay that's why any epic battles override any RP. When ideas come to end and people get bored they leave game, eventually. That's because devs dont offer any RP meaning events to infuence game leaving it to community, on the other hand most people come here just to play and not rule. Probably changin heavily game can refresh player list with old guys but it's a hard step to do.

487 needs to be a really osom expansion for disco in terms of gameplay to have success.

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[blubba]

It's a saturday, middle of the afternnon and theres 108 players on.
Where have they all gone?
I recall 32 players max, and then 64. It was always maxed out so they went bigger and bigger.
Whats changed?
The Discovery RP server?
My thoughts are that it has become far more a PvP server. Changes to ID's, ships, ZoI, factions locations and unbalancing of groups.
As a PvP game, Freelancer isn't all that. It's good (clearly, theres 108 people playing it) but not that good.
The dynamic that was RP interaction has been stifled with PvP. There is now almost no alternative but to fight. People log on to fight at which point it becomes a slog for anyone who doesn't. Almost all new developments in game come from purely PvP at which point, only the top 10% get a say and the rest go along with it. As long as there is high turn over, thats ok but as a rather old piece of software gets older, it loses it's appeal.
Still, I am sure it will stagger on for a lot longer yet and I wish it every success.
Especially Xoria and Dev who have invested so much time and effort into making it more appealing for 'other' reasons.

PvP does not equal RP. It is just a small part of it and yet it's all I see these days with petty and mindless excuses to continue it at the expense of gameplay.
A lot of factions are losing their apeal unless you belong to the few 'elite' groups and thats why these factions are dying off.

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[Coin]

OK. Your argument is valid, since it has numbers that are totally correct.

When I play the game, I play it to have fun for myself. It is the main reason why people play the games.

If I started concentrating on how to please others, I would soon find myself driven to insanity because one players wants PvP instantly, but does not want to lose; the other wants 20 minutes chat before engagement takes placel the third one goes "no englis" when he does not stop after 2nd demand to stop and 4th cruise disruption.

If I play to have fun, there is high probability that others around me will be able to get some pleasant experience via interacting with me, unless the other person cannot comprehend the fact that every single person is differenct and has his own opinion on how to have fun.

To sum up, you are in no position to forcefully guide players into the way YOU think the game should be played when the community is alive due to the current freedom the game provides to choose how you obtain your fun. Be it 15k zoner factions, where players are happy to play in and cause no harm to fellow players, or be it indies, who have fun having no responsibilities but to abide the rules

Zoners are popular faction because the role is so unclear and leaves huge freedom to choose the way of the faction.
Liberty Navy is popular faction because it provides opportunity of great battles.
Golden C. is not popular because their role is not the easiest one to comprehend and Kusari lacks constant and stable activity for interactions.
Bundusch... is not popular because it is hard to spell it! /jk

People MUST be allowed to choose the way they want to have fun, while not harming others, freely. Otherwise there would not be big enough playerbase to keep constant interactions possible, even if they were top quality and exciting, but you would need to put a lot of effort to search for those interactions.

---

Now to answer the question in topic, there is enough players to fill factions, but the factions might lack the attraction to be in as opposed to being indie, due to numerious possible reasons.

I doubt too. RP needs changing environment, at least a bit, to be able to support people with new situations and actions. Most of people want high dynamic gameplay that's why any epic battles override any RP. When ideas come to end and people get bored they leave game, eventually. That's because devs dont offer any RP meaning events to infuence game leaving it to community, on the other hand most people come here just to play and not rule. Probably changin heavily game can refresh player list with old guys but it's a hard step to do.

487 needs to be a really osom expansion for disco in terms of gameplay to have success.

if everyone were the same, it would be the same RP environment. this would harm server gameplay. it's the same reason why we have tech nerfs, so that not everyone flies the same ship with the same equipt.

The first example - the guy who wants quick pvp - direct them to conn.
the last example - the guy who says 'no englis' but yells at you in sys chat for exploding him, well, just fire and forget, there's no point reporting him.

the guy that wants 20 mins of chit-chat - this is the guy who will see the point of challenging himself with a GC character; instead of passively 'not harming server game play' he is actively enhancing server gameplay by offering a richer environment.

if you don't find that idea fun, well, each to their own. It's true, I cannot FORCE anyone to do something they don't want to do, i can only suggest.

and amongst the members of this community, there are people like myself, who DO join up factions just to help them get off the ground. just search for the 'which faction should i join threads'. peeps who are looking for a new challenge.

im not saying that someone who wants to start the nth zoner faction should be forced to join the LWB (i refuse to even try to spell that /jk) - thats not what a moratorium means - im suggesting that their request for OFFICIAL status be PUT ON HOLD until there is a complete complement of npc factions.

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A Day in the Life of an NPC | Coin | The Journal of Caius Oakley | Build Your Dream Boat

[SnakThree]

I don't see the problem in having official factions which use generic ID even if ten or so factions are not.yet.represented by official faction.

You are complaining about too many Zoner factions, since it hinders diversity, but at the same time you suggest preventing factions that are purely player creation from becoming official to increase diversity.

You are basically contradicting yourself on the same matter applied to different situations.

It wouldn't work because hindering motivation to put effort into developing their original faction ideas would only lower player count and that would lower interaction rate in server, which would lead to less roleplay being delivered in our little universe.

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[Adam_Spire]

Reading the forums is also a recipe for metagaming yet we all do it.

I presume you mean all the threads on the communication forum? Its still not an excuse. If it's not addressed to me, I -choose- not to click on it. No rule against reading them, just responding to them. There is also the long standing presumption that if it is not addressed to you or your faction, you wont/shouldn't know what is being said there. Issue is, when it -is- addressed to your faction/character and you have another character on an opposing faction/group, you are supposed to roleplay as if you do not know the information your other players on another faction knows. Call me crazy but I apply that to my Roleplay.

As you have stated "we" all do it. I simply choose not to allow it to affect my Roleplay.

I guess it makes sense as we cannot provide a valid Roleplay reason why established factions are able to spit out cap ships to Indys as fast as cargo pods, but hey Meleelancer for the win.

---

Sometimes, when all you want is to gain your freedom, you must be willing to risk it all.

[dodike]

PvP does not equal RP. It is just a small part of it and yet it's all I see these days with petty and mindless excuses to continue it at the expense of gameplay.
A lot of factions are losing their apeal unless you belong to the few 'elite' groups and thats why these factions are dying off.

I don't understand what you are on about. This is after all still a space-shooting game wrapped up in roleplay environment. What other gameplay? Even trading and mining is mostly about PvP or it gets boring and feels like grinding otherwise.
The base-building addition is the only part of the game that's not focused on PvP interaction but rather on something else and even then the game mechanics doesn't allow for much management.

I presume you mean all the threads on the communication forum? Its still not an excuse. If it's not addressed to me, I -choose- not to click on it. No rule against reading them, just responding to them. There is also the long standing presumption that if it is not addressed to you or your faction, you wont/shouldn't know what is being said there. Issue is, when it -is- addressed to your faction/character and you have another character on an opposing faction/group, you are supposed to roleplay as if you do not know the information your other players on another faction knows. Call me crazy but I apply that to my Roleplay.

As you have stated "we" all do it. I simply choose not to allow it to affect my Roleplay.

I guess it makes sense as we cannot provide a valid Roleplay reason why established factions are able to spit out cap ships to Indys as fast as cargo pods, but hey Meleelancer for the win.

You claimed that joining the opposite faction is a recipe for metagaming. Now you are saying that you are capable of not relaying all information you have as a player to your characters. Other people can do it too.