Since people constantly complain about how capital ships are handled, here is an idea to get the capital ship captains to at least read how they are expected to behave properly, before they get a capital ship.
There have been a few calls for restriction of capital ships, which were rejected. The bellow method would:
-Lets everyone fly a capital ship. No restrictions, you just have to read and think about the situations in the test. Its like clicking "I agree to the terms and conditions" when you register on the forum, except that you are forced to actually read and think about it.
-There can be no personal bias by the people who "hand out" the permission since its a very simple multiple choice test.
-People will have to have a forum account and think about how a cap ship is best RPed before flying one.
There will be a simple multiple choice test on the forum. All that is required to be licensed is that the applicant reads the test and gives the answers. It will be multiple choice so that there can be no personal bias against players. Making the applicant read examples of wrong behavior together with examples of correct behavior will help him get the idea of how a cap ship should be role-played.
Answers will be PMed to the Captains.Registration account which is accessible to all admins and maybe mods too so ease the burden.
If the applicant has passed the test, his forum account name and ship name will be added to the alphabetical list (managed by the Captains.Registration account by admins) which is visible to everyone.
Any new capital ships must also be registered (just send the multiple choice answers again) and added to the list. Capital ships that are not on the list will be Bastilled until the captain passes the test.
The list (sorted alphabetically, maybe one post per letter) will look like this and will be continually updated by admins:
Everything should be as simple as possible to minimize the amount of work for the admins.
PMed applications will just include shipname and the answers to 6 multiple choice questions (read below) questions.
The admin/mod processing the application can be as flexible as he want. Not all answers have to be "correct", its just a thing to get the capship users to read and think about how they roleplay a capital ship.
So admins should just have to read the inbox of the Captains.Registration account, look if the answer string which looks like
1:e
2:c
3:c
4:d
5:c
6:c
is correct or not, and put the ship name on the list.
Players can check the list if they see a capital ship behaving like an idiot, report him if he isnt on the list, and he will be bastilled till he passes the test.
To spread out the work of registering all the new ships, you can put up a 2 month deadline from now to when the licensing will become law. A lot of people with capital ships wont be on the list from the beginning, but people will report them if they want to get the guy to think about how he RPs.
If you want to make the list shorter, I guess it would be ok to just register caps that are larger than gunboats and leave gunboats out.
Yes, this will not solve all problems, just like the bar rumors wont solve all problems. But it will make the guy at least register on the forum and at least read how is expected to act on a cap ship.
Yes, there will be mynationisbest clans where the non-english speakers will be cheated through by the English speakers. But it will still reduce some problems with people who misbehave.
Below an example of how the test could look.
Feel free to give feedack on the test and give suggestions if you have more ideas.
Captains test of excellence
Give answers by PM to Captains.Registration, in the form
Name(s) of capital ship(s)
1:e
2:c
etc
Question 1: How will you name your ship?
a: After myself: My name is John_Dough
b: Something awesome like IMAPWNU or ISHOOTU2CRAP.
c: After my favorite character in the fantasy novel I just read. Gandalf. Or Dragonbane!
d: In a way that my home nation will think I am from an enemy nation.
e: I shall christen it a name that reflects the proud heritage of its patron nation, the function it fulfills, and the values it helps to uphold.
Question 2: How will you behave on the communication system?
a: I will always be on the intercom myself, without giving my name or identification, bullying smaller ships.
b: My ship has no communication system. It just communicates with guns.
c: My coms officer handles the routine tasks. I, the captain, speak in important situations, clearly giving my identity and affiliation.
Question 3: You see a small one-seater spacecraft in an asteroid field 5k away, and it is sending a IFF single that appears red on your scanners. What do you do?
a: I engage cruise, race towards it at full speed, drop out of cruise right next to it, and shout ENGAGING!!!11 one second before I fire a full broadside and kill the little sucker by surprise.
b: I go on the coms myself and command the enemy to get within firing range of my ship and stand still. If he doesnt to it, I insult him and fly my ship into the asteroid field and shoot my biggest anti-juggernaut cannons at it wildly. When the enemy starts to fly loops and I cant land a single hit with my slow guns, I tell my gunners to keep firing and firing and firing and have them executed if they dont hit. When the ship begins to move away, I try to cruise after it and have the asteroids crash into my ship causing millions of credits of damage, while I insult the mother of that little !$&%.
c: I tell my coms officer to send a hailing signal and request that the ship identifies itself. If it doesnt answer or appears to be an enemy threat, I ask an allied fighter wing that is fast enough to intercept the ship in the asteroid field.
[u]Question 4: You are part of a larger fleet. Something unexpected happens and the mission has to be changed, but there is disagreement among the fleet captains what course of action should be taken. What do you do:[/u]
a: My ship is the biggest, so everyone must follow my orders unconditionally. Ill shoot the little creeps if they are insubordinate.
b: I promote myself in rank to be the highest rank officer present. I tell everyone how much more important I am than everyone else, because I write science fiction stories and post them in the Neuralnet.
c: I yell at everyone screw you Im going home. Then I post my hatred about those immature lolwuts on the Neuralnet.
d: If we are one task force, a command structure which will be followed must already have been established before the mission began. If this wasnt the case, we are not one task force but different task forces in which the individual captains/ships behave as they best see fit according to their mission. We split up, and do what we feel we must, without damaging or interfering in the missions of other allied ships. one can not command a soldier to disobey the orders he received by someone of higher rank, regardless of one's own rank.
