I had a quick skim of ghosts thread and I agree with everything that I read.

Good stuff!

How about a solution then?
Create a serco backstory record.

How about a solution then?
Create a serco backstory record.

http://sercoprime.net/fdeck/backstory.htm

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/14/8190

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/15/11293?page=1

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/15/11293?page=1

It's been talked about, and half done before. But what will it change? Nothing, and why should players (paying ones at that) take the time to write a counter to the Itani Backstory, when it may never be more than a post on the RP forum?

Back of the bus, Serco!

Given how much Serco weigh, I think you'd want them directly over the axles.

I played 'Earth and Beyond' lots (before it folded and I moved (back) to VO). It had three very similar races to our game:
Terran - traders, equiv to UIT (and repair functionality that EMS would love).
Progen - fighters, kinda serco aka roman-empire-in-space.
Jenquai - mystics, what the Itani are meant to be?
I even think the colors were the same.
They all seemed to me at the time to be equally popular, although the player base was much bigger.
Only, at very high player levels (level 120 was the max I think), being Jenquai was deprecated by players, they didnt have the firepower of progen and weren't as useful as Terrans. In fact, the big 'boss' space sector in 'Cooper', they were only ever invited in to groups to teleport people out of trouble against the 'Fish' because of the lag, lol. (Silly game really, all those life forms in space and no PvP).
Kinda the opposite of Vo, then.
I always wondered why VO's 'Progen', us Serco, never got popular. My opinion is that the devs miscalculated play-balance, expecting there to far too many Serco. If only, sigh.

I think it becomes clear just from character creation that the Serco are portrayed as "an evil empire of brutes"

Now, my only character that I play regularly with a national identity IS serco, mostly because I was able to see the Serco in a different light.

They became a proud warrior people

(and the itani became prejudiced hypocrites, preaching peace, and then just waving their hands in the air whenever their people did something un-monk-like. "That wasn't us, that was the other itani. Sure, we didn't do anything to assist you, or warn you of their actions, we're just weak little monks. How can you possibly hold us accountable for being ineffectual?")

It also doesn't help that the itani don't understand warrior culture

EDIT:
Anyone here ever play Jade Empire?

That game had a great way of splitting up these kinds of ideologies

There were two paths: The way of the Empty Palm and The way of the Closed fist

what I loved was that these were not just light and dark sides. The Way of the Empty Palm could be "evil", and the Way of the closed fist could be honorable and good.

I actually don't think the backstory favors one side over the other, when read in the correct light. The Serco and the Itani have switched roles, although the Serco always favored internal biomechanical augmentation and genetic engineering while the Itani have a relationship with external devices which gradually transforms into a meta-spiritual aspect. The moment when Oernon defeats Karun aptly portrays this. Dig a little deeper in the backstory however, and you'll find light and dark aspects in both nations.

I also played Jade Empire.

Um, no. If neither were being favored, you wouldn't have to read it in the "correct light" to get a roughly even impression.

Ye, Valkyries are somewhere overpowered, e.g. 55 m/s energy drain and armor amount. Make it 60 and valk becomes much more balanced.

Btw, In face2face combat, it's pretty hard to survive on valk against Skyprom with AGT and dual flares.

A valk doesn't engage in face to face combat with a SCP if its pilot has any wits.

Valk is for hit and run tactics, SCP is for guns blazing tactics.

As the author of the backstory: I was under the gun to write the thing, so I picked one perspective and rolled with that. At the same time, certain aspects of the backstory were always intended to be open to a bit of interpretation and analysis. "Reading between the lines", so to speak. The story is intended to be "factually accurate", but not always having awareness of additional context that might give further depth, much like our real-world histories. I agree with the notion of giving the Serco a bit more nuanced description on the character creation interface, although I don't even remember what it says right now.

In regards to the Deneb situation: That was the obvious sector to use for border-warfare experimentation. Yes, it puts the Serco at a temporary disadvantage while the stations are Itani, but on the other hand the Itani have actually "lost" national territory for the sake of it becoming dynamic. The Itani were in the better position to lose a system, geographically, and while we (all) may be used to that loss now, but I don't consider it to be very "serco-biased". The gameplay problems relating to Serco having no real homing locations in Deneb were always considered to be temporary, and like a lot of things, have gone un-fixed for far longer than originally intended. The ever-present juggling of development priorities, but no inherent bias.

So... drop a Serco Station in at the Deneb WH.

I agree. It's a simple temporary solution until such time as you make the stations conquerable. There is no need to continue prolonging the current unfair situation. Heck, you could even just move the barracks in the GR side of the wormhole to the Deneb side, rather than creating a new station.

Moving a station is not that simple, and everyone is currently busy as hell. But yes. That is one possibility.

Give me developer abilities and ill finish all the stuff i like myself!

Are you crazy CrazySpence?