A Call for Open Discussion

The two minute rule is rediculously dumb anyway. It should be at least five minutes.

It’s actually ten minutes.

Using the code to enforce rule 6 would be awesome, and not just because it would prevent cheating. The rule as it is right now is fairly complicated.. people run around for two minutes thinking they’ve done their bit because they remembered something about two minutes being in the rule… but that doesn’t satisfy what they’re supposed to do. They’re supposed to stand in the hotel room for two minutes, ensuring that they’re not being chased anymore.

However, on the other hand, this rule [i:28q0wlg5]is[/i:28q0wlg5] very complex, and in a lot of ways not well-suited for code enforcement. Being pursued by somebody and being in combat with them is not the same thing, how would the code know the difference between two people having a friendly conversation or a screaming match? How would the code know that it ended with "Alright, I’m heading to bed. See you tomorrow." or "YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!"?

If the ability (or inability) to log out while being chased is hard coded into the game then people stop feeling responsible for things the code does allow them to do, regardless of whether or not it’s against the rules. "The code doesn’t let me log out when I’m not supposed to, so if it lets me I’m allowed to. It doesn’t matter that I know the Empire is hunting me down trying to arrest me for running their blockade, there was no combat so the rule doesn’t apply."

I like the buffer idea and it sounds feasible.

A few things:

Debts/Loans –
A lot of players make a loan to another. I don’t think that straight up wiring money is a good idea due to potential for abuse (bounce the funds around your aim clique until one of your alts basically gave creds to another), but it’s a pain to line up online times. Instead of giving someone money, you can loan it to them. You specify how much to give them, you specify either how much you want back or a per diem interest rate (could encourage them to pay up quicker), and they can make their payments to a bank terminal.

Ship financing –
The rent-to-own programs that I’ve seen starting up are good, but it would be awesome to have a financing system in place. The person selling you a ship sets a downpayment (has to be paid then and there), total price, buyer (can just be an alias. people are weird about names for good reason). Until the buyer has made all payments at a bank terminal, they get access to the ship in a way similar to pirateship, but the moment they pay it off, ownership changes. This is a royal PITA if you buy a ship from someone not in a clan and you’re working in different timezones and different online times. It could also make the process for eng. clans easier.

Cargo ship rental –
Currently, cargo rentals and the owner/pilot split is all on the honor system. Yeah, all well and good, but it’d be nice to be able to have a code system to offer ships for rental. If could require IC RP (which I would prefer to see), or have some sort of automated terminal similar to taxis. You set a bank account, a rental deposit amount (could just be ship value), and an owner percentage between 0-50%. Everytime freight is sold at a terminal, the owners percentage is dumped into the specified bank account.

Dropships –
Have some sort of drop ships that can land on a planet ridiculously fast. Might need to be reserved to only capital class ships or better. Similar to an escape pod, but have your troops line up in a designated dropship room, pull a lever, and BOOM, they launch and the ship lands the moment it hits orbit. Maybe have the occupants take a certain HP loss (200-500 HP? 20-40% of their max HP?), but your strike team is on the ground and ready to enter the fray without the chance of getting blown out of orbit by the enemy star destroyer.

Reloadable escape pods –
Ok, this needs to be a reasonably high enough price to offset the whole "let’s just refuel with an escape pod" trick, but it would be good to reload escape pods into a ship the way that rockets, chaff, etc. are reloading. Make them somewhere in the range of 25k-75k credits so that it actually costs more to refuel via an escape pod instead of reloading from a hangared interceptor (cost for the clan to build one, not retail pricing).

Variable kick & circle echo message –
No one is a stranger to the kick/circle spam. I’m not proposing to change the behavior of the commands, but atleast add a pool of something like 10-25 different possible output messages so there’s some variety in the echo output.

doctor cybernetic removal skill –
Ok, some newbie buys and gets a bioplug installed…
Allow someone with doctoring 100+ (same as the ‘cyber’ skill) able to remove cybernetics from someone. Have the cybernetic destroy or be damaged on removal. Possibly add it as a toggle similar to +clone to prevent jerks from abusing the system to harass people.

player to player stat training –
If someone has a higher stat than you (STR, DEX, CON, etc), they could offer to train you. Would be a good way to get your clan recruits up to speed and trained at base without loading the base up with stat trainers (which I don’t think is done, nor should it be). This is an iffy idea because the danger of your newbie clan recruits is nulled if the clan affiliation is removed from a background lookup.

repair skills for holsters, comlinks, datapads, etc –
Currently, nearly everything a player would be holding can be repaired except holsters, comlinks, datapads, a few other minor things that players hold in their hands (hydrospanners?). If it exists, give us a means to maintain it beyond hoarding a stockpile of them.

I’m sure I could think of more, but these are the big things that I think would improve the overall play experience. I desire some less than others, but a lot of these would be excellent improvements to the gaming experience.

+ 1 for Reload escape pods, cybernetics removing, repairing holsters/comlinks/datapads

Oh, also add a [b:15db3b09]makemicrophone[/b:15db3b09] skill.

Actually enforce help restring.

This is something that would need to be brainstormed on a bit. I’d like to see a way to present character concepts, clan creation concepts etc…to the IMMs for opinions and so on…but not having to use IMMchat or bug them on their personal IM’s. I know we could email them with the info, but the majority of my emails don’t seem to actually get to anyone anyways…generally falling through the cracks, spam folder….or whatever happens to them that gets the "I didn’t see an email from you" message. At first I thought that we could have a separate forum section to get input, but if you’re wanting it to be a secret crime clan or whatever…posting that info up for everyone who bothers to check the forums, isn’t a great idea. Perhaps a hidden section of the forum for those that have requested to be in the discussion, those we know are seasoned players who would offer honest critiques and assistance for the ideas?