A Question from Zelot

[Dab]

(wave)

The points made here are interesting... but really? Aliens? Samura making huge advances in technology? For centuries, Samura has relied on its corrupt hold on the government in order to stay relevent. Why should that change?

It already has changed. Samura can't rely on its corrupt hold on the government, because that hold no longer exists, as you yourself elaborated on in your own post... You're telling me not to change something that was already changed 2 years ago?

As for "aliens", no, no aliens have been introduced. There are no living Dom K'vash. The DK, however, were part of vanilla lore, and there are multiple examples of their now-dormant technology strewn about Sirius. The Order and Liberty have both benefitted from that technology, in the same way that I'm introducing here, though this addition wouldn't come close to equaling the knowledge Liberty has attained. You're telling me to be true to vanilla and not add in new stuff that doesn't make sense, when this storyline uses nothing BUT vanilla lore. Nor does it even elaborate on what technology Samura could gain, if any. It's the PROMISE of what MIGHT be that would drive this conflict.

The original story writers crafted Kusari with the theme of traditionalism versus modernization.

Apologies if I missed something, but what does this have to do with my proposal? This storyline wouldn't have even the slightest change to that dynamic, keeping it intact and preserved. Lets not forget I played in Kusari for over 5 years, I've got a pretty good grasp of its lore. You yourself said that the Okinawa system and the Hokkaido gate scheme by Samura were both brilliant and highly accurate to Kusari's lore.. I did make all of those you'd remember? This storyline further expands their gameplay actions (something that is sorely lacking in Kusari), while preserving the current lore. I'm not sure why you pasted two dozen infocards about it, since none of them are even relevant to this discussion?

We now have a new Democratic government that controls Kusari. We have Kusari undergoing a massive cultural identity crisis as Kishiro's policies take effect and Samura's are overturned.

Plenty of nice loreplay, but no gameplay is added through this. Samura and Kishiro players are stuck doing the same thing they have always been doing, which after 7 years of Discovery, is getting a tad stale, is it not? There is a reason the community got smaller.

We have the Farmers Alliance facing the possible unregulated influx of Synth Paste.

Something that was possible, and already underway, since Freelancer 1.0. Again, nothing new for the FA to do. No new gameplay elements.

We have Samura and Hogosha seeking to regain their power.

And how do they? What in-game activities can they perform to entertain themselves that can be claimed to be making progress towards this? There is trading for Samura, Piracy and smuggling for Hogosha, nothing else.

We have the Blood Dragons doing everything in their power to prevent that from happening...

No different from the BD doing everything they can to depose Samura.. Blood Dragons: Fighting Samura since Freelancer 1.0.

... does anyone know what the Golden C are doing? *cough*

And my point is made.. Again, and again, and again. Why do you think I invested so heavily in the GC-Outcast Cardamine connection when it came to Okinawa. To give them an activity to perform; Cardamine smuggling and collaboration with the Outcasts, as well as friction between them and the GMG and BD, due to the Outcast's presence in Okinawa. Something necessary for the GC, but detrimental to one of their inner-house allies. While the Outcast and Cardamine connection were present in vanilla Freelancer, there was no way in which to actually participate in that roleplay. Their lore and base in Okinawa, along with the new traderoutes, have.

So, when thinking of what direction to arc the Kusari lore for 4.87 ... introducing the 'alien energy source' while waving your hands around might intrigue some players, but will only serve to disappoint many of us veteran Kusari players.

I am one of those veteran Kusari players. And there is no energy source, it's a ruin. A dormant Dom K'Vash structure no different from the other half-dozen objects found throughout Sirius. It's a catalyst for conflict. Something that is necessary for any expansion of gameplay, because that's what playing this game is about. Without conflict, there is no activity. So you have to create a reason for conflict, and a reason for players to log in day after day.

In fact, to me it would completely undermine the whole Kishiro - Samura dynamic that has been so carefully crafted by our predecessors.

How, pray tell, would it undermine it? I haven't seen anything from your post to show that.

And I would like to add, as it seems to have been forgotten.. I am one of those predecessors. Nearly everything except for the Bretonian war that was added to Kusari in Discovery, including the further expansion of that dynamic amongst the Kusari Outer Regions, was my work. I do have some idea of what I'm doing, I did it for 4 years.

