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+--- Thread: The mod (and the systems) we lost. (/showthread.php?tid=158704)
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The mod (and the systems) we lost. - Enkidu - 03-03-2018
Omicron Zeta. Berry, Touraine, Corse, the Privas Planetary Cluster. Most of the Tau systems. Planet Niiza. Specific flavour systems for every faction. Some of the most fascinating fields, nebulae, star systems and infocard lore in the mod. Normandie - the realisation of Igiss's vision for the Discovery storyline - the actual sense of discovering something, active systems that wern't just the same, terribly bland vanilla creations. Wierd, wacky, wonderful, yet flawed things such as the Phantoms and the Reapers of Sirius. The thrill of a new house bursting in from the unknown.
That was Discovery. In a very literal sense, there was stuff to discover.
The mod we have now, is a victim of a few key faults. Sure, balance is (arguably) better, texture qualities are higher, jump hole networks less random, it's arguably more suited to a lowered player count, even if dodging pirates isn't a crazy risk for any slumbering 5k and chatty police officers arn't around anymore, a lot of people know who each other are Oorply behind the ships, but there is a problem here.
People thought activity centralisation was about cutting vast swathes of Discovery's original content, rather than jumphole rerouteing. We're now left with all the prime exploration points - places that make you feel like you're going somewhere, gone.
Gallia no longer feels like an entire new sector, and isn't any more active for it. The entire first gallic war lore has been cut. Things like the Privas cluster have been cut because they "violate the rules of physics", whilst we don't hold that standard to any other part of this game, nor should we. The Omicrons, with the exception of Chi, no longer feel vast, mysterious, and uncharted, but feel positively crowded and lived in. Primus was cut and turned into a bland, flavourless, space station. Discovery used to feel gigantic, like there's always some place you haven't been to yet.
These extraordinarily detailed over-designed systems were what made the ambiance of Discovery so much more consummate than that of vanilla - it's almost like we're heading back to grey again in order to satisfy vanilla emulation. We're reverting to grey, if you like.
Activity centralisation and having Discovery feel gigantic shouldn't be opposed to each other. But nowadays, even though it takes longer to find encounters, Discovery feels decidedly cramped. Hell, I'm occasionally overjoyed to be Bastilled just because of how -remote- the system feels.
I have memories of Braunschweig, Lewis (always loved how mysterious the planets in that system were), Tau 63, Touraine, Salisbury, etc. It's personally quite sad. The destruction of Maine removed with it the second most beautiful system in Gallic space.
The unknown systems have started to help with this. Hopefully the system gets expanded upon further, so we can truly start discovering again.
Us oldies might hate it, but I talked to a new player recently and they've stated that they regret never seeing these systems, these bizarre oddities in the cosmos that sold the illusion. That's sad, and that's on us.
RE: The mod (and the systems) we lost. - Apollon - 03-03-2018
Moved to the appropriate subforum.
RE: The mod (and the systems) we lost. - Enkidu - 03-03-2018
(03-03-2018, 07:08 PM)Ghostazarashi Wrote: Moved to the appropriate subforum.
Thanks, didn't realise is miss-posted.
RE: The mod (and the systems) we lost. - Chronicron - 03-03-2018
Don't forget the old Omicron Delta. It was bigger like 1.5-2 times more than the present version.
RE: The mod (and the systems) we lost. - WesternPeregrine - 03-03-2018
What happened to Planet Niiza to deserve a mention here?
RE: The mod (and the systems) we lost. - "Jade Fire" - 03-03-2018
To be honest, the fix of this problem would require the mod to have more staff. Such as Uncharted Kusari at the moment, that is a staff group effort done for only one system. During the time of guard systems, players would log to defend them and keep people out of them.
I do agree with you, the cutting down of things is upsetting, but looking at it from the other side of the coin as well, how often did players go there and explore those areas? Most new players would never find that information or even look into it, and thats something all MMO's and games have honestly, even majorly in World of Warcraft which I play.
Like in World of warcraft you got all these locations, bosses and old raids that were huge and impactful on lore sure, but today those locations are rarely visited unless by leveling players and soon after done there, people leave and forget the lore that was even there to begin with.
While on one hand it would be cool to have unexplored systems, hidden bases or even loot wrecks that the past mod had, the problem with that would be something that other games have also run into. Say for example the devs or admins added a new system now. They'd need to first develop the system, work on if missions can happen there, wreck drops and loot, functioning patrols and locations of NPC's and whatever else that is needed.
Now I'm not saying the devs nor admins can't do it, but the problem is, if they did do this, who would actually take the time out and explore these areas? Surely we vets would but were only a section of the entire mod at the moment as it stands.
It was the same problem when the other systems existed, no one went to them beyond us vet players and even then it was to map locations, get the wrecks out there or just to buy the caps that were sold in those systems, and even after the fact if non-members of say, the Gaians entered Lewis (Their old guard system) they'd log and shoot them, so even in the end they were...not useless, but held no real function then just being home systems of factions.
About making things realistic, there's no problem with that, of course it will never be 100% perfect because of the game engine and thats something we've come to live with, but even then there was unexplainable things in the mod that, when people tried to explain them, were only shot down and told no or that it was not like that.
Honestly I'd love to see unexplored systems return with hidden things in them, but the fact of the matter is that they'd be rather useless to everyone save a select few players in the mod who love exploring, and even then the devs would have to remake, relink, redesign and whatever else they do for systems all over again. Not saying its impossible, but...just go to the nav map, open options and select unaccessable systems and you'd see the amount of ??? systems that used to be old guards and what not, that are now removed (not actually removed, just hidden)
Like, it takes a group effort to RP the opening of one uncharted Kusari system, I could not fathom the required effort that would be needed to open up 10+ new systems with new RP and things inside of them.
Tho anything is possible really if you put your mind to it I guess
RE: The mod (and the systems) we lost. - HassLHoFF™ - 03-03-2018
Seeing this, my heart bleeds about the majorly disapproval of our little meme project.
However, I totally agree, Discovery needs a return of discovery.
RE: The mod (and the systems) we lost. - Karlotta - 03-03-2018
Even if the systems you now miss probably won't come back, you can help stop more content from being removed by supporting this: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=157354
RE: The mod (and the systems) we lost. - TheJarl - 03-05-2018
I agree, the logic behind cutting systems was flawed really. The idea was that there were too many systems which lowered the chance of encountering someone. The second step was then deciding which systems to cut and then the reasoning appears to have been "well, nobody goes to these places anyway so let's just cut them. This has made it completely irrelevant for its original purpose, and doubly so for the dead-end systems. An inactive system obviously can not be the cause for activity not being concentrated enough. Such systems were either harmless or could have been made a dead-end if they weren't yet and then that would solve it as well.
On the other hand, there are clear negative consequences to the cutting, which you have described quite well. It takes away the excitement of finding new stuff. This goes for new players as well as vets. I mean if you just look at Disco as a mod, cutting content is quite baffling. I can't imagine ever getting excited about a new mod version for any game because it has fewer things than before.
RE: The mod (and the systems) we lost. - Enkidu - 03-05-2018
The systems can be simply added back in as the previous versions are saved.
Just re-route the jump holes+ gates and their positions to make going their difficult and using them as a path-of-escape impractical.