Future of Discovery

[Igiss]

I guess it's time to discuss what roleplaying will be like for Discovery in future. Please don't post offtopic in this thread.

First Proposal

Bring current player factions, like RM, SF, AW and all others, into the game. They will have their own bases, possibly even have their own NPCs, and will have 'real' relationships towards each other. So if there's a war, enemy faction members will appear in red.

Players will automatically get a tag when joining the faction. No need to change names in this case.

Benefits:

- Existing faction members and leaders will feel more comfortable with their factions preserved.
- Um... probably that's all.

Drawbacks:

- Our factions are only interesting for our server players, not for everyone else. We should leave the mod universal.
- Integration of new factions with existing Freelancer universe will get complicated.
- Setting up new factions and deleting existing ones will be very complicated.

Second Proposal

All existing player factions ceise existence. Players join existing Freelancer factions (Navy, Outcasts, etc). That's how it is done on most roleplay servers, and that's how I would prefer it to be - but not exactly in the way that many servers do. I will reveal more details later along the discussion.

List of joinable factions:

Liberty Navy (allied with Police and LSF)
Bretonia Navy (allied with Police)
Kusari Navy (allied with Police)
Rheinland Navy (allied with Police)
Outcasts (allied with Liberty Rogues and Bundshuh)
Corsairs (allied with Hogosha, Farmer's Alliance and Gaians)
Lane Hackers - maybe Rogues instead
Mollys
Dragons (allied with GC)
Red Hessians (allied with Unioners and LWB)
Zoners - for trading characters (allied with GMG and IMG)

Benefits:

- Real roleplaying.
- No need to change factions while each mod update.
- Storyline possibility - beginning of our History in RP thread here: http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=388
- Possibility of makind the universe more dynamic - players' actions, like system conquest, can be 'fixed' in mod updates and influence the story.
- Faction alignment and joining rules are obvious for everyone, including those who don't play on our server.

Drawbacks:

- Need to leave all existing factions for all players.
- Less freedom for clan wars and alliances - Outcasts and Corsairs cannot be allies, Corsairs and Hessians cannot be allies, pirates may be neutral with navy but never friendly. Kusari and Bretonia navy will be at war (yes, the war did break out).
But factions will be able to choose their way as long as it makes sense.

Third Proposal

Leave everything as is. That's what I won't like, cause it makes roleplayign nearly fictional, without any real reflection in the game world.

These are only proposals for now, everything may change - need your opinions. Vote. And post.

[daedalus]

Igiss, I think this is a great post. I have voted 2 already, but I have a question.
Do you know or can you explain how tags work in Freelancer? Can they only be assigned by admin? I have never figured this out, although I know they can be lost through behaviour (or misbehaviour :crazy: ). If it were possible to earn a tag through players actions, (e.g. running missions for a Navy), then no changes would be needed, - a tag could be gained just by roleplaying. That would be the preferred option for me. If assigned by admin, the game would have to work so that a player with a Corsair tag would have to behave like a Corsair to keep it. I think a good system would be one that automatically assigned a tag from the faction with which the player is most friendly, though I've tried with bandersnatch to move 'Junkers' off the bottom of the list with no success, despite running loads of missions for the Corsairs (I may have to resort to killing Junkers, OK as they are not allied to Corsairs). If option 2 were chosen, I wouldn't like to see the existing relationships changed too much, as it could upset the balance.

I have to say option 1 sounds like a very bad idea, so bad that if it were done I'd probably leave. As well as alienating new players, as you mentioned, player clans also come and go depending on who is around (take the FF for example). They are not part of the game. Although sometimes useful for arranging events (I eventually decided A and C was a good idea), and helping friends to recognise eachother, they serve no other purpose. But I don't think clan tags should be banned, players should just have the option to ignore them.

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Role-played characters:
daedalus - Liberty Navy
bandersnatch - Ruthless criminal possessed by a (huge) alien
Shredder - Small-time Kusari pirate, looking to join the Blood Dragons

"Bounty Hunters. We don't need that scum." - Admiral Piett

[Kane]

I'm torn, really.

For the first option, we could keep all the factions. That would be swell. However, it does make things rather complicated. It would take a lot of work, a lot of time, and the next version would (most likely, at least) be huge and have a slew of bugs and problems. While I would like to keep the factions, this is probobly not a good answer.

Second option; the "House" factions don't change much. They just get a little tag change and now they're actually part of that house (only problem would be the SF. They'd have to split). It's the compleatly new factions that would suffer. AW, Phantom, NSP, UGTC and TG would all be, well, destroyed. They would just become elite parts of... well, whatever faction they merged into.

And the third; not really an option. I think it definatly needs to change.

Eh, I guess it wouldn't be so bad to lose some of the factions. New players would recognise them, and now we're actually part of the house instead of just pretending to be part of it.
I'm throwing my vote for number 2.

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This is the real true story of rock and roll; it was not about anything more then, how to live your life, as a gangster, in sartorial splendor, and turning the world into a place where normality would never return again...- Malcolm McLaren

[Igiss]

Ok, it appears that 2nd idea will get some support here... so I'll reveal a few details on reputation and tags.

Tags are assigned when reputation with one faction reaches maximum - very friendly. It's diffucult to achieve this level in-game, that's why few people have tags. Besides, with some occasional hostile action you may spoil being very friendly, and your tag will be... gone? Well, not absolutely sure about that, but the system that I wanted to implement could help to avoid losing tags.

