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My suggestions don't apply specifically to the game as it stands now; I've had only minimal time to go through and explore and I think most of my time in game so far has been spent floating on a cloud of joy, amazed by the fact the game exists at all, and rational thought has gone out the window. I'll assume that everything currently in the game is pretty well hashed out and so I'll make a few suggestions for the continuation of the game beyond its current point.

1. Develop (if this has not already been done) a point-by-point plan for expansion. When the game is stabilized and we've been playing for a few weeks or months, advance the story along the path plotted out in the old compendiums. Include, in sequential releases, access to preplanned new sectors and a handful of new items, skills, and other expanded content. I propose that expansions be created quarterly. Each expansion would contain:

a. A new quest line for each class that merges into a single global quest line.

b. A new set of items for each class with associated loot with which to construct it.

c. A new skill for each class and an attendant rise in the level cap by five levels.

d. One new unexplored sector.

e. If technically feasible, a revamp of the graphics within an existing system. I'm not sure, but looking into the Castor system it almost seems like the first sector is a higher resolution. It would be nice to refit the game to a higher resolution, one sector at a time.

[more coming but my computer is overheating so will shut down soon]

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I like most of those suggestions Mneme. I don't think that the level cap should be raised more than once, if it happens, but at some point a new skill for each class, definitely like that idea. I like your ideas for expanding the galaxy, with new sectors from time to time, very much. Love your idea for new item lines. There can never be too many items to find and map, or use IMO.

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I am aware.

But honestly, the planning doesn't take more than writing down a spreadsheet what will be added. One person could probably write in detail several years worth of expansion plans within a couple hours. A few days if they wanted to also list off the assets that would be changed or added. My point isn't that the work needs to be done at this point but rather that there would be no harm in doing the planning well in advance--and it would probably even help in redeveloping the pre-expansion content to know where it was intended to go after it.

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Now that my laptop fan is actually on (Ubuntu 9.10 is made of fail!)...

2. Since I'm not seeing it up here, it would probably be wise to post the installation procedures again. It might be a good idea to break them down by OS, so that if there are unique issues for XP, Vista, 7, Linux, or OSX (assuming all of these are compatible, I'm not sure?) they can all easily be seen in one spot.

3. Add a Spoilers! forum for the specific purpose of posting all story information that is practical including quest lines. If we are following the old story (I hope?) this will make things easier in several ways. First, it'll bring storybuilding out of limbo. Second, it'll allow community proofreading--there is no good reason why one should need to officially join the team to do stuff like that. Third, by having the story out in the open, people will be more likely to post useful suggestions that actually fit with what the writers are trying to do, rather than random uselessness. I should also note that, if the story is a rebuild of the old, spoilers are of little importance anyway since the story is already known. It's expansions we should think about. Storywise not much can be done with that until the old story's main threads are at least organized.

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our ability to add skills is severely limited. We would not be able to add skills to each class quarterly. 9 new skills in an update

would also be hard to balance

I'm not sure of the possibility of having the other ideas. Story missions will happen.

Spoiler section I am not very sure about. We will not follow the original story exactly so I would rather not have our story plans sitting out for all to see since they will not be exactly what players expect. If this happened it would probably be really general stuff that won't change. It might be better to have this information presented by net-7 reports similar to how it was in live.

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The idea behind the "spoilers" section isn't gratuitous spreading of the story but rather investing the community in the rebuilding of it. The same thing was done with the player knowledgebases used to rebuild other aspects of the content (item stats for example) so why not story? There's no point keeping any of it secret--eventually it'll all be public knowledge anyway, so why not set it up as public knowledge from the get-go (GetCo?) and use it to our advantage? Crowdsourcing might be a lot better option. And it can always be passworded--if you want to use a beta-like access control so that serious participants can get into it and those who just want to play don't need to see it.

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In the plans for the V'rix, I have a few suggestions:

(1) Add mordanite asteroids back to the game, so we can stockpile.

(2) Have them initially be merely irritating and allow us to choose whether or not to build faction with them (AFTER the faction problem with resetting to defaults on server reboot is FIXED). Also allow quite a few months before the V'Rix even begin to think about whether or not to go to war.

(3) Allow the V'Rix to learn the joy of spaces between words in their communications!

(4) After a significant period of time, have the V'Rix choose to ally, stay neutral, or go to war based on the percentage of the players who have gained faction with them. If they choose alliance or war, the players who have boosted their faction with them should enjoy the benefits. Maybe there could be new V'Rix areas with V'Rix bases! Maybe some players could help the overall V'Rix economy by selling to them [if they have enough faction]. If the V'Rix economy grows large enough, maybe the V'Rix hating player scum can be attacked with such powerful ships that they will be eliminated! Oops... I wasn't supposed to say that out loud. Good thing I'm typing, not talking, huh? ;)

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In the plans for the V'rix, I have a few suggestions:

(1) Add mordanite asteroids back to the game, so we can stockpile.

