I would like to thank all of the people involved that helped me with the, let's face it, experiment that was Dawson. After running the shtick for around three months, Dawson has proven for the most part, that overambition only works when it is shared by everyone involved.
While a group with an RP focus and not shying away from outright demanding effort and dedication of its players sounded good on paper, Discovery Freelancer is perhaps a bit too gone at this point for that sort of approach. While the group readily attracted RPers that are known within the community for their work, it was hard to put aside the notion that the reason said people are known as such - is because they are already involved in their own active ambitions and are either the leaders of factions or are involved in their operation.
Dawson, even upon its conception, had a glaring fault which had the potential to ruin the project if if wasn't addressed and outright made clear to any player joining: that the group's success depended on the effort and continuous dedication of its members. Seeing as though Dawson was set as a replacement for the now disbanded LR- and I will not hide that I had hoped that working to acquire officialdom with this idea should have generated enough motivation, it is clear that if official factions that ask as little as one hour of ingame time from their members are having trouble these days, then perhaps this project was rather doomed from the outset.
On a more personal note, the - going to admit it here - outright failure of this group has only helped me come to terms what was that magical ''old days were better'' feeling of 4.84 Discovery had. While we are quick enough to say that there was no difference in quality of RP, it only takes me one moment to look at, say, the old LR- message dump to see that members had a much more different attitude towards their factions.
This is rather ironic coming from me, a person who has built ''lol'' groups that bore the banner of ''factions should be for fun and not a second job'' on the front lines such as the Torpedoes - probably the most successful projects I've personally saw to. Having fun in Disco these days is the ability to hold 6 accounts full of ships, some tagged, some not, and logging them whenever you feel like it and something interesting is going on. Where all the groups you are in share the same people and where the interconnectivity of the whole community via Skype and Teamspeak has a direct impact on pretty much everything related to ingame.
Again, it seems that the amount of people interested in such playstyles is finite in Disco and there are too many factions already trying to catch the attention of said people. In the end, Dawson was a fun enough idea which will no doubt not be wasted experience by a long shot. It helped me learn something new about what Disco is today and how it operates, if anything else.
~Spazzy
DAWSON WING
Introduction
The Dawson Wing is a WIP group for the Liberty Rogues NPC faction and has been designed with heavy focus on individual and group roleplay in mind. The faction revolves around a list of specific ingame-related features and rules that makes its overall gameplay unique when compared to its forerunners. You will find a much more in-detail description of said features further down into the document. Overall, the group offers to its members a rarely-given chance to heavily impact the progression of the faction and its RP and be a part of a group where the gameplay focus is on the individual’s character and its evolution over time.
The underlying idea behind the group is an experiment to see if a player faction can be represented by what is essentially a ‘’bunch of indies’’ and whether or not such a roleplay system has the potential to rival the tried and true ‘’bunch of tagged people’’ one that almost all of today’s factions use.
While a group that does not utilize a tag system is not something particularly new, the oorp purpose of the Wing is to see if such a model could contribute as much roleplay value to an NPC faction as a more ‘’standard’’ – tagged faction could and, perhaps in the long run, can such a group become official without flying a tag – something we have grown to take for granted in official factions.
Backstory
As the name implies, the Dawson Wing’s origins is the Dawson Base in the Hudson system, Liberty. A relatively small outpost for the Liberty Rogues, Dawson in the past few ingame years has been mostly used as a stop for smugglers running between Liberty and Rheinland as the civilian traffic through the system is little to none due to the conflict between the two houses. The lack of competition over piracy spots and whatever resources in the form of piratable ships there are, has made Dawson a good choice for rookie rogues or ones with poor equipment.
The big change came with the Lane Hacker leaked information about the current situation with the two gates, causing the more important figures within the mess that is the Liberty Rogues to order the base, with its close location to the source of the danger, to be partially evacuated with only a skeleton screw being left behind to keep the installation running and providing a restock point for smugglers and the already mentioned rookie rogues still operating within the system.
The Dawson Wing’s lore starts off when the crew that was entrusted with the base decides that the danger outweighed anything that they themselves could get out of the location and decide to load up the existing supply transports with anything that is not bolted down hard enough and flee to the Bering system, presumably to Freeport 2, effectively abandoning Dawson as an installation to a slow death, along with anyone unfortunate enough to remain bound to it.
The remaining inhabitants are suddenly forced to take upkeeping the base in their own hands and a small group of the more skilled rookies is gathered to, willingly or not, help with supplying the installation with the bare necessities. Since the transports used in supplies are long gone, the group has to do with their own personal ships, until one day it becomes obvious that this cannot continue and a transmission to the Lane Hackers is made, asking for supplies in the form of basic commodities as well as spare ships. After that, the group, now used to working together, sets out to make a name for themselves.
Information
Nutshell
• Name: Dawson Wing
• ID: Liberty Rogue ID
• IFF: Rogues
• Tag: None
• Allowed ships: Any*
Goals (IRP)
• Recruitment of other independent low-tier Rogues in the area; supply and reorganization of Dawson’s capabilities.