The attempted KNF invasion of Okinawa and the Sigmas? Yeah, that came about because of the catalyst for conflict that was made; Okinawa itself. It worked spectacularly, creating 2-3 months of conflict involving every single Kusari faction, and led to roleplay that continued until the release of 4.86. This proposal is made on the same "building blocks." You create a catalyst for conflict, something that gives someone an activity to perform.

Samura needs to regain control of the government. Is a civil war the solution? Heck no. Kusari's always been about backstabbing. The house is in a state of chaos right now... it wouldn't take much to shatter the people's faith in the strength of the Kusari Democratic Party and destabilize their control over Kusari... and if they can make Kogen out to be some kind of hero and rectify the chaos, they could even get some of their secret society members back in power on the High Council. This shouldn't be too difficult for a corporation that has survived entirely on these backhanded tactics for centuries.

Like I said before, a lot of additions to this mod have been made on the pretext of loreplay, and not gameplay. It was the primary failing of the dev team, and the reason this mod has declined. Have you watched Ageira over the last few years? It never had much activity, and the factions for it have been fleeting. That's because, when it comes down to it, they have nothing to do that is any different from another trading faction.

Freelancer is a game, not a book or movie. Players need to have something TO DO. Otherwise you might as well "play" the game on the forum exclusively. The idea of backstabbing is all well and good, but if the process or effect of the backstabbing creates no in-game content, than it was useless and ineffective. Kusari is already in the midst of a psuedo-civil war, has been for awhile. That is further being pushed to the tipping point by the Emperor's return. This event would take it to the precipice, making civil war possible, or a border war instead, which could undermine Kishiro's strength and control, allowing for conflict and activity without the complete devolution into full-on civil war.

That is what Discovery needs, that is the basis on which all successful additions to Discovery have been based on. Kusari-Bretonian war; Created a catalyst for conflict and activities for the participants to perform. Gallic-Kusari clash over the Taus. Gallic-Bretonian war. Liberty vs Rheinland. GMG vs KNF: Okinawa catalyst. Gallia vs the Council/Maquis.

Currently, Kusari has no activities. There are no wars any longer, there are no conflicts besides the old and worn catalysts included in vanilla Freelancer. Those cannot sustain activity for 8 years.



If you make Discovery's gameplay and activities stagnant, than Discovery will become just that; Stagnant.


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http://discoverygc.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=101939

I think you'll find Rishiri hasn't been merged with any other systems, but it has become a gateway into Gallia, and the spatial arrangement of the systems in that region have been changed. I'd be happy to elaborate about the changes in detail over PM/Skype.

Well, at least the merger didn't happen. Tau-65 just needs to die a quiet death honestly.

But still, the new placements of Rishiri and Nagano will prevent any sort of "border conflict" for Kusari, as the Outer Regions have been cut off from one another. Nagano, Rishiri, and Okinawa need to be connected in a chain in order for them to work as intended.

One way I could see it working without returning them to their original locations were for Nagano to have its Okinawa connection restored, while the connection between Rishiri and Lyonnais were changed to Nagano and Lyonnais. However, the whole premise of a jumpgate connection to Gallia in Rishiri or Nagano is nonsensical, as Samura would never allow it. Rishiri is under heavy influence by Samura, with very little KNF or KSP presence, and Nagano is fully under their control and ownership, as the lore details.

If Tottori is a normal system, using that to connect to Lyonnais would be far far better for the lore of the various systems, and make the Border Conflict far more possible.

Still, I think the system groupings I put in my Gallic interconnectivity proposal would work better. Not only do the connections maintain the various lores of the systems and factions, but it also removes several systems, which Gallia desparately needs. It's the size of two houses without the playerbase or activity to support it. Added on top of that, it's out in the corner of the map, away from everything else. The only reason to go to Gallia is to go to Gallia. It's not a transit to anywhere else, and shouldn't have that number of systems, nor have that many large systems.


EDIT: Forgot to mention, my Skype account appears to no longer exist, I am even told my email no longer has a skype account tied to it when I try to retrieve the username or password. However, I am on Steam, if you have that Echo.

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