05-25-2013, 11:00 PM
Recent events have lead me to believe that the current ID system has one too many flaws regarding factions, groups and independent players that use the same ID.
The main issue I have here is that the game we play involves a heavy ingame-consequence related focus. Most things that impact a faction's lore, be it a Player Faction or NPC one, happen ingame, rather than the forums and Skype chats to a lesser extent.
The latest moment that forced me to write this thread was something I read in the LR feedback thread, where the group is about to simply lock out Pirate IDed players from Rogue bases, ignoring any sort of RP done between other Rogue groups or independent players.
I fully understand how annoying freedom can be and how many troublesome individuals can be seen using your bases, be it a freelancer or an ally. But this is just not the solution to it.
I am strongly opposed to Player Factions being in charge of the whole faction's diplomacy in most cases, because unlike factions like the house military, which is one large entety, we also have factions like Zoners, Junkers, Rogues, Freelancers and others, which have a rather large or unlimited ZOI, have a lot of bases, therefore allowing interaction between different factions and may lead to different views. As an example, Rogues in Galileo and Keplar have the added bonus to manage IRP deals with Hogosha, BDs and GC, unlike Rogues in, say, Hudson, who can deal with the Rheinland unlawfuls.
This leads me to the main problem I have. Almost each faction like this brings something new to the NPC factions lore, which does not represent the views of the rest of the playerbase for that faction or even outright goes against it.
So here is my proposal to at least lessen the problem. This is not a long-term fix, but it would make sense.
With this above:
Say that the LR want to be buddy buddy with the Congress. No worries. They can trade tech np. The LR want to be hostile to Pirate IDs? Let them. Their base, guard system and ID will be hostile to said IDs.
If a faction wants to be buddy buddy with a ex enemy, let them. The rest of the indies may not want to be.
Some suggestions can be good, some can be bad. More and more we can see that most of the times official factions have a completely different lore and mindset than the NPC faction description would suggest. Time to distance them away from them without harming the rest of the ID users.
My two cents.
The main issue I have here is that the game we play involves a heavy ingame-consequence related focus. Most things that impact a faction's lore, be it a Player Faction or NPC one, happen ingame, rather than the forums and Skype chats to a lesser extent.
The latest moment that forced me to write this thread was something I read in the LR feedback thread, where the group is about to simply lock out Pirate IDed players from Rogue bases, ignoring any sort of RP done between other Rogue groups or independent players.
I fully understand how annoying freedom can be and how many troublesome individuals can be seen using your bases, be it a freelancer or an ally. But this is just not the solution to it.
I am strongly opposed to Player Factions being in charge of the whole faction's diplomacy in most cases, because unlike factions like the house military, which is one large entety, we also have factions like Zoners, Junkers, Rogues, Freelancers and others, which have a rather large or unlimited ZOI, have a lot of bases, therefore allowing interaction between different factions and may lead to different views. As an example, Rogues in Galileo and Keplar have the added bonus to manage IRP deals with Hogosha, BDs and GC, unlike Rogues in, say, Hudson, who can deal with the Rheinland unlawfuls.
This leads me to the main problem I have. Almost each faction like this brings something new to the NPC factions lore, which does not represent the views of the rest of the playerbase for that faction or even outright goes against it.
So here is my proposal to at least lessen the problem. This is not a long-term fix, but it would make sense.
- First and foremost. Give the official faction their own ID. Use the Guard ID to save the trouble. This would allow these factions to build their own diplomatic ties, while not harming the original ones of the NPC faction they are a part of and would prevent them from forcing their views on their indies. This would also have a benefit of quick changes to technerfs. The Bretonian Armed Forces could, for example, ask the admin team via RP to remove the nerf for the LN official faction's official ID. This would make things easier, not to mention reward the factions in a different manner, which has no negative impact on their indies.
- Give the Guard Rep to the official factions. This way they can, again, modify their diplomacy, or have their rights added or removed. This would make the interaction between factions much more intimate without screwing over the reputation of non-faction members.
- Each faction gets one personal base in addition to their Guard bases. For the Rogues it can be Buffalo or Alcatraz. For the Outcasts and Corsairs it can be Malta and Crete respectively and so on. This would allow them to FR5 people from their bases without interfearing with other peoples RP. Mind, this does not mean that people docking on hostile bases cannot be FR5ed to the whole faction.
- Move the faction's "elite" gear (EDIT: And ships) to normal systems and give them normal rep. There is NO reason why you should fly 90k for a ship, nor there is a reason to grind 35 missions for guard rep. Setting up a character is an OORP process, this sort of things do not apply to it. Even more so, we already have Omi Kappa, where, I kid you not, I see BD IDed players, LNSs and even RMs flying to get their capital ship turrets. Let the Guard system thing fall as a Official Faction property.
- Last but not least, allow official faction IDs more rights in terms of ZOI, cargo, ship types or mining/trading bonuses. Because people doing things right need to be rewarded. Not to mention it would cause some healthy competition for the official faction seat.
With this above:
Say that the LR want to be buddy buddy with the Congress. No worries. They can trade tech np. The LR want to be hostile to Pirate IDs? Let them. Their base, guard system and ID will be hostile to said IDs.
If a faction wants to be buddy buddy with a ex enemy, let them. The rest of the indies may not want to be.
Some suggestions can be good, some can be bad. More and more we can see that most of the times official factions have a completely different lore and mindset than the NPC faction description would suggest. Time to distance them away from them without harming the rest of the ID users.
My two cents.