• Formation of ties with other groups in the area.
• Expanding the group itself.
• Gathering of resources for personal gain
• Continued expansion throughout Liberty and the Borderworlds to achieve formally stated goals.
Goals (OORP)
• Provide high-quality LR roleplay to its members and whoever we encounter
• Replace the old LR- established lore regarding there being a ‘centralized rogue leadership’ with a more realistic and reasonable explanation on how Rogues operate IRP
• Experiment with usage of self-imposed gameplay systems to enhance the ingame RP experience for faction members; Experiment with the ‘’tagless faction’’ concept.
• Get a tagless faction official.
Unique Features
• Untagged faction - Not being marked as a part of a Liberty Rogue faction on the player list not only ensures much greater level of comfort for the faction member, but also allows them more control over their own character. Instead of being judged by the tag in front of their name, their ingame interactions are first and foremost based around their own character, which just happens to be a part of something larger – not the other way around. Your character’s involvement in the group will be known by their name first, not because of a tag in front of it.
• Playing as the Underdog - Forget about your elite spec-ops squads, primary fleets and overall badasses – your character starts out as one of the many rookies outright forced to make sure they do not end up without a roof over their heads. Limited by gear and supplies, work together with the rest of your friends and perhaps you might even become something more than you were at first.
• Bigger individual impact on the progression of the faction - What is the point of joining a faction that has existed three times longer than your own existence on Disco. Where your RP contributions are just a drop in the pool made up by a hundred pages worth of players that came before you. Here your roleplay matters as any action will have consequences on the group itself. Play the faction from the moment of its inception.
• Group resources and the Parts game mechanic - Your contributions matter. Making new ships and repairing destroyed ones takes up resources in the form of Parts, which can be scavenged in a number of ways. Credits, due to oorp balance reasons, are mostly viewed as pocket money, while the group-effort economy of the faction revolves around a custom agreed upon commodity.
• Quality over quantity - Just like the group is a close-knit band of individuals ingame, the faction itself also focuses on the same mentality, where the quality of roleplay and skill of the players involved is always much more valued than their count.
• Faction-Sponsored SRP - Get more out of your character by establishing unique roleplay and enjoy obtaining non-standard items without worrying about credit-related expenses. Your SRP requests are paid in full by the faction's bank.
Player Prerequisites
Due to the RP-focused nature of the group, there are a set of things we expect from our members.
• Willingness to display effort in creating and maintaining your character.
• Upholding a high level of RP quality and excellence on that character.
• The ability to work with both ingame and on-forum roleplay.
• A sense of responsibility for your actions and effort you put into the group.
• A willingness to learn from your mistakes and to adapt to changing situations.
Parts
One of the unique features to the Dawson Wing group is the usage of a self-imposed layer of gameplay mechanics for the purpose of enhancing the ingame experience.
The mechanic simulates usage and acquirement of resources needed to upkeep a fleet of ships. In order to make the system less draconic and to account for unforeseen circumstances, the efforts and access to the resource is split between all players and gathered into one single pool from which then everyone can take them.
Parts are the combination of various commodities related to shipbuilding represented into a single imaginary unit that does not exist ingame. The Parts commodity is an alternative to ingame credits as the current economy system makes it too easy to generate wealth while avoiding player interaction. For that purpose Parts are only acquired in a few ways, all of which require players:
• You can salvage parts from destroyed player ships.
• ‘Ripping off’ bits of equipment from ships without destroying them.
• You can have other player groups provide you with parts via forum roleplay.*
Parts are used for:
• The initial creation of your ship of choice. Each ship type has its own ‘’cost’’.
• The repair of your ship in the event of it being blown up.
*Usually forum roleplay regarding delivering parts is making custom bonuses per unit on delivering some sort of cargo. The parts needed to build a ship is multiplied by x1 000 000. For example, if you want to obtain parts to construct a large transport (50pts), you will need to set a bonus of 50 million credits to whoever accepts your contract.
The overall count of available parts is being tracked by a Google document linking to individual message dump reports.
Each ship type has its own unique amount of parts that are needed for the ship to be built, for the ship to be repaired in the case of it being destroyed and the amount that is ‘’salvaged’’ from destroying other ships or stealing equipment.
Below is a chart showing how much parts are needed for the creation, repair and how many are salvaged from what types of ships.
The current values are being tested and may be a subject to change
Ship Type:
# of parts to construct:
# of parts to repair
# of parts salvaged from
Fighters
10
5
5
Bombers
20
10
5
Freighters
20
10
5
Small & Medium Transports
40
20
5
Gunboats & Gunships
60
30
15
Large Transports & Liners
50
25
5
Cruisers & Destroyers
150
75
35
Battleships & Carriers
500
250
50
Equipment
-
-
-
Faction Sponsored SRP
Due to the nature of our group and focus on progressing your individual characters, the faction's bank will be used to fund the 250mil SRP application requests for faction members. While the specifics and terms of these sponsorships will vary based on the person involved, the overall goal of this system is to promote the person's investment and the chance to ''have nice things'' as a subsequent result of their RP efforts. Obviously, the roleplay backing up the SRP claim is completely up for the individual to decide and work on. Members are also allowed to contribute to the bank to help sponsor their faction buddies in the future. Right now this is the only use for the faction bank.
