A Question from Zelot

[Echo 7-7]

...
Now serious question is there a slight chance to change your development cycle timing and make smaller but more frequent updates?

Is there a chance? Yes, there's always a chance for many things to occur.

What's the likelihodd of that actually occuring? It's a bit tricky to say at the moment. Personally I wouldn't mind having an in-depth discussion on the matter with the other devs once 4.87 is released and the inevitable bugs are patched up.

Aside; I am personally quite partial to a civil war of some kind in Kusari simply because the stage is set for it, not just for the potential activity.

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There was a sig here, once.

[Govedo13]

Well it is really worth to discuss it because if you do it on smaller scale things would be less complex to coordinate and finish. Also external interested- factions involved etc can contribute a lot more. Overhauling system by system comes into mind for example.

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€œ

Official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)

[Dab]

Someone bugged me on Steam about this so I shall now proceed to do the least possible amount of posting so I can return to my hermitage.

The posts about the Kusari Storyline, and Gallic (omg it's an unbelievable mess) stuff;

Last I saw, there was nothing happening in Kusari except "lets reshuffle systems because that sounds like a good idea!"

So I shall share with the community what I had posted to the dev forum to try to fix the house of Sirius I loved most (even if it had Zelot in it <3). It's pretty long, but detailed and with reasoning to explain the choices made. It got a "idea is interesting" comment from AD and then promptly gathered dust like so many other dev threads appear to have done.

This is also the path I was planning to take Kusari when I was doing its development, if it were approved.

I did realize, as I pasted this, that I forgot to add in the Exile bit, but that wouldn't be difficult.

Also note date, in case anything since then has made parts of this no longer a possibility, keep in mind it was written quite some time ago, back when 4.87 was about to be released.

Dec 26, 2012:

So I got contacted by Ktayn on Skype asking about what my original plans for Rishiri were. I guess so Samura would have some idea of what they were supposed to work towards in-game. Unfortunately, I'm not in the loop on the dev team anymore since I've ejected from Discovery, but his Skype question did tell me I should probably post a clear concise description of what the plans were before I left. As, as far as I'm aware of, I hadn't done that yet. So here goes.

(And no I'm not coming back.)

Rishiri is on the edge of a massive and dense nebula. The plan was for Samura to discover a Dom K'vash Gate (Not the massive kind found in the Omicrons, but a smaller, shorter-distance gate) that leads deeper into the nebula. Inside, there was to be a Dom K'vash structure that was "harvesting" the energy from the Stellar Nursury inside. We know that the DK used Dyson Spheres to harvest energy from suns, so it seems likely that they would harvest energy from stellar nursuries as well. This would lead to a renewed conflict between Samura and Kishiro/GMG. GMG wouldn't want Samura to get that structure online and working, as it could further threaten their hold over the fuel and energy market, and Kishiro wouldn't want it to happen because it'd give Samura massive technological discoveries that could be used to catapult them past Kishiro in that field as well, further threatening their fragile hold over Kusari's government.

This would lead to border skirmishes between the groups, with the unlawful factions taking part on their benefactor's sides. As the region is outside of KNF/KSP's jurisdiction, the different factions would use only small detachments of their own security divisions to do the fighting and sabotage, while using the unlawful factions as proxies both in Rishiri and throughout Kusari to hamper the opposing groups. There was no immediate plan for Infected Kusari to be involved/know of it, as as far as I know, the player faction for that is gone and never allowed to be remade. All 3 sides would keep the discovery fairly quiet so as to prevent any foreign interference and risk having some non-Kusari entity get control of it.

However, despite those precautions, Liberty and through them Ageira, would find out about the Discovery and they would also attempt to gain control, or at least information, from the site, given their connection to DK technology, using both Liberty Special Forces and Ageira Security. Further, with the GC's faith in Kishiro's gender role reformations broken, they have no primary benefactor inside Kusari anymore with GMG only supportive to get them to attack Samura. This could open the door to Liberty, a nation with gender equality, to offer them an olive branch ad use the GC to assist them in their efforts both at the site and inside Kusari to destabilize the Kishiro-Gallia relationship.

This would give purposes back to a lot of factions that have little presently.

Samura - While their goal is to retake control of Kusari, there is no activity for players to perform towards that. This gives them something active to do in-game and in-RP through the forums other than just trading for great glory (or credits to fund their Corsairs). Also see Liberty section.

GMG - With the KNF on Kishiro's payroll, the Sigmas and Okinawa are safe from Kusari's overreaching hand. This gives them a conflict to fight, which GMG needs given its large paramilitary background. It also takes advantage of the new Kusari region I developed for this border conflict - Okinawa, Nagano, Rishiri.

