Forums » Suggestions
Faction Fixes, Karma
Firstly, get rid of the zero faction penalty for collision kills. We have a forgive option now, so we don't need to worry about newbies tanking each other in freak accidents. All it does at this point is give wannabe pirates a way to kill traders and miners in nation space without any consequences. It gets abused far too often.
There should also be a Karma system of sorts, where people with a record of violence or abuse on a galactic scale are afforded fewer protections by various nations. This could be the best fix to the overall faction system: instead of making faction standings mutually exclusive, make it so that players who have participated in activities such as war or piracy in the past, will be unable to get PoS and be given lesser overall protections by factions that are sensitive to these activities. For example: An Itani player who has participated in BP/BS missions or enlisted in the Itani military, will be unable to get higher than Admire by the Serco at any point in time, and their Serco standing will be much harder to maintain: The Serco nation may turn a blind eye to them being killed in nation space, even if they have higher standing, and their standing may take a harder hit there if they kill someone in return. The reverse would also be true, where the Itani faction would afford greater protection to those with service records in good standing. This could also affect people who hit trade convoys or kill traders in nation space, earning them a reputation as a pirate, which increases the affinity to corvus faction, while decreasing the affinity to various other factions like Serco/Itani, UIT, TPG, etc. This way, universally high faction should still be possible for neutral players with good karma, such as traders, but maintaining high standing with certain factions will become harder for people who participate in conflicts, piracy, etc. Infractions that affect karma may expire after an extended period of time, allowing people to earn it back only if they are truly dedicated to the task. Karma may recover faster if their overall standing stays higher.
The scales could be as follows:
Serco/Itani: affected by participation in the Serco/Itani conflict, BP, BS, CtC. Serco or Itani born characters will have a natural affiliation to their respective sides, making achieving neutrality more difficult. A high affinity designates the character as more warlike, making them less accepted by their enemies and their enemies' allies, as well as any peace-seeking factions.
Karma: Affected by any killings or other infractions made outside of armed conflicts. Piracy, assassinations, etc... taking place in monitored space, excepting corvus space (they don't report anything). If a character has low karma, faction protections are reduced across the board due to their reputation and criminal record, making it more difficult for them to earn and maintain standing with all factions and subfactions, excepting corvus.
With these in place, it would still be possible for someone to have high standings across the board, if they were dedicated to keeping them, but characters who engage in wars, piracy, etc... wouldn't be able to keep tri-POS, and pirates would have to consider more carefully the consequences of shooting traders in monitored space, because earning back faction for them would be more difficult. This would encourage people who want to fight or take sides to abandon the task of maintaining their standing with opposing factions or to pick and choose their battles, resulting in more realistic standing distributions.
There should also be a Karma system of sorts, where people with a record of violence or abuse on a galactic scale are afforded fewer protections by various nations. This could be the best fix to the overall faction system: instead of making faction standings mutually exclusive, make it so that players who have participated in activities such as war or piracy in the past, will be unable to get PoS and be given lesser overall protections by factions that are sensitive to these activities. For example: An Itani player who has participated in BP/BS missions or enlisted in the Itani military, will be unable to get higher than Admire by the Serco at any point in time, and their Serco standing will be much harder to maintain: The Serco nation may turn a blind eye to them being killed in nation space, even if they have higher standing, and their standing may take a harder hit there if they kill someone in return. The reverse would also be true, where the Itani faction would afford greater protection to those with service records in good standing. This could also affect people who hit trade convoys or kill traders in nation space, earning them a reputation as a pirate, which increases the affinity to corvus faction, while decreasing the affinity to various other factions like Serco/Itani, UIT, TPG, etc. This way, universally high faction should still be possible for neutral players with good karma, such as traders, but maintaining high standing with certain factions will become harder for people who participate in conflicts, piracy, etc. Infractions that affect karma may expire after an extended period of time, allowing people to earn it back only if they are truly dedicated to the task. Karma may recover faster if their overall standing stays higher.
The scales could be as follows:
Serco/Itani: affected by participation in the Serco/Itani conflict, BP, BS, CtC. Serco or Itani born characters will have a natural affiliation to their respective sides, making achieving neutrality more difficult. A high affinity designates the character as more warlike, making them less accepted by their enemies and their enemies' allies, as well as any peace-seeking factions.
Karma: Affected by any killings or other infractions made outside of armed conflicts. Piracy, assassinations, etc... taking place in monitored space, excepting corvus space (they don't report anything). If a character has low karma, faction protections are reduced across the board due to their reputation and criminal record, making it more difficult for them to earn and maintain standing with all factions and subfactions, excepting corvus.
With these in place, it would still be possible for someone to have high standings across the board, if they were dedicated to keeping them, but characters who engage in wars, piracy, etc... wouldn't be able to keep tri-POS, and pirates would have to consider more carefully the consequences of shooting traders in monitored space, because earning back faction for them would be more difficult. This would encourage people who want to fight or take sides to abandon the task of maintaining their standing with opposing factions or to pick and choose their battles, resulting in more realistic standing distributions.
In all fairness... I could have stopped reading at this point...
"instead of making faction standings mutually exclusive"... when it became obvious that this was just another way for care bears to keep their TriPoS. However, as you obviously put some time into it I gave it a chance.
End result...
