So I just had an idea. I've given it a little thought, and I'd like to propose it to everyone to see how it's received and get some feedback. I'm probably not thinking well since there's more caffeine in my bloodstream than oxygen right now, but I wanted to get this out before I forgot or lost my nerve. I don't want to offend or insult or step on toes, just an idea. Hang with me, it's a little long.
Alright, getting the proper reputation seems to be a huge problem. Also, people roleplaying like the active forum members would like is becoming a huge problem since Discovery seems to have become the new home for a lot of other servers. This might fix both of these problems, but I don't know if hardcoding or other limitations would apply. I noticed when applying the Disco mod in FLMM there were all sorts of fun options including uniform, starting money, starting system, and so on. The one that caught my eye was starting reputation, but I was disappointed when the only options were default, all friendly, all neutral, and all hostile. Would it be possible to make this more specific? Would a list of all factions (or all major factions, whatever) be possible so a starting player could simply start with the rep he/she wants? And would this work on an MP server and not just SP?
In addition to that, a lot of the proposed fixes to limit capship abuse and whatnot involve making a high reputation necessary to buy powerful faction ships. The above idea would help with that, but I had another that might help as well. Would it be possible to make reputation gain/loss asymmetric? From what I've noticed, it seems that faction gain and loss occur at the same rate. But if this whole asymmetry thing flies, gaining reputation with one faction would work slowly, while losing reputation with factions would happen much faster. A whole lot faster. This makes sense if you think about it in the real world. It would take a lot of good deeds to get buddy-buddy with the cops, while only one screw-up would virtually eliminate any progress.
This has a few problems: it would make it a pain to start from neutral and get friendly with a faction, and trying to switch factions entirely would be a bigger ordeal than it is now. But my first idea might help with that since much of the work would be automatically done when the character is created.
However, I can think of a lot of pluses to this. This would encourage players to pick a faction and really stick to it, since it would take some work to get really friendly and get those nice (and big) ships. Also, it would discourage random killing since only a few mess ups would take time to undo.
I'm sure there's plenty of consequences I haven't thought through, and this little rant may not have made sense, but I open the floor to suggestions. Feel free to shoot holes in this, just don't shoot me... :unsure:
Well the starting rep is set in stone as far as playing on the server goes...this would have to be edited by Igiss, but is entirely possible to adapt.
Personally, I think reps are about as good as they can get, though there are some problems I don't think we can entirely get passed. For example, no matter what you do as a corsair or outcast, killing BHG makes you friendlier with both or killing Kusari makes you friendly with Bretonia and vice versa. As a lawful if you hit mostly outcast aligned NPCs then Corsairs will eventually be green to you.
However, if your reps could be tied to whom you take missions from that'd be ideal. Not sure if its possible.
So, it is possible for players to pick their reputation while creating a new character? What about custom starting location? What would be the problems with this?
I know of another Discovery server where you must choose your faction before you start to play, so it is possible.
I believe the server is Discovery NJ 24/7 but dont quote me on that but it is in New Jersey for sure
You must open sys chat and type
/dots hit enter
thenyou get a list of factions to choose
then you must type
/restart faction name hit enter
You then restart in that factions home system
I was there and I liked it but the choice was -very- limited. The other problem with it was I would try to start as a Blood dragon and the NPCs trounced me EVERY time.
I would love a rep fix card. It takes hours to fix a rep. The hardest part is the seeming random way it works and all the OORP stuff you have to do to correct it. I would have no problem paying a few mil to have it worked out. It gets bad when you contemplate doing something OORP so an admin will get mad and MAKE you your faction.
It was a late night and I had been working on it for like 8 hours at that point.
Well, the rep fix card would definitely work, and make things simpler for the players, but it might be a lot of extra work for a team of admins that already seem to be pretty swamped. We're a crazy bunch to keep in line, it seems.
I'd guess a rep card would be purchasable anywhere and then maybe create a thread where the player gives character name and desired faction? Also, how much work would it be to not only change your rep with the desired faction but also to recalculate relations with everyone else? Would that happen automatically? Cuz it could be a potential problem if someone wanted to change from Dragon to Corsair and, after the admin fixed the rep, Outcasts and allies would be green still.
Thing is, that there would be a LOT more work involved in changing your reputations with EVERY SINGLE FACTION than is needed with changing your name, so I can see a Reputation Change Card costing credits out the a**...
While being quite funny, your sig was the biggest one i've ever seen so far. No more than 700x250 please. ~utrack http://pastebin.com/SYQXBufs
The rep change card is a good idea but it would work even better if your rep was tied to your id aswell...
For instance... If you buy the ID for a faction it would automatically reset and align your rep to that faction and allies, ect ect. Then move faction cap ships and faction based weapons to the bases in guard systems and it would be perfect.