Kishiro - They now have a real internal threat to their newfound power, which they did not have before due to the Emperor being in Bretonia. They also have a threat to their prominence in the technology market.

Golden Chrysanthemums - With the leadership transition they didn't get what was promised to them by Kishiro. Now alone except for their alliance with the BD, and support from the GMG, they have nothing to do that is new. They've been fighting the police and Samura since Vanilla for "gender equality" with no progress made and nothing new happening. This is why that faction suffers greatly, because it has nothing better than the BD. Worse ships, less background roleplay, worse diplomatic relations, and it's an all-female faction which is off-putting to many players. This change gives them a real uniqueness that no other Kusari faction has ever had, and gives them some real activities and roleplay to pursue that people can't get elsewhere. The GC were, in my mind, one of the most underdeveloped factions not just in Kusari, but in the game. This would fix that with a relatively simple, but effective, stroke of the Developer pen, without breaking balance or existing lore in any way. It also is a natural roleplay result of Kishiro's abandonment of their goals. Thus it all works quite well.

Farmer's Alliance - Kyushu and Nagano, the two systems with their "babies" (farming planets) are, or were, firmly under control of Samura. But with this new border fight, Nagano would be in danger of falling to the GMG, and Planet Tomioka being harvested by a fuel-hungry capitalist megacorporation ready to strip mine it for the previous metals to be found under its surface. The FA would be vehemently against any GMG progress in the Outer Regions, putting them in conflict with the GMG and BD over hard real estate.

Ageira - An unfortunately under-utilized faction, all developmental work that has gone towards Ageira has been in providing lore that makes for good forum roleplay, but nothing to do IN the game. This is why Ageira has largely been dead for a long time, with nothing but a tiny bit of forum roleplay by die-hard lovers and some trading. This gives them something to do, and something to fight over, and some nice new roleplay with Kusari and the GC.

Liberty - This gives them a new path to disrupt the Kusari-Gallia relationship by using the GC and manipulating this border skirmish. It could also lead to an agreement between Liberty and Samura, who hated each other in the past, to undermine Kishiro's power and put Samura back in charge, thus ending the Kusari-Gallia relationship and cutting Gallia and Rheinland off from each other. While Liberty and Samura have no love of each other, they need one another in order to get what they need most; A weakened Gallia for Liberty, and control of Kusari for Samura. This would be left up to bar rumors and player action and roleplay. Whether Liberty and Samura players can put their differences aside to work together and reinstall the Emperor is up to them. If they don't take advantage of the opportunity, Kishiro would only further cement their control.

What you guys do with this is up to you. But it could go a long way towards revitalizing a house that has been the worst in terms of activity for a very long time, and give some factions some real gameplay, rather than just loreplay.

If there are any questions I'll be on Skype, I'm not likely to be reading the forums since, well, I don't play here anymore. Just Ktayn's skype message reminded me of something I forgot to do when I left.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, this wasn't all meant to happen in one mod version, but over 2-3, or over one (which usually lasts a year) with continual updates using the auto-updater.

EDIT2: You'll notice I didn't post an end-game, or outcome. That's because I think that by watching player roleplay and action around this, the outcome would become clear. Also because it may change from original plans due to other lore changes, and I hate making something with a predetermined ending.

The following were my suggestions on fixing Gallia's sprawling, uncontrollable system connections and rabid overdevelopment. These were formed from the viewpoint of playing as GRN and UC, and noticing the problems of too much system interconnectivity that resulted in players have little contact and the lack of centralized locations (such as NY, Leeds, NB, etc).

June 18, 2012

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/L...holes2.png
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/L...pgates.png
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/L...Routes.png

Orange lines are jumpholes
Thin grey lines are jumpgates
Thick white lines are connections with both.

Updated with the new gate system and full overview.

With this setup, Burgundy is a hub for the upper border, Dauphine for the lower border, Lyonnais is the transit system between them, and Ile de France is the core hub.

There are also now 5 entrances into Gallia, as opposed to only two.
Orkney<->Languedoc
Omicron-80<->Lorraine
NEW
Languedoc<->Tau-29
Franche-Comte<->Tau-37
Corse<->Tau-44

One new entrance to revitalize the Kusari-Gallia trade, and two entrances for smugglers. The O-80 entrance is good for Cardi smugglers and OC in general, but there aren't any entrances for the Hogosha, who by lore should be entering Gallia, as well as other Smugglers, including Cryocube exporters. Franche-Comte<->Tau-37 provides an entrance to the northern systems, while Corse<->Tau-44 provides a semi-dangerous, but closer entrance, and provides a good middle meeting point for the Hogosha and Unione Corse on their station in that system.

