[14:08:20] alley: indies on discovery
[14:08:30] alley: are 87% of the server activity for the past month
[14:08:47] alley: which means official factions are only around 13% of the activity
I can remember when faction involvement was much higher. What does everyone think is the cause for this drop? How can faction involvement be made more attractive?
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Proportionally, this is the near the highest faction activity has been versus indies in quite a while. Generally it used to hang around 11%, but otherwise has remained stable. Not sure if the increase is due to dropping indy activity or increasing activity from factions.
Official faction activity has always been a massive minority, and always will be while we allow personal freedoms instead of forcing people into groups. Seeing as that categorically will not be happening, I'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to achieve.
Why should anyone fly under a official flag if the only actual merit is that i have a nice tracker to see which ships i use most and the completly useless FR5 ( aka my snubbie got FR5ed? New ship, transfer equipment lose 2 mil).
If i fly as an indy i can
- team up as unofficial faction or with unlabled indies the same way a official faction would provide buddies and i can actually tag along with those aswell.
- I have absolutely no responsibility on my roleplay behaviour or ingame actions(rulebreaking aside), because one rename later and i am a white paper again if i wish...and if i screw up big time inRP it is the official factions trouble to set it straight again.
- no one will hold me responsible for other players or actions i didn't even do
- i have access to everything
- if i don't give a piece of cake for rp i simply smack on a Freelancer or Pirate ID and either register more or less unchecked at every bounty board or start with stupidity like "i pirate you for a duel// 30 mil //all your equipment" and pew away
So summed up: i can do whatever i want, have zero responsibilities and no restrictions - witht he sole drawback that if i get over the top i have to spend 2 mil per week on renaming or a new ship.
my opinion as owner of 0 actually used indy ships
Edit says: another indy advantage: if i don't want to pew or be followed via chatlist i simply don't call my ship a easy to identify or neutral name and i won't get tracked over the whole starmap by someone who wants to kill me off^^
Edit II says: After re-reading- my post comes off quite a bit anti-indy, which is wrong^^ i have nothing against indies and actually there is no sense in trying to organize everyone into factions(ok, there might be a dislike for mercs and pirate Id )
But what i mean is this: Being an official faction memeber is for idealists as you only get drawbacks in general - my only plus for a faction tagged(not necessarily offical) ship is that people meet you with certain expectations...if you meet and agree with those you can get a nice gaming experience by profiting from the way your teammates paved for you....
Well how about official factions open up more and change some of the structures? When you describe it it sounds like playing in a faction is a burden, rather than a joy, and obviously it shouldn't be like that. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but when I encounter official faction ships in-game they rarely look like they are having a hoot unless they are in a massive group.
edit: perhaps make forum activity somehow count towards the activity tracker? forum activity is really essential to everyone, indies and officials alike, and should be rewarded.
playing in a official faction only is a burden because those same indies who dont give a damn about you and your RP on average , do suddenly expect a lot of stuff from ya when they need your help.
Give official factions more power , yadda yadda
well my perspective is of course the opposite: Official faction players dont give a damn about me and my RP on average.
yesterday i met an admiral while i was on by pirate bs and i initated rp. his reply was "*ignoring the huge pile of junk metal*" while he went on his merry way.
That's an average encounter with an official faction player from where I'm at, but rather than make this into a flamefest indies vs faction players we could brainstorm on improving the structures surrounding official factions to the benefit of all players.
Sure , I know a solution:
restrict indies to a freelancer and generic pirate ID.
problem solved.
Edit: Anaximander , I dunno if you changed over time , if that is the case ignore the following, but I remember you giving TBH such a difficult time on your indie , basically trying to rebel to every little thing we did.
I considered that disrespectful trolling.
Well, don't get me wrong, i have a great blast gaming together with my factions members- but this is due to them being cool people and i would have the same fun with them if we played as inofficial or untagged group.
As for the burden part, that's a question of perspective i guess - yes it is a drag sometimes to explain a thickheaded player what he could do and what he shouldn't do, to answer the 100th random question not because it concerns me or my NPC faction but simply because i am available.
Then again- i do like helping out and hopefully thereby generating a good gaming atmosphere for everyone, myself included of course.
As for the forum and tracker thing...i don't agree, the forum is the icing on the cake, but the important part is still the game itself and official factions should be present there, available for interaction, help and fun. Of course, more rights/options would be a nice benefit for the "exposed" standing, too...
El Editing Joey caused another edit: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Less of boring unison soup of generic ridiculousness!! MORE flavorfull NPC faction alleged ships, LESS i can do whatever whenever however generic id stuff!