Let me add that, as I think about it, the power reductions designed to force role playing are a bad idea. The game is much more interesting if players are not limited to a small subset of ships. No one wants to purchase a crippled ship.
The GMG bomber gets good reviews but I'm never going to fly one, since I have no interest in spending my gaming life in the Sigma systems. If you want to force role playing there are much better ways, For example, offer periodic enlistment and reenlistment bonuses to those who join underrepresented factions and remain in those factions.
(07-25-2018, 02:58 PM)jm02130 Wrote: Let me add that, as I think about it, the power reductions designed to force role playing are a bad idea. The game is much more interesting if players are not limited to a small subset of ships. No one wants to purchase a crippled ship.
The GMG bomber gets good reviews but I'm never going to fly one, since I have no interest in spending my gaming life in the Sigma systems. If you want to force role playing there are much better ways, For example, offer periodic enlistment and reenlistment bonuses to those who join underrepresented factions and remain in those factions.
Whilst you raise a fair point, on the contrary, how is it fair to the GMG faction if there's not a tech incentive to play them and contribute actively to the region? It's something I always found annoying about Pirate ID'd Ascos: there's probably more Pirate ID'd Ascos across than actual UC/Brigand ID'd Ascocs in Gallia.
It seems to me that a cash incentive to play the GMG faction would work just as well. You could also make GMG ships much more expensive for players who do not belong to the faction. And instead of the usual "you must be on friendlier terms to purchase this," increase the price tenfold instead of forcing the player to go elsewhere or hunt for a bribe.
Lastly, if you want to encourage faction membership instead of freelancing, make the faction licenses relatively inexpensive. At the moment, the freelancer license is just a catch-all for beginners. Use a "recruit" license for beginners (which would have significant restrictions), and price a freelancer license at a million credits or more.
So here is how the enlistment bonuses could work. If I join the GMG (for example) I get a $20M non-transferrable enlistment bonus. If I leave within 6 months, I must pay a 30M credit fine. If I stay for a year and then leave, I must repay the 20M. If I stay for two years, I can leave for free. The hard part would be how to prevent someone from using sendcash to siphon the money away and then delete the character. If you couldn't program the game to restrict the funds transfers (such as by disabling the sendcash function and related functions for that character), you would have to ban the player administratively as punishment.