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+--- Thread: Giving Official Factions a purpose (/showthread.php?tid=178359)
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - Vitoniz30 - 04-12-2020
(04-12-2020, 12:43 PM)MasterL410 Wrote: If you can't motivate people to join your OF, you should re-think your faction concept and/or practice your advertising skills.
It's not only problem we have. People have their own preferences in House and faction. It's not possible to motivate people to join into factions they won't play.
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - MasterL410 - 04-12-2020
(04-12-2020, 12:56 PM)Vitoniz30 Wrote:(04-12-2020, 12:43 PM)MasterL410 Wrote: If you can't motivate people to join your OF, you should re-think your faction concept and/or practice your advertising skills.
It's not only problem we have. People have their own preferences in House and faction. It's not possible to motivate people to join into factions they won't play.
Which is another reason why this proposal is awful. I will never try something new if the indy ID is as horrible as the OP wants to make it. People will never bother expanding their interests, since nobody commits to a OF immediately and with such changes you can barely play the game if you're not in a OF.
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - Hokan - 04-12-2020
While I think people should be encouraged to play while being tagged, and not in random named indies. I'm not sure giving in game buffs would help further.
A fair few people say becoming an OF isn't worth it, imo it should be something you want to do its just the current system doesn't offer them a great deal. Although, the current team is expanding their input from OFs so it may become better.
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - LuckyOne - 04-12-2020
I feel that the answer to this is easy: Official Factions need more events!
Honestly if events are the only thing that brings them together then any bonus is useless in increasing activity.
For example, look at the more active unofficial factions, OS&C being the prime example. There's an event running almost every week, I presume in part because they have a goal in mind (whether it's just their leader enjoying his ideas coming to life or to become official). The event often ties closely to the official story, but is structured so the focus is on getting their members to roleplay within the confines of their own faction.
I think the main problem of Discovery is this: there's no real "endgame content" and therefore no real purpose to actively flying more than needed to keep officialdom.
The way I see it, once you have achieved officialdom, told some awesome stories, equipped all your members with the latest and greatest tech... You got nothing to use them/it for??? You wait for the GMs to include your faction in the story so you can fly a bit and then go back to hibernation.
This is what the devs need to solve, not assigning arbitrary bonuses for faction membership (because that just encourages metagaming and faction stacking).
In every MMORPG - there is some kind of endgame content. You can try to participate in PvE raids to get the best equipment (often dropped randomly so you go grinding with your friends) or fight in Guild wars / tournaments.
An example of a different approach is EVE Online, where players can fight, trade and craft in their own Organisations/Corporations and all their actions impact the universe in a deep, meaningful way while the actual official story is only there in the background. Sort of like a backdrop to a stage, the actors tell their stories in a set universe, and the focus is on them, not the backdrop.
Discovery is different in that regard, it relies on the players to create their own endgame, make their own goals, tell their own stories. And yet the players are quite limited in that regard because Discovery is, distinctively, not a sandbox and the Devs will cherry-pick faction developments that fit their overarching story.
This is a very ungrateful position to be in, and I don't believe there is a silver bullet. Either the Devs accept more player impact on Discovery Universe or the players need to accept that (some) of their stories/faction developments will only matter to them, and nobody else.
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - Haste - 04-12-2020
The way you make people play your OF is by organizing it well, being visible, making it fun to be a part of, organizing things like training sessions and brawls with enemy factions if you're a combat faction, etc.
They don't need perks, you just need to put in effort.
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - Karlotta - 04-12-2020
(04-12-2020, 11:37 AM)Avalanche Wrote: I do not know personally what the main advantages are to being in an official faction besides having others to fly with, bragging rights and a CAU8 given by staff.
You also have a number of privileges via server rules and house laws, like confiscating and carrying contraband, higher fees than 10 mil imposed by forum, being part of house governments, faction rights like technology exchange, setting people hostile, and inviting/escorting foreign war ships.
(04-12-2020, 11:37 AM)Avalanche Wrote:
- Mining factions get a +5% XYZ increase.
- Trading factions get a +5% XYZ increase.
- Other factions get a +5% XYZ increase.
