Forums » Suggestions

new temp kos rules

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Jan 16, 2021 Luxen link
Krazy, but Corvus isn't a pirate faction.

Maybe things could be *lessened* in greyspace a degree, more as non-UIT companies would probably have less resources with which to defend themselves and their interests, but *lessened* as a middle ground between what we now have and what we did have. And that is a topic for a different suggestion.
Jan 16, 2021 haxmeister link
I'd like to see a Dev hosted event similar to what you see in other MMOs where say once a month or so the UIT nation space turrets get disabled "due to hive bot interference"...

Could include lots of warnings and messages in 100 and oh the pirates would come!... Such a thing could be a decent compromise for mischevious pirate players if it is done frequently enough... and wouldn't the new players see some excitement when there is a battle in nation space? This is often done to create excitement in other MMOs and it is FUN!

Personally, I'm not terribly offended by the idea of UIT being properly unified.. it makes my job as a pirate a little more restrictive but as long as Incarnate continues to balance this further with new and exciting things in grey space that will bring players down to face off, I don't think it's a bad idea.This could be further restrictive and it still wouldn't bother me... especially if we also implemented stuff like the "Join The Unrats" idea I posted in another thread (shameless plug).

The only word of caution I would add is that there should also be a "safe space" for pirates or players unafraid of PvP. There continues to be changes that are shrinking the so called "pirate space". I recently was told by incarnate that he doesn't view Corvus as a sort of harbor for pirates like many of us players do. I suppose it was just the relaxed standing penalties and availability of "chase ships" that lead us all to think that way.

Perhaps there does need to be a formal pirate faction in this game.. and perhaps that is a great way to add some fantastic new ground without any really new assets. Certainly we have hundreds of unused sectors in the game that have absolutely no value at all except a waste of server space. One of these could be transformed into a dastardly pirate faction haven...

VO needs a Tortuga... it is part of the culture of the game and the game would be so much less without pirates. We can do this without burning down nation space.. and all of it together could make VO a more accurate role play.
Jan 16, 2021 Aryko link
This is a very good update, I don't understand why people are opposed to it because that implies they want to grief new players, which is not at all good for the game. You should not be able to kill in nation space with ease.
Jan 17, 2021 incarnate link
We've had a serious problem with new players being driven away by early-PK griefers, for years. It's reflected in the public reviews of the game, and frequent commentary on announcement threads that we make, or on press that gets posted anywhere. You know.. "Oh, I tried that once, and some guy killed me over and over outside my first big station, so I quit".

The fact that we've never given up on trying to improve the situation for newbies is also why we had to bring friendly-fire restrictions back to Nation Space (after trying to get rid of it), among various other tweaks.

I actually aimed to resolve this current "Make UIT space behave more like Itani / Serco space" issue years ago, but it was more complex before the Temp KoS system was in place. The TempKoS system was actually created to try and resolve this kind of problem, since the permanent faction standing system wasn't working for that issue (if we tuned it for griefer behaviour, non-griefers would accidentally fall prey to the system, and the long-term ramifications were too great).

But, fundamentally, the goal is this:
- Newbie "Initial Training" sectors are "practically completely safe"
- Nation Capitol Systems are "quite safe"
- Nation Space is "somewhat safe-ish"
- Grayspace is "not safe".
- All the highest value, and highest-level stuff happens in Grayspace, or requires it in some way.

This isn't a new goal, it's like a 20-year-old goal. Like everything, one made excruciatingly long by developer resource limitations, divergent distractions and so on. But it's not like there's been some big pivot of intent here.

Implementing a "gradient of safety" has also been a bit of an arms race. After all, as soon as we add in new content (say, capital ships), it creates new avenues where people may be able to break the existing systems.. and then we have to go re-write them. Player tactics evolve, etc.

It's also notable that I've always intended to create means of further breaking "Nation laws", once we had a system in place that was good enough to protect new people a bit better. For instance, smuggling and other things like that are interesting. Mechanics built around getting past ship scans or Nation border patrols. Highly paid assasination missions deep in Nation space. That's all cool stuff, but Nation Space has to not be a total free-for-all to begin with.. otherwise there's no real point to adding any of that.

As the Universe continues to expand, additional systems will get bolted onto Grayspace (as you've started to see with the Unknown System). The goal is for territory to be opened for player-conquest and "ownership", establishment of player stations and the like. And I expect that conflict to push further out, to where the territory and interesting resources will be.