Recruitment
Due to the focus on character RP and development, all potential recruitees are strongly encouraged to create a character and get some ground work regarding their motivations and ambitions before you send in an application. Get some forum and ingame RP going, get some ties and once that is done - post them in the recruitment thread. While you can have your character join with any ship you want, the moment you start flying with us, you will be placed under the restrictions of the Parts system. Meaning that if you choose to join with a large ship such as a gunboat or even a cruiser, chances are that you will need to put in much more effort not to drain the shared stock of parts other members have gathered. As such, joining with a smaller ship is easier.
The faction has started off with 8 ''slots'' for members and the number of participants will increase along with the amount of slots we have. We will be letting in two people at a time and allowing them acclimatize to the faction itself and its workings. The same is expected the other way around, allowing existing members to get to know both the player and the character they have. This is, again, one of the unique features of the group as it lacks a strict hierarchy and the characters interact on a level field.
1. Frederik Myleson
2. Ji Reilly
3. Philip Holman
4. Zoé "Wrench Wench" Blackburn
5. Ezekiel "Zeke" Sanchez
6. Sadie Fiddick
7. (Name to be decided)
8. VACANT
9. VACANT
10. VACANT
Notes
Overall, think of this group as a D&D session. You are given a brief description of the setting as wel as some tools. Now it is up to you to see where it progresses to.
Project shelved. Refer to this thread for further details.
(12-26-2015, 04:26 PM)astroicecream Wrote: I understood how Part system works, but how will people acquire their starting ships?
The starting ships will be provided by the Lane Hackers . Obviously, this does not necessarily mean that the ships given to us to start off with will be Z-Line ones or even ships that the Rogue ID can use without a nerf. The existing members will then pick out the ones they will be able to use best.
Individual Wrote:My question is, how the faction activity could be tracked if you don't have a tag?
While seeing if you can get an untagged group official is one of the OORP goals, it will not be the focus of the group. While it is a motivator in most cases, it often overshadows and distracts people from evolving their own characters first, rather than the faction itself. And since the faction will gain benefit for fleshed out characters (but not the other way around), primary focus is allowing players to put their effort into their rogue characters first.
We are also hoping for once/if the group is ready to apply for officialdom, that the Dev team will have found alternative ways to track faction activity. If that is not the case, an ex admin has stated:
[2015.12.26. 22:27:35] XXXX: They can check individual ships. That's how it was done before the auto tracker.
Project shelved. Refer to this thread for further details.
(12-26-2015, 04:26 PM)astroicecream Wrote: I understood how Part system works, but how will people acquire their starting ships?
The starting ships will be provided by the Lane Hackers . Obviously, this does not necessarily mean that the ships given to us to start off with will be Z-Line ones or even ships that the Rogue ID can use without a nerf. The existing members will then pick out the ones they will be able to use best.
Project shelved. Refer to this thread for further details.
After a bit more testing on unrelated characters, I changed the value for large transports and liners. The reason being that due to silent traders, these ships would probably get killed much more often than any other on the list and thus cause economic issues in a similar manner as NPC piracy does to closed economy characters.
Also added a Q&A asked earlier on Skype regarding officialdom requests and activity tracking.
To do: Message dump and diplomatic channel.
Project shelved. Refer to this thread for further details.
Woosh! I did not expect this group to fill up so quickly. We currently have 8 (hopefully active) members in total, so we will be focusing on establishing these characters and the group ties to other factions first, before opening up the recruitment once more.
Project shelved. Refer to this thread for further details.
Thank you for the feedback!
After a brief consideration over on TS, the topic of Reputation came up.
We are thinking to keep the overall repsheet completely standard, but list any official and unofficial groups belonging to default neutral/friendly factions as Neutral. Since establishing ties from the ground up and doing RP with groups is one of our intended short term goals, it will be an interesting thing to do.
A list of the encountered groups and diplomacy will be updated as things progress.
EDIT: Also, not really related to Dawson, but I quickly bumped the old message dump thread which was reverted back after the forum wipe. It is now open to all indie rogues and allied factions and is a mix of a message dump and a watering hole for general communications.
Project shelved. Refer to this thread for further details.
This faction really gets my attention, i love it.
Parts idea -GENIUS
I enjoy RP over PvP any day, so a mix of the two but focus on RP? For a pirate faction.
Sign me Up
Yet i like that you have closed recruiting, despite that its just for testing at the moment.
It filters the different kind of people and i like the idea.
Maybe Tweak the idea for fighters and bombers with parts to make things not to easy.
But overall, one of the best factions i have seen for a very long time.
Tell me when i can join, i am very interested to put my RP skills to the test, this faction is a god send.
![[Image: ebopcZ2.png]](http://i.imgur.com/ebopcZ2.png)
![[Image: Greed.gif]](http://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/Greed.gif)
