So, I had a talk on this with a friend. This is a RP server. But, I do not really see the RP in here. Sure, we RP in the ships, we RP on the forum... but I do not see the RP in the server... let me explain:
I will be explaining on Order as an example. Order is a faction that is specialised in a way. Specialised in killing Nomads. But, how can we see it on Order technology? We cannot, that is right. Order, the faction specialised on killing nomads has got the same chance to kill one as IMG fighter specialised in defending the ore operations from pirates. Why is that? Why do we RP in words and we are forced to do so (nothing wrong here, it is an RP server after all) but the server does not look RP in any way?
Let me get another example... now... the Nomads! Based on Vanilla, the nomads are an advanced alien race that should be the menace of this universe. The Threat. The stories that you scare children with... only thing is that these stories are real. I belive that official nomad faction, K'hara, has special criteria on joining the faction. Or atleast there were some... Why? Because they should be stronger than the rest. So they need someone who will not abuse the power but use it for the general enjoyment of the server. That is why you had to have a Nomad that would act like a nomad, not kill everything... because it could.
If we get another example: Any navy in the game. Military grade equipment should be better than civilian one, right? WRONG! In Disco, Navy fighter has got the same chance to kill a pirate as a civilian escort. Why are there no Military Grade guns? Shields?
What I ask for is asymetric balance, which suits the RP aspect of this server much more than the symetric one, that is in place now. Nobody need Order if they can kill nomads themselves. Nobody needs the Navy if they can kill Pirates just as good. Nobody is scared of an alien race if they are just as scary as the pirate from next door...
I know that this all can be made. It can be made by restrictions (Capital ships only for real military or special factions like the IMG that have it in their basic RP to have a cap) and guns and shields specialised in things. For example: Order guns on Nomad Shield = 100% DMG. IMG gun on Nomad Shield = 60% DMG. This way, someone would really call the Order when Nomads starts showing their faces around because they would have a better chance at killing them...
Now you can say: Wouldn't Order be stronger than? And Nomads weak? NO! Because Order would have guns specialised for Nomads, that means that Order guns would only do 90% on Human shields... that way, they would have to have specialised fighting force for nomads and human enemies... Nomad weaker? NO! Order could kill them easier, yes... but they could kill anything else easier aswell!
Well, wouldn't factions like IMG be less strong then? NO! They can mine, they have durable battle stransports, they get mining bonus...
If you think about it... The game would look more realistic, the factions would have to interact with each other much more (If a trader faction would be terrorised by a pirate base... they would need the navy to deal with it!) and so on. I only have some examples in here on 3 factions. But every faction could specialise in something. If this was a thing on Discovery, I believe that it would help the overall gameplay. This server is an RP one. Plain old symetric balance works in PvP games or games with only 2 or 3 sides.... (like WoW) not on a server with dozens of factions.
Noone would be excluded from balance and noone would be OP, that is the point. Order would be good at killing Nomads, IMG would be great at defending convoys, Navy would be great at big battles with caps in them and Nomads would be great at ambushes and killing... BHG would be great at killing other human ships...
Everybody would have their strenghts and weaknesses. Now, everyone is equal. That does not suit an RP server. Like, Kruger and IMG would be generaly the same, because they are both mining corporations. But at killing Nomads, noone woudl be better than Order. That is how it is in real life... that is how it should be here.
If I had my way with Nomads, they would lose their snubcrafts but get OP capitals. When one pops up out of nowhere, everyon should crap their pants, run away or unite to shoot one down.
For order, they would lose their capital ships, Osiris would be stationary base, but I'd make Hybrid Cloaks for snubs available to them.