Basically, copies of each faction listed above as joinable are created. These factions relate only to each other. So if you kill an NPC outcast, it won't affect your reputation with outcasts - however strange it may sound. But if you attack an outcast base that belongs to joinable outcasts, you lose reputation with them. So if you somehow lose reputation with NPC faction by some careless actions, it won't lead to losing the tag.

Or - don't care about tag and leave existing factions as is, but with a risk that the tag could be lost.

One more idea: maybe make Xenos joinable, for pirates who don't want to participate in anything, just willing to kill everything in sight. Seems that many players like it in one way or another.

[daedalus]

Tags are assigned when reputation with one faction reaches maximum - very friendly. It's diffucult to achieve this level in-game, that's why few people have tags. Besides, with some occasional hostile action you may spoil being very friendly, and your tag will be... gone? Well, not absolutely sure about that, but the system that I wanted to implement could help to avoid losing tags.

Basically, copies of each faction listed above as joinable are created. These factions relate only to each other. So if you kill an NPC outcast, it won't affect your reputation with outcasts - however strange it may sound. But if you attack an outcast base that belongs to joinable outcasts, you lose reputation with them. So if you somehow lose reputation with NPC faction by some careless actions, it won't lead to losing the tag.

[snapback]8175[/snapback]

If the Navy starting tag is anything to go by (typical of how it works), it is not easy to lose a tag. One of my characters was hated by the Liberty Navy before the tag was lost, so there's no danger I think in losing a tag through carelessly annoying an npc patrol.
Would it be possible to lower the level of friendliness required for gaining tags?
I'm not sure I like the idea of actions against npcs not affecting tags. Does this mean a player with an Outcast tag could become friendly with npc Navys in order to dock at House planets? That doesn't seem right.

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Role-played characters:
daedalus - Liberty Navy
bandersnatch - Ruthless criminal possessed by a (huge) alien
Shredder - Small-time Kusari pirate, looking to join the Blood Dragons

"Bounty Hunters. We don't need that scum." - Admiral Piett

[Igiss]

If it's difficult to lose tags, then it's no problem. No copies of NPC factions. But we need to find a reliable way (preferably automatic, like a bribe) that will allow to join the specific faction.

[khwain]

I think some other mod had something like this: You start of on a planet with a sum of money. You go to the bar and bribe someone. Once you launch, you can't land back on the planet......

Just something I read somewhere...I can't remember all of it

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Gwytheyrn--Liberty Gunboat
[ShootMe]Not
khwain
chaosblade

[Fire_Tzunami]

- Setting up new factions and deleting existing ones will be very complicated.

Not really, you don't have to delete existing ones. Just make new ones. Still, something new might come: what if the outcasts and corsairs come to a cease fire? that would be a big piece of cheese in the role play (just an idea though).

If it were possible to earn a tag through players actions, (e.g. running missions for a Navy),

Well i did got an outcast tag. I noticed that when i traded with lancer: i did MANY outcast missions and i noticed him being enemy. He sayed i had an outcast tag and well.... looks like it's possible.

Tags are assigned when reputation with one faction reaches maximum - very friendly.

Speaking about this well.... i wonder if it should be made possible to reach maximum friendlyness: like when you rescue Sinclair Bretonia police is maximum friendly no white spaces between edge and green colour.

It would take a lot of work, a lot of time

Not really, just make new factions, set the rep with other and put a base or two.

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People have the right to be stupid but some people abuse their rights
I don't suffer from crazynes, I enjoy it every moment.
Artifical intelligence does not compare with natural stupidity.
Nobody's perfect, i am nobody.







T H 3 K ! L L 3 R 0 F 8 U N N ! 3 2 H 4 2 2 P 0 K 3 N

[Dab]

The second option is really only fair for the house factions. AW, TG, Phantom, and NSP would all just disappear. We should have the right to have our own factions. Maybe not include them in the mod but at least be able to have them on our server. Also you could make the normal mod while you give me and Angel a version before you release it and we add the faction bases. Then you have two version of the mod. One for other servers one for ours, with only a little more work, mostly on me and Angel anyway.

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[Igiss]

Our factions are only interesting for our server players, not for everyone else.

That was my key point.

Just something I read somewhere...I can't remember all of it

I know where you read it, and I'll probably use the same idea, modified - you'll have to reach for faction base to join, it seems more, well, realistic than joining any faction right from the start on one base.

Actually I knew that many people will be against abolishing existing factions, as everyone is used to them. Though let's see how this voting continues.

Not really, just make new factions, set the rep with other and put a base or two.

Feels like you think it's easy to do.

Not really, you don't have to delete existing ones. Just make new ones.

So that people will be able to join factions which members are already off the server? Or leave bases and encounters of this faction? Sounds like a really bad idea.

Then you have two version of the mod.

Too bad even to consider, nothing worse than having two versions. That's the problem.

The second option is really only fair for the house factions. AW, TG, Phantom, and NSP would all just disappear.

Wrong. First of all, SF will disappear too, so only Rheinland Military fits perfectly (losing many systems). AW could join Corsairs (they have 3 systems for start, with ability to gain more, but not Outcast systems), Phantom can stay out of factions at all, NSP are like Xenos, or, well, Rheinland criminals as they were going to take Hudson and Bering as their systems.

*One important side note: I will clear the server from old players that were not used in about two months during the next several weeks. Get prepared. If you have old chars that you need, log in with them at least once.