I am not pushing any specific statistic but just to give an idea, possible increases could be given to damage output, ammunition count, radar range, cruise speed, cruise charge time, cruise power depletion, cargo hold, mining yield, hull points, number of systems already explored on new characters, nano/shield bot capacity, able to purchase new armour upgrades or guns or ships.
This is pretty much legalized cheating. It will also motivate official factions to recruit less people and try to justify their privileges by showing how they are so much better than everyone else.
There are a number of ways official factions could stop shooting themselves in the foot though:
- Stop restricting cap ship ownership by rank, and instead enforce training rules for snubs and caps alike, so people get more effective in snubs and will naturally choose htem more
- Instead of restricting the ownership of caps, forbid lower ranks to use caps against players, unless they have permission to use caps against players from a higher ranked guy online
- Have generous recruitment where the lowest rank doesnt need to use discord and doesnt need to know everything about the game yet. Even if they suck at everything, they will still be more likely to cooperate than when they are indies.
- Don't parade around acting like you're better than everyone else, barking orders at indies. You will be more popular and people will take you more seriously, and if you talk eye to eye with people they are more willing to co-operate with you.
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - LuckyOne - 04-12-2020
(04-12-2020, 01:55 PM)Karlotta Wrote: ...
Another thing I would like to point out is (ingame) visibility.
Speaking from a perspective of a new (and still indie) player I can tell you that any casual Freelancer fan who downloads Discovery probably won't have the drive to scour the Forums. In game recruitment is much better in that regard, but you can only do it if you have the (willing) members.
Now, seeing as Discovery has its own launcher, why not give the most active Official Factions a tab/spot for links to Info Threads / Comm channels/ Mission Boards etc. in the launcher itself. Maybe even highlight currently running official and unofficial events somehow ? It might encourage members to log a faction char if they they can immediately notice there are events currently running before launching the game itself.
Ingame advertisements would also be nice, but they might be more difficult to pull off because they would need to stay inRP. As far as I know Freelancer has 3 types of "news" (universe, faction, local) so maybe some can be used to advertise events and Official Factions ?
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - Hokan - 04-12-2020
(04-12-2020, 03:20 PM)LuckyOne Wrote:(04-12-2020, 01:55 PM)Karlotta Wrote: ...
Another thing I would like to point out is (ingame) visibility.
Speaking from a perspective of a new (and still indie) player I can tell you that any casual Freelancer fan who downloads Discovery probably won't have the drive to scour the Forums. In game recruitment is much better in that regard, but you can only do it if you have the (willing) members.
Now, seeing as Discovery has its own launcher, why not give the most active Official Factions a tab/spot for links to Info Threads / Comm channels/ Mission Boards etc. in the launcher itself. Maybe even highlight currently running official and unofficial events somehow ? It might encourage members to log a faction char if they they can immediately notice there are events currently running before launching the game itself.
Ingame advertisements would also be nice, but they might be more difficult to pull off because they would need to stay inRP. As far as I know Freelancer has 3 types of "news" (universe, faction, local) so maybe some can be used to advertise events and Official Factions ?
Editing the launcher with a Official Factions page might be nice, then sub-divide it based on house/area.
Although I am not sure the admins would want to take on the requirement of updating it all the time.
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - Avalanche - 04-12-2020
The poll results are pretty conclusive. It's been good to see what everyone thinks.
The idea came to me first, when I was wondering about buffing official trading factions transports beyond 5,000 units to something like 5,250 or 5,500. This would likely make official trading factions more inviting, resulting in more transport convoys, resulting in more piracy, resulting in more lawfuls and unlawfuls (the activity cycle of Discovery).
I then expanded the idea to include more elements like weapon output and hull points to which I think most are against. I understand why.
I am now curious if only exploring the idea of official faction cargo capacity would be more widely accepted and well received.
RE: Giving Official Factions a purpose - MasterL410 - 04-12-2020
I'm not against giving OFs more rights or other perks, but automaticly make them overpowered compared to indies is not the right way. All 3 examples you brought feel way too strong, excpet maybe the mining bonus, which sucks, but is allready ingame.
Maybe if you can come up with some other perks, not as strong, but still worth the effort, it would be more appreciated by the community.