If you want to hear my opinion, I'd completely scrap idea of official factions. They made sense when server population was so big you couldn't even join server at 200 limit. Nowadays it would be better to simply go "whatever player faction wants to fill the niche" and get rid of system in which players log in numbers one day in a longer period while servers lay barren.
I'd like to point out that forum roleplay should also be a fair criteria for the factions' activity.
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All fine, all nice, each guy blaming other ones for their problems.
Lets be honest? Let me tell a "tale"
Once upon a time, "Felipe the Noob" ended leading a mining faction. It wasnt a big faction, basicly was just him there still.
Said faction was very disliked by everyone, and was in very bad shape. After quite some mess, lot of work, effort and recruiting, said faction begin hitting first position in activity.
And then "Felipe the Noob" used hear everyday that was way easier get more people in mining faction than in "normal factions" and that said faction where just "mindless powertraders".
"Felipe the Noob" tried point to those guys saying such rude things the RP his faction been doing, but it was pointless, as the "Self-proclaimed Knights of RP" discarded that as "low quality" and no one wanted help/advice.
Well, one day our Noob got imprisioned by an evil witch,and when come ack, wasnt feeling like sticking to that crappy unpaid job of faction leader, so he put another poor soul at the lead of that said faction.
As punishment for imposing such suffering to another soul, Mister Fate simply proved its power, when made "Felipe the Noob" take lead of a "Normal faction" that had 14 mins of activity in a month. And basicly 4 members that where active *on chat*.
Hes getiing more and more guys everyday, and for "The Noob" it dont really seems harder get recruits in Combat faction than was in "mindless powertrading faction".
It seems to him, that the problem is that *some* faction leaders dont want bother helping, training, teaching and eventually end blamed by noobs mistakes.
It seems to him that many leaders are used to higher populated times when they could pick up just the finest guys around.
If the rewards proposed could help? Yes they could.
What could help more? Well i dont want be rude but i dont know a nice way to say this: ***EFFORT***
PS: *Stay tuned on adventures of "Felipe the Noob", hes usually making drunk mess around.*
A toy that generates activity is logic. Logically, pirates should not have capital ships. They do not have any technology, no resource base, no human base, no shipyards as a whole.
Logically, Red Hessians should not have so many battleships. The first 3 battleships were played inRP, now we just buy Hessain ID and can use this BS ( if we can buy it for some moneys ). If the Red Hessians took the battleship from Rheiland (sabotage) after the war with Liberty, when Rheiland was weakened, then it would be a logical RP-game, entailing the consequences.
Previously, the game was a clash of interests, each faction made sense. Now we are seeing how a good faction in the RP ( LWB I mean ) just ceased to exist because of lack of demand. What the hell unclaimed? If you want the RP, this faction is created just for you.
Also, many people say that the Liberty fleet is low in its RP level. Let me clarify that no military faction can have a high level of RP. The level of the RP must be with the state, the military is going to kill and only. Their RP can be shown at the level of interpersonal relations or at the level of battle. Pirate RP can be shown on many levels, because pirates have some interests and tasks, there are clashes of interests (such as the battle between the Corsairs and the Outcasts).
So, the activity is lost because there is nothing to do on the server. You can just buy a ship, learn a couple of phrases and play. That`s everything about Discovery server today. And what do you propose to me to do on the server, where the RP is written in advance story-devs, and ordinary players can not influence anything until they reach the level of the official faction (and that is not the fact that the official faction can`t will bear fruit). No, I'm serious - people say that there's no sense in participating in the official faction. Why? Because the players are counting on influencing the game, and not looking at how for them doing everything story-devs.
Take the war of Rheiland and Liberty. Liberty always lost, but surrender took place in Hamburg. Seriously, I can find a whole collection of videos, where Rheiland Military storming Texas and destroying Liberty's forces in Hamburg ( if they come there ).
