Forums » Suggestions
The Big Faction thread
Reading this:
Learning widgets
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/12269
and this:
Unique ships
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/12395
..made me write a rather long post, eventually ending a bit offtopic, but then I decided it was better to give it its own topic. Hope you don’t mind.
All this unique ship, unique widgets are very interesting and I believe after a while necessary to try and implement it into the game. and I believe that something like this also have struck the devs minds too. But this is not until time is due for such features.
Anyways, here are a few thoughts on how to introduce this new content, witch isn’t easy at all, as there will be a lot of balancing required to make it fun and fair…
How about tying some of the loose ends of all this new and custom(isable) content to the faction-system.
Those of us who know the backstory knows it gives grounds for a lot of unique content. Devs have 3 “main” factions and a whopping 10 sub-factions to texture with their own history, technologies and art. That is a lot to deal with, just look at other mmo´s like WoW and they only have 2 major factions with 4 races in each and they have a lot of trouble with balancing it all while many of their customers are 12year olds holding whinefests. Thank god there are no classes in VO.
Players all know there are few things that makes us stand apart from every other spamming running ganker, besides the VALK/PROM/THOG and SVG/IBG/THOG. There really is no difference to what we can equip in space besides the Neutron blaster MKIII, and everybody has it stocked in hundreds, except UITs.
Now this is the part where the faction-system plays an important part of this. The only things we can unlock by faction are ships and a handful of weapons. Not much yet, but more to come, there is.
In a faction-revamp, content should be available to all kinds of players, lowbies and highbies, with the "values" scaling as you gain faction reputation, gains lvls in combat/hw/lw/tr/min, and invest time into the game.
This is examples that can be available at conditions detailed above
Now I cannot name all content possible as I know myself to well to claim that, but feel free to add your elaborated suggestions below.
• Ships are still obvious part of this
• Paint jobs. Limit some new colours to faction..
• Widgets, for trade and crafting, make it harder to earn money selling the top profit widgets from day one, makes the lower value widgets circulate
• Discounts, traders gets better prices, pirates dont
• Crafting, different blueprints at different factions. Want to specialize in certain technology? Kiss ass to your faction of choice.
• Mining equipment
• Increased cargospace,
• Armor packs, add armor or lighten your ship for that extra weight for whatever mission you need it for. 3 variations of each light medium and heavy shipclass, in both armor and lightweight parts. Scales with reputation/lvl
• Extra boost, turbo and torque for those tight racetracks and dogfights (changes may be minimal but still noticeable)
• Weapon gets different stat-boosts based on factions (changes may be minimal, but still noticeable)
• Batteries may become more efficient giving 5-20% more energy
• Faction X only weapons (more of them)
The trick is to fit and balance this into factions so players can mix and match different specs and layouts. By balancing so that one factions advantage in combat cannot be mixed with rivaling/enemy factions advantages in combat. Traders want to befriend certain factions to get the edge in the free/closed markets. Crafters need to serve a long time to be skilled enough to craft hi-tech instruments, weapons and ships.
What i´m interested in is further suggestions and new ways of balancing the factions to provide content, but also long and short term goals for players. This combined with the possibility of player created missions hopefully keep players interested, but also create diversity in choises players can make. Good thing they are not irreversible as faction can be changed, over time, or for a good chunk og money.
Perhaps i have pointed out the obvious for some of you, stolen ideas from other threads, english and composition may suck too, but there is no need to turn http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/warriorshtm/howlers.htm on me. FLAME ON :)
Learning widgets
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/12269
and this:
Unique ships
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/12395
..made me write a rather long post, eventually ending a bit offtopic, but then I decided it was better to give it its own topic. Hope you don’t mind.
All this unique ship, unique widgets are very interesting and I believe after a while necessary to try and implement it into the game. and I believe that something like this also have struck the devs minds too. But this is not until time is due for such features.
Anyways, here are a few thoughts on how to introduce this new content, witch isn’t easy at all, as there will be a lot of balancing required to make it fun and fair…
How about tying some of the loose ends of all this new and custom(isable) content to the faction-system.
Those of us who know the backstory knows it gives grounds for a lot of unique content. Devs have 3 “main” factions and a whopping 10 sub-factions to texture with their own history, technologies and art. That is a lot to deal with, just look at other mmo´s like WoW and they only have 2 major factions with 4 races in each and they have a lot of trouble with balancing it all while many of their customers are 12year olds holding whinefests. Thank god there are no classes in VO.
