Forums » Suggestions

Dividing the sectors...

Oct 18, 2003 CeaddaCompy link
Since any and all suggestions about ways to protect noobs/cargo carriers/anyone not adept at fighting bring nothing but.. oh they should just stay in sector ###. Lets try a different approach to this.

As vendetta expands, were going to end up with a lot of sectors, a lot of safe area's, and a lot of dangerous area's as well. It might be nice to have partial control over what's safe, and what's dangerous.

So the idea is to set each sector, and each ship, in vedetta into one of 3 types.
Ship type 1. Good. Ship/player attains good ratins by killing only ships which fire upon them first, and/or ships that have a rating of Bad.

Ship type 2. Neutral. Ship only fires on other ships in self defense. And/or only at NPC ships for training purposes.

Ship type 3. Bad. Ship fires on all other ships, good, neutral, and bad.

Sector type 1. Safe For Good, Neutral ships. This would include home sectors, safe only to their home nation, and sectors/area's set aside for cargo routes. These sectors would have defense turrets, and NPCDef ships, keeping the ships within the sector safe from all but large scale/group attacks.

Sector type 2. Safe for Good, Neutral. Moderately Safe. These sectors have only turrets to defend passing ships. Turrets are sparse, and good/neutral ships may run to them for defense from attacking pirates. Sector has large gaps in defenses to allow pirate/bad ships to pass through for travel purposes. NPC's in sector attack all ships.

Sector type 3. Undefended. NPC's attack all ships. No turrets or automated defenses of any kind. Anything goes.

Home sectors and waypoints could be set up every x number of sectors in some sort of pattern for well defended, high value trading centers. Lines of Type 2 sectors could run between these points, allowing cargo ships to make relatively safe passage if they so desire. Also, certain area's of vendetta could have less safe routes, more dangerous sectors, and even gaps in the safe trade routes to make things interesting.

To make things extra fair/interesting. Safe-almostsafe routes could be much longer than the dangerous ones, and pay much less for cargo ferried along these routes. While the short, dangerous routes could pay a little bonus.

This would give those who are tired of being shot at, or not good enough to dogfight, a large, fun area to play in, make money, have some target practice and build up there skills, while encouraging players to pass through the difficult area's to earn more money.

How bout it?
Oct 18, 2003 Celebrim link
I think that its overly simplistic, but that basically you just described a reputation system.
Oct 18, 2003 Pyro link
Hehehe... Kind of like in (suprise! :P) EVN... Oh yeah, and pirate systems would be awesome, too... Ones that specifically cater to people with bad reputations (stock illegal weapons, fire on people with good reputations, etc.)... The nations could send in frequent strike teams or something to keep them nice and exciting...
Oct 18, 2003 CeaddaCompy link
Well I see Pyro gets the idea and Celebrim is lost somewhere...

Yes, players would have a reputation. And so would sectors you could visit. It would have a reputation for being safe, or hostile, much like they already do now. Except it would be official. This would help trade and the enconomy stay running even when there arent enough of your friends online to group together for a cargo run.
Oct 18, 2003 Magus link
Something like it is already in the works, except, as far as I know, it will be more economically focused, but NPC police will still get you if you have a really bad rep.

Remember, being shot at is really part of the game. I don't think people should be able to completely avoid that element of danger.
Oct 18, 2003 Pyro link
Yes, but this still allows for pirates. The only way to be safe would be to take a trade route or whatever that only goes within type 1 sectors. Even then, they could be attacked by a strike force or something.
Oct 18, 2003 Celebrim link
I'm not lost. I'm waiting for you to catch up.
Oct 19, 2003 CeaddaCompy link
Never said they could completely avoid danger, in fact they cant. You can still be attacked in home sector even though its heavily defended, it just takes more effort.

And the type 2 sectors are only defended in certain area's that a ship would have to run to for safety, this leaves plenty of room for suprise attacks/ambushes.
Oct 21, 2003 CeaddaCompy link
For trick.

The server decides if your good/bad/neutral. Not your ship.

Yes, you don't know until the person fires on something for the very first time. But the odds of a major cargo haul going through right by a brand new player just as they log in the very first time really isnt that large.

No area is 100% safe. Attacks can happen anywhere, any sector. It just becomes harder in sectors with defenses than it does in sectors with no defenses.

And if Joe or Bob Nuetral suddenly decides that a ship in front of him looks pretty good. He gets a bad rating. You could set a time limit on the bad ratings, but this would just lead to players who kill 1 ship every now and then. So, kill another ship, on purpose, to take its cargo. Pay the consequences.
Oct 19, 2003 Spellcast link
"""--Remember, being shot at is really part of the game. I don't think people should be able to completely avoid that element of danger. --"""

actually I have to disagree with this statement. most MMORPG's have some provision for players who do not want to be "shot at" in Ultima Online you can go to the non-pvp portion of the worlds, and if you want to play as a character type that never leaves the protection of the cities, you will never be in any form of combat. In EverQuest there are also a few totally safe areas as I understand it, tho I am not as familiar with that game. I have seen a friend playing Star Wars Galaxies (i think thats what it's called), and I believe he mentioned that he hadn't ventured out into the dangerous areas yet, but i'm not 100% sure. I do know that i didn't see him fight anything for the half hour he ran around surveying for minerals and mining for something. Some people play online games for the social interaction, not to be heroic or combative.

I feel that a massively multiplayer game that excludes an area where risk is non-existant would be hurting itself commercially. not only does that eliminate the chance of drawing the people mentioned above, but it causes a serious problem in the learning curve of the game. if there is not a location where one is totally safe from attack, it leads to frustration when you are just learning the game, which could lead to people refusing to continue to play. (can we say lost revenue)
I have no trouble with the idea that the areas that are dangerous should be more (or even much more) profitable than the "safe" areas, that is common sense. Nor do i feel that the vendetta test as it stands now has any use for a safe area. (at least not a totally safe area, the home sectors are still fairly safe for newbies) However, long term, I would be dissapointed if the devs didn't have a safe zone planned for the final game.
Oct 19, 2003 Trick link
Meh. I don't think any area should be 100% safe. That's not real.

I mean, I think Ivory Soap safe is good, but if a noob happens to wander out of their home sector into the middle of a flag cap, well. . . . those are the breaks.

If nation A gets really organized and can overrun a home sector of nation B, well it happens. Granted the level of organization required would be insane and the odds of it ever happening are rare. But it would still be possible. Look at all the fun in 12 right now.

With Caeda's situation what happens when Joe Good or Bob Neutral suddenly decides in a Type 1 Sector that the freighter in front of him packed with high end Serco electronics is just a little too tempting. What a haul. I mean he's got lock. No one's suspecting. He could probably connect with two 'flares, dump the Locusts and finish him off with the Gat from behind before he even knew where it was coming from. Scoop the cargo and boost to the gate before the defense gets there.

Or, there's a lot of space out there. In Sector 2. . . there's a lot of room between defense posts. Does an event have to be recorded by a turret to effect rating? Or is everything magically recorded without explanation? I mean, if someone gets hijacked now out in 14, who's there to confirm what happens?

As far as the Good thing goes, I mean you have to be shot at first? How do you determine that? If you have to be hit first, well. . . I'm not sitting still long enough to see if the rail sniper is going for me or the asteroid I'm passing by.
Oct 20, 2003 Spellcast link
trick, i'm not talking about now, I'm talking about in the final product where there will be several hundred if noty several thoulsand sectors, there will be no capture the flag, and in order to "wander out of their area" noobs would need to go several sectors away from where they start. as for real, lets try to remember that that we are working on a game here, people play games to get away from reality.