- a lot.
No. No to anything that carebears would use to keep PoS standings with warring nations. As I have said before... you want to trade with warring factions? You can have a neutral faction standing and be happy that you have that much.
"instead of making faction standings mutually exclusive"... when it became obvious that this was just another way for care bears to keep their TriPoS. However, as you obviously put some time into it I gave it a chance.
End result...
- a lot.
No. No to anything that carebears would use to keep PoS standings with warring nations. As I have said before... you want to trade with warring factions? You can have a neutral faction standing and be happy that you have that much.
You'd never be able to define "piracy": a kill is a kill is a kill. Your karma idea can gobble my hog.
Serco / Itani - You seem to be wanting some sort of dynamic faction system, which is ok to a point. Having high standing with faction x could lead to a recommendation with faction y. A player should have a pretty high standing to get a allied faction boost, and be KOS or nearly KOS to get an allied deduction.
Karma - not in the way described. I'd say only for the same faction for repeat offenses. The problem there is when VPR blows Dr L to hell and back in Nyrius, they're going to be put in the same situation as any pirate with regards to standing. So no. There needs to be a better solution, this isn't it as described.
Next, Tri or universal POS needs to eventually go away. At the moment, its fine as it is because it gives players something to do in an otherwise shallow game. Trade however, does not justify attaining POS or really much above low admire. POS needs to be tied more to military or policing than trade. Really, it should be a combination of achievements that give a player POS, however I'm not going to hang out long enough for VO to develop that level of sophistication.
Karma - not in the way described. I'd say only for the same faction for repeat offenses. The problem there is when VPR blows Dr L to hell and back in Nyrius, they're going to be put in the same situation as any pirate with regards to standing. So no. There needs to be a better solution, this isn't it as described.
Next, Tri or universal POS needs to eventually go away. At the moment, its fine as it is because it gives players something to do in an otherwise shallow game. Trade however, does not justify attaining POS or really much above low admire. POS needs to be tied more to military or policing than trade. Really, it should be a combination of achievements that give a player POS, however I'm not going to hang out long enough for VO to develop that level of sophistication.
I don't think he's understanding the concept of "Helping my enemy in any way pisses me off." Especially in the Serco's case. The Itani being the hippies they are would be more likely to turn a blind eye toward helping their enemies, but they still wouldn't like it.
These two sides are trying to kill eachother. You cannot help the Itani without harming the Serco. Say you start an orphanage in Itani space. You save the lives of children who otherwise would have died in the streets. Those children will grow up to either contribute directly toward killing more Serco, or else they will grow up and aid the Itani economy, which will help them fight the Serco.
I know you traders want to live in a universe where everybody loves eachother, but that is not the sort of universe that VO exists in. The VO universe is one that has been torn by war for a good 600 years or so. There are ancient and recent hatreds burning bright, large amounts of greed consuming lives, and secret societies that are probably planning much death.
In short, we are a long way from Sesame Street. Deal with it.
These two sides are trying to kill eachother. You cannot help the Itani without harming the Serco. Say you start an orphanage in Itani space. You save the lives of children who otherwise would have died in the streets. Those children will grow up to either contribute directly toward killing more Serco, or else they will grow up and aid the Itani economy, which will help them fight the Serco.
I know you traders want to live in a universe where everybody loves eachother, but that is not the sort of universe that VO exists in. The VO universe is one that has been torn by war for a good 600 years or so. There are ancient and recent hatreds burning bright, large amounts of greed consuming lives, and secret societies that are probably planning much death.
In short, we are a long way from Sesame Street. Deal with it.
Actually, I would have smuggled the children to Inubius in Odia and sold them off as sex slaves. Which would not have provided a future economic or military boost to aid in the Serco / Itani conflict. So my actions would have been neutral with regards to the conflict.
Oh look! Its Mr. Snuffilmuffagus!
Oh look! Its Mr. Snuffilmuffagus!
You'd never be able to define "piracy": a kill is a kill is a kill.
+1
+1
So you're suggesting that people be penalized for 'violence' in a game that's centered around space combat...
-1
Furthermore, those ramkills are harder to execute than you make them out to be. Yes, they're kind of cheap, but so is the way the game handles POS standing.
Another -1
Serco and Itani are at WAR. Anyone who's considered a "Pillar of Society" with your mortal enemy sure as hell doesn't deserve the same from you until they prove their allegiance.
Yet another -1
There needs to be risk out there. Nobody should ever get a free ride from all the factions in the game, no matter how 'violent' or 'peaceful' their actions are.
As for Karma: there should be a way for players to put a bounty on other players heads. This way if some rich trader wants to put a huge price on someone's head for kabooming them, then they can.
-1
Furthermore, those ramkills are harder to execute than you make them out to be. Yes, they're kind of cheap, but so is the way the game handles POS standing.
Another -1
Serco and Itani are at WAR. Anyone who's considered a "Pillar of Society" with your mortal enemy sure as hell doesn't deserve the same from you until they prove their allegiance.
Yet another -1
There needs to be risk out there. Nobody should ever get a free ride from all the factions in the game, no matter how 'violent' or 'peaceful' their actions are.
As for Karma: there should be a way for players to put a bounty on other players heads. This way if some rich trader wants to put a huge price on someone's head for kabooming them, then they can.