P.S.: I would have leave game a long time, but I like this mod. I do not like the actions of the administration and developers.
I think the main question is asking why people want to turn official in first place. The reward in itself is the ability to have a say in Discovery's general development regarding represented factions. And faction rights and Core 5 PoBs and a little bit of other fluffs. If you take these things away, official factions don't differ from unofficial ones. I do think, unpopular opinion, that having these things is already rewarding enough. I'm more concernced about things that are punishing official factions for being what they are - Feedback Threads, for example. Positive things rarely end up there but instead in the Kudos thread or generally remain unvoiced while anything elses either ends up as reports or drama in such threads since everyone, related or unrelated, voices their opinion on unwritten rules and norms. Yesterday, an MRG Valor in Manchester was chased by three Dunkirks and decided to go for the system wall. I think if the BAF/MRG playerbase wasn't the same, that would have had such drama potential. One side asking why the Valor was outnumbered 3:1, the other why that Valor dared to reach for the system wall. And etc.
My suggestions would be the following:
- Bring back monthly faction check-ins
- Remove the forced Feedback Threads
- Don't reward people in Sci-Data because they managed to log their ships
- Remind people of what official factions stand for and what they can do - we're lacking a general overview
- A permanent counter of the faction activity would be nice - one showing the amount of month of a faction being official and one showing their time ingame
- Remind people of what official factions are supposed to do and what not do
Being the leader of a faction that applied for officialdom I can share insight on why we applied for officialdom in the first place. The answer is to have an RP "vote"/"say" on the development of the story of the faction. The RP of discovery is so appealing as compared to other games (say, ESO that some members of the community play) is because you can actually have an impact on the development on in-game world, i.e. dynamic story. One can model diplomacy, inner politics, warfare scenarios, research, you name it. All other benefits of the officialdom, like perks or special ID lines are not the goal themselves, they are means of achieving the primary goal of RP impact. I do realise that there are PvP official factions and trading factions that are not seeking RP impact, usually. Yet even military PvP factions like Mike said want to win a war if they fight, official traders, IMHO, can request a perk of increased profits for certain goods/routes as a return of stocks inRP, whatsoever.
In this regard, small rewards will not solve the issue - logging for the sake of logging and not playing is something very detrimental to server's atmosphere. Either money or scidata will only contribute to logging for the sake of logging, it is not a solution. IMHO, to contribute to the latter what we might benefit from is:
- progressing of the stories. If the story moves nowhere, well, then there is no that appealing dynamic story I have mentioned;
- more RP events, not just mindless pew that can be arranged any time in Connecticut. Or, if it is a pew like that, let it have an RP consequence;
- possibly, more diverse perks for official factions making them truly unique and worth applying for and putting your time into developing the RP of your character/faction. Otherwise, one can just comfortably play as an indie/unofficial and be good without losing nothing.
The main point, though, is story progression. I do realise that the Admin team is not a pantheon of omnipotent gods and can not follow the endless demands of the community. In many cases, however, the players drive the story themselves and the team just need to slightly assist them by, say, editing infocard (possibly, even written by the player and, if is adequate, can be implemented) or announcing some developments via announcer tool. Internal political changes even less so require admin interference, maybe just a verification. IMHO, we need less events with the cultists wherein everyone just rushes for the data and often disregards RP, but more inter-factions events.
I know that the suggestions are not panacea and have drawbacks. I am just sounding my opinion.
P.S. it would be nice if a science faction in-RP can somehow get bonuses out of being a sci-faction. Generating scidata is an option, although a boring and imbalanced one. Maybe a perk to create/use unique equipment, reducing tech-nerf or just some other distinctive in-game features.
I am now reading ideas about reinforcement when getting the official status...
1: Guys, let`s do faction!
2: Why?
3: Yes, why? Interesting RP?
2: Good concept?
3: Maybe - a direct impact on the plot of the game?
1: No!
2,3: Why then?
1: For getting bonuses!
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