I'm quite partial to some of the plot ideas being proposed here. Not in a position to comment on the specifics of an ID-locked commodity, but commodities can be set so that a certain level of reputation is required to purchase them from the vendor (just like certain ship equipment).
I'm not quite sure if that sort of event @jammi suggested would be balanced, as far as other factions are concerned. I mean, it requires strong activity from both Gallic corps and Gaians, which would cause other factions on the server to lose activity.
1) IDS - 132509. SP rumour from the BPA.
"We're pretty certain the Gaian base is in the Islay Cloud. It's hard to find it in there though; those ice asteroids look all the same after a while. If you're unlucky, you could stumble into an Outcast doing some smuggling. My former wing man did that last year -- may he rest in peace."
2) IDS - 132506. SP rumour from the BPA.
"We get conflicting reports from London on how to handle the Gaians. One week it's "Vaporize them all on sight"; next week it's "Leave them be if they aren't causing problems."
3) IDS - 132689. SP rumour from the BHG.
"Gaians used to be the easiest kill in the book, and they still are pretty much, but they're getting better at fighting and coordinating attacks. Some of them are rather good pilots now. I still kill them."
Indicates that (one of) the biggest threat(s) in the Islay cloud used to be the Outcasts(1), and they're no longer a problem in Bretonia seeing as the Barrier Pass has routed all of their traffic out of Edinburgh. Means running a grid search would be exponentially less dangerous for Gallia than it was for Bretonia(3). The Gaians historically survived on the fact that there was no political will to actively root them out(2), and as soon as they generated that will via war collaboration, the forces that could've done it were busy elsewhere. Gallia, conversely, would have both the will and the way in the event of a betrayal.
1) IDS - 460243. Current GRN rumour.
"We keep an eye on those Gaians. The profile on them is interesting. Ecoterrorists opposed to ecoforming... I wonder how they will react when they learn EFL is heavily involved in that business. No matter, if they break their truce with us, we will simply remove them."
2) IDS - 460884. Current BPA rumour.
"You still have to be careful with these ships, especially if they've belonged to Mollys or Gaians. It's not unlike them to abandon a vehicle fitted with some sort of selfdestruct. We missed one such device on a craft deemed a wreck. When a training crew blew it out of Lyndhursts orbit, they got a bit of a bigger bang then they expected. No harm done, but it does serve as a reminder who we're dealing with."
GRN appears to have a contingency plan to wipe out the Gaians in the event of betrayal(1). There's also the fact that over the last three or so years, Gaian factions have cooperated with Gallic factions, including asking for supply shipments to Islay from corp groups. I get that server gameplay and server lore are distinctly separated, but there should probably be some kind of followup from that. Rumours also underline Gaian propensity for booby-trapping things and blowing them up when attackers aren't expecting(2).
(05-03-2015, 11:07 AM)Protégé Wrote: I'm not quite sure if that sort of event @jammi suggested would be balanced, as far as other factions are concerned. I mean, it requires strong activity from both Gallic corps and Gaians, which would cause other factions on the server to lose activity.
The war against Gallia is the main storyline for the entire Discovery mod. Releases are named after how it's going. It's probably appropriate that events focused on it should recieve a lion's share of activity. In any case, have you seen Gallic corporate activity? It's basically non-existent.
Having an event that massively incentivises the creation of Gallic corporate ships is a giant benefit! The number of factions that rely on Gallic groups for interaction is huge. If the win/fail consequences are clearly laid out at the event's beginning, that also gives GRN and GRP ships a clear reason to get involved and protect the transports.
Plus, activity concentrators are highly desirable right now. There's a reason that systems are being deleted and the number of premium mining fields reduced. It's to force more people into less areas and provoke interaction. Setting up a permanent event activity corridor can only be a good thing.
Quote:That's exactly my concern. If Islay remained hidden from BAF for decades, why would GRN find it in a matter of few years?
Islay is like the Gaian Base (Holmfirth) in Manchester. They both claim to be Ultra-Secret but they sit right on top of a Jump Hole and are on the plane. Islay is also a stones throw away from the Jump Hole to Dundee. The Gallics would have to be seriously blind/stupid not to know of its existence, as it would appear the Bretonians, before them, were.
Can't the Gaians ask the Devs to move the Bases and therefore give them some credibility of being Ultra-Secret?
'I would like to be half as clever as some people like to believe they are' Life is full of disappointments, it is how we handle them that helps to define us, as a person
In-game scale doesn't reflect anything. There's no such thing as "plane" inRP, and all those distances are inRP larger (Hello, there are planets 20 000 meters away from a sun, doesn't it take away the credibility of their existance? Also, Willard says hello as well.).
As for jamni's post, I didn't knew that gallic corps used to dock on Islay before. That indeed makes stuff complicated for Gaians... If that's the case, then it seems like blowing up Islay is hard to avoid.
After a bit of thought, the problem of Castres providing second convenient docking spot for Gauls can be simply solved by blowing up Castres with booby-trapped Islay, during the siege.
Chuba, if you don't have anything to say, don't post.
All of the ideas are nice and neat and all, but I don't think we should go too far with our plans without knowing if devs would be willing to implement any changes proposed here. Or even any changes to Edinburgh at all.
So, question to devs and whoever has the master voice in the story of Edinburgh: is any kind of major even like that even possible/going to be consirdered? Or Edinburgh's fate is already scripted and we can't do much?