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Re: Cosmpiercers: Problems and an Ambitious Proposal

I was curious to know what other players thought...

Revelin

Re: Announcements post #57: Faction Engagement Missions.

Thank you all for the suggestions! We will be making some tweaks to this system soon

Ilyos

Re: Cosmpiercers: Problems and an Ambitious Proposal

Coming from the standpoint of a casual player (I probably spend 1-2 hours a day grinding at something before I either log off or seek out RP), my marks account has never dipped above 100k, I hover somewhere between 50-80k. My point being I am reluctant to engage with the cosmpiercer model in its current form because it's way too expensive. I could take 1 really bad hit and then basically spend the next week or so casually grinding up and earning enough marks to go back and try it again. Ideally there would be a large enough player population to support the factional reimbursements, but from what I see that's not the case. And if there is factional reimbursement, it's carried on the back of 1-2 players-- this isn't sustainable.

Personally I'd be in favor of leaving everything the way it is if only to give time for more people to get their feet with and get some sort of idea on how to interact with this system but putting a temporary system, maybe something similar to the current insurance system but have the insurance companies also include a marks transfer of the estimated costs for refitting your ship (I dunno how to calculate this, perhaps taking an average value currently on the market?). Either way, you won't really catch me volunteering to fly out to a Cosmpiercer right now given the risk doesn't seem to come with a reward that I can personally profit from, and I'll probably bow out when I've given HETE about 5k.

@Cubey -- I am just realizing who you played and wanted to reach out to say I'm sorry you've had a bad experience. While our characters didn't interact a ton, you definitely brightened my experience in Celestine..

juno

Re: Announcements post #57: Faction Engagement Missions.

I really, really support additional faction content that helps give them functionality/meaning and that advances a sense of community. However, I feel that the current mission system is very much about the individual, and the faction just so happens to benefit from the good samaritans. At ~16 GMT in the most populous, tryhard, lol-admin-biased org, there have been no missions completed at all today, and I imagine there will continue to be low participation in this until we can consider some changes.

So while I didn't play Aetolia for very long, I believe that their ylem system is loosely similar to this mission system; i.e., your org has some earned currency (in this case, slivers) that can be used by the org to buy certain powers/privileges which lasts for some extended duration. I think this CAC system would benefit from a similar model, as has been somewhat similarly been suggested by others. That is, instead of each quest earning some small bonus as dictated by the individual, allow an accumulated sum of slivers to be invested by the faction into a reward. As an example, instead of spending 5 slivers each day, maybe you have to spend 50 slivers for a 10-day 5% XP bonus. I think this puts less onus on the players to have to complete these tasks daily, and instead it becomes an effort that the faction contributes to and can sustain as long as they have vested interest in some worthwhile bonus.

So along those lines, these would be my suggestions:

- Add slivers bank, maybe make it capped or resetting

- Adjust the cost/duration of the bonuses (e.g., 5 slivers/day at 1% each = 50 slivers for a 10-day 5% bonuses)

- Create an investable power for the faction to spend slivers

- Consider adding a 'missionlog', to include both faction engagement and station missions, so as to credit participants but keep the spam out of the faction logs
- Consider adding other temporary powers/perks that the faction can buy

Azlyn

Re: Help choose our next "Big Thing"

Faction Arenas...maybe down the road. Indeed, there might be cases when you're waiting in line for the Omni Arena to free up, but with our current population, it's not that big of an issue. I'd rather expand the functionality of the arena so that you might spectate the fight inside (which we will do soon) and add more PvP games to the arena before giving factions the option to have their own. Oh, also, when that happens, factions will have to buy them. And they'll be expensive.

Ilyos

Re: Help choose our next "Big Thing"

As a counterpoint - no to faction arenas, but provide more neutral ones. I hold a strong dislike for faction arenas. They make factions more isolated, and in a game our size we can't really have any of that. We need to be forced to interact and having neutral zone arenas definitely enforces that.

Nykara

Re: Cosmpiercers: Problems and an Ambitious Proposal

I like both 1A and 1B. 1C might be too much. 1B also creates potential problems with resource farms, but resource farms are a problem to begin with and obviously not how the game was meant to be played.

2C is a good idea. I'd even expand it and just make SHIP WARP available for everyone as soon as any given cosmpiercer is open or under attack. Getting there was always the biggest hassle and this would handily eliminate the problem.

The ship warp change also eliminates problems with Wormhole. Heartstart is too powerful but it's solved by giving it a cooldown, so 3B.

I already said we are having too many cosmpiercers per day, so something like 4A is just me restating my earlier preferences.

Cubey

Re: Help choose our next "Big Thing"

While this poll is ongoing, I'd just like to point out that, both here and in other channels, a lot of people voted or prioritized stuff that might not exactly be their number one choice, but which they think others would enjoy more. Thank you all for being so awesome!

(Also, all of these things will be done eventually, this poll doesn't mean that what doesn't get picked will be erased off the whiteboard)

Ilyos

Planet exploration ideas!

Planet Outposts and Exploration

Wilderness-style procedural maps on planets, with numerous points of interest based on environment type, random events, etc. These ideas could also apply to things in space, too!

Outpost purposes:

Built to house colonists/drones, able to send out exploration parties with costs based on distance, time spent out, etc.

