Guard Systems - A flawed concept?

[Marburg]

I (mostly) promise I won't step up on my Hyde Park rantbox here...

::wait for it people: there's gonna be a 'but'::

::wait for it, wait for it::

but guard systems are great things.

Ever since I grasped the concept, I've seen 'em like this- The empty guard systems are unused real estate, & no matter how poor a faction is, it's not a big stretch of the imagination to RP the player faction spearheading a series of cartography missions.

The fact that it costs a billion dollars & some hoop jumping to meet the requirements for purchase is not something I personally feel is necessary to roleplay out.

For example, the Lewis system is now owned by the NLH. Within RP, did they pay a billion dollars to the A.D.M.I.N.S. & ask "nau I can has?" Hell no they didn't. The system was paid for by a pool of credits by me & the other NLH after talking about it for forever & a day. As far as the characters involved are concerned, they simply worked out a deal with the Gaian Guard to put the NLH name at the top of the deed. After the ink dried, they then took the initiative that the Guard never did, & started to map the place.

Whatever they find in the system won't be clear till .86 but right now, they know that whatever the hell is inside that mysterious minefield next door in Orkney, it's simply too close to home to be ignored & a buffer zone has to be created to ensure the safety of Edinburgh just in case whatever it is turns out to be is a bad thing.

That being said, Every NLH player knows that we now own some massively prime real estate.

RP-wise, taxing traders for passage through the system is what can fund the building of the stations, & yes, there will be a planet...& it will be a perfectly pristine example to Bretonia of what the Gaians have always been trying to do.

Will it make the Gaians irrelevant? Oh god no...if anything it will prove the factions goal & true vitality.

The Gaians may be pigeonholed into a little box by others of what people think they should be, but it's not the NLH's goal to think outside that box...the goal has simply always been to make the box bigger.

We've earned the right to make our mark in history, & that's exactly what the guard system will help us do.

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[Grumblesaur]

Marburg is right. Wouldn't factions TRY to expand and not just sit on NPC standards? Honestly, I don't care if you give the Xenos a shipyard. It's not like they can build caps anyway.

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It's not a flawed concept. You can raid a guard system if you want. It's just going to be hell getting past the waves of NPCs at the jump holes.
I've entered Tau-44 in an Outcast Falcata. Flew all the way to Planet Malakka and back.
Back when I was a l33t n00b, I flew a Talarca through Virginia.
If one ship can manage that, then I'm sure that attacking an enemy guard system is possible, contrary to what this community seems to think.

Though I don't think guard NPCs are really necessary. With upgraded station turrets on bases, the NPCs could be reduced to normal NPCs, to make guard system raids open to more than the crazy dodgers and cap pilots.

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A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,
brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

[Linkus]

Simple solution to the OORP side of it.
Admins look at it, if it is logically done and nothing really countering current hardwired RP then it's fine.
If it has parts of it with a bit of strangeness (EG. The FA having 50 battleships guarding their guard system, just an example) then the Admins/Igiss can simply say no and tell them to fix it.
Do allow for expansion but make the factions do a roleplay event or two for that expansion. You want a Battleship in the system, go do an RP event about one.

Waiittttt, I thought that's how it is already done?:rolleyes:


On another note, if people could avoid touching Omega 50, myself and a few others would be very grateful.

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Facilitating the rise of robotics since 0 A.D.

[Nightwind]

Marburg is indeed very right, and RP wise it fits the Gaian faction very well. But that's definitely not the case for every group in the game (no matter how big or powerfull)

Guard systems should have been added as "normal" system, but with such background like Lewis.
I think guard systems should not officially be OWNED by a faction (faction-wise they should, because they payed for them) but it should be commonly known that this faction has a strong presence there (so it's quasi their guard system but not officially.) This faction should still be able to mod this system, but I'd like to see the Guard systems as a part of tha normal FL lore...
Systems that actually have a background. For some factions it's just seems to be implausible that thy own a whole system. Let alone be able to defend it...
I just can't imagine some factions, especially the different companes to have any interest in owning a system.

Btw Chugoku already seems to be a Guard System for me. It's completely under BD control...

@Kurosora: I don't think every factions necessarily wants to expand. At least not this way. What benefit would e.g shipping companies have from their own system ???
Many Guard Systems simply lack a logical basis.

[Grumblesaur]

@Kurosora: I don't think every factions necessarily wants to expand. At least not this way. What benefit would e.g shipping companies have from their own system ???
Many Guard Systems simply lack a logical basis.

I believe the [KoF] and [IND] (Universal and Interspace factions, respectively) have a guard system each.

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A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay,
brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

[jnsereno]

Don't know if anyone suggested this, because i haven't read all the posts, but what about some destructible stations in guard systems? i mean, it would add a great RP value to them. Imagine a corsair fleet invading outcast guard system a blow up their operations station?

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[Reverend Del]

IND own Oita OOC but the modding we're having done for it suggests we own a few stations there. KOF own Minnesota OOC but only lay claim to the bases there. LR are having Cassini modded differently. Including a modified shipyard, a battleship that's only stationary because Rogues haven't put a big enough engine in the damn thing, a research station we have no idea what to do with, a Junker base and of course our biggest rock of the lot, Attica. It'll be much more that we control the system in places rather than the current system we have, which simply closes of Cassini and doesn't allow for any RP really. It'll also not feature any resources we don't already have. I.e. we'll not be changing the RP of the faction in any way through our guard system.

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Saint Del is considered a holy healer of diseases of children, but also as a protector of cattle.

[Dusty Lens]

I think that guard systems are a negative.

[Black Widow]

Yeh I think guard systems are stupid, logically look at it this way in all the random arrangements of the universe. How likely would it be that every faction would have access to their own desolate system where they could setup secret operation:S:S::SS? Maybe one or two not every single faction, systems should be a rare thing not an abundance so that the Universe Map looks like a CHESS BOARD!!

Be better if we had Guard NPC factions and guard bases located in normal systems like how there is a secret Rheinland Military guard base hidden in a cloud in Frankfurt. Perfect makes logical sense to have guard bases there not in some remote ass system.
Whereever guard bases are located ppl who arent friendly wont be able to dock there. Using guard systems to preserve secret tech from lolrandoms is pointless too as they cant dock on any guard bases. whenever I goto a guard system I feel like im not in a real system it feels fake to me.
So yeh delete guard systems and hide guard bases in normal systems, I say NO to a CHESS BOARD Map.

EDIT: As an extra point look at these two maps the first is the original FL map from the vanilla game look how it flows nicely and looks natural, then the 2nd is the disco map look how fake and ordered the universe is like a chess board due to addition of guard systms

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systems should have a use the fact IND and KOF own systems dont bother me coz there systems have a function there real systems anyone can fly there explore, trade bla bla but not in fake guard dead end systems. The only flaw I have ever found in any mod is that which disco has being guard systems no other mod has ever had such an idea!:rtfm::unsure:

[mwerte]

There is absolutely no reason why a small splinter group should own a whole system AND be able to defend it against all intruders.

InRP there is no Datastorm. The systems are defended by secrecy.

Edit: from 2009 >.<

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