[Jump]

As posted by GM_Istvan on JOSSH Forums

As promised, here's the rundown on the major registry changes planned for patch 1.0109:

The new Military flight registry will replace "Honor Guard". Rather than being a marker that had no function other than to allow players sharing it to shoot each other indiscriminately, the Military registry is designed as a structured system that will have considerable gameplay tied to it, as well as remaining a vehicle for permitting largely consensual PvP.

Additionally, the Pirate registry is being extended to accommodate the continuing need for a default registry for pilots who have obtained a bounty, as this function is not appropriate to the Military registry. New HUD indicators will provide data on what faction(s) a bountied pilot has offended without a need to consult JOSSH, for increased ease of faction-specific bounty-hunting.

Access to the Military registry will be restricted to pilots with no outstanding bounties. Once selected at a home faction station, a pilot cannot voluntarily exit the Military registry until his Tour of Duty is complete. As stated elsewhere, the various military missions are being constructed so as to increase the likelihood of PvP action among opposing Military pilots. Medals will be awarded for completion of military missions. Once ten (10) military missions have been finished, a Tour-specific medal will be awarded, and the pilot will be mustered out automatically as a Civilian. Should the pilot wish to continue performing military activities, he may simply sign up for another Tour. Civilian missions will remain available to Military pilots, but will not count toward Tour completion.

Military pilots will be more directly subject to the effects of factional stance shifts. Mission availability and targets will be directly dependent upon faction stances. Military pilots will also be unable to dock at stations if the owning faction is hostile. Combat retreats will need to be made to friendly or neutral locales, no longer to any port in a storm. This has been a nonsensical situation during all prior RP'd interfactional conflicts, and is being corrected now that a formal system is being put in place.

Furthermore, Military pilots will be subject to "Rules of Engagement", which is to say that there will be updated PR rules for handling kill events, based directly upon the new factional stance system. Logically, a Military pilot who downs another Military pilot with whose faction his faction is presently friendly will be penalized not only by the target faction, but by his own. However, if the factions are in a state of conflict, a Military pilot making a kill will see a very minor PR change with the target faction. The most severe PR penalties will be reserved for downing friendly-faction Civilians, though downing a Civilian under any circumstances will remain ill-advised and penalized accordingly.

In addition to personal PR effects, the new factional relationship system has been written to include factional stance repercussions for player-driven events, beginning with kills and mission completion. Kills are negative events that will cause a relationship to deteriorate, while missions for a faction are positive events that will improve a relationship. Military players will generally be involved in activities that cause negative adjustments to factional stances, but the civilian players in the game are being placed in a position to naturally improve even very poor relationships. Care has also been taken to construct a system with negative feedback at the extremes, so that relationships will tend to readjust after reaching a strongly positive or negative state. Events staff are being granted tools whereby the relationships may be adjusted in line with non-player events, so that a combination of player actions and story/event elements can contribute to the factional state of the game at any given time. This system is a first, significant step in empowering Jumpgate players to have a direct effect through their actions on the larger game environment.

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[QrazyKermi]

It will be interesting to see if regular Faction X pilots will go after griefers from their own faction in order to preserve a relationship status with the faction that the griefer is targeting (assuming this even happens any more).

For instance, a Sol griefer could make the universe difficult for his bretheren if he goes on a civ-ripping rampage against Quants.

[GrimGriz]

Wow, this brings up a LOT more questions...

Originally Posted by GM_Istvan on JOSSH Forums

As promised, here's the rundown on the major registry changes planned for patch 1.0109:

Additionally, the Pirate registry is being extended to accommodate the continuing need for a default registry for pilots who have obtained a bounty, as this function is not appropriate to the Military registry.

I have to say I'm a little sad that the difference between civ-ripper/mugger and insight pirate just got a little harder to distinguish.

• What happens if a military pilot gets a bounty? Does it automatically end his tour and switch him to pirate tags?
• Are pirate tagged people not going to be able to dock at any factional station? If so, how will bounties be worked off, collection only?
• Are POS affected? Can invading Octs dock at a second accounts POS in Wake?

Originally Posted by GM_Istvan on JOSSH Forums

Furthermore, Military pilots will be subject to "Rules of Engagement", which is to say that there will be updated PR rules for handling kill events, based directly upon the new factional stance system. Logically, a Military pilot who downs another Military pilot with whose faction his faction is presently friendly will be penalized not only by the target faction, but by his own.

