[Wild_Bill]

We currently have 5 factions in Jumpgate Classic (plus conflux). Only 3 are playable. Hopefully in Jumpgate Evolution they all will be playable (well, maybe not the 'fluxies.. then again...). We also have a few folks that want no PvP at all and another stack who wish very little PvP. My thought is for a new faction or factions that would be PvE only in nature. This faction would not be allowed to have MT or their equivalent at all. Other MT would only be allowed to engage them if attacked or with heavy penalties for attacking the PvE folks. Any unprovoked attacks BY the PvE faction member would have even heavier penalties than for a PvPer to attack them. This would not be a place to poop on others and then run hide, but for folks who truly don't want to have to fight and don't want to be a target.

For illustration purposes only, let's call one of the PvE factions "Merchanteers" because that's what they do, haul/produce for profit. If you only want to haul, this is YOUR faction. Another might be RockHounds for the folks who only want to mine. "Searchers" for the arty hunter/explorer types and finally "Hunters" for the flux only folks. Yes, I'm aware that all these "occupations" are already covered by dedicated squads, some multi-factional in nature. These would be factions that it would be VERY expensive to attack, so therefore anyone in these factions would have a very good expectation of "safety". Heck, even better, you could lump all of the above suggested proto-factions together and make a super-faction for the PvE ONLY crowd and call them the "Peacemakers" or something equally insipid. *Just please don't call them Carebears though*

I can hear the screaming now, but let me go on. You could not choose these factions as a newb. You would have to reach a certain level to change your faction. Same as the suggestion for a "Pirate" faction or "Outlaw" or just "Independent" for those who don't want to fly for the faction they were "born" to. These independent factions would not require a reset to JOIN. To LEAVE this faction though, I would make it just like the current re-set, back to lvl zero. Same for repeat offenses by a pilot of the PvE faction. Get so many demerits or whatever they are called and "poof" you revert to your original faction at level zero. That should take care of the lamers as well.

Now for the ships and equipment for the "Peacemakers" or whatever they end up being called (perhaps Swiss? Naw..). Since they don't have to worry about combat, their ships can be dedicated to peaceful pursuits (wait, that leaves the fluxers out of the mix... hmm... have to think about that one). Even their shields are much more efficient against flux weapons, but not against inorganic weapons. The haulers natively haul better (built in high level CM, larger cargo holds); miners mine better (built in deep radar, mining amps, other special mining equipment etc) ... okay, got it... the fluxers weapons are MUCH more efficient against the organic nature of flux but much less effective against mechanical shields and armor. Arty hunters/ Explorers could have some special advantages I'm just not sure on exactly what they would be...better scanners or rotacols or something..

I'm offering up this idea to folks who are absolutely dedicated to PvE. I don't think I'd consider it for myself. I like some danger too. I agree that no one should ever be completely safe outside in space but this way would be better than seperate servers. I think it would be better than a civ-chip or "safe zones". If the PvE faction pilot got too obnoxious/offensive or mouthy, he could still be civ-ripped. Or if your RP absolutely required it, you could rip several of them anyway. It would just be ruinously punitive if you did.

[Nanaki]

I never liked the ideas of factions being built around professions. Factions in Jumpgate have always been defined by culture, race, and government, TRI being the only exception (although TRI is more like the UN than a real faction). In addition, this isnt too different from the whole Civ/Mil/HG etc registry systems.

Amananth technology is too powerful to introduce as a playable faction, unless the 4 factions manage to catch up to them in technological capacity. Hyperial, I can see as a playable faction, and likely a favored choice for pilots not wishing to get involved in the octavius vs solrain vs quantar PvP.

[Lordopic]

Ahhh the chance to fly as an Amanath. Please, please, please, cant see it happening mind you, but I do think its way past the time that Hyperial came into the fight as a playable faction.

[Magnus]

We've been through this before in different threads here and on jossh and i think most ppl agreed that there is no place for partial or total immunity in Jumpgate Evolution.
It's too exploitable and if something can be exploited it will be. Spyes, station strippers(if such a thing will exists in Jumpgate Evolution economy) etc.. Noone should feel they can do whatever they want and get away with it. Severe penalties for killing a stripper? Imagine if we will have a "duelist drama" again... and the guy(quys/squad) will be just laughing at you.
No thanks.

Best way to go here is sector police in reg. Flying around on partols, they can also be killed but that would start like ahunt on the attacker, police forces activly looking for the attacker, AI headhunters maybe and also players should be notified of a bounty on someone's head... I believe in a server with lots of players it will be a lot harder to fly around with bounty and stay alive.

Also would be good if players could put a bounty on other players. To avoid lame stuff, this bounty has to be approved by some police council(GMs?).

[daslog]

It's hard enough balancing the three existing Faction. Adding more is a recipe for an even more unbalanced game.

[Jump]

Originally Posted by Nanaki

Amananth technology is too powerful to introduce as a playable faction, unless the 4 factions manage to catch up to them in technological capacity.

See, I read into the whole "Evolution" bit as implying future. And I would suspect that in this future what was once strange "artifact" technology has now been incorporated into "everyday" technology. Though NetDevil hasn't explained the term Evolution, it, by it's very definition, explains itself in many ways.

[Nanaki]

See, I read into the whole "Evolution" bit as implying future. And I would suspect that in this future what was once strange "artifact" technology has now been incorporated into "everyday" technology. Though NetDevil hasn't explained the term Evolution, it, by it's very definition, explains itself in many ways.