Players all know there are few things that makes us stand apart from every other spamming running ganker, besides the VALK/PROM/THOG and SVG/IBG/THOG. There really is no difference to what we can equip in space besides the Neutron blaster MKIII, and everybody has it stocked in hundreds, except UITs.
Now this is the part where the faction-system plays an important part of this. The only things we can unlock by faction are ships and a handful of weapons. Not much yet, but more to come, there is.
In a faction-revamp, content should be available to all kinds of players, lowbies and highbies, with the "values" scaling as you gain faction reputation, gains lvls in combat/hw/lw/tr/min, and invest time into the game.
This is examples that can be available at conditions detailed above
Now I cannot name all content possible as I know myself to well to claim that, but feel free to add your elaborated suggestions below.
• Ships are still obvious part of this
• Paint jobs. Limit some new colours to faction..
• Widgets, for trade and crafting, make it harder to earn money selling the top profit widgets from day one, makes the lower value widgets circulate
• Discounts, traders gets better prices, pirates dont
• Crafting, different blueprints at different factions. Want to specialize in certain technology? Kiss ass to your faction of choice.
• Mining equipment
• Increased cargospace,
• Armor packs, add armor or lighten your ship for that extra weight for whatever mission you need it for. 3 variations of each light medium and heavy shipclass, in both armor and lightweight parts. Scales with reputation/lvl
• Extra boost, turbo and torque for those tight racetracks and dogfights (changes may be minimal but still noticeable)
• Weapon gets different stat-boosts based on factions (changes may be minimal, but still noticeable)
• Batteries may become more efficient giving 5-20% more energy
• Faction X only weapons (more of them)
The trick is to fit and balance this into factions so players can mix and match different specs and layouts. By balancing so that one factions advantage in combat cannot be mixed with rivaling/enemy factions advantages in combat. Traders want to befriend certain factions to get the edge in the free/closed markets. Crafters need to serve a long time to be skilled enough to craft hi-tech instruments, weapons and ships.
What i´m interested in is further suggestions and new ways of balancing the factions to provide content, but also long and short term goals for players. This combined with the possibility of player created missions hopefully keep players interested, but also create diversity in choises players can make. Good thing they are not irreversible as faction can be changed, over time, or for a good chunk og money.
Perhaps i have pointed out the obvious for some of you, stolen ideas from other threads, english and composition may suck too, but there is no need to turn http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/warriorshtm/howlers.htm on me. FLAME ON :)
this post just gave me an interesting idea,
we all know that ships and equipment can be purchased at lower lisence levels at Corvus. but what if that were replaced with a dynamic level adjustment system that was based on faction?
this way having high faction could gain you an effective level boost, and having bad faction would inpose an effective level reduction.
so in effect your level 5/6/6/5/5 character my count as being 7/8/8/7/7 at Itani stations but only 3/4/4/3/3 at Serco stations.
additionaly the amount of level increase/decrease would depend on the faction. so Corvus may sell you level 5 equipment at level 2 if they like you enough, whereas the Itani and Serco may only ever sell you equipment that's one or 2 levels above your actual level.
this would obviously be a sizable undertaking, and would have potental balance issues, but it may help give the universe a more real-seeming ecconamy. especialy if this were combined with military NPCs who attempt to arrest you if you have carry equipment that you aren't lisenced for.
we all know that ships and equipment can be purchased at lower lisence levels at Corvus. but what if that were replaced with a dynamic level adjustment system that was based on faction?
this way having high faction could gain you an effective level boost, and having bad faction would inpose an effective level reduction.
so in effect your level 5/6/6/5/5 character my count as being 7/8/8/7/7 at Itani stations but only 3/4/4/3/3 at Serco stations.
additionaly the amount of level increase/decrease would depend on the faction. so Corvus may sell you level 5 equipment at level 2 if they like you enough, whereas the Itani and Serco may only ever sell you equipment that's one or 2 levels above your actual level.
this would obviously be a sizable undertaking, and would have potental balance issues, but it may help give the universe a more real-seeming ecconamy. especialy if this were combined with military NPCs who attempt to arrest you if you have carry equipment that you aren't lisenced for.
hey this is pretty cool.
i expecialy like this tidbit?
"especialy if this were combined with military NPCs who attempt to arrest you if you have carry equipment that you aren't lisenced for."
wow! how sweet would that be!
i expecialy like this tidbit?
"especialy if this were combined with military NPCs who attempt to arrest you if you have carry equipment that you aren't lisenced for."
wow! how sweet would that be!
