' Wrote:When I read this my immediate reaction was the natural one of surprise and joy but after reading this list for the fourth time I'm starting to become very worried.
Let me first of all put into perspective my view. I've played here for little over a month now, considering myself a veteran RPer from communities of other games. My knowledge of Discovery is loose and weak but still I feel I can say with confidence I've identified the communities main flaws and strengths.
My issues are with player owned stations. This is something I initially praised in my mind, presenting freedom over an area that seemed inaccessible due to development policy. Players everywhere will be celebrating now though because of this announcement. They can finally do what they dreamed of and own a fortress. A safe haven. However, this could become another case of what I call the "Capital Ship Issue".
To clarify, one of my biggest pet hates about this community is the availability of capital ships. The majesty and awe of a colossal vessel of such power is totally destroyed by the fact that they are so common. That's not even the worst of it either because a damn high percentage of people in these capital ships are poor role-players or just don't roleplay full stop. Now, of course I am sorry to all those fully competent RPers with capital ships but I am sure you know what I mean. Personally if they were limited to the official player faction members only and kept at a certain number for each faction it would solve alot of problems. Problems such as how the "endgame" of Discovery's PvP is literally just battleship on battleship. Not only that but it would greatly raise the value and respect official player factions get and deserve as the sorts of people that should be setting and enforcing the quality of RP for their independents. But alas, I digress.
What I get at is this: If player owned stations are not laid out correctly then there will be a repeat of the "Capital Ship Issue" with stations. Making them expensive won't help because we all know how that works out in terms of capital ships. Making them destructible is also pretty bad because all it takes is some guy and his mates to just blast it to pieces while the owners are sleeping or offline. My solution is once again to keep them limited to player factions and those that can demonstrate exceptional roleplay skill. Do it through administrators and the forums, not through pure in game code, allowing everyone access to it.
Lastly, I have a little concern over docking with player ships. By this you mean carriers and battleships I imagine. Even if it was just carriers and those titan like vessels the issue is still present. Capital ships are far too common. If it works freely and means anyone can dock with a grouped member of the right ship then there's going to be some major abuse unless it's severely limited. Its once again going to lose the wow factor and its going to overall reduce the value of official factions and their players by taking away something that by all rights should be one of their more awesome bonuses. A minor part of the overall concern is also what happens if I dock and the player disconnects. Sounds like I'm left on my own in the middle of nowhere if I log in before the carrier my ship is in does.
To end though, I love Discovery. The features it has are out of this world quite literally and the content is enough to blow anyone's mind. I just feel the areas discussed above could have been explored in a better way as now it would be extremely difficult to alter them without affecting people and causing them to lose a great deal of effort, hard work and will to carry on with the server. While I don't know how the player owned stations and docking with player ships will work I can only hope that it is done in the best way possible and that it avoids past poor decisions (in my opinion) for how capital vessels were permitted.
This.
We have enough trouble as it is with oorpers in big ships throwing their weight around without them destroying player bases. What's sad is that I pointed out the fact when it was in it's early stages that if the ratio of capitals to smaller ships is too high it reduces the awe and the point of the bigger ships. Buying a Capital Ship is no longer a display of your power but now simply neccessary in defending your assets. Just look how many indie LN Capitals we have flying around for example and doing little RP. When Capitals were first made controllable in a mod I would go "Wow!" and stare at it in awe: now I just think "Another chunk of metal to move out of the way of". I can see the same thing happening to player controlled bases unless they're moderated like the Barge. And even then, look at how many people have the money and have applied for the Barge. You can have too much good stuff.
I like the new features, but I'd rather see balancing issues and coding issues to encourage new players to actually come to the forum and RP. Seeing a Battleship should encourage this kind of dialogue:
"Wow, how do I get a battleship?"
"Try joining the Navy and maybe maybe you'll captain one, one day."
Sadly as it stands, and it probally will do for quite sometime, it is more:
"Try joining the Navy and maybe maybe you'll captain one, one day."
"screw that ill just powertrade and buy my own and pew pew who i want lolololol"
If this is going to remain the RP trend then someone please point me in the direction of a Military that sells full scale, high tech, warships to anyone other than countries? :laugh:
