In response to all who want forumdwellers to dissapear: you understand that so many players posting on forums without playing means just as many 'new' players will magically appear should something interesting happen to mod, right? So please, stop this flamewar.
On topic:
Matter of factly, I also consider discovery in current state beyond saving. By this I mean Creating conceptually new mod is far better idea compared to trying to enchance what we have now.
Creating new mod, however, doesnt mean we must abondon everything we have. Being 'ancient' mod, discovery has lots of baggage that hinders development. Not all of it is negative though, and should not be wasted. Player factions, their rp, individual player stories and rp, as well as gigantic foundation for revised universe setting and history. While worthy in itself, it also opens many possibilities for how could story go in Discovery 2.0. Just pick random faction, read their past rp and think how it could affect story but didnt, you will understand what I mean than.
Then (which actually means at the same time) comes designing new map. In that regard, past history should be thrown out of the window. Perhaps even parts of vanilla. Firstly create vague political map, with faction, their primary zones and their spheres of influence. This part should be handled at the very begining, before all other lore and map development. Then create SMALLEST map that would corespond to political situation, have some existing cool locations, have sensible object density, and 1~2 systems betwen major houses. General reasoning should be if something doesnt have very good reason for existing, it shouldnt exist. If something can fit into system that alresdy exists on paper, it would. And dont forget player interaction with map design, if two factions fight, fighting should be localised, that means single shortest route, no long travels, no annoying asteroids inbetwen if both factions have caps, etc. Alternative routes may exist but they should be abit longer/ involve pissing off other factions, as well as use existing systems, not spawn new. Final result should be no bigger than vanilla, but different from it. Economy design would follow.
And dont forget ship rebalancing, shake things up a bit. Even if things will not be perfect at first, freshness would more than compansate it. Gather ideas from good pilots, create closed solely combat beta, invite sizable amount of people there, but still keep it closed, EXPERIMENT.
Bottom line, if original discovery started as ship pack, Discovery 2.0 should start as alternate universe fanfiction and as pvp balancing experiment.
EDIT: everything said above doesnt have anything to do with current devs, nothing stops another team from forming and creating 'better' discovery, while not giving a damn about things they dont like.
(04-23-2013, 11:29 AM)Echo 7-7 Wrote: When "roleplay" around you seems to be diminishing... all you can do is be a new beacon of roleplay to light up everyone else's interactions.