I think this setup provides a good balance of new entrances, trade tunneling/pipeline-ing to help the pirates have a chance, and keeping the general structure of Gallia to allow for trade with Sirius while preserving the ability to have good inter-house trade.

Note; Zelot, you probably still have access to dev forum through your old forum account, I still do (otherwise I wouldn't be able to get quotes of my posts, what a travesty that'd be).


Note2; In case anyone was still wondering, the primary reason for my departure from Disco was the utter ineptitude of the dev team's leadership of the time, the complete lack of direction or remotely sensible decision making when it came to enhancing or refining gameplay, and the hard-to-find evidence of progress in getting out updates. I was told I was also told I couldn't remove systems (what Gallia needs most), because it'd be a lot of work (I offerred to do it all, and I'm fairly fast, as those who were familiar with my NPC Disco Ship Pack project saw. And considering this was June 2012, I think I could've rebuilt Gallia from scraps a dozen times over by now. xD But that's not important I suppose). The proposal above was with many useless (guard) systems removed entirely, though I would've preferred to cut the system number down even further if possible, especially considering how large each system is. The house also needed all NPCs nerfed further than what I had already done with the NPC Ship Pack.

I will check back on this thread a time or two if anyone does have questions of the above.

Oh

(And no I'm not coming back.)

is still accurate, though I can still write up further detailed versions of the above if someone would like them, I think I still have many of the writeups about those.

EDIT: Wooo, over 365 days since I last posted!

[Zelot]

Dab missed me.

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[Echo 7-7]

I remember reading (or discussing) this proposal with someone ages back, possibly last year. It had plenty of merit, particularly by virtue of engaging many different factions - and there weren't many other ideas on the table.

The current Kusari plot, so to speak, is mostly involving the riots on Honshu and a possible civil war with the return of the Exiles (which Gallia doesn't get involved with given it's an 'internal' matter and they're busy invading other places).

... though I can still write up further detailed versions of the above if someone would like them, I think I still have many of the writeups about those.
...

I'll take a copy of the whole works.

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There was a sig here, once.

[Dab]

Dab missed me.

So much Zelot, so much.

I remember reading (or discussing) this proposal with someone ages back, possibly last year. It had plenty of merit, particularly by virtue of engaging many different factions - and there weren't many other ideas on the table.

The current Kusari plot, so to speak, is mostly involving the riots on Honshu and a possible civil war with the return of the Exiles (which Gallia doesn't get involved with given it's an 'internal' matter and they're busy invading other places).

... though I can still write up further detailed versions of the above if someone would like them, I think I still have many of the writeups about those.
...

I'll take a copy of the whole works.

Alright. I checked and didn't find the old text files, but I can rewrite them easily enough over the next few days.

The main problem with implementing this Kusari storyline, is you will have to roll back Aeternus Doleo's system changes to that region. His plans, last I was aware, was to merge Rishiri with the FA and GC guard systems, and then move Nagano... Somewhere? Cutting away its connection to Okinawa.

These 3 systems were designed to be connected as a loop, and severing that will remove all purpose from Rishiri and Nagano, leaving only Okinawa with some sense and purpose. I tried to make this clear before I left, but the dev team leadership at the time.. Wasn't very open minded to ideas not their own. I don't know if AD is still in charge of overall development or not, but if he is, you'll need to talk him into reversing those changes if you want this to work.

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[DeathsOverture]

(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?

The original story writers crafted Kusari with the theme of traditionalism versus modernization. The politcal climate almost mirrors the Meiji restoration, with conservative elements (Samura) lobbying against foreign commerce and relations while liberal elements (Kishiro) are pushing for opening up Kusari to foreign markets to force technological advances in order to compete.

We as Kusari must change our traditional ways. Kishiro is an example for the future. Unfortunately, Samura wishes to preserve the past. They are too close with the Hogosha, who are far more unscrupulous than they would like to admit. Rather than reforming their agricultural production methods to resist the advance of Synth Foods, they have chosen to expend their resources on lobbying the government and backing the Farmers Alliance.

Kishiro is slowly beginning to take command of Kusari corporate power. Samura made a terrible mistake by angering the GMG. Perhaps now Kishiro will be the one that supplies Sirius with the fuel that drives all of its engines. This keiretsu is better because we are more innovative than Samura, which has grown lazy.

With the establishment of trade lanes, Samura and Kusari farmers faced heavy foreign competition in local markets. For centuries, Samura was able to lobby with the government to deter the agricultural imports (presumably with exorbitant tariffs) and essentially shut down the foreign markets and drove up food prices in Kusari, allowing Kyushu to prosper. This continued until some time after the 80-year war when Kusari and Rheinland were both in massive debt to Liberty. Using this as leverage, Liberty was able to pressure the Kusari government to reopen the markets to agricultural imports which forced many farmers out of business and eventually led to the formation of the Farmer's Alliance. (Kyushu infocard - 065664) The economical struggles continue with the crash of the consumer goods manufacturing on Kyushu, in favor of goods produced by Kishiro at Deshima using prison labor (056211 133588).

