Forums » Suggestions

When Serco/Itani faction standing becomes mutually exclusive

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Jan 21, 2009 diqrtvpe link
This is the thread PaKettle was talking about, I believe. There are some decent ideas in there to peruse, and it is relevant.

On the subject of everyone being able to buy all ships: this makes less sense the more you look at it. Even through Corvus, you shouldn't be able to buy all the ships, slightly changed. Using the example bojan brought up of EV Nova, the only pirate ships you could buy were the basic ships revamped and a few special ones. You couldn't buy pirate Federation ships, or Auroran ships. That wouldn't make sense. You choose a faction to fly as, and you get their ships. As Incarnate said, you have 6 char slots to have a broad range of options, and that means that we DON'T have to have all options available for every player. I mean heck, that's what this change is for! And we've all been clamoring for it! We want the nations to be different! Isn't that the whole point?

As an aside to Incarnate, the thing that strikes me about faction changes due to the faction redux is that someone may have chosen a faction quite some time ago, when it wasn't at all clear that these changes were going to take place. That person may now have a very well-developed character in that nation, who exclusively uses the opposing nation's ships, but does not consider himself a complete traitor to his nation. Requiring him to either make a new character and redo all his hard work, or tank his native standing, in order to keep on using the ships he wants to use seems extremely harsh. In general I agree that faction changes should be used sparingly, but in this situation it would seem appropriate to allow people to choose again if they really wanted to, now that their choice actually means something.
Jan 21, 2009 ingoguy15 link
I think that Scartaris is correct. There should be some system that allows some to have friends on both sides. Family ties, perhaps, or some other system.

Then again, no society in human history was separated for 18 centuries either. No idea as to how the Serco and Itani would work like this. At least in the wars on Earth, we are on the same planet. Their cultures, ideals, hell, even the language has had centuries to grow apart, but they STILL resort to radio for first communications.
Jan 21, 2009 PaKettle link
PaKettle: Hell no. I don't want to have to work that hard to keep my faction. I wouldn't be able to do anything else, just work on faction everyday. And what if i took a week off? It would be even harder. :(

JestatisBess:
But that is exactly the point . you would have to choose which factions to keep and which to ignore... anyone can be pos with anyone but no more pos with everyone....
Jan 21, 2009 Dr. Lecter link
If you idiots would pay attention, you'd see that PaK was suggesting that the faction only decline per X hours of PLAYING time, not real world time.
Jan 22, 2009 Aticephyr link
diqrtvpe said: "As an aside to Incarnate, the thing that strikes me about faction changes due to the faction redux is that someone may have chosen a faction quite some time ago, when it wasn't at all clear that these changes were going to take place. That person may now have a very well-developed character in that nation, who exclusively uses the opposing nation's ships..." (edit: quoted correct person)

That is precisely my problem. For those who haven't figured it out, I am discussing my Serco char (the itani pilot was a front), who fly's with Itani nation-ships about 60% of the time. When I initially made the Serco pilot, I did it knowing I would have access to Itani special ships (once I worked to gain standing of course). Had I thought I were in jeopardy of losing that access, I never would have made that character Serco.

It seems that Incarnate suggested the devs are considering allowing a character such as mine to keep the opposing nation's standing at 800+, while severely crippling that character's home standing. I find that solution completely acceptable (while I lose my POS discount, I think I'll live). As long as I have a choice as to where I lose standing, and can keep 800+ standing with EITHER Itani/Serco, I'll be a happy camper.
Jan 22, 2009 JestatisBess link
Dr. Lecter: You are right i didn't see that.

Aticephyr: diqrtvpe said that not me :)
Jan 22, 2009 PaKettle link
My apologies, I did not make that clear enough. Yes I meant in-game playing time...

The rate of loss should also be proportional to standing. Ie the higher you go the more tush you have to kiss to keep it.

Opposing factions might also be made to lose standing faster.
Jan 23, 2009 incarnate link
Just a heads-up, I don't want to give the wrong impression about exact faction standings that will or won't be possible as a member of another nation. For one thing, I'm not sure yet what they will be. As another, it was my intention to keep the best of the faction-specific equipment limited only to those who are native to the faction. I'm not sure what the "Best" will be exactly, but it would probably include the SkyCommand Prom not being available to Serco-friendly Itani.

That all being said, we will work something out to smooth the transition for existing people. Either changing character nations entirely, or.. some such.

I am aware that some people are going to stockpile ships, and blah blah. That's part of why I created station inventory limits, to at least cap such things to a limited extent during the period of transition. Still, this isn't really a big concern to me, I imagine there'll eventually be some black-market means of acquiring ships occasionally and such. What's most important is simply to get the whole system functioning properly, both for us and for new people. Transitional problems (and mild exploits) we will sort out as we go along. My focus remains on simply trying to make shit Work Right.
Jan 25, 2009 LeberMac link
As long as I can become Orion-aligned instead of Itani-aligned, I will be a happy boy, Inc.
I guess I'll keep my Itani standing, but it is funny that I'm KOS with Itani and Serco and UIT, I wonder what my result will be?

(Probably nothing, I will remain KOS with all three nations.)
Jan 26, 2009 bojansplash link
Just drop that manure into VO ASAP.
Any new faction system is better then this one now.
Jan 26, 2009 Daare link
A curious chain of thought briefly amused me a short while ago.

What if the type and number of ships available on the black market were dependent on the excess manufacturing capacity of each Nation? Further, what if the manufacturing capacity for each type of ship is dependent on the timely delivery of certain critical commodities? So, for instance, Valks would only become available on the black market when there is excess manufacturing capacity for Valks due to a stockpile of the critical components needed to make them - a not completely unrealistic scenario since it would be much easier to "misplace" excess stock of something as closely guarded as a Nation's military arsenal.

Why this amused me is the thought of pirates guarding trade lanes to Nation space (or even hauling themselves) in order to build up that Nation's stockpile of Nation ships so that they could be stolen and then sold on the black market.