"Now, sucky players are moving back down the ranks to the smaller vessels. This bothers them, as no one really wants to admit they are a sucky player, and do not deserve the large vessels. Well, even with a large amount of time constructing and supplying, I have lost 400-600 pres since the beginnign of 1.483. I am a sucky player who is overpromoted to the rank of 1RA... I am at best a Dessie skipper, with a good chance of being a Frig driver, and my massive deaths should be keeping me there."

I feel slimey doing this, but I agree with backslash ^^... We need some form of swapping, but the current system is CONFUSING... KISS...

1) Modding

Dont remove modding. Without modding, there is no individualization of the ships. People need to feel its their ship as once you hit max rank you need some form of interest. Even if you dont hit the maximum rank, there needs to be something inbetween to keep you going and to help occupy your time.

This form of customisation is a staple principle of all pay to play games. People also have different play styles. Removing modding is restricting them, and they will not like being forced to play with something that they don't feel the have any influence over or are accustomed to. It may make the game feel more arcadish, but there is nothing to promote keeping the playerbase interested. P2P games NEED some form of treadmill to keep players interested. Gaining credits for modding IS one form of that treadmill. The trick is getting this balanced correctly with ease of play. The rank and badge system is another form of this treadmill that does not need changing.

Modding has always been a good selling point for the game. Removing modding, removes the point in needing credits. And thus removes that extra bit of longterm interest.
Getting rid of the current level system would make things a lot easier to balance as you would be dealing with a much smaller range of variables. Remove the levels and keep the 1.483 weapons and slots.

1a) New modding system:-

The current system for modding is clumsy and not easy to understand for new players. We have come up with a more intuitive method for managing this.

Instead of the current system where factories build items, and starports hold them, we have come up with the following idea:-

Factories, would no longer build items in the current sense. So there would be no extra nouns clogging up the DB. They would instead give players an option for replacing their components from a set list. So a stockpile would no longer be required.

This is how it would work:-

I orbit a planet with tech 45. When I right click on my device a list of components comes up. I cannot install an EMP Cannon because it requires tech 65 and the planet doesnt have sufficient technology. I chose the Particle Cannon instead. The credits are deducted from my account, and my old component gets removed and sold to the starport. The planet also losses and amount of resource from its stockpile depending on the requirement for the item you 'manufactured'. The device you sold would then dissappear from existence, saving lots of troublesome DB tracking. You would no longer be able to buy devices at starports. The starports would purely be used for trading food, and resources(s).

PLANETS UNDER BLOCKADE CANNOT REFIT ITEMS. This stops any possible abuse by players and swapping out components on a whim.

You could still salvage items from destroyed ships, and install them as you are currently able to. Or again you could sell them to a starport where the device would again dissappear.

1b) Armour and Shields:-

Because we have removed the level system, armor and shields would be much easier to balance. Each section would give you a set amount of HP modified by hull size. We could still keep the different armor and shield types.

2) Planets

Planets work, the resources dont. Resources cause huge stockpiles, the way its managed needs to be changed. Theres far too much being updated live on the servers. Instead, planets still have the minerals, but mines will generate a generic 'resource' based on the minerals on the planet. Rare minerals will generate more resources. Keep in mind, no minerals are actualy mined so there is only this one type to track. All structures drain an amount of resource, based on what they are. Defence bases, obviously need maintaining, and so drain resources from the planet. Every maintenance update cycle, the server scans the planet, adds all the structures resource value together, and deducts it from the planet. If the planet does not have enough resources to maintain all stuctures then they will start to get damaged. Planets auto-distribute resources, but shipyard planets take presidence. Population could also generate resources, so there is value over the Ice, Ocean and Terran planets. Planets only trade resources over the excess they have, so a planet will demand only if it doesnt make enough. Planets can also have a cap on the max amount of resources they can have, this could be tied into the population or via use of a new storage structure.

3) Making money
This section addresses concerns with making money to pay for the modifications.

3a) Mining:
When mining, the player will a mine a generic resource, which will fill up cargo as per usual. You then 'sell' this to the planet. This will work like normal system does. Obvious planets with more rare minerals would cause more of this generic resource to be mined per cycle. Obviously the price payed would scale according to the stockpile with a minimum and maximum cap.

3b) Automatic bounties:
Give players who deal damage to ships which are subsequently destroyed a bounty payment. This could scale according to rank and the destroyed ship size. A GA damaging a scout would gain very little if any bounty. An Ensign damaging a Dread would gain a large bounty payment.

3c) Fleet Treasury:
Add a fleet treasury. Planets that reach their maximum resource storage convert a proportion of the excess in credits, the rest being lost to wastage. A tax level on this could provide credits being deposited into the fleet treasury. This can then be divided among the members using a wages system.

4) Cloak, ECCM, and beacons.

Beacons, when attached to a K'luth, should not make them visible. They should instead increase the recloak time for a random number of seconds, for between 4-8 seconds and increase it's base signature for a futher period of between 20-30 seconds. The K'luth can recloak with this added timer, but its harder for them to hit and run for the period the beacon has hit them for. Beacons will still add 20 sig to ICC ships, but K'luth cloak needs to make the sig ABSOLUTE 0 when fully cloaked, beaconed or not.

5) Resources lost.
The resources lost system DOES work. I cannot put it better than this quote by Carns

Quote:

"Now, sucky players are moving back down the ranks to the smaller vessels. This bothers them, as no one really wants to admit they are a sucky player, and do not deserve the large vessels. Well, even with a large amount of time constructing and supplying, I have lost 400-600 pres since the beginnign of 1.483. I am a sucky player who is overpromoted to the rank of 1RA... I am at best a Dessie skipper, with a good chance of being a Frig driver, and my massive deaths should be keeping me there."

However, I think everyone agrees that resources lost could be toned down a little more to somewhere between the current levels and 1.482 levels. Along with loss of the overpowered armor we should see a little more hull damage and prestige gain as a result, but with players still needing to work for it.