03-08-2021, 06:52 PM
How to Save Discovery Freelancer
The crisis around Discovery revolves around one issue: Freedom.
We see proof over and over that there are still a great deal of players interested or that visit the forum that could play but don't. Others play only a fraction of what they could, and others play when they can, which can limit what's going on for you when you get to log on.
I firmly believe that for many years this place went in the wrong direction when it came to placing limits on activity, and even more so, keeping those limits after player population drew down greatly. Everyone should now consider that its time to change the overall direction of the mod. It has survived a long time on what it offers, but it won't do as well in years to come unless there are some changes made before its too late to recover population wise.
The key to changing this place is looking at the future from the short term and long term perspective. What can we do on the short term to help things? What can we do on the long term?
Short term changes:
With just the stroke of a pen, or the hitting of the 'Enter' key, we can change a great deal of how this place operates. Removing rules and limits on activities is the first easy step we can take to open things up around here, and let people go back to finding new things to do.
- Allow JD4's to jump transports - There were whole companies that had to cease to exist when they cut this. As far as I'm concerned, with the population we have on average the argument jump convoys were cutting into the flow of trade didn't hold up with me. There are undoubtedly ways to offset any potential negative impact that doesn't involve removing the ability completely. This also will pay off if we implement some long term changes around use of POB's and a faction 'challenge system'. I see people arguing that it takes too long to get around to find action, or that its too difficult to do this or that (if we got more complex here), but that can all be solved by using what we already have. We should not be afraid to let people branch out, build secret bases, form companies to offer special supply services, etc. (On the long term, a JD countermeasure could be devised, or a way to detect ships charging for a jump to help those hunting them, etc).
- Allow [limited] Multiboxing - This is a stopgap measure in a way, since population is not what it was in 2012 when I first hit this place, we really don't have much to lose anymore. 'Limited' means within reason even still, we could set a limit of 2 ships per players. Especially for the purposes of using Docking Modules, players could use a larger ship as a base ship for their own snub or mining freighter, as well as for others. You could fill your own transport, etc. Do pirates really mind coming across 2 ships in an ore field with only one pilot between them? Its more likely you can easily claim demands for all ships. At this point in the server's life I really can't see how towing one extra ship for trade or supply will be that bad. I would say until population is brought back up significantly, we could stand to allow limited multiboxing. In my case, I always wanted to fly a carrier as a base ship that I could just leave sit in space, and a freighter or snub to launch from, go out and interact, etc. With JD's, that's even cooler since you can jump from region to region and do that. If you get attacked? Choose which ship to fly and hope for the best for the other one.
-Void the oorp rules around enforcing roleplay consequences only while uncloaked - Lets face it, if you come across somebody doing something interesting while you're cloaked, you wouldn't drop your cloak to be able to count what you see. The odds may not be in your favor, you may want to keep your knowledge a secret for the time being. It would generate a lot more RP for law enforcement especially to let them go out and if they see something they can't tackle right then and there, simply file a report and send out a charge across the Neural Net like everything else The same goes for espionage, in making it unequivocally clear that if you observe other players' activities while cloaked, you can RP around the consequnces of that (EX: Observing certain individuals or organizations supplying bases in secret, which you can really only catch if you follow them cloaked). It could be a cop following a Freelancer to a hidden illegal base, or a pirate following a Freelancer to a corporate base.
-Cut the ship/tech/ID compat system almost entirely - Allow for a lot more weapons and ship/ID combos to spice things up for a while, let people try some new things, and yeah, let the RP consequences play out. So there will be a great deal of temptation to use a lot of illegal 'lucrative' weapons and ships, which will all work fine, but be a great cause for law enforcement woes and hurt pride of such factions for some time to come. Not to mention, has anyone in the last 10 years tried running the server without that plugin even running to see if it makes a difference on performance?
All of these should be easy to change and will have a decent effect right away.
Long Term Changes:
-Form Sub-Team to implement regular patches that facilitate player driven changes - We need the Admins/GMs/Devs to sort out who can make it happen. That is, in conjunction with my next suggestion, to make changes happen on a more regular basis to reflect player driven outcomes. Once that is done, if a new system is put in place, the most of it can be handled forum-side by anyone able to process requests, to hand it over to those who can make the desired changes (based on what players are doing under the system) and put them into effect.
-Implement OF Right to Challenge for bases/territory - In relation to this thread Official Faction Challenge System, once members of the team are sorted out (or added to fill that void) and we allow for the new right to take effect, there will be a whole new avenue available for player activity. This should give a great incentive to players to bolster existing or form new OF's with the hopes of making territorial gains. No guarantees, just a hope, that is exactly what will turn this place into a new open ended game. The system will ensure the rate of change and how much player effort is needed to do what. That can all be adjusted as needed separately. Yet just allowing the right creates a new situation that will allow for a new degree of immersion to return to the server. Factions will actually be able to form plans to expand, and in this system, go to work either accumulating SciData for investing in big moves, or building up the money to buy it from those that do deal in the commodity. This should create a regular industry for players to attempt to earn chances to make serious gains, while generating events that allow for everyone to get involved on one side or another.
-Add CD's to all ships - This one is pretty straight forwards. It was good back in the day when Tau-23 was packed for hours a day. It barely matters anymore. Ships like the Democritus, Camara, and Salvager could all use CD's, and it would totally change each ship, basically creating new ships for people to actually get use out of. People want the option to use those ships for more than just chillin. If they could be converted for mercs or pirates, that would add some new variety to what we see out there, and just might get some people out give them a try. All sorts of new things arise from this simple change, which also requires nothing all that major.
