My main criticism is of what it always is...activities. As far as I'm concerned, all of these recent base purges are the result of boredom, and a lack of real activity to keep players focused on more important aspects of their RP and faction MO's.
Its plain and simple, POB's get so much attention from those willing to destroy them, because they are the only semi-permanent objects in the game that can be destroyed at all. People here seem to love having these things to fight over. to succeed in taking out, but they also fight to prevent new activities, and it keeps the place not flowing right.
I have pleaded for and outlined tons of potential activities that would give factions with high numbers and firepower more to shoot than just POB's. So, although the mechanics are Dev side, GM's please supporting creating some actual scenarios, to make the same kind of battles as POB's but, if ships are used, be of something less invested in. A capship can be dropped in, and removed. Challenge some factions. If these factions really care so much, they should be willing to put their efforts into their own upkeep.
These players need a new wheel to push. Without going into too much detail, we need mortal base ships, placed in important locations, that will have an effect if left alone. Example, 2 battleships take up position inside an opposing factions system, blocking a jumphole. Yes, the fight would really be over a route. Long story short, the battles will be around those points, and not POB's quite as often. A simple set of rules to go with how fast disposable base ships get replaced, moved, etc is all thats needed to then keep the ball rolling. I believe this will help solve a lot of issues here. Players repeatedly fight over technicalities to get on the same page in situations they only bother with because its the only option like it. Give us another, make them care, or prove who really cares about their faction and who doesn't, if they decide to do nothing.
^ Wrong thread for that discussion bro. But I'll still bite, cause I'm a sucker for this kind of discussion.
I agree more events where one side has to defend something would actually be good for the server activity. Every time I see a bored cap AFKing outside 'Hattan I get sad because the guy obviously has nothing to do but hope that some randoms will log to gank him.
Sieges obviously help with that activity but there is very little incentive to join defenders because the battles are usually pretty one-sided. One side is organized with the goal of destruction, and the defenders - usually lawful factions have to "pretend to care".
And there's the ownership issue. The f*** you, got mine mentality. If you actually had to defend something for which existed a common sense of ownership, such as you faction's battleship or a vital trade corridor / commodity source you might actually see much more balanced numbers.
Can Game Masters explain why this new rule puts another restriction on lawfuls when it come to taxing legal POBs in comparison to unlawfuls who can siege POB without any demands?
Some stuff from Discord sever, GM lounge. Maybe Game Masters missed all of it so here it is, again:
07/04/2020
Still no answer about why "reasonable POB demands" rule was added when unlawfuls don't need any demands to attack POBs. So far this rule change appears to be directed at houses, Champ even pointed out how Liberty prices are close to dangerous (no more than 50M per month) while most unlawfuls ask at least 50M per month.
07/04/2020
If Game Master points out how Liberty has high prices (https://i.imgur.com/mGQE1dM.png) while unlawfuls were demanding more, or sieging without demands, then the staff is obviously shortsighted and puts another dent in lawful influence in their own ZOI. Lawfuls are already restricted from sieging non-hostile POBs in red systems, and can't tax POBs in yellow systems. Which means that unlawfuls can siege more POBs and without demands if they choose to. Which means that staff once again fucks over lawfuls only.
Yesterday at 8:32 AM
It has been some time since you ignored what reasonable demand from POB is and why was it added, if unlawfuls don't need demands to siege anything. On the same subject, how is Liberty asking no more than 50M per month from POB is worse than unlawfuls asking no less than 50M per month.
I have some concerns about the quality of the most recent update.
While I'm not gonna question the reasonableness of a Kusari invasion into Gallia (even though, lol) and the fact of it happening, the way it's been handled is, to my eyes, just below any standards.
Because, well, as far as I can see, all that's happened is someone hit a joint in a discord server and went like "bruh wouldn't it be kewl if they started shooting each other"
It seems to me like all that was done here was change the reps of KNF and Defence Forces to hostile against each other, moved some solars and called it a day. That's really not enough to make a change this big. It's not a way to start a war.
There was no RP, no CNS message, no anything done before the war that would in any way guide the players on what they're actually fighting for. It's a no-casus-belli war for no reason whatsoever. If it's a war for Kusari expansion, well, it seems to me like Kusari is already quite large: it's a house with the most controlled systems with the exception of Liberty. If it's a war due to some kind of provocation, it would be cool to have it mentioned somewhere, on the forums or in the infocards.
Speaking of infocards, this is another absolutely appalling omission. No infocards seem to have been updated for the war. All the KNF battleships have the old infocards. Hamamatsu is still patrolling New Tokyo in Tau-53. Matsumoto is fighting off Blood Dragons and GC in the nebulas of Hokkaido while stationed in Lorraine. There is no mention of the KNF takeover of La Charite. Nothing. It's really bad optics.
There are a number of other small gripes - no rephack changes to respective corporations. IDF can still dock in Kusari, even though for every war before the rephacks were adjusted to at least no-dock. I don't think I need to say how little sense it makes for KNF to let through the frontline transports of the House they're currently sieging down.
I mean, there is no dev feedback thread, so I guess it's legit to post it here and call devs for an answer. Just make it staff feedback thread.
Kusari's invasion of Gallia is very weird concept-wise and execution, well, execution is very poor too for far, as Prot pointed out. It's been a massive activity, but it also feels like a massive mindless pew in conn because casus belli is just outright idiotic and the rest of the background is not much better. Plot twist are only cool when they are done properly.
Infocards generally falling behind the development, but I see infocard lead, at the moment it's Markam, doing everything, but not noticing how poor things in his own department is going.
At risk of alienating people and probably not helping my own "case", I do not understand why the recent faction creation requests have not been given their verdict. The staff has 3 months to evaluate the faction and lets be honest, in that time-frame you already have a pretty good idea about the pending factions. The staff has previously issued their verdicts the same day the trial period has elapsed or before the time has even elapsed yet at this moment Daumann is already waiting more than a week and I am being stone-walled with "still voting". Saying that we are pretty demotivated at the moment would be an understatement.
The term gamemaster is/was a very transparent attempt, from a certain small group (none of whom I am addressing), at pushing a narrative of "new management" (which is an incredibly arrogant term in itself) and distancing our new "staff" (again, arrogant) and mighty overlords from the admins they took the server from, to make us all believe how great and awesome they were going to make Discovery.
It's an awful, horrible word, and the colour is just plain wrong.
I think you should rename the role back to Server Administrator and change the colour back to its old green.
I'd like to thank the GMs for helping me with a variety of issues over my time back here, from purchasing a cultist engine from someone who won it in the Unleashing a Monster event (Connor) to helping me recover my banks following an unforced error of mine which corrupted my access to them (Ramke) and one of my ships setting off the anti-cheat due to a patch changing the gun class from class 9 to class 8 while they still had codenames mounted (Ramke again). Even though I dont personally know any of you, it's great to have helpful GMs on-hand to deal with things, sometimes on short notice.
Much unlike my buildings insurance, which I'm having difficulty even contacting right now!