For all we know, its just a snazzy term NetDevil thought up for the new and improved Jumpgate. I wouldnt assume anything just yet about the storyline, or weither its hundreds of years into the future or not because we all know what assuming does.

Although, it would bloody help if NetDevil released more info, at least storyline info.

[Lordopic]

Originally Posted by Nanaki

Although, it would bloody help if NetDevil released more info, at least storyline info.

Once bitten twice shy.

[Wild_Bill]

Okay, I'm going to take another swing at this since several other threads & posts have reminded me of it and why I think it might be a workable alternative to what we have.

I was wrong to suggest this "neutral" faction(s) should be broken down by careers or professions. The only careers or professions denied to this "neutral" faction would be pirate and warrior. If after joining this faction you P.O.D, or attack any other pilot (self defense is allowed; you can fight back if attacked; you just cannot initiate an attack without being penalized, you start out with fines and if you offend too many times, you get kicked out of the faction. Sort of like OAS. We had R.O.E that limited what we could do and remain in the squad. I don't see why this would not work for a whole faction. In fact, it's already coded into the MT program. Too many demerits and you're out.

A neutral faction would cover it all. If you screw up frequently you get kicked out of the faction, just like a squad or MT. That takes care of the ones who would "abuse" their relative "safety". You could still attack this neutral factions pilots, but since these are pretty much the miner/producer/ hauler/fluxers of the galaxy you are likely to be poorly thought of by your own faction for your actions. If the "Octs" of Jumpgate Evolution regularily attack the pilots of the "neutral" faction, they stop hauling to Octavia.

I'm honestly not real sure how to handle "smack talk" by neutral pilots without GM intervention (pull the logs, examine screen shots, take witness complaints, etc). I'd welcome suggestions as to how to make this more workable. I do not want this to be a place for lamers to hide, just a place mostly safe from griefers.

Since the neutrals are known non-combatants they are the only ones who haul equipment from hostile factions (not directly of course, that would be smuggling!). Neutrals could buy from the "Sols", haul it to their home faction stations where Quants or Octs could come purchase it. Neutrals would also buy from Oct and Quants, take it home and then others would come buy it. Since combatants couldn't buy it from each other, if they wanted "enemy" equipment, they would have to buy it from pirates or neutral factions. On the other hand, the neutral faction stations would be an ideal market for the surplus commodities of warring factions. The thing is, to make it "legal" for the neutral traders/merchants, they would have to transport purchased equipment from a hostile faction to the neutral faction space. They could NOT transport directly between Octavia and Solrain or Quantar if those factions were at war status.

The neutral faction would be the galaxies middle man! Built in profits. Built in low danger of civ-rips. It wouldn't be easy to be neutral. As pointed out above, you couldn't make direct profit runs. As long as you minded your Ps & Qs though, it would be very very rare to be attacked. Then again, there would have to be something like unreg where the neutrals could be attacked by pirates and outlaws if they strayed there. Places where mercenary escorts would be needed. What I am going for is not absolute invulnerability, but of very limited danger from other players. This would NOT be a faction of victims!

To keep this neutral faction from becoming an economic powerhouse, you would have to keep it from producing top-line equipment. They could make 2nd and 3rd tier commodities. They could make mediocre equipment like the Burn MK II, the Respects, but not the Havens, Dreams, Injustice, Hitman, Wardens, etc. I guess other factions might allow pilots from neutral factions to use their production facilities, but perhaps not. Or perhaps those production facilities might be in unreg or other non-TRI-faction space (if it exists in Jumpgate Evolution).

I'd also like to see independant factions for folks who do not belong to the TRI factions (perhaps rebels or mercenaries; even a pirate faction).

daslog, you complained about the balancing issue: Jumpgate Evolution is coming up with all new ships anyway, so what difference would another faction make? It's not like only one dev is working on it by himself anymore.

magnus, I'm sure it would be a home to second accounts, so it makes sense that if second accounts can exploit it now, they could exploit this idea as well.

I offer this up because it is becoming apparent some folks will not be satisfied with anything less than total, unlimited warfare. In effect, they wish all of space to become unreg. No tags, no penalties except that "actions have consequences". These same people bridle at the idea that other folks don't share their blood-thirsty nature (hyperbole) and may wish to "leave alone and be left alone".

And if you added the "neutral faction" in with zones of civilized *heavily patroled*, frontier mixed with unsettled *varying levels of patrol* and lawless *completely unpatroled*, I think you would cover about all the bases. Pilots from the Oct/Sol/Quant (or their Jumpgate Evolution equivilent) could pretty much function as they currently do. The neutral playable faction would be a safer place for those who are not interested in being involved in PvP.

The neutral faction gives the advantages of a PvE server (i.e. invulnerability from other players) with all of us playing and interacting on the same server. Unlike in WOW where some play on the PvE servers and some on the PvP servers, we could do it all on one server. I don't think we will ever attain the high player numbers of WOW or EVE or some other games if PvP can shoot down PvE with little or no consequences, any time and any where they want to. Additional work balancing ships for extra playable factions that allow more and different types of play is a liveable compromise IMO.

[vorlon31]

I want to play a roid. Sneaking up on miners and saying





boo

[Jonboy]

Quoting myself from the parallel thread.

No. There's no reason for another faction, other than you wanting it.

Seriously, what would you do as a flux, amananth or hyperial? Fly around in a space ship, shooting things?... You can do that with the ships we already have. Wanna be an enemy of TRI, nothing is stopping you flying pirate.

What would you want next, if you were given a flux ship? Klingons? Bothans? You only want it because you can't have it, like that pie you have to leave until dinner.