Opinion: Discovery's Problems

[Enkidu]

You should rename yourself to The Wall of Text Guy. Literally every post you make rivals a Tanith, excluding the verbosity.

YAY! I'm disco famous.

Let me write 5k word essay on how that makes me feel.

Edit: I have my own copy-pasta now?



Fantastic. This will have t̷̼̟͗̆͌̿̄̿́̃̏́͠͝ḩ̴̮̬͉̜̯̘̤̏̌̏̈́̆͛͒̀͒̕ḛ̸̟̲͍̙̖̲̖͋̂̉̈́̂͋̀͋ ̴̡̢̰͚̣̦̲͚͍͖̓̇̈́̿̐͊̀̿͐̽͜ͅo̶̢̢̻̮̻͇͚̱̲̣͖͖̱̻̎͐p̵̡̧͕̻̳̝̬̩̜͉̼͚͚̫͉͒͐́̊͂p̵̨̬̘̻͂̀̄̂͌̓̆͜ͅo̷̧̨̯͔̜̞̯̠̩̣̠̎ͅs̷̮̼̰̹̤͙̖̣̔̈́̄̓̐͛̾̽i̶̪̝̥͙̩̱͙̲̹̘̯̓̋͆̂̾́̓̈̑t̴̡̛̬̯̯̱̟͉͉̮̹͙̽̉̊͛̃̽̊̍̅̚͝͠ȩ̴̳̣̭̹̱̹̙͇̩̈̅̾̀͊̚͜͠ ̸͚̞̿͊̔̐̑͐͛̎͌̓́͑̈́͛͆ͅő̵͚͎͎͖̣̪̱̮́̋͂̓͊͂̏̑̈̈́̏̓͝f̴̢̡̧̯̖̯͎̙̤̦͕̺̉̽̌͌̅̾̑̇͊͘̚͝ͅ ̶̻̹̝͍͒̍̓̍͆̚͠͠t̶̠̐̾h̴̩̱̠̎͋͜ͅè̵͎̪͖̮̬̘̩̓͂̅̕͜͠ ̶̢̨̙͓͈͕̠͚̝̫̬̑̏͊̈́͆͒͆̉͝d̷̮̳̜̠̹̙̟̤̣̣͉̖̲͗̈̔̾͛͑͜͝e̸̢̢̫̤͓̼̰̞͇̮̫̞̅̕͜ş̸̧̨̝̖̯̹̻̲̜̹̖̦̫̖͂̏̔͛̊͐̄̕͝͝͠ī̷̛̛̪͇̻̟̹̓̏̎̀͛̑̌͜͜͝r̸̪̤̟̘̅e̷̘͚̙͙̯̟̺̽͑̏̎̓͘ͅď̸̡͇͓̼̞͍̝̮̱͉̅͑̾̊̉̈́̉̽͂͜ ̵̨̫̠̲̬̀͗̍̂̂͂̋̊͂̽̒͌͠ȩ̸̣͙̙̞̳͇͕̜̱͇̓͆͆͆̒́̀̌̄̈́̐̊͜͠͝f̸̹̩̘͓̠̫́̅́̒̔̈̓͐̃f̶̧̧͕̱̝̞͕͇̳̮̒̿̌͘͜e̴̩̲̫͇̞̳͐̌̄̾̾̓̑́c̷͇̻̻̯̩̳̲̦͙̎̒̀̇̓̒ṫ̷̮̊̈́͊̽͠.

I think the worship of intentional ignorance is a good example of the problem. It Shows that you don't want to bother, and that there is no respect for someone else.

On a serious note, I agree with this. To add to it, there needs to be more InRp camps (Lawfuls, unlawfuls, revolutionaries, terrorists, National corporates, Autonomous corporates, etc), than OORP camps (people who think RP or PVP get in each other's way, people avoiding certain activity types or trying to punish people using certain game mechanics, etc, people looking for exploits and meta-avenues, the whole the-system-is-the-enemy thing). I miss the days when Bowex and Gateway schemed against each other. Imagine if Kishiro and Samura did that in player RP, not just NPC RP. Would be amazing.

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[Groshyr]

Samura dock

[jammi]

I miss the days when Bowex and Gateway schemed against each other. Imagine if Kishiro and Samura did that in player RP, not just NPC RP. Would be amazing.

The Border World Exports corporation strongly repudiates any allegations of "scheming" in respect of its lessers.

On a slightly more sombre note, I'm not sure if any of these issues can be held up as the thing killing Discovery, per se, or even as things that would boost server pop if rectified. Being able to take an extremely long view, there has never been a period where these factors were not in play - ever. The server pop high water marks of .85 and .86 were developed with minimal player input, excepting maybe furious backchannel lobbying and scheming by official faction leaders.

Development has always proceeded along preordained lines, primarily because the actual work of preparing updates is too slow and cumbersome to effectively reflect the fast paced and fluid nature of player RP and diplomacy. There's also the fact that players frequently do not consider or accept the inhibitions or constraints that affect their NPC factions' activities, when devs are obliged to.

Frankly, the main thing affecting Disco is the sheer age of the game. Nothing lasts forever, but people have been making 'final nail' jokes since at least 2010. You get less people joining because there's no easily accessed pipeline of players being introduced to Freelancer as the base game any more.

It came out 17 years ago - there are fully grown gamers playing other stuff who were born after Freelancer was released. Short of GOG magicing up rights to sell Freelancer, or some kind of absolutely bonkers community led advertising campaign, any changes we make are still going to be about managing an increasingly depleted pool of current players.

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[Loyola]

1. Lack of closed roleplay/immersion:

I know many see it as completely unreasonable to go back, but the truth is, ditching closed roleplay helped destroy this place. It now lacks completely substance and depth. Apparently everyone should just belong to every faction. That also underscores though that there is no real depth to any action being done here. There are no real secrets, no one bothers anymore, since its pointless and frowned upon (by the weak, who's only option is to oorp'ly pressure things to be better for them).

Generally the problem is that this server is PvP/PvE server with RP elements and not RP server as it claimed to be. Just amount of RP that is being produced is low. And things that are being produced are for the big part mostly technical and is being done because people "have to" do it. Be it "faction diplomacy" RP or stuff that is being posted in order to get an SRP, etc and not for the sake of RP itself. So in the end it comes down to kind of faceless characters sole purpose of which is to manifest and translate OORP faction/person needs into the RP language.

I did not read your post any further though

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[Kaine]

Discovery could of been saved a long time ago simply by re-implementing the best faction ever made

In the unlikely event that the changes will ever be made. The server cap will be maxed out 24/7 and all the rp or pvp you want will be there

All they had to do was bring back the Phantoms. It's not too late

[Goliath]

My game is poofed so I can't play.

Sad.

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[NixOlympica]

What I miss the most is random unscripted RP one could find in-game. You know, just meeting someone completely random and having a 30 min RP fest with them.

Basically all of current Disco's problem are tied to a small player base. It leads to the sort of incestious RP where a small group of players can basically monopolize the RP activity of half the Sirius and everyone is friends/enemies with everyone.

As Jammi has said, the game is old and the playerbase is small.

[jammi]

It leads to the sort of incestious RP where a small group of players can basically monopolize the RP activity of half the Sirius and everyone is friends/enemies with everyone.

Thinking of which, may I join your faction friend? I hear you're willing to feed my freighter addiction.

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[Groshyr]

All they had to do was bring back the Phantoms. It's not too late

Nice joke. Pretty quality

[Lucas]

Caps are the problem