The pressures from Liberty also led to the establishment of Roppongi and the eventual general admittance of foreign traders to New Tokyo (132961), although government regulations (*cough* Samura *cough) make the import process inefficient by forcing imports to direct all commerce through Narita Outpost (132921). Additionally, Narita was intentionally designed with insufficient interior storage, and necessitating the use of external storage depots; an arrangement which allows the Hogosha to get a piece of the foreign profit margins (132925 132987).

The progressive vs conservative theme propagates further on the cultural level, with the establishment of the Golden Chrysthemums. In Kusari culture, women are expected to accept their "traditional honored role as wife and mother" (133589). The Golden C. seek to spark a revolution to overthrow the corrupt male oppressors and ultimately unite Kusari under the rule of a Kyushu-native empress (133385). The Golden C. also propagate the spread of cardamine in Kusarian society through Roppongi (056183).

Vanilla lore provides us with many accounts of corruption and betrayal between Kusari factions, right up to 801 AS. I won't detail all of them, but here are some examples:
*Kishiro contracts Bounty Hunters to destroy pirates, but with instructions to disengage any Xeno attacking a Samura shipment. (131862)
*Blood Dragons ally with the Golden C against Samura out of necessity, and mock their goals behind their backs (133378) (133383) (133430).
*In 648 AS, Yuyu Matsuda (author of Golden Chrysanthemum in Bloom) was 'implicated in the botched assassination attempt of the planetary government of Kyushu' and committed suicide to avoid imprisonment. Did Samura implicate her in the crime? Did she commit seppuku to become a martyr for the cause, instead of rot in prison? (065634)
*Hogosha cut the GMG out of the artifact trade with the Corsairs. (133005) (133342)
*GMG feels disrespected by Samura for not intervening with the artifact issue. (132803)
*GMG negotiated with Kishiro behind Samura's back. (133016)
*In response, Samura uses its influence to reduce patrols in Honshu. (133308)
*Under the guise of a 'security issue', Samura uses its influence on the government to nationalize Hokkaido and have the treasury finance jumpgates and trade lanes in order to support its own foray into gas mining. (132993 132962 132984)
*GMG provides the Blood Dragons with training in nebula tactics (133347) (133437) and financial assistance (133427) in order to deter Samura's mining efforts in Hokkaido.

Here are some broad Kusari developments that we've had so far in the mod:
4.8? introduced the Kusari-Bretonia war which was heavily pushed by Samura and Hogosha in order to secure mineral resources in the Taus and Leeds.
4.85 introduced Okinawa which the GMG and Kishiro secretly developed while Kusari was focusing on Bretonia. GMG claimed the system in such a way that Kusari could have no jurisdicition and thus Samura could not use its influence to control its development.
4.86 introduced Nagano and Rishiri. Absolutely brilliant. Samura actually managing the complete government financing of the Chugoku gate, only to have it end up pointing to Rishiri and funding its own developents instead... that is the true nature of Samura that vanilla has crafted. We also had the KNF coup some time before 4.86 which allowed a Kishiro-backed government to seize power and exhile the emperor. Planet Kyushu is essentially in a state of chaos and rebellion with most of its inhabitants defiant against the new government.

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. We have the Farmers Alliance facing the possible unregulated influx of Synth Paste. We have Planet Kyushu in turmoil. We have Samura and Hogosha seeking to regain their power. We have the Blood Dragons doing everything in their power to prevent that from happening... ... does anyone know what the Golden C are doing? *cough*

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

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.

Edit: I included the infocard/rumor ID's as they appear in FLdev.

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[Echo 7-7]

...
Alright. I checked and didn't find the old text files, but I can rewrite them easily enough over the next few days.

The main problem with implementing this Kusari storyline, is you will have to roll back Aeternus Doleo's system changes to that region. His plans, last I was aware, was to merge Rishiri with the FA and GC guard systems, and then move Nagano... Somewhere? Cutting away its connection to Okinawa.

These 3 systems were designed to be connected as a loop, and severing that will remove all purpose from Rishiri and Nagano, leaving only Okinawa with some sense and purpose. I tried to make this clear before I left, but the dev team leadership at the time.. Wasn't very open minded to ideas not their own. I don't know if AD is still in charge of overall development or not, but if he is, you'll need to talk him into reversing those changes if you want this to work.

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.

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There was a sig here, once.

[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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[Zelot]

I miss Dab and his Wall'o'texts.

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