IMHO, that would be about as sweet as a left-foot tennis shoe.
I'd MUCH rather have Serco ban "Luxuary goods", making it smuggler goods, and the blow me to smithereens if I got scanned-at-random by the guards.
Back on topic I'd like to see $level = $level + ($faction/250).
That is, effective level at a station equals your current level + your faction devided by 500.
Level 10 + (faction standing 1000/250) = Level 14
Level 11 + (faction standing 600/250) = Level 14 (13.6)
Level 10 + (faction standing -800/250) = Level 7 (6.8)
I belive it's enough to make it interresting, but not enogh to completely Break Things.
Also, the whole idea of "We only sell pink ships to people we like" is not really the way to go.
"We only sell Moths to people that have done trade missions for us in the past, take some procurments!", however, makes sense.
Ofcourse, if you're a Pillar of their Society, you're gonna get whatever you have the levels for, no matter if you have done the unlock-mission-type for it or not. Maybe even get stuff you're not even close to, like Proxy Mines at Heavy Weapons 1?
Why? I'd very much like to see this game be a "you don't have to kill stuff to be successful" game.
Sure, feel free to kill stuff, just don't FORCE that role on me.
Still, I'd like to get the hardware to defend myself and the cargo of the local Trade Guild.
How about they let me buy it as long as I keep the trade goods flowing?
It IS in their intrest that I get a Huge Heavy Trade Ship with some defencive weapons (mines) on it.
That's my dream, anyway.
I'd MUCH rather have Serco ban "Luxuary goods", making it smuggler goods, and the blow me to smithereens if I got scanned-at-random by the guards.
Back on topic I'd like to see $level = $level + ($faction/250).
That is, effective level at a station equals your current level + your faction devided by 500.
Level 10 + (faction standing 1000/250) = Level 14
Level 11 + (faction standing 600/250) = Level 14 (13.6)
Level 10 + (faction standing -800/250) = Level 7 (6.8)
I belive it's enough to make it interresting, but not enogh to completely Break Things.
Also, the whole idea of "We only sell pink ships to people we like" is not really the way to go.
"We only sell Moths to people that have done trade missions for us in the past, take some procurments!", however, makes sense.
Ofcourse, if you're a Pillar of their Society, you're gonna get whatever you have the levels for, no matter if you have done the unlock-mission-type for it or not. Maybe even get stuff you're not even close to, like Proxy Mines at Heavy Weapons 1?
Why? I'd very much like to see this game be a "you don't have to kill stuff to be successful" game.
Sure, feel free to kill stuff, just don't FORCE that role on me.
Still, I'd like to get the hardware to defend myself and the cargo of the local Trade Guild.
How about they let me buy it as long as I keep the trade goods flowing?
It IS in their intrest that I get a Huge Heavy Trade Ship with some defencive weapons (mines) on it.
That's my dream, anyway.
Demonen,
the idea behinde attacking pilots who had things they weren't lesenced fro was more to emulate the "your driving lisence is expired" situation that to add any sort of smuggling to the game (something i also support). basicly the idea is this: the UIT sell me this stuff and look the other way at checkpoints because i'm famous and popular, whereas the Serco slap me with every single charge they can finde (or make up) because i parked in one of their admeral's parking space once a while back.
as for your formula, i'd rather see that be dependent of what faction you are dealing with. after all Corvus probably wouldn't care about lisences at all where-as the Itani and Serco would be less likely "bend the rules", and of coarse all the other factions would be somewhere in between.
the idea behinde attacking pilots who had things they weren't lesenced fro was more to emulate the "your driving lisence is expired" situation that to add any sort of smuggling to the game (something i also support). basicly the idea is this: the UIT sell me this stuff and look the other way at checkpoints because i'm famous and popular, whereas the Serco slap me with every single charge they can finde (or make up) because i parked in one of their admeral's parking space once a while back.
as for your formula, i'd rather see that be dependent of what faction you are dealing with. after all Corvus probably wouldn't care about lisences at all where-as the Itani and Serco would be less likely "bend the rules", and of coarse all the other factions would be somewhere in between.
"Also, the whole idea of "We only sell pink ships to people we like" is not really the way to go. "We only sell Moths to people that have done trade missions for us in the past, take some procurments!", however, makes sense."
