Forums » Suggestions
Towards a new attitude
Firstly, I am a player. I have access to the same game as everyone else. I would never ask the devs for any special features, guide like powers or other mechanisms to protect an event which is player run and funded.
Secondly, historically, the NW has taken place without interruption because the playerbase felt that suspending other animosities for a couple of hours a week to have a big fight was a fun thing to do. This can only work where there is a small playerbase. The same is true of all player behaviour, not interrupting duels or 1v1 fights , etc. Essentially, flying into a NW or PVP sector and swarming is easy to do, and in practice unpreventable by normal means.
Thirdly, the NW has been popular because there was not much else going on. If the player base expands and real piracy and hostilities build up in space, then the playerbase will have large scale combat action to enjoy, and the need for player run events is obviated.
Fourthly, increase the availability of combat style missions in grey space. There are many ways of doing this. Get the code for Border Patrol working properly and have BP style missions available in grey would be one simple suggestion. Extend Nation v Nation BP to Faction v Faction BP. Put an itani outpost in ukari, a serco one in pelatus and have a couple of BS sectors in grey.
Lastly, update the communications system. 100 only works when there is a small number of players on. Get a few hundred in space and it would become unreadable. Of late it has just become juvenile spam anyway. A universal "chat" channel with very limited access would in any case add to RP immersion, reducing the feeling that one is in a chat room with a space game attached, rather than a space game with a communication system .
I realise that in the short term we are left with a smallish playerbase and no practical way of running player based events. Hopefully we will move to a larger playerbase fully occupied fighting their way across space to make a living, which is , I believe the game that GS are trying to create.
Ecka
Secondly, historically, the NW has taken place without interruption because the playerbase felt that suspending other animosities for a couple of hours a week to have a big fight was a fun thing to do. This can only work where there is a small playerbase. The same is true of all player behaviour, not interrupting duels or 1v1 fights , etc. Essentially, flying into a NW or PVP sector and swarming is easy to do, and in practice unpreventable by normal means.
Thirdly, the NW has been popular because there was not much else going on. If the player base expands and real piracy and hostilities build up in space, then the playerbase will have large scale combat action to enjoy, and the need for player run events is obviated.
Fourthly, increase the availability of combat style missions in grey space. There are many ways of doing this. Get the code for Border Patrol working properly and have BP style missions available in grey would be one simple suggestion. Extend Nation v Nation BP to Faction v Faction BP. Put an itani outpost in ukari, a serco one in pelatus and have a couple of BS sectors in grey.
Lastly, update the communications system. 100 only works when there is a small number of players on. Get a few hundred in space and it would become unreadable. Of late it has just become juvenile spam anyway. A universal "chat" channel with very limited access would in any case add to RP immersion, reducing the feeling that one is in a chat room with a space game attached, rather than a space game with a communication system .
I realise that in the short term we are left with a smallish playerbase and no practical way of running player based events. Hopefully we will move to a larger playerbase fully occupied fighting their way across space to make a living, which is , I believe the game that GS are trying to create.
Ecka
As always, well said Ecka.
Though I do think that having an empty arena/event sector or two would be beneficial in the long term. To-the-death (not to-the-broke) tournaments should have a way of being protected, as they will always have place in the game I think.
Though I do think that having an empty arena/event sector or two would be beneficial in the long term. To-the-death (not to-the-broke) tournaments should have a way of being protected, as they will always have place in the game I think.
We're trying to expand BS into grayspace. That's what dynamic warfare.. is. Dynamic conflicts between different factions. But we keep getting hampered or distracted by one issue or another. (BS taking up too much CPU, memory leaks, running too slowly, server crash issues, billing system outages, userbase drama, etc).
We cannot simply limit chat. We did that before (100 rate-limited, System and Sector chat and off-channels unlimited), back around release time, when we did frequently have more than 100 players online. The problem was that new people were often unaware that anyone else was playing, as the universe is too freakin' big, and they didn't see anyone, and they saw very little chat. If someone has a distinct, new suggestion about how to address this, I welcome it in another, more specific Suggestions thread. But most of the related ideas, to date, have been shot down because they're naive. Yes, some of the current traffic on 100 is little more than spam, but /ignore persists, and trivially cuts down on people you don't want to hear from.
