Ok, had this idea for awhile and posted it once or twice. but squadrons in Vendetta.

Possiblities:
The formation of small groups of players from one or more nations in working together for a common goal such as trading, pirating hunting, pirating, defense, just playing with a group of people you know and trust, etc.


Thoughts on it:
1. The person's account would be added to this, rather then individual pilots. This would mean that even if you made a new pilot, members of your squadron would be able to identify it as you and avoid shooting you should say... they are capping a flag and you are on a new char of another nation.

2. Friendly Fire turned off. This would allow multiple nation groups to do activities such as pirating hunting without endangering themselves, or accidental shots while covering from a bot, etc.

3. Mutual agreement. All squadron members would have to agree on those in it(say requiring them to do a command such as /add_squadron "account name"). This would also help cut down on leadership quarrels I would think. Leaving a squadron would be as simple as say /leave_squadron or similar, and do not need confirmation from the rest.

4. One squadron at at time. One person(account) couldn't be in two groups at once, and due to #3, it would be more difficult to switch between squadrons on a whim.


I got more ideas on this, but since my ISP is on the frizt, they'll have to wait a bit.

These should at least get some ideas thrown around by players.

I think this is the general idea of guilds, which the devs have mentioned as being in store for us.

There might be a way to add clan names ("[ABC]" Bacix Tenra) to your name, without creating a new character.

Nation-based squadrons wouldn't need the bit about friendly fire and all, since they operate based on an allegiance to nation, not squadron (Serco Fighters come to mind).

However, with a team 0, it would be useful to disable friendly fire between a certain group.

I would have it that the leader of a squadron has the sole power of kicking out and letting in players. A player could leave on his own however, but not join.

FYI Don't forget Dragos as we mentioned, turn ON Friendly fire now for nations.

Also would be nice if you could declare war/peace/alliances between squads.

If friendly fire was enabled for nations it would be an absolute disaster. Accidental shootings would destroy friendships and partnerships. Enemies would log on as a pilot of your nation so they could kill you in your home sector and repair in your home station.

Asp

Then maybe we limit people to one character, no?

sircamps, no real way to distingush a leader, and as such, itd be a better base of a mutual pact between players. Having single leaders would be more apt to create ill feelings.

asp, i dont think so. it would certainly make people more aware of where they are shooting. also, if your home sector is 7, whats to keep me from repeatedly killing you there? i find a problem with all these people thatll just launch rockets and all from a distance while a teammate is engaged with 2-3 others. FF turned on would cause them to think a bit more, because if that teammate dies, those people gonna come after them

get people to watch their shots more.


Also, forgot to mention, the ability to bring up a scoreboard type thing that lists where members are(not listed if offline) and who they are. This alone would keep squadrons a bit smaller because if you cant trust them not to announce a new name, should you not want it anounced, dont be in it.

Also with FF on, you should turn on mirror (or double mirror) damage. That way, any damage you cause your teammate you cause to yourself.

That leads to some interesting tactics of course :D

oops i nuked the frigate and team peoples were near by and i got killed.

riiiiiight...

Called communication SL. IE in team say mode "NUKE AWAY!" or my favorite from TFC "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!"

That would be funny, cause I can't tell you how many times I've had the flag and the people chasing me have loaded quad flares into eachother's backs, it often kills them just with the splash damadge.
On the other hand it's fun to shoot team mates every now and then... just for fun or to get their attention.

I agree that itd be nice to have FF on with your nation. it would create some interesting faction wars, not to mention being more realistic(yse, FF off on squadrons isnt as, but have the damage distributed then, half to the target, half back on yourself)

I suspect that if you turn FF on without a game supported reputation system, that you will very quickly change you mind about how 'nice' it is.

I agree. Even *with* a reputation system, FF will cause problems (unless the rep system is VERY well implemented).

Think about this: People gripe like crazy because of people changing teams to clear mines. Now imagine a player changing teams, popping out of your home base and station-nuking you with an avalon just as you are about to dock. The devs would have to bbuy a bigger web server to handle all the "I quit" posts. :-)

hehe, FF on without reputation system.. ive played games like that for years, including rpg, space combat, strategy, and of course, we cant forget FPS.

however, if you had damage return with that on "invalid" targets, youd find that not as many would be willing to risk firing like that

bump

I still think FF would probably be a bad idea.

In terms of realism it would be cool, but...

1. It would be difficult for some players to avoid shooting their teammates. FF incidents would cause teammates to grow absolutely furious with eachother! I don't think the community would survive this.

2. I mentioned that players from team A could make characters on team B and start shooting people in their home sector. Dragos mentioned that they could kill someone repeatedly in 7 without switching teams, but I don't think that's a counter to this point. In the future space will be very large. Nation territory will be very large. It would be easier to infiltrate Itani space into sector 1 as an Itani than as a Serco. Then you could go to the huge newbie traning ground and start blasting away before being ganged up on.

3. There could be even more exploitations of FF. Imagine two Itani pilots want to lay a trap for Serco pilots. One Itani could make a Serco account. Then he could put out a distress call. As the rescuing Serco approaches, the two Itani could fake a dogfight. Then, once he's in range, the ship he thinks he's rescuing could shoot him in the back.

As far as "damage return" goes, that removes any gain in realism that adding friendly fire would provide.

Do we want to be on guard when you encounter a member of your own nation in deep space, or be happy to see a friendly ship? Too many lamers would get a huge kick out of friendly fire.

Asp