(2) Have them initially be merely irritating and allow us to choose whether or not to build faction with them (AFTER the faction problem with resetting to defaults on server reboot is FIXED). Also allow quite a few months before the V'Rix even begin to think about whether or not to go to war.

(3) Allow the V'Rix to learn the joy of spaces between words in their communications!

(4) After a significant period of time, have the V'Rix choose to ally, stay neutral, or go to war based on the percentage of the players who have gained faction with them. If they choose alliance or war, the players who have boosted their faction with them should enjoy the benefits. Maybe there could be new V'Rix areas with V'Rix bases! Maybe some players could help the overall V'Rix economy by selling to them [if they have enough faction]. If the V'Rix economy grows large enough, maybe the V'Rix hating player scum can be attacked with such powerful ships that they will be eliminated! Oops... I wasn't supposed to say that out loud. Good thing I'm typing, not talking, huh? :P

While I don't remember the full story of how/why the V'rix invaded and the war started, I'm pretty sure it started like most wars we/they have something they/we want (and I'm pretty sure it's more than just Mordanite) perhaps food, technology or even maybe one of the class leaders has a baby V'rix as a pet (sounds like that *&^%$ DeWinter if you ask me) and the family wants it back. As far as your suggestion: "allow quite a few months before the V'Rix even begin to think about whether or not to go to war." I don't think that's going to happen and here's why: You live in the US, suddenly the US is swarmed with heavily armed persons from both Mexico and Canada, don't you think the United States government is going to send out troops to hold them back? Eventually somebody fires the first shot and guess what happens next? War.

As far as the economy goes, you probably won't be able to sell them any trade goods. Likely the human races would have put a trade embargo on the V'rix and could set up patrols to inspect cargo holds. Likely, the only stuff the patrols would let through would be resources and junk loot (actually resources probably wouldn't be allowed in a real war time scenerio, but I listed it for those miners that like to keep their resources in their hold while they look for more).

Now on the point of faction: In my personal opinion, the Jenquai (at the very least the Sha'ha'dem) are less likely to to shoot first, they might try to investigate why the V'rix invaded and attempt a peaceful resolution. Back in Live I compared the races with "the main players" in Star Trek: The Next Generation (Sha'ha'dem = Vulcans, Shinwa = Romulan, Terrans = Humans, or maybe Ferengi surgically altered to look hu-mon, Progen = Klingon and the V'rix were kinda like the Borg).

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In Live, the V'Rix were neutral for a while (many months... was it a year or 2?). Irritating, but neutral. There has to be a time period where players can make up their own mind before the possibility of a shooting war starts. That way, people won't have to bust their keisters building faction for a week or 2... or someone comes back from vacation or final exams only to find themselves in a situation they wouldn't want.

Even in Live, I had built up my V'Rix faction enough so that when it was cut in half, the V'Rix were still friendly to me. I even fed them more mordanite for a bit. The V'Rix left me alone, so this type of behavior is not unprecedented or just my idea.

My suggestion of the percentage of players who have positive faction with the V'Rix would be a good indicator of the will of the gaming community on that server. Only 1 server currently, but we're hoping for more later. If a large majority (2/3rds to 100%) of the players on a server like the V'Rix (build up a significant positive faction with them), then the dev's shouldn't force a war between the V'Rix and the players. That would just tick people off. If it's close to even (40% to 60% or so) one way or the other, then the V'rix still shouldn't go to war, but might fade away. If only a few (0% to 20% or so) of the people develop positive faction with the V'Rix, then that's a good indication that the dev's should bring on a V'Rix war.

In any of the above cases, players who bothered to advance their factions highly with the V'Rix shouldn't be attacked by them, unless they attack the V'Rix [which will also lower their V'Rix faction]. If a V'Rix friendly player is merely grouped with folks the V'Rix are attacking, the friendly ones should have an option to just sit out of the combat [leaving their XP and faction unchanged], enter combat [lowering their faction], or leaving the group [and thus the wrath of the V'rix].

Regardless of whether or not the V'Rix decide to attack, people who have built themselves up to massively friendly (within 90% or less of maximum) should be allowed to go into V'Rix areas, if any such are developed. It would be so cool to be able to work for the V'Rix, do jobs for them, and even possibly gain another type of V'Rix faction!

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Gotta agree with Fragbait there. Had good V'rix faction on my JE in live. Fed them Mordanite as well, and generally left them alone. Worked on my RD faction by killing Chavez (then unfactioned) as well as Mevri drones (Sha'ha'dem). On my JW I used killing V'rix to raise my RD faction, since it was faster than Chavez, I regretted it. Would have liked to have been able to hunt solo in Antares with my JW without having to constantly look out for V'rix Helkos who could hack things, see cloaked, and attacked on sight.

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