This isn't the first time I've pitched this, but the mod has evolved since and it may be more workable now. Since the birth of the /restart command which places you in a ship whose stats give them a comparable berth among endgame ships I've been tempted to pitch this across again.
Why don't we remove the 'ladder' from the mod and make all ships' shielding, durability and weapon class ratings comparable to one another? Bring fighter weapon classes down from ten to... let's say four. Four total weapon grades, one to four. Class One being comparable to Class Seven, 2 to 8, 3 to 9, 4 to 10. Do the same for shielding.
Revamp the Starflier into a weak but zippy LF that packs the current equivalent of two Class 7 guns and one Class 8, with a Class 8 LF shield. Remove the player-purchasable Mk 1 vessels from the mod that have had same-model Mk II equivalents made for the sake of balance, and rename those Mk II vessels into their Mk 1 originals.
As for patrols, perhaps make them as powerful as what is found in Rheinland as of now, if not a little moreso with the equivalent of Class 7 weapons and shielding. This would also potentially encourage players to get out of Liberty as the NPCs would suddenly become difficult to ignore.
Upsides would be a much smaller tech ladder to climb to enrich the roleplay experience, and a much smaller mod size. It would also open up several weapon classes for ease of expansion. I'm sure other advantages haven't been made apparent.
Downsides are many. New player ships would be potentially dangerous before said players could know the rules. It would be a lot of work. Not just for a bit of rebalancing, but to recode the patrols of entire houses with new ships and guns. And maybe some strange types just like working up the ladder.
Just throwing this out there for discussion and far, far distant implementation if it gets approved.
"Two things I know; Gravity sucks and Ion Storms blow. And that proves the universe is trying to kill us all" - Barren Waste, Captain of the Wasteland Wanderer
An approximation of my reaction when I see my next victim...er, these forums.
I think this is sort of like the general idea of why ship doubles were made in disco. To even things out.
Sorry to be a darn pessimist though, but I think it would be a lot of work for the developers. Or rather, unwork. Also, people would probably get bored, because usually the aim of most people in a game is to get better, although that shouldn't be the case on an RP server- we would lose alot of noobs.
I think it could be very succsessfull in a differant mod though.
I agree with the idea, but I remember the devs leaving it alone because it wasn't worth the extra work. I do like the idea because it would make certain systems harder for unlawfuls to pass through so casually. But I have to think that the amount of time that needs to be spent rebalancing all the NPC house systems npc ships and spawns would be a lot of work for any team of devs.
Also I have a feeling that some players would start to whine or cry about all the NPCs with sharp shooting SNACs and the swarms of VHFs showing up whenever they enter some systems. Although it is as it should be if Disco were real, I dont think its going to happen so soon. It is on my wish list though
It's not that hard/time consuming to do this, there are only a few low-level ships anyway and changing NPC loadouts/ships doesn't take very long either. Changing mission level would take some time, but that's not needed on the start.
Reason why this wasn't done yet was to make it easier for new players.
But right now there are very good reasons against that:
a) with the new stats on starting ships (above all the Rhino) and the mining possibilities in Pennsylvania it's now very easy to get first 1 mil when starting from scratch. (I did this recently myself to test it). For 1 mil you can buy some MK II HFs which are more than enough to survive/work in an enviroment similar to Rheinland
b) with Pennsylvania system most real newbies that "need" protection are there
So in first step I'd say it should be no problem to change NPCs/ships etc in Bretonia and Kusari to Rheinland level. - Rheinland NPC level is kinda optimal for house space imo, NPCs are not useless, but they are not a big factor either.
Next step could be most of liberty bare pennsylvania. Optionally rest of liberty can be changed to something like current Bretonia or Kusari level.
But this is not only for me to decide. If community as well as most of the developers like it, we could do this.
Igiss says: Martin, you give them a finger, they bite off your arm.
' Wrote:It's not that hard/time consuming to do this, there are only a few low-level ships anyway and changing NPC loadouts/ships doesn't take very long either. Changing mission level would take some time, but that's not needed on the start.
Reason why this wasn't done yet was to make it easier for new players.
But right now there are very good reasons against that:
a) with the new stats on starting ships (above all the Rhino) and the mining possibilities in Pennsylvania it's now very easy to get first 1 mil when starting from scratch. (I did this recently myself to test it). For 1 mil you can buy some MK II HFs which are more than enough to survive/work in an enviroment similar to Rheinland
b) with Pennsylvania system most real newbies that "need" protection are there
So in first step I'd say it should be no problem to change NPCs/ships etc in Bretonia and Kusari to Rheinland level. - Rheinland NPC level is kinda optimal for house space imo, NPCs are not useless, but they are not a big factor either.
Next step could be most of liberty bare pennsylvania. Optionally rest of liberty can be changed to something like current Bretonia or Kusari level.
But this is not only for me to decide. If community as well as most of the developers like it, we could do this.
Please... I beg you... leave Liberty NPCs as they are... I like to be able to RP without getting shredded by NPCs every time I stop to type!
' Wrote:Please... I beg you... leave Liberty NPCs as they are... I like to be able to RP without getting shredded by NPCs every time I stop to type!
I certainly haven't notice being shredded to pieces by NPCs in Kusari or even Rheinland for that matter. All you need to do is keep impulse (or even thruster) on and move the mouse to one corner. After that you never loose shield.
Igiss says: Martin, you give them a finger, they bite off your arm.
ill guess it is ok to make the house low lvl NPC a lvl higher, so liberty defender goes bretonia lvl, bretonia goes Kusari lvl and Kusari to same as rheinland, the same for pirates, but maybe change the start money to 100k, so you can buy a better ship then a CSV,
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe; Einstein Albert.