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Sercos can never become liked by Itani?
I (a Serco) just made an attempt to get on the good side of the Itani and have found it nearly impossible. At the beginning of the beta it was fairly easy at an early level to make a mad dash for Eo and kill two bots to get "Dislike" status. Now you have to kill something like 190 bots to get to "Dislike," but I can accept that. The problem I have is the fact that entering any sector in Eo that has bots (of any kind) invokes the strike force. This means the only only way to gain Itani standing is to kill bots in Deneb, and frankly, I don't have the right combination of skill and patience for that.
One of the reasons for the faction system is to prevent skilled pilots from killing newbies in other factions, but by requiring you to kill bots in Deneb to gain standing, the ONLY Serco players who will gain standing will be skilled pilots.
There's two things I like to do in this game: help newbies and trade. Without access to Itani space, that cuts my helping & trading options by a third. I helped more new Itani players during the beta than Serco & UIT combined.
Yes, I know that my playing style fits with the UIT, but I'm more than a little irked by the fact that this change in gameplay philosophy happened after the final reset. Also, I've been playing Secro for more than 2 years and have developed a loyalty to it.
If it is Guild's long term plan to restrict access to systems/missions/ships/whatever to only certain factions, I'm sure that we'd all like to know about it know before we've put months of work into our characters.
One of the reasons for the faction system is to prevent skilled pilots from killing newbies in other factions, but by requiring you to kill bots in Deneb to gain standing, the ONLY Serco players who will gain standing will be skilled pilots.
There's two things I like to do in this game: help newbies and trade. Without access to Itani space, that cuts my helping & trading options by a third. I helped more new Itani players during the beta than Serco & UIT combined.
Yes, I know that my playing style fits with the UIT, but I'm more than a little irked by the fact that this change in gameplay philosophy happened after the final reset. Also, I've been playing Secro for more than 2 years and have developed a loyalty to it.
If it is Guild's long term plan to restrict access to systems/missions/ships/whatever to only certain factions, I'm sure that we'd all like to know about it know before we've put months of work into our characters.
What do you expect? Itani and Serco are at war.
"If it is Guild's long term plan to restrict access to systems/missions/ships/whatever to only certain factions..."
Why would they bother having different factions if there was no conflict between them? Like Lemming said - Serco and Itani are at war. You can't expect to overcome that easily.
Well, you've been working on your character for 9 or 10 days... restarting now won't be too too painful if you really really need access to Itani space...
Why would they bother having different factions if there was no conflict between them? Like Lemming said - Serco and Itani are at war. You can't expect to overcome that easily.
Well, you've been working on your character for 9 or 10 days... restarting now won't be too too painful if you really really need access to Itani space...
Read the back history. Look at what happened when Bishop Eilon tried to deal peacefully with the Serco, he got fried. SO, whatcha expect? They are after all at war.
Just because you're from a particular nation should not prevent you on an individual level from gaining respect from other nations, even if those nations are, on a larger scale, hostile to your own country.
After all, in a real war, you have spying, defections, moles, mercs who sell out their superiors, etc.
If any missions are ever going to capitalize on this fact, there needs to be a way to 'cross over' or actually open negotiations with the other faction.
The best way, IMO, would be a proxy method, where doing missions for parties that are friendly to the enemy nation, but still neutral to you, would result in slow improvement of the enemy nation's regard for you.
After all, in a real war, you have spying, defections, moles, mercs who sell out their superiors, etc.
If any missions are ever going to capitalize on this fact, there needs to be a way to 'cross over' or actually open negotiations with the other faction.
The best way, IMO, would be a proxy method, where doing missions for parties that are friendly to the enemy nation, but still neutral to you, would result in slow improvement of the enemy nation's regard for you.
I can understand why the Serco start out with "Hate" status. I can understand why I have to get past a huge defensive fleet guarding the Serco-Itani border (but there isn't). I can understand why I have to get past the Goliath Cannon (but there isn't). But why does the strike force defend DenTek Collectors? I could understand if the strike force attacked when there were Itani pilots in the sector, or if the strike force regularly patrolled the system, but what's the logic behind attacking as soon as you enter a sector that contains bots? If they're going to defend some sectors, why not all sectors? If they're going to defend non-station sectors, why do they tolerate hive bots?