Possible site for planet-side factories and refineries

Player housing - Want a big, sprawling mansion in the corner of some random backwards planet? Go for it!

PVE content - Your outpost is under attack! Oh no! Some planets would be very hostile, with angry wildlife or dangerous machines - Outposts on these planets would have to be heavily defended, but would produce resources based on killing the attacking NPCs. Similarly, exploring these dangerous places could focus on wiping out drones, etc and plundering loot.

PVP content - Don't like that Dave built a big compound in a pristine location? Mess with it.

Buildup would be slow, with variance. Want to cheap out, and take a risk? Build an ill-defended outpost that might get devoured by hungry alien rabbit monsters. Less a fan of risk? Pick a safer planet, but deal with more competition and lower possible payouts. Alternately, spend more marks and resources, build a heavily defended outpost and benefit from the resulting piles of alien parts, loot from marauding drones, etc.

Tie in to other systems:

- Good use for vehicles. Zoom about the planet BigFlatPlace on your shiny bike.

- Hack ancient terminals in ruined cities! Maybe your scavengers drag these back to the outpost for you. Unlock it, and oh look! Out comes a datashard of something, or coordinates for something else to dig up.

- Bashing! Uncover places to bash that only last a while, or use lures to tempt in giant, irritable hamster-creatures.

- PVP - Derelict ship crashed on the planet UhOh! Go and fight over it, deploying outposts, drones and straight up murdering each other both in space AND on the ground.

- Resource generation - Another way to generate gas/metal etc, or maybe even intermediary products. Find some paristeel from some ruins or a wreck, maybe dig up some old repair kits! production of intermediate and finished products would be unreliable, such that it didn't compete too directly with manufacturing them.

- Grow things to sell! Tubers. So, so many tubers. Maybe farm Leesa, or other unusual substances.

- Tourism? Build things that attract tourist NPCs who then buy the random alien tat you've dug up. That lump of rock with weird graffiti on it? Boom, sell it to Dave the Human for some marks! And he'll need some food whilst he's there, maybe a place to stay! (Yes, this would be like Themepark: Space Tourist attraction)

- Group PVE! "Hey, guys, I built an outpost on that funny little jungle planet because the fruit is an amusing shape, but now I'm attracting a worrying number of five metre tall alien lemur-analogues and I think we need to get rid of them before they get any ideas!"

- Don't want to do it all yourself? Ask a buddy to build a farm to provide food to be sold!

- Expandable - Add new outpost options, buildings etc, have new sites of interest generated by events like space ships crashing!

Potential rewards could include things like unusual racial customisations, ship mods from crashed wrecks, unusual styles of weapons and armour from defunct/unknown makers, weapon and armour mods scavenged from battlefields, loot plundered from ruined cities ranging from recent stuff to old, weird items that eccentric collectors might buy.

Mobility?

Would outposts be mobile? like a giant vehicle you upgrade, tweak, drop on a planet and deploy? This might make the system more flexible. Resources/sites of interest could move about, be added, depleted, etc. Could be used for planets, asteroids, big wrecks etc. Cost to moving, in that you'd either have to have a huge ship to move stuff around, or you'd have to pay someone (Hint: He's a little crazy, and his name begins with J) to pack up and haul your outpost.

Explosions?

Planet has some giant hives of horrifying pink monsters? All attempts to PVE bash the place result in death and hilarity? Build a big cannon or tank in the outpost and use it to smash the hive/lair/thing, making it bashable for a while. Or engage in explosive archaeology, that is, using big bombs to uncover ancient ruins to pillage! Quicker than digging, but could lead to faster rewards. Plus, explosions are fun!

Environments?

Planets would likely have resources based on environments.

- ruins, ruined cities that generate old weapons, mods, etc.

- Ship wrecks with weird datashards, mods, metals and the like

- Jungles, either as food producers or obstacles because they're filled with godzilla style marmot monsters or packs of roving squirrel-beasts that swarm nearby outposts.

- Machine hives, rich in resources but also rich in angry machines that fight back

- Animal/creature hives, that hoard resources and provide a big PVE challenge. You'd need to call in support from an outpost, too! Plus, the outpost could provide a place to respawn.

- vary the kinds of ruins. Recent, ancient, unknown, everything from ancient cyclopean cities through to failed recent colonies, with drop tables styled to match.

- Ancient roads, paths, etc. Connects ruins, or just criss-crosses planets.

- Natural resources, caves, etc.

Erkeeheb

Re: Planet exploration ideas!

I love huge swaths of this, but this is Big Projects. I think we should start small:
big, wide-open maps for each planet, some with hazards (like taking so much dps if you stand in Too Hot or Too Cold rooms), some with not. And locations (randomly generated?) where land has been cleared and replaced by autofactories and refineries.

Why?

To tie systems together. Right now, everything feels split apart. If I'm a miner, PVP and PVE are inconveniences I have to deal with or avoid, not necessarily something I am thinking about as part of the system. But the systems should be interlinked if we want a unique and interesting experience, in my opinion. Make every economy piece a tactical objective and it creates a lot of opportunity for roleplay, for interaction, and for (primarily) fun!

I realize this is also a Big Thing, but not quite as big as what was above. I still love those ideas and think they are great to go on the map (no pun intended)!

Nykara