How to Save Discovery Freelancer

[LuckyOne]

You guys derailed this thread enough, so I might as well continue

Yes, Disco has problems. Yes, most of them stem from either clique circlejerks or the community members being d*cks to each other.

As for the PVP balance, it's expectedly bad, as with any other old game. This is not a game for modern snowflakes, but it could be made more "newb friendly".

I'd say the biggest turn offs for newer people currently are probably (in no particular order)

• The ganking and lack of autobalance (not just skills wise, but numbers too)
  
• The AU prices (and high lvl AUs being mandatory to remain competitive in PVP)
  
• Lack of proper mixed caps and snubs groupfights (the one off community arranged events can't form sustainable gameplay)
  
• Limited teamwork tools (and mechanics that would promote it). The best are probably repair ships and docking modules, but then again using those in a firefight is somehow frowned upon by the community(?)
  
• The PVP death timer
  
• The constant rebalances that ruin their playstyle (probably more problematic for seasoned players)
  
• Metagaming and powergaming
  
• The complex lore and many "unwritten" (aka barely visible in-game) rules
  

Many of these could be improved, either with rule changes, gameplay mechanics or better system design.

The problem is, even if the devs decide to put in the effort there is no guarantee any of the players will come back, and there is a risk of alienating the remaining ones.

[Stewgar]

We just left instead of ***** about it. It's not worth it at this point.

It's not even about wins and losses, either. I don't mind getting my butt kicked, some of the best RP/fun I've had has been through L's. It's the aces that log in, no RP kill, and get the bounty board which has driven me and a lot of other people away to do other things. I've only been logging lately to help a friend.

Yeah. Most new people don't post on the forum, and what are they going to do? Half of the people steamrolling them have yellow, green, or orange names here.

I don't mind getting my butt kicked either, and while always losing was not much fun for the numerous people I tried to recruit and train (I stopped doing that more than a year ago because it amounted to turning them into cannon fodder), the worst part was always the constant bickering of those who were killing us, before, during, and after the fights, and later on discord.

The "RP" of the goon squads almost exclusively consisted of saying we were crappy pilots for not winning, cowards for not fighting them on terms where we were sure to lose, and "gankers" for defending ourselves or our route/mining ground with greater numbers or ships class, even while we were losing.

On discord, they later posted incomplete logs claiming we were attacking without RP, little RP, or that we "ganked them with caps or numbers" in fights where we all died and they didnt lose 1 guy.

And when I posted the full chat logs and gave the full picture of what happened, guess what happened next. (yeah. censored and banned.)

One guy, who tells people that I am horrible for telling caps on my team to shoot enemy snubs, (while I was getting shot at by enemy caps on my snub while I was typing, in a fight were were losing), also prided himself with instakilling 3 snubs with his cruiser in another fight, which he won. That's disco.

And yeah, what people say on discord does matter ingame. It makes people "Punish" factions including new members that just got here for their "bad behaviour".

For example I and others get blown while typing and stopping to RP "because your faction never RPs". Another time someone I had literally never met merrily flew up to my POB kept triggering the shield, "RPing" "haha look at all that fuel being wasted you horrible person" later telling me how they are surprised I even talked to them and how they are so open minded to even talk to me after all the horrible things people told them on discord.

Very well said!

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I hope that either all of us or none of us are judged by the actions of our weakest moments. But rather, by the strength we show when, and if, we're ever given a second chance.

[Haste]

I feel like the "aces" people are shaming here can't actually be aces if they allegedly take pride in sealclubbing much weaker PvPers.

Does this thread consist solely of complaining or does it have an insightful post buried somewhere in here?

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[StyleR]

You can save disco by:

1) reducing the number of systems by at least 30%
2) reducing PvP death timer to 20-30 minutes, terminating the transport special status as they can "remain in the system for the sole purpose of trading" - bs, death timer applies to everyone equally
3) heavy revision of faction system - no more monopoly, freezing all faction assets and letting management members pick some assets. Who has appointed some guy to be the leader of some faction? Who voted on this? All the base game bases cannot be owned by any faction, like for example the special IFF for Zoner subfaction on Freeports which is a joke, they are no longer FREEports. Wanna make a faction? 10 human members minimum. No cross-faction-ing. Pick one and stick to it. It may produce some genuine organic storyline.
4) Indie ID restriciton vs faction ID - this is absolute madness
5) Generic ID's - way less tech compatability issues
6) POB's placement restriction to at least 2 systems and 100k away from any ore mining node - both checks
7) CAU1billion revision - i understand for caps but for gunboats, cruisers and transports, no, limit these to like cau 3
8) Snubs nerf vs caps upgrade on the latest patch - no, it should go the other way around ..no new player can afford a CAP. Nerfing torps and distance is madness, it only encourages the fat and rich to keep playing their caps..we need more snubs, more width, more possibilities.

Backlash inc

[Kauket]

Transports only get the remain to trade right if they DOCK. if they DIE, they are dead.

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[Diaz]

Bomber's now are bad so so bad fix that bring back old bombers!!!!