Yes, i want unlock-type missions, do such and such and maybe a chain of mission to get access to slightly better ship or gun, or even pink ship. But it doesnt prohibit that factions can be the subject for alot of ways to get unique attributes, not available to every player in the universe. As we play we make choices as to what faction to raise and what to tank. And along the road, some kind of fun bonus/utility can be available after certain standings.
“Of course, if you're a Pillar of their Society, you're gonna get whatever you have the levels for, no matter if you have done the unlock-mission-type for it or not. Maybe even get stuff you're not even close to, like Proxy Mines at Heavy Weapons 1?
Why? I'd very much like to see this game be a "you don't have to kill stuff to be successful" game.
Sure, feel free to kill stuff, just don't FORCE that role on me.
Still, I'd like to get the hardware to defend myself and the cargo of the local Trade Guild.”
If you are the heavy trader type of player, and don’t want to level your combat and weapon skills there can be rewards with that kind of escape functionality at the high ranges of trade oriented factions. That way it is possible to avoid a massive botting grind to get decent trading options. The same goes for those combat and pk oriented players, they can choose other factions to gain reputation with, and by that get access to bonuses affecting their combat style.
This doesn’t mean that traders only get to be target practice and fighters need to trade 5x more to pay for their ships, its about choosing what kind of style you are most comfortable with and go deeper into that “tree” of factions.
Note that this is not irreversible, so if you want a change of style it is possible but not without taking the time juggling with factions to get the best gear/ship configuration. I believe this is the way to go.
Yes, i want unlock-type missions, do such and such and maybe a chain of mission to get access to slightly better ship or gun, or even pink ship. But it doesnt prohibit that factions can be the subject for alot of ways to get unique attributes, not available to every player in the universe. As we play we make choices as to what faction to raise and what to tank. And along the road, some kind of fun bonus/utility can be available after certain standings.
“Of course, if you're a Pillar of their Society, you're gonna get whatever you have the levels for, no matter if you have done the unlock-mission-type for it or not. Maybe even get stuff you're not even close to, like Proxy Mines at Heavy Weapons 1?
Why? I'd very much like to see this game be a "you don't have to kill stuff to be successful" game.
Sure, feel free to kill stuff, just don't FORCE that role on me.
Still, I'd like to get the hardware to defend myself and the cargo of the local Trade Guild.”
If you are the heavy trader type of player, and don’t want to level your combat and weapon skills there can be rewards with that kind of escape functionality at the high ranges of trade oriented factions. That way it is possible to avoid a massive botting grind to get decent trading options. The same goes for those combat and pk oriented players, they can choose other factions to gain reputation with, and by that get access to bonuses affecting their combat style.
This doesn’t mean that traders only get to be target practice and fighters need to trade 5x more to pay for their ships, its about choosing what kind of style you are most comfortable with and go deeper into that “tree” of factions.
Note that this is not irreversible, so if you want a change of style it is possible but not without taking the time juggling with factions to get the best gear/ship configuration. I believe this is the way to go.
wouldn't this give an unreasonable boost to beginning players within their own nation?
feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it then be too simple a matter to acquire high-level weapons very early in the game? (we're talking 8/8/8/-/- or -/-/-/8/- stuff within an hour...)
I'd lkove to see more paint jobs available, but I dont think they should be limited as to who can fly them... rather only who should and who would want to... ie, you could allow for different surfaces of the ship to be grouped, and painted different colors for some variety... anyone could fly Serco red, or <insertGuildHere> blue, black and green, but of course doing so if you're not in that nation or guild would generate issues (<insertGuildHere> doesn't like you flying their colors, so you're on their KOS list, and the general public doesn't like you flying the same colors as <insertGuildHere>, so they'll avoid you, etc...)
I'd like perhaps unique logos which could be painted on ships, which would be exclusive to guilds or nations, but that's another thing.../
feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it then be too simple a matter to acquire high-level weapons very early in the game? (we're talking 8/8/8/-/- or -/-/-/8/- stuff within an hour...)
I'd lkove to see more paint jobs available, but I dont think they should be limited as to who can fly them... rather only who should and who would want to... ie, you could allow for different surfaces of the ship to be grouped, and painted different colors for some variety... anyone could fly Serco red, or <insertGuildHere> blue, black and green, but of course doing so if you're not in that nation or guild would generate issues (<insertGuildHere> doesn't like you flying their colors, so you're on their KOS list, and the general public doesn't like you flying the same colors as <insertGuildHere>, so they'll avoid you, etc...)
I'd like perhaps unique logos which could be painted on ships, which would be exclusive to guilds or nations, but that's another thing.../