If we're going to apply "backstory logic" to the current game mechanics, there's a lot of game features that need an overhaul. (Why can Serco and Itani be in the same guild if they hate eachother so much? Why do Serco and Itani have identical ships & weapons? If ion storms are caused by jump engines, why don't they exist where most jumps happen, near wormholes and stations?) Let's face it: the backstory is nice, but it's not tightly integrated into the current activity in the game. And it's a horrible excuse for why the strike force defends a sector full of DenTek Collectors.
Here's a simple solution:
Add some logic to the strike forces' defense of the botting sectors. If your goal is to make it hard for Serco to kill bots in peace, add regular seeker patrols to the sectors (e.g. once every 20 minutes). If your goal is to protect newbie killing, call in the strike force only when a Secro and Itani are in the same sector (as though the Itani pilot called for backup).
If we're going to apply "backstory logic" to the current game mechanics, there's a lot of game features that need an overhaul. (Why can Serco and Itani be in the same guild if they hate eachother so much? Why do Serco and Itani have identical ships & weapons? If ion storms are caused by jump engines, why don't they exist where most jumps happen, near wormholes and stations?) Let's face it: the backstory is nice, but it's not tightly integrated into the current activity in the game. And it's a horrible excuse for why the strike force defends a sector full of DenTek Collectors.
Here's a simple solution:
Add some logic to the strike forces' defense of the botting sectors. If your goal is to make it hard for Serco to kill bots in peace, add regular seeker patrols to the sectors (e.g. once every 20 minutes). If your goal is to protect newbie killing, call in the strike force only when a Secro and Itani are in the same sector (as though the Itani pilot called for backup).
The goal of strike forces is to stop newb killing.
Your suggestion of only calling strike forces to monitored sectors when there is actually a pilot in those sectors is a good idea. The one problem that would need to be addressed is that strike forces have a slow responce time, so it would be possible for the KoSed pilot to wait in a newb botting sector, get the kill and jump out before the SF arrived.
I'd suggest writing up your suggestion as it applies to preventing people from killing newbs and posting it in the suggestion forums (newb killing is really what the devs are concerned with).
Your suggestion of only calling strike forces to monitored sectors when there is actually a pilot in those sectors is a good idea. The one problem that would need to be addressed is that strike forces have a slow responce time, so it would be possible for the KoSed pilot to wait in a newb botting sector, get the kill and jump out before the SF arrived.
I'd suggest writing up your suggestion as it applies to preventing people from killing newbs and posting it in the suggestion forums (newb killing is really what the devs are concerned with).
Yes, I agree that the result of this discussion should be a post in the suggestion forum. I was going to wait until there was a little more discussion and then I'll post something. Unless a moderator felt the whole discussion should be there, in which case he/she can move it.
As for the slow response of the strike force, the problem is the same today as it would be if one of my suggestions was implemented. Today, if a Serco pilot jumps into a sector with a newbie, the Serco has time to get the kill before the SF arrives. I was using this tactic to knock off a bot or two before jumping to another sector.
As for the slow response of the strike force, the problem is the same today as it would be if one of my suggestions was implemented. Today, if a Serco pilot jumps into a sector with a newbie, the Serco has time to get the kill before the SF arrives. I was using this tactic to knock off a bot or two before jumping to another sector.
Personally, though I may sound insane, I'd much rather have no strike forces available. Within the background there are several instances of other nations slipping thru, if anything should be done as far as an automation is an announcement.
A nation specific channel that X number of X nation have been spotted in X region, not the actual sector though, announced at the time of crossing kind of like the convoys.
I really think that each nation's players should be responsible for patrolling their homeland without automated combat drones and it's up to *us* members of a nation to protect our own.
A nation specific channel that X number of X nation have been spotted in X region, not the actual sector though, announced at the time of crossing kind of like the convoys.
I really think that each nation's players should be responsible for patrolling their homeland without automated combat drones and it's up to *us* members of a nation to protect our own.
And when no one is patrolling people come in kill all the new players, they leave and the devs lose money.