A Solution to the Gallic Number Balance Problem

[Thexare]

Gallic armor upgrades. A clone of the standard armor upgrades statistically, but at ridiculously low prices, and only usable on Gallic craft.

This, combined with an across-the-board price reduction on Gallic ships and equipment, will mean you can fully arm a GRN, Council, UC, Maquis, etc. fighter for less than one trade run. Bombers? Also cheaper. Caps? Yeah, maybe lower the cost on the GBs and possibly cruisers - that's up to the devs, I don't care either way.

I figure, make the total price of a fighter, armor included, about 1.2mil. Bombers, maybe 4-6mil. Compare that to Sirian fighters in the 15-20m range, bombers around 30mil. The ridiculously low prices may be a better motive for people to start there, as it'll take almost nothing to set them up.

Fact is, it makes sense for almost everyone to hate Gallia. Twisting existing factions into supporting them would be... unpleasant. I recall there being considerable displeasure from the Junkers about that.

Instead, make it easier for GRN to scramble sheer numbers. After all, if it's so cheap a freighter can pay it, why not slap together a GRN Lynx?


Kazinsal informs me that keeping these armor upgrades off Sirian ships is possible, and if nothing else it could be hooked into technerf.

[glassofwater]

Well, I support this more or less. I'd say if their gallic -only- armour was about 6-10m or so compared to the 15m for the uau. Then yeah that'd be rad. Don't lower the caps tooo much though. 'cause the Gallic army doesn't need JUST caps. Maybe throw in some cheap wine and/or rice and/or tea. All of those are good. But seriously, if Gallia could get populated, that'd be rad.

But keep in mind it's not -just- Gallia that needs population. it's the game itself. We all know Disco is slowly dying. But that will take all of us to prevent this. More people = more players who may be interested in their RP.

[Thexare]

The reason I'm focused on Gallia is because so much of the storyline revolves around them right now, and without considerable story changes there's literally nothing we can do for Kusari. Now, if Kusari were to actively join the war on Gallia's side, or go into a full-blown civil war involving the Exiles, that might help. Conflict is needed somewhere.

And yeah, I'd rather avoid cap spam. But I fly LFs and freighters; I have obvious bias.

[Scumbag]

Makes sense, simple, needed. I agree.

[Crossroads]

removed

[Trogdor]

This has been suggested before, and I was one of its proponents. Making Gallic ships cheap increases their appeal, due to the fact that they no longer take funds/time away from things you'd rather be doing.

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[Roman.Scott]

I just wish there was a middle of the road Gallic freighter like the Mammoth in Liberty. I want to create some Gallic characters but the options for traders is dismal and I prefer my characters to keep their money in house.

[Zephyranthes]

I just wish there was a middle of the road Gallic freighter like the Mammoth in Liberty. I want to create some Gallic characters but the options for traders is dismal and I prefer my characters to keep their money in house.

This, plus more promotion of Gallic trade routes. There really are a lot of good routes that don't even leave Gallia, but with the current ships, it's incredibly hard to start out, especially if you're using a non-corporate or unlawful ID. There needs to be less extreme leveling for the trade ships there.

[Omi]

I really don't think this will help our problem at all. Making GRN the go-to PvP faction by virtue of cheap toys sounds to me like a great way to turn Magellan into a second Connecticut.

The issue, as I see it, is that there's just enough enough factions on the GRN side of every skirmish. Some factions are bigger than others, sure, but I think the only way numbers are going to be balanced is if the number of factions on each size becomes more or less equal. You can't hope to inflate GRN's in-game presence to match it's iRP size; it won't work.

I have no idea why this proposed "solution" to all GRN and Gallia's woes is being lauded as a simple and easy fix. The idea is poor at best, and here's why.

Money is not the issue, and even if it was, I wouldn't want it made less of an issue because of the real problem: lack of interest. You're going to make GRN into the go-to PvP faction for new/inexperienced players. Easy and cheap toys for pew-pew will draw exactly the wrong sort of crowd for what's meant to be a primarily roleplay environment, especially if price reductions for capital ships come into the equation.

There just aren't enough people interested in playing as Gallic Royal Navy. That's the problem right there; there is an insufficient in-game representation of Gallia's in-roleplay strength because not a lot of people want to play as them from a roleplay perspective.

Fact is, it makes sense for almost everyone to hate Gallia. Twisting existing factions into supporting them would be... unpleasant.

This is the kind of attitude that promotes the binary sort of thinking which is burrowing itself into diplomacy lists across the whole server. There's more than one way to skin a cat, and you don't have to be shooting at the Royal Navy to be undermining their efforts.

I feel like a broken and irritated record going over all this again, though.

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[Trogdor]

I really don't think this will help our problem at all. Making GRN the go-to PvP faction by virtue of cheap toys sounds to me like a great way to turn Magellan into a second Connecticut.

The issue, as I see it, is that there's just enough enough factions on the GRN side of every skirmish. Some factions are bigger than others, sure, but I think the only way numbers are going to be balanced is if the number of factions on each size becomes more or less equal. You can't hope to inflate GRN's in-game presence to match it's iRP size; it won't work.

I have no idea why this proposed "solution" to all GRN and Gallia's woes is being lauded as a simple and easy fix. The idea is poor at best, and here's why.

Money is not the issue, and even if it was, I wouldn't want it made less of an issue because of the real problem: lack of interest. You're going to make GRN into the go-to PvP faction for new/inexperienced players. Easy and cheap toys for pew-pew will draw exactly the wrong sort of crowd for what's meant to be a primarily roleplay environment, especially if price reductions for capital ships come into the equation.

There just aren't enough people interested in playing as Gallic Royal Navy. That's the problem right there; there is an insufficient in-game representation of Gallia's in-roleplay strength because not a lot of people want to play as them from a roleplay perspective.

I disagree.. I, for one, would be willing to roleplay a gallic character (at least, to the extent that would be required for pvp interaction) for the sake of pvp balance, as long as it didn't require a significant investment.
And so what if it attracts the low-rp crowd? The server needs activity, PVP is activity.
There is lack of interest because no one wants to be France. Gallia is a big part of Disco and you can't just remove it now. The only way you're going to fix Gallia is by either making their ships cheap, or making them not French.

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