A few people need to go back and edit their overly-emotional posts. Allow me to remind all that this is a TEST and many things are not working/fair/balanced at this time. If your day is ruined by something here, you have lost your objectivity and are no longer doing your job as a playtester. Log off, come back later. There is much work to be done still and many of the solutions to the problems cited are a long way off yet. Identification of problems and a cogent discussion about realistic ways to solve them is useful and helpful.

I've been part of other betas where this sort of thing doesn't happen. It doesn't happen because the developers update, allow access for a time to stress-test and bug report, then shut it down again until the next update. guild has been kind enough and innovative enough to keep the game up (which takes time to maintain) in the interim between update and to let a community flourish. That's the good news. The bad news is that all communities have members who are not well-adjusted socially, to put it diplomatically. It is a part of civilization. It was written long ago that "Decent people don't need laws to behave properly, and indecent people will always find ways around the laws". If you want a long-term solution, be a well-adjusted member of the community.

Well said FM.

Mhm. Very well said.

29 players -- 5 blue, 9 red, 15 gold

What was the problem that caused this treaty, again?

<sarcasm>

Golds have big population!

MUST KILL ALL GOLDS!

Must make red blue alliance!

</sarcasm>

Occasionally red or gold will have the upper-hand... who knows, maybe gold is making another rise to power. I don't think anyone should be getting all pissed about the alliances though. They add to the game. Someone will always be more powerful, and if the other two have to unite to feel safe so be it.

While that may be so, it doesn't give a valid reason to go around shooting up every pilot of the "ganged up on" nation.

You golds and Serco think Itani newbies should stay in 1 and 4 until they are ready to tackle the outside world. Well. How, may I ask, in hell are they supposed to do that with the MISERABLE trading conditions in those two sectors and all the vets botting in 4? They CAN'T. It is impossible to get ANY decent sum of credits from only sc1 and sc4. You tell your newbs to stay in 12/2 or 3/6 for an indefinite amount of time, see how well they do.

Last night, there were more golds on than reds or blues, but no one seemed to care. It appears this anti-blue attitude is just by people who are sick of being killed by valks...which aren't that hard to take down anyway. I took one down in my maud last night when some Blue Valk started the fight. But just because one Blue felt like picking a fight, doesn't mean I am against all blues and their valks. I believe this is the attitude that everyone needs to follow with respect to the other factions...

Bah... I've been seeing tons of gold and red valks...

/me had a valk in s9
/me wonders where it went......

-Zeal

While that may be so, it doesn't give a valid reason to go around shooting up every pilot of the "ganged up on" nation.
---------------------------

Who are you to judge? Without a reputation system, the biggest, baddest gun sets the laws. Until then, said gun will continue to be the supreme authority. Don't like it? Hide in 1/2/3/4/12/6. Sorry, it's a simple fact of life.

/me prepares for the obligatory whining.

I believe I said WHY hiding in 1/2/3/4/6/12 is IMPOSSIBLE with the dynamic economy.

The problem is that its difficult to tell which blues(/reds/golds) will kill you.

I usually end up letting them shoot at me first (but sometimes that leads to me dieing rather quickly--eg Phoenix).

One way to fix this that has already been mentioned is a reputation system.

Another thing that would help this problem (which has been discussed in other threads) is having weapons that can power up/down, with the current status shown on the radar. If this were implemented there should be a delay in powering up the weapons.
I would suggest that the delay should be specific to each weapon, possibly, though not necessarily, based on the refire rate for that weapon. This way the more powerful slower weapons take longer to power up, so someone can't suprise you with a tri/quad flare without you seeing them power up first.

Other MMORPGs also have a battle mode/travel mode and it seems to work for them.

--just my 2 cents
CommunistBob

My only intention of signing this treaty in the first place was to win back some territory from blue pirates, which for a time were overwhelming the game.

Griefing Itani newbs to discourage them was never part of this treaty, more like a few individuals own personal vendetta. I've always considered myself a newb friendly player, and I never pirate someone repeatedly. Since it seems like that has been what this treaty has come to represent, I heartily agree that it's time for it to end.

/me unsigns
-Phaserlight

Just to be clear, all red are not members of the treaty.

Im just as likely to jump a gold trader as a blue on, you're both red on my radar. This is not to say i am going around killing everything in sight,. (as much as i'd like to anyhow hehe)

Generally you can derive my hostility level from the following

hostility= b33r/w33d

the closer this is to 0, the less hostile ill be. Now on the other hand, if you are unlucky enough to be around when b33r starts to blow up and the value of hostility rises...

didn't see you complaining about the old blue-red treaty.

As for the treaty...its part of the RP side of the game so I won't complain about that. However, I find myself having to cap everyday to fund Itani noobs because they cannot leave s4 without being gunned down. I find this very upsetting that a few players want to give new people such a hard time. FYI I have seen 2 new people quit the game, people I happen to know in RL that I told how good this game is and will be and was worth the time for playing. However both these people were kept in there busses with no credits for 2 days because of certain players and have now quit. I am sure they are not the only ones.

So congrats on chasing away new people. You want to make a treaty, fine, but don't keep up this behaviour.

I was not involved in the treaty, but I did enjoy the break from the blue pirates. I didn't get pirated even once while the treaty lasted, and I've never been attacked by a Gold. Maybe there should be a Blue/Gold/Red treaty against the pirates...

Note: I don't have a problem with the pirates. I don't want them to stop pirating, nor do I want them to go away or quit. They make the game more fun by adding suspense and danger to trading. Their role is to make trade more dangerous/lucrative, and the traders role is to try to work together to thwart them.

/me snickers

Durgia, even in s4 they aren't safe!!

=d