Relating specifically to NW: as was pointed out in the "Abuse" thread, it is entirely possible for you to handle signups separately, and then msg people about the location at the last minute. This has apparently been done before, successfully. There is always the chance of people leaking the location, of course, but in all likelihood this would be fairly effective. Changing circumstance requires adaptation; if one doesn't have all the options available that one would like, one "makes do". I fail to see that we are left with a situation that leaves "no practical way of running player based events". We have had trolls and griefers many times, over the years, and people have always adapted.
Lastly, I welcome input on ways that we can improve the game and enable the generation of more interesting gameplay, be it player-organized or otherwise. This is, of course, our long-standing position. But I cannot drop everything to deal with this current NW-related drama. Hopefully we'll have an Event registration system this week, and with some luck we can build a few things off of it to improve this situation. But the time constraints involved in creating a wholly-encompassing Event system with fully instanced sectors and so on.. are sufficiently large that I can say we basically won't be doing that in the near term. We can hope for some mitigating changes (I'm not sure what, I need to see how this Event registration thing goes, and then talk more specifics with the guys when we aren't all busy with current projects). Hopefully, somewhere between mitigating changes and playerbase-adaptation, there is room for such gameplay to continue.
We cannot simply limit chat. We did that before (100 rate-limited, System and Sector chat and off-channels unlimited), back around release time, when we did frequently have more than 100 players online. The problem was that new people were often unaware that anyone else was playing, as the universe is too freakin' big, and they didn't see anyone, and they saw very little chat. If someone has a distinct, new suggestion about how to address this, I welcome it in another, more specific Suggestions thread. But most of the related ideas, to date, have been shot down because they're naive. Yes, some of the current traffic on 100 is little more than spam, but /ignore persists, and trivially cuts down on people you don't want to hear from.
Relating specifically to NW: as was pointed out in the "Abuse" thread, it is entirely possible for you to handle signups separately, and then msg people about the location at the last minute. This has apparently been done before, successfully. There is always the chance of people leaking the location, of course, but in all likelihood this would be fairly effective. Changing circumstance requires adaptation; if one doesn't have all the options available that one would like, one "makes do". I fail to see that we are left with a situation that leaves "no practical way of running player based events". We have had trolls and griefers many times, over the years, and people have always adapted.
Lastly, I welcome input on ways that we can improve the game and enable the generation of more interesting gameplay, be it player-organized or otherwise. This is, of course, our long-standing position. But I cannot drop everything to deal with this current NW-related drama. Hopefully we'll have an Event registration system this week, and with some luck we can build a few things off of it to improve this situation. But the time constraints involved in creating a wholly-encompassing Event system with fully instanced sectors and so on.. are sufficiently large that I can say we basically won't be doing that in the near term. We can hope for some mitigating changes (I'm not sure what, I need to see how this Event registration thing goes, and then talk more specifics with the guys when we aren't all busy with current projects). Hopefully, somewhere between mitigating changes and playerbase-adaptation, there is room for such gameplay to continue.
I remember the Big Silence! It was fun (and somewhat creepy).
incarnate, maybe you can, at some point in the future, add a limitation to chat again, once there are enough players, with messages in nice, friendly letters (or even sexy female voiceovers � la MechWarrior, so the average nerd listens better) telling people to limit their chatter or else their brain starts leaking (or somesuch).
incarnate, maybe you can, at some point in the future, add a limitation to chat again, once there are enough players, with messages in nice, friendly letters (or even sexy female voiceovers � la MechWarrior, so the average nerd listens better) telling people to limit their chatter or else their brain starts leaking (or somesuch).
As far as the 100 issue goes I have a simple way of dealing with it. I ignore it. Then when two people inevitably start shouting at each other like retarded children, I add one or both of them to the ignore list. If... (or more likely, when)... this idiocy infects others, /leave 100 works just fine.
i have an idea for the communication problem, and i know it has been suggested before. throw the newbs in a guild. when they first become a part of the vo universe, have them in a starter guild, and since it is a starter guild, it doesnt need a commander or council, it doesnt do anything except to provide a place where new members to talk to other new members and anyone else who decided to stay in it. however, all of this is pointless until we have more than 19 players online.
[EDIT] 18 Players (10am EST) [/EDIT]
[EDIT] 18 Players (10am EST) [/EDIT]