Question 5: You see allied forces engaged in a battle with the enemy. The odds seem fairly balanced. What do you do?
a: I rush towards the enemy wordlessly and guns ablaze, taking both the enemy and your ally by surprise. I dont really need to know what is going on before I start shooting.
b: I ignore my allys plea for help and say nah that wouldnt be fair if I helped you. I know the guy in the allied ship he never brushes his teeth in the morning. And maybe if I let the enemy kill him, the enemy will let me join his faction! I stay next to the fight, pick my nose, and throw taunts at my ally while he dies.
c: I ask my allies if they need assistance. If they say yes, I help them as best I can. If they say that my intervention is not desired, I leave the fight. If I am simply not able to help right now, I tell my ally and stay far away form the fight.
Question 6: You are having a party onboard your carrier, and having a splendid conversation with an attractive person of the opposite gender. You get a distress call from a trader that says he is being attacked by a pirate. What do you do?
a: I tell the trader to shut up and to go ask somebody else. Besides stopping a single pirate form mercilessly killing the trader with your huge carrier would hardly be fair to the pirate, would it? Also I think I know who that pirate is. Its also an attractive person of the opposite gender.
b: I gather a fleet of 3 fighters, 2 bombers, and 1 gunboat to escort your carrier to kill the single pirate fighter. After all, we need to justify all the money we get from the taxpayer to have such a big fleet on our next budget roll.
c: Inquire about the enemy strength, and about the availability of other allied ships that are best fit to protect the trader. If I am the only one that can save the traders life, then I break off the party and help the trader with your carrier. Life is valued as priceless, according to my officers code of honor.
People could be informed about this test ingame through capital ship infocards and bar rumors in Bastille, West Point, and all capship selling bases:
.--------------------
Rumors outside of Pennsylvania
.------------------------
NPC bar characters name and appearance will vary according to the house and location they are in.
Rumor at all capital ship selling points and West Point Military Academy, and the Bastille bases
-----------------------
Pilots interested in becoming captains of larger fighting craft such as gunboats or larger must have received the proper education before they are licensed to command the ship and crew.
The education and final examination tests are available in the appropriate Neuralnet Forum. Any captain who did not pass the Captain'sd test of Excellence exam may lose his ship if he is not registered as an officer and captain.
While it would be useful to keep some measure of control, many people join Discovery to fly our capital ships. Restricting this would lead to many headaches, many gallons of liquid angst, and less bomber practice.
Quote:While it would be useful to keep some measure of control, many people join Discovery to fly our capital ships. Restricting this would lead to many headaches, many gallons of liquid angst, and less bomber practice.
They wouldnt be restricted at all. Anyone can pass the test.
You just have to register on the forum and have read the test to get one.
problem is that multiple choice questions are simple to guess; for instance look at the first question; even the most lolwut of the lowut nobility in the whole lolwut kingdom would pick E. I think it would be better a personall response properly explained, since it would be administrated (or whatever that word) by admins there should be no biased opinion... I guess
In any case doing such thing would be a ton of extra work to the already overwhelmed admins; still if it could be implemented somehow, it would be good
Quote:problem is that multiple choice questions are simple to guess; for instance look at the first question; even the most lolwut of the lowut nobility in the whole lolwut kingdom would pick E.
Thats the idea behind it. Everyone should be able to pass the test, so people wont leave discovery because they cant fly a cap ship. The lolwutt may still behave differently ingame than the way he answered, but people will have actually read and thought about this. A lot of cap ships simply dont know how to RP it right and why before they had around 10 people scream at them. The people who dont care will still be there, but the people who care but who are not experienced will be infirmed beforehand
Quote:I think it would be better a personall response properly explained, since it would be administrated (or whatever that word) by admins there should be no biased opinion... I guess
In any case doing such thing would be a ton of extra work to the already overwhelmed admins; still if it could be implemented somehow, it would be good
A personal response would:
-take much more time to process
-would require more than one admin reading it and create a discussion
-there will always be bias, no matter who is admin. Humans are biased. Cant change that.
Multiple choice will:
-get the player to read and think
-prepare him for the situation that commonly create th rants and arguing
-will be MUCH faster to process
-only one admin/mod needed to read an application
-no bias possible.
-as far as I know Igiss doesnt want to restrict cap ships because it will drive people away from the mod. Anyone can pass this. If you failed the first time jsut try again.
Quote:We're not trying to run a government here.
Or are we? :|
No. We are trying to reduce flames and make the game experience better for everyone.
Quote:Sorry, can't be bothered. I'd prefer to spend my time playing the game.
Bombers are a bigger threat in this mod than Capitals, why not restrict them?
Bombers are a blessing because they give you a chance against caps, and are so easy to kill in fighters. So they make peopel get less caps and more fighters. Its a good thing.
Quote:No. This would be taking it too far.
In my mind, the requirements for capital ship command should be:
Basic RP skills,
Knowledge of your friends and foes,
And, obviously, being able to afford the damn things in the first place.
Its just a list that can be updated and managed very easily and quickly. Its not a restriction at all.
What "basic RP skills" are is highly subjective. You cant test someone'S RP skill easily, and wether it is "good" or "bad" RP is impossible to answer without bias. You certainly cant guess someones ingame behavior in a written out application, you would have to know him already ingame, and then you would be biased according to your personal experience. The test teaches you a bit about RP, fairness, problem solving.
The need for knowledge of your friends and foes and money wont be taken away by this. If someone had all the time to afford a cap ship, he should also have the time to take this test.
It has just been proven so many times that people who can afford a cap and set it up simply still dont know how to behave properly in one.
If you see one misbehave but still stay within the rules, you can just check the list and report him if he isnt on it. No one is asking you to report people wo RP good if they arent on it. And you get reported, you can fix it in 5 minutes by pming the mutliple choice answers.
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