• Theoretically, if say all the GMs went on vacation...what's to prevent civilians from doing enough mish, etc, to put all the factions on friendly status, thereby penalizing anyone who pvps outside of the sim?

[Radi]

Wow.

[Wild_Bill]

This is going to be interesting! Bring it on.

[vorlon31]

I am going to buy me a BIG lot of popcorn for this, crack open some beers and enjoy the show.

Non-consequential pvp has always existed for those who use having less scruples than others to their own ends. ie - the 'you did x, so now your entire squad is now a target blah blah blah' types..

Its going to be interesting to see how people adapt to the new system when it arrives.

Popcorn anyone?

[Algore]

I don't like the sound of it.
I fear that those that test stuff are not up to speed and thus not in the best position to make an objective response to new things being tested, but then again that has been my view for a long time.
I guess I'll leave formal response until any implementation. I just hope it's not too late by then if that response is a bad one.

Regards
Al

[GrimGriz]

I personally hope he can find a way to make the jumpgates in the sim work. This all sounds...well and good for people with a lot of time on their hands, but the way my current life is, I just like to hop on for an hour or two and blow stuff up. I think a working jumpgate in the sim (maybe two sims leading to a nice buffer sector with no station) would allow people like me with limited time to have the fun we can have now without having to worry about PR, missions, current factional hostilities...etc.

[SingleShot]

Originally Posted by GrimGriz

I have to say I'm a little sad that the difference between civ-ripper/mugger and insight pirate just got a little harder to distinguish

What's the difference between them, anyway? Both of them abuse the unwilling. Both can create signifigant losses for the hauler being attacked while being relatively risk-free for the attacker. Both require little brains aside from the need to FFlee to a POS when someone with guns shows up. I guess Insight piracy requires a person with cargo to abuse, but that's just limiting the abuse to those that will suffer the most. etc, etc. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.



Generally, I'm not sure if there are enough people still playing the game to make the changes really matter. I'd be pretty skeptical if there were still enough idiots in the game to really abuse the system, though. Fighting a another war with a squad like IOUS would be a drag.

[GrimGriz]

The difference? Completely undoing all of your work and making you have to re-equip your non-pvp ship vs a coupla units of cargo.

Insight piracy is much more difficult than making a non-com go boom, and it does less to the victim. It's actually kind of exciting. Particularly since all you have to do is carry a trap or two.

[SingleShot]

Originally Posted by GrimGriz

coupla units of cargo [...] it does less to the victim.

I've seen this said alot.

Items lost to your ship going down are insured to (typically) well over 90%. With TRI taxes on commods nice and low, the loss per item if you die is very low if you have a decent IR. You might lose 5% per item in your hold.

Stealing cargo, on the other hand, causes one to lose 100% of the value of that item.

If we assume that 5% of the value of the cargo is a reasonable number, that means 10 units stolen = 200 units ripped. Woot?

Abusing people is abusing people no matter how you do it. I don't mind if people do it, just don't pretend you're any less lame than the other guy that does it a different way.


And, in the spirit of on-topicness, I do wonder how much the new insurance scheme will affect haulers. Even empty ships are kind of pricey to lose.

[spork]

SS, Ist said haulers will be able to buy insurance at cheap prices at various coverage levels, including optional coverage for cargo.

As for burglar pirates vs PODers, I think the former takes at least some skill due to the short range of insights (150? 300? something small), the small cargo holds of ships used for burglaring (24 or less usually), and the fact that the burglar ship gets heavy with the cargo while usually has only a pair of guzzlers to move the cargo (or if a ranger, then a sz1 shield and 10-12 cargo).

GG, I think the people who just want to blow stuff up for an hour can still do it just fine. Just don't complete your tour of duty and you'll be Military Tagged all the time. Ignore the missions and the PR. You simply won't have a constant 100 PR in every faction (which makes perfect sense to me...always wondered how I could be "worshiped" by other factions when I blow up so many of thier ships). You may have to rely on squadmates or non-combat pilots with good PR to stock your foreign gear. I don't see that as a big deal.

Al, other than general distrust of the testers, what don't you like about the plan?