[Kherty]

You can save disco by:

1) reducing the number of systems by at least 30%
2) reducing PvP death timer to 20-30 minutes, terminating the transport special status as they can "remain in the system for the sole purpose of trading" - bs, death timer applies to everyone equally
3) heavy revision of faction system - no more monopoly, freezing all faction assets and letting management members pick some assets. Who has appointed some guy to be the leader of some faction? Who voted on this? All the base game bases cannot be owned by any faction, like for example the special IFF for Zoner subfaction on Freeports which is a joke, they are no longer FREEports. Wanna make a faction? 10 human members minimum. No cross-faction-ing. Pick one and stick to it. It may produce some genuine organic storyline.
4) Indie ID restriciton vs faction ID - this is absolute madness
5) Generic ID's - way less tech compatability issues
6) POB's placement restriction to at least 2 systems and 100k away from any ore mining node - both checks
7) CAU1billion revision - i understand for caps but for gunboats, cruisers and transports, no, limit these to like cau 3
8) Snubs nerf vs caps upgrade on the latest patch - no, it should go the other way around ..no new player can afford a CAP. Nerfing torps and distance is madness, it only encourages the fat and rich to keep playing their caps..we need more snubs, more width, more possibilities.

Backlash inc

There's been an incredible reduction of systems already. A LOT of systems are just gone. I find it bad, because I LOVE travelling through Sirius, discovering new stuff on my own and just, you know, DISCOVER(y). Plus, 30% is too arbitrary.

What it needs it more choke points, concentration zones, stuff where stuff that involves others happens. True systems of interests.
I agree with the death timer to be applied to everyone equally, it's an incentive for traders to instantly dock the second they see a red player 10K from them.
I suppose this is an anti-frustration system attempt, but you should know the risks of hauling 5k of ore on a multiplayer server. If you want to haul without being bothered, wake up at 5AM, log on a server with 3 people online, and haul. It'll be painful, but worth it if you don't want to encounter a pirate that mainly wants interaction and barely 5% of your profit.
3) NO
4) Well, yes. It creates a monopoly for the official factions, but it also means there is a selection of players, making sure these players can enjoy these rights, and to avoid a XxX_Sasuke800_XxX with a completely overpowered ID to obliterate you.
5) I guess.
6) NO
7) YES, I'd say YES to all caps. Equality for every caps, no CAU.
8) The nerf is a mistake and is ridiculous, but playing bomber is still viable (at the present moment, let's see what the admemes have in store for us next).

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Cool OST - Click! - Changed 28th of Sept.

[Charo]

You can save disco by:

1) reducing the number of systems by at least 30%
2) reducing PvP death timer to 20-30 minutes, terminating the transport special status as they can "remain in the system for the sole purpose of trading" - bs, death timer applies to everyone equally
3) heavy revision of faction system - no more monopoly, freezing all faction assets and letting management members pick some assets. Who has appointed some guy to be the leader of some faction? Who voted on this? All the base game bases cannot be owned by any faction, like for example the special IFF for Zoner subfaction on Freeports which is a joke, they are no longer FREEports. Wanna make a faction? 10 human members minimum. No cross-faction-ing. Pick one and stick to it. It may produce some genuine organic storyline.
4) Indie ID restriciton vs faction ID - this is absolute madness
5) Generic ID's - way less tech compatability issues
6) POB's placement restriction to at least 2 systems and 100k away from any ore mining node - both checks
7) CAU1billion revision - i understand for caps but for gunboats, cruisers and transports, no, limit these to like cau 3
8) Snubs nerf vs caps upgrade on the latest patch - no, it should go the other way around ..no new player can afford a CAP. Nerfing torps and distance is madness, it only encourages the fat and rich to keep playing their caps..we need more snubs, more width, more possibilities.

Backlash inc

I think we did it, we found someone with worse suggestions than Binski

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[L e o n]

Bomber's now are bad so so bad fix that bring back old bombers!!!!

Bombers are good, You just bad at it. Some people don't really know how to fly bomber since they are used to fly at 3k and launch a torpedo.
I am happy with such updated but even tho I have stopped playing disco. I think it was a good change for the bombers. For the caps it is a bit problematic due to the turret position on each ship.

Edit: It doesn't matter what you change there will be always a group of people who would stand against it. It hard to please everyone to disco sicne everyone has a different view on things. Best thing I think we can do is try to adapt to the current situation and compare it to the past.

[StyleR]

Transports only get the remain to trade right if they DOCK. if they DIE, they are dead.

I realize this. But why was this exception made? Staying alive and getting to keep your precious cargo is a win enough. You docked under fire and saved your 50 mill cargo? Good for you, now get out for 30 minutes - pvp timer should be nerfed to 30 minutes.

@Kherty

30% reduction in systems needs to be done. It can be compensated with increasing the existing systems and putting more stuff in it, something for everyone to do. Merge systems, im sure people will have good idea's here.
The No and No is understandable and expected, because you are one of them. You must realize that the base upon which you built the server is not newcomer-friendly.

Either stay with 20 players or burn everything and do a 180 turn. There is no win win here..