Forums » Suggestions
Influence (to add with Econ & Faction reduex)
This idea came to mind with the purpose to make trading more entertaining. However, after consideration with others, we think it could be a part of the game that effects all types of activities / playstyles.
At present we have basically three objectives when doing missions / activites:
Increase experiance for new licences
Increase bank account
Increase faction standing
Of those three, only 1 can be spent, credits, and as of now they are very easy to come by even if you're not trying hard. Thats not a bad thing, but I think it would be a nice reward to have a more valued sub-currency in the game.
Proposal: Create a new 'currency' that is not global, but perhaps each faction has a value associated with it. For the purpose of this post I will call it 'influence'.
What is 'influence' and how do I get it?
As I see it now, influence is something you gain from helping a faction out. Be it from trading, doing combat missions for them, escorts, prospecting, ect... basically any mission you do from a station yeilds influence. Also there could be non-mission ways to yeild influence (trade / general combat listed below).
What can I do with 'influence'?
Influence is a currency that you can use to buy perks with. These perks in nature should be expendable / have time limits associated with them. The goal here is to create a more rapid sink than credits currently provide. Such perks could include increased cargo hold at a station for x amount of days, escorts / wingmen to accompany you on missions, deed to build captial ship, a prototype item that could repair your ship a small / modest amount, and many more that I'm sure you guys could come up with than me.
More specific on ways influence is gained:
In general, missions / activities that have not been done at a station increase the influence gained from these missions. This would encourage people to go to lesser visited sectors and do those missions / activites there as well.
- Specalized combat missions such as the TPG test pilot, Hive hunt, guard, and other new combat missions such as those.
- General combat: If a player kills another person of a high rival faction standing, they would be rewarded with some influence. (i.e. Itani kills a Serco admired, Corvus kills UIT admired).
- Trade missions: Currently most often done missions are bulk procurments. In order to encourage people to do the lesser done missions, give more influence to misson types that have not been done for a longer time.
- Trade: When / if stations get an upkeep value (values such as overstocked, well stocked, stocked, short stocked / wanting / desolate) traders could gain influence with a faction by suppling them with items they need. If possible, assign each item a different sub-stocked level, such as food, water, ion cores, ect.
That way there would be more of a purpose to delivering a large supply of food to a station that needs it. Currently there is very little reward for the time invested to deliver low cost goods to stations. Many traders look for the best profit / time or profit / cu item and trade in those only. I would like a motivation other than RPing to trade in those lesser items.
- Escorts: Little to say about this, but some influence could be generated from these as well.
- Prospecting: These missions are already a siezable chore at times, so giving them some influence should be a good reward too.
- and more: I'm sure there could be otherways, but those are the only ones I can think of now. Feel free to add more ways in reply.
Review:
Influence is a currency to encourage people to do lesser done missions and activites. Influence is spent on perishable items and could possibly even have a cap to how much you could save up. The goal is to encourage people to play more often, but to attempt to keep this 'sink' from becoming a chore in the game. I think influence should be saved for each faction, not globably. It could be saved up for each station possibly, but I think that would be too much work for the interface.
At present we have basically three objectives when doing missions / activites:
Increase experiance for new licences
Increase bank account
Increase faction standing
Of those three, only 1 can be spent, credits, and as of now they are very easy to come by even if you're not trying hard. Thats not a bad thing, but I think it would be a nice reward to have a more valued sub-currency in the game.
Proposal: Create a new 'currency' that is not global, but perhaps each faction has a value associated with it. For the purpose of this post I will call it 'influence'.
What is 'influence' and how do I get it?
As I see it now, influence is something you gain from helping a faction out. Be it from trading, doing combat missions for them, escorts, prospecting, ect... basically any mission you do from a station yeilds influence. Also there could be non-mission ways to yeild influence (trade / general combat listed below).
What can I do with 'influence'?
Influence is a currency that you can use to buy perks with. These perks in nature should be expendable / have time limits associated with them. The goal here is to create a more rapid sink than credits currently provide. Such perks could include increased cargo hold at a station for x amount of days, escorts / wingmen to accompany you on missions, deed to build captial ship, a prototype item that could repair your ship a small / modest amount, and many more that I'm sure you guys could come up with than me.
More specific on ways influence is gained:
In general, missions / activities that have not been done at a station increase the influence gained from these missions. This would encourage people to go to lesser visited sectors and do those missions / activites there as well.
- Specalized combat missions such as the TPG test pilot, Hive hunt, guard, and other new combat missions such as those.
- General combat: If a player kills another person of a high rival faction standing, they would be rewarded with some influence. (i.e. Itani kills a Serco admired, Corvus kills UIT admired).
- Trade missions: Currently most often done missions are bulk procurments. In order to encourage people to do the lesser done missions, give more influence to misson types that have not been done for a longer time.
- Trade: When / if stations get an upkeep value (values such as overstocked, well stocked, stocked, short stocked / wanting / desolate) traders could gain influence with a faction by suppling them with items they need. If possible, assign each item a different sub-stocked level, such as food, water, ion cores, ect.
That way there would be more of a purpose to delivering a large supply of food to a station that needs it. Currently there is very little reward for the time invested to deliver low cost goods to stations. Many traders look for the best profit / time or profit / cu item and trade in those only. I would like a motivation other than RPing to trade in those lesser items.
- Escorts: Little to say about this, but some influence could be generated from these as well.
- Prospecting: These missions are already a siezable chore at times, so giving them some influence should be a good reward too.
- and more: I'm sure there could be otherways, but those are the only ones I can think of now. Feel free to add more ways in reply.
Review:
Influence is a currency to encourage people to do lesser done missions and activites. Influence is spent on perishable items and could possibly even have a cap to how much you could save up. The goal is to encourage people to play more often, but to attempt to keep this 'sink' from becoming a chore in the game. I think influence should be saved for each faction, not globably. It could be saved up for each station possibly, but I think that would be too much work for the interface.
...that made no sense.
I can be an influence peddler? It kinda makes sense, Cunjo...
Think of it as spendable faction points
Has anyone here ever played Kingdom of Loathing? If you have, it would be sorta like the karma system in clans, where you donate items or money to the clan stash, and then you can use that karma to take other items from the stash. Many clans also award ranks based on karma, so it could come out much the same way.
hmm, i like it. i would also like to see the ability to use influence to temprarily break laws. so once stations only let you equip "legal" widgets you could spend influence to equip an illegal one, or to be allowed to violate the NFZ for say 1 minut (all faction standing consequences remain in effect). or even grant a KOS player "temporary respect status" so they could dock and buy ships and such, untill they leave the sector.