Nation Space and the central core systems will evolve more and more into a newbie region, a place of some safety and more limited rewards, while the greater opportunities lie in the outer regions. Traders will likely want to make the runs between Nation space and outer areas, because those will the highest value opportunities (greatly "refined" goods of high-technology are likely to be sourced from the Nations). But newbie traders might learn how to trade in Nation space. Piracy is supposed to happen in Grayspace. That's why it exists.

This is also not a "new plan". You can find references to it all over my prior discussions of economy changes and so on.

People are welcome to provide feedback, but spare me the "carebear game" BS. Persistent-world MMOs with full-time, non-consensual PvP everywhere are basically like unicorns now, because they're incredibly difficult to make work from a financial standpoint (generally because griefers drive everyone away).

There's a very long history of this. Ultima Online, the proto-MMORPG whose creator literally defined the term, had non-consensual PvP in the beta. It was drastically modified and stripped out prior to the game's launch, but the feeling of "uncertainty" and "danger" that I had in the beta were an influence on my design for my own game, which was well into development at the time.

I've always maintained that there is a balance to be found, with the right mechanics, where one can have enough of a safety-gradient to let people find their footing, catch their breath, and even support less combative play styles (people who just want to mine in Nation Space), and still have the majority of players traversing and interacting in unaligned space.. without resorting to the kinds of hard PvP-on / PvP-off solutions found in other games. I think we're getting there.

As long-term Veteran players can attest, any time there has been a significant change to the game, some group of people are going to say "DOOM! It's the death of <Enter Gameplay Style Here>". But, to paraphrase Mark Twain "Rumors of their deaths are greatly exaggerated". The game will go on.
Jan 17, 2021 DeathSpores link
My 2c.
I am quite ok with this update no need for sterile further arguments.
Better have the devs focus on next move: give high incentive for people to leave nation space: make escort,trade more profitable if it involve going through grayspace, limit some hive drops to gray, limit some rare ore to gray, serco/itani special skirmishes, reward exploration etc...

CN'B
Jan 17, 2021 death456 link
"As long-term Veteran players can attest, any time there has been a significant change to the game, some group of people are going to say "DOOM! It's the death of <Enter Gameplay Style Here>". But, to paraphrase Mark Twain "Rumors of their deaths are greatly exaggerated". The game will go on."

Spot on!

^^

Jan 18, 2021 Chiconoble link
So pirates have always throughout history had it hard and they new getting caught ment hanging by the neck,its a live hard, die hard life style. If ya can't handle it maybe try trading or shooting in grey which is pirate haven. I think on the most part a few pirates themselves have abused uit lately and thus the update, so this is in part the doing of one of your own. I totally +10 this
Jan 19, 2021 look... no hands link
I will suggest one specific modification. Axia and Valent pretty much hate each other. There is even a mission available called "Axia must die". As such I suggest that a temp-kos with Axia, does not matter at Valent stations, and vice-versa.

I think the fact that those two factions ONLY exist in UIT space should probably be considered as well. The only other faction I am aware of that is UIT space exclusive is BioCom, but I don't recall them having any sub-factional enemies.
Jan 19, 2021 incarnate link
I will suggest one specific modification. Axia and Valent pretty much hate each other.

I understand the intent. But no. UIT is a Nation, and expects their lawful front to be unified.

The Axia / Valent conflict will eventually be expanded to grayspace, and will eventually cease to be permanent, and become more of a dynamic shifting of conflicts between the different Corporations. That was the intent of the Dynamic Warfare system (if one wants to read some ancient threads).
Jan 20, 2021 SkinWalker link
Personally, and I know I don't speak for my whole guild, but I like the new rules.

It makes me think about what I'm doing and I get the intent.

It would be cool, however, if there was some sort of way to check your kill number for the last 7 days. Would it be possible to add some sort of /command that could show your 7/day naughtiness level with a given faction?

Perhaps we could type /naughty valent and get number value in return (0,1,2)?

Or better yet a list of dates for last kills? Maybe something like 20210121(2) or 20210118(1)?

Honestly, it *could* save a newb's ship since I don't usually find out I had too many until too late! :)
Jan 20, 2021 biretak link
+1 skinwalker
Jan 20, 2021 biretak link
and like skinwalker said the factions standing page should give time and kill info for the fations
Jan 22, 2021 haxmeister link
+1

For skinwalker suggestion... I think this would resolve some of the complexity for pirates trying to manage standing.