-Make radical changes to the server systems layout - Allow me to be the first to make the craziest suggestion yet to the route problem... (this one is the most optional)
Cut the server into 3 major sections. Divide the Server at 2 major points. The first would be, with what's gone on with Gallia and the Houses of Sirius, its time for some good old fashioned xenophobic 'Galliaism' to take effect, and for them to go full 'isolationist' for a while. That means sever the connections from Gallia to Sirius. Totally, no jumpholes or jumpgates. There will be restarts that start in Gallia, and basically for all 'segments' of the map, create an internal trade route. Make Gallia a mini server that can only be accessed by jump drive. I know that sounds crazy, but dividing the map up instead of twisting routes, changing connections that are years old and familiar, we create 3 small areas that will become easier to get interaction within. People will be purposely stuck trading in their area unless the get a jump to the new area and resume. For inter-segment trade, you'll need to bump up to a JD. (This will also make it easier to add new systems, which you'd probably expect to be attached on to Gallia somewhere, or out in the Omicrons).
The other places I'd cut off are then the Omegas/Omicrons from the Houses. Perhaps a surprise act of joint terrorism by the Hessians and the Order or something could sabotage all of the jump gates along the omegas/sigmas, basically turning the Taus, 4 Houses and Sigmas into a large zone, and then the Omegas/Omicrons into a large zone. Then all we need to do is make sure there are internal trade routes for each segment, and big ones for jump trading (ores).
Basically cut all the jump gates along the Omega/Omicrons line, and render the jumpholes inert, say it was the Nomads, a natural phenomena, or a potential new secret weapon, etc.
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Map![[Image: uIo66yS.jpg?1]](https://i.imgur.com/uIo66yS.jpg?1)
-Add new consumable commodity for POB Weapons Platforms - In theory, if we put an OF Challenge System into effect, factions would need to look at their territory and figure out what places might wind up at risk from being sieged by their enemies. Many places already have POB's. House governments and other factions similarly could ask those with bases to build weapons platforms to add to the area's security, or perhaps lower the monthly fees for those bases willing to chip in on defense (especially for those near planets). In other places it might be prudent for navies/police to build a base to add WP's to secure an area, or contract it out to a third party.
Yet for those who would say WP's are already too hard to deal with, I suggested making them only work with a consumable commodity: Munitions or Armaments. My suggestion was to set so that each defense module would require 100 units of either commodity to respawn after being destroyed. So even a base with 6 weapons platforms, would only be able to keep them in space, if they kept ammo stores (like shield fuel). So, to replace 6 WP's, you'd need 600 units of one of those commodities. This way, an attacking force could focus on taking out the WP's of a base first, trying to deplete it of ammo to neutralize its defenses first. This would also create a new valuable practical commodity that players could trade, buy/pirate/confiscate that could be taken and still used. It having a practical value also makes it more valuable sometimes than just the credits they're worth. The ammo might be cheap but a base under siege might pay big for ammo! All around this balances POB's force projection ability, and creates a new commodity for player trade. Bring on the arms runners!
-Clarify what is/can be cannon or not, and acceptable RP - Just as an example, when they removed JD's from cannon, I saw people basically acting like JD's should no longer exist in mention at all. So what's the deal? We could use a review of what's acceptable or not. As in, JD's might not be able to be used in cannon stories, but we can still RP them right? This is the type of thing I see screwing the place up a bit, it causes some confusion, and I'll bet its not the only issue where people are not on the same page. We could use some clarifying statements from the Devs on what we can still do or not, what's ok or not. Maybe a new FAQ 'ask me anything' with some Devs could be done to help with that, and everyone could submit some questions.
-Have a new drive to advertise the mod - This one is the big one. Not only should we see from the staff side of things an active drive to promote the mod, staff should give the OK for players to go on the recruiting drive as well. If players know its ok to go to another community or forum to drop a link to the mod and mention we need players, everyone here could start going to work on making little drops here and there.
-New Community Attitude and enforcement from the staff- Everyone needs a new outlook on Discovery Freelancer. Its time to let go of all of the old ways of thinking. They served the place well for many years, but to keep going we need a bit more. We also need to ditch this 'unwritten' rules situation of pier pressure to get what you want. I have only ever seen the staff appease the very players that complain first only to use oorp means to manipulate the game in their favor. After years, it all added up. Each little press on the brake peddle has lead to this place being locked down! On top of the staff making sure players only treat each other with maturity, the entire community needs to embrace one simple principle that start to solve our problems here, and that is the embracing of FREEDOM. As in freedom of action, and more freedom of actions for players, will only ever lead to solutions being made in-game, not in discord. So yes, the answer is that now that we're down to where we are, opening things up and allowing for a lot more freedom will entice some new growth, new experience to be had here again. To the players, stop worrying about trivial things and start caring about the big picture.
Every time we pull something to help one faction, we hurt another. Add for both, let equal opportunity sort it out in-game. From here on in we should only be adding new freedoms for players, not taking them away or staying locked. Only if we make some changes finally will we see that the mod that's here and its playerbase are now the backbone to what could be a very interesting game here over the next 10 years. We have something good to start with if we use what we have in the right way.