Character System

[xmakina]

It 'sounds' more complicated than it is.

No, it really doesn't. All the stuff about complexes and resources and licensing is more complicated compared to "Press A. Click Fight. Enjoy!"

You log in.  Your log in option is three basic low tier ships.  Your first action would be to dock, and upgrade.  You purchase your 'new ship' and upgrade to it.  You may now upgrade to this ship as many times as you want, no matter how many times you die or change ships, for the entire duration of your stay in the server.  (And you will of course, still respawn in whatever ship you died in.)

If you log out, you have to do it again.

Why only for the duration of my stay? What happens if my connection times-out? What happens if I decide I don't like this custom universe after 5 minutes? What if all the players log out a few minutes after I join? Never lock-in players to a multi-player game. It'll just lead to anger when they lose x million credits on that BattleCruiser.

If you're broke, you need to take the time to earn a little money.

So not only do I have to rack up x hundred kills and x thousand points (fyi. Ranks can are set Server Side, not by the client, so these numbers can be utterly ridiculous if the Server wants it to be) but I also need to dump x million credits into a ship, or play on the server until I can afford it? Really? Isn't the fact that I'm an Admiral good enough cause to give me something better than a freighter?

Also, as these numbers are set by the server, you'd end up with players migrating to the ones that charge the least for a ships "licence". I can't imagine why I'd play on a server that asks for 5 million credits for the same ship when another server only asks for a single credit...

It makes players act economical, rather than being a game power just because they have the highest rank and can get a dread when the rest of the server are stuck with corvettes.

But that's the whole point of the ranking system! When you started playing, seeing those players in those super-sweet ships gives you an incentive to play more, a goal to aim for. Removing that, making Deities float around in corvettes like beginners, would just make the game look horribly dull and unrewarding for new players. In fact, it'd probably just make the game horribly dull and unrewarding for everyone...

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

0: 'No it does't-'
a: I was addressing licenses directly.  Your response brings in the resources and complexes, which are not part of the discussion on licensing itself.  

1: What if you lose connection?
a:  Tough.  It happens here and there.  Generally information is not saved from dropouts so you really haven't lost anything except a few minutes of your time.  

2: X hundred kills for money and-
a: Go back and read my topics concerning the in-game economy and production of player account money before you even BEGIN to try and rip into me.  I have thought about this, in detail, very heavily.

3:  Diety players in corvettes.
a: For what?  The duration of thirty seconds in most cases?  This isn't going to cripple a player considering how easy it should be to make money by all kinds of means as per my rebuild of the in-game economy.  (See detailed information in said posts.

I am not ignoring the issues presented, I am thinking about these quite clearly. I throw these suggestions up in detail.

[xmakina]

--snip--

All I'm doing is asking questions about your ideas. Please don't see this as a personal attack of any kind. Your ideas aren't restricting themselves to the subject of Character System, they're wholesale changes to the game. You're turning a quick-and-explosive shoot 'em up into a trading and economic simulator complete with player managed fleets! I have read your posts, the whole reason I brought up the resources and complexes is because they're all part of your proposed changes and not isolated from the licensing issue, which in itself is quite a change compared to "Pick your starting ship" or "Dock and press <backspace> a few times".

If I may, the problem with these sweeping changes is we get bogged down on issues that don't even exist, and not actually deal with the Character System that started the whole thing! So I'd like to focus purely on the Nexus Character System and what changes could be made right now to improve it in a fun and entertaining way.

I have pitched the idea of allowing players to pick a Class in addition to Race and have the server parse this however it deems necessary, although one could argue quite effectively this isn't a Character System change as much as it is an extra feature for the Servers.

So, focusing just on Nexus, a few ideas:

1) Fleet/Clan tag.
Appended where relevant so the player doesn't need to rename their Character or Ship if they enter/change fleet.

2) Profile/Stats page
It goes without saying people love to show off. Just look how many WoW Stat services are available, nevermind the popularity of Steam Achievements. If there was a slick and efficient way to poll Nexus for player stats, this should definitely be explored.

3) Icon
This is pretty reliant on item 2, but if players can have a profile then some kind of icon would probably be quite nifty. Even without item 2, there might be a way to get the icon to display in-game to make it easy to identify a player. Pictures are much easier to remember than names so it will also make it much easier to remember who kicked your ass last time and return the favour!

[NiteHawk]

I'll respond since I saw quick and nexus together.

1) Fleet/Clan tag.
Appended where relevant so the player doesn't need to rename their Character or Ship if they enter/change fleet.

We aim to add a basic fleet system, so you don't need to tag off your character or ship very soon.

2) Profile/Stats page
It goes without saying people love to show off. Just look how many WoW Stat services are available, nevermind the popularity of Steam Achievements. If there was a slick and efficient way to poll Nexus for player stats, this should definitely be explored.

Agreed. Something that can even be grabbed too, for example, ON FACEBOOK

3) Icon
This is pretty reliant on item 2, but if players can have a profile then some kind of icon would probably be quite nifty. Even without item 2, there might be a way to get the icon to display in-game to make it easy to identify a player. Pictures are much easier to remember than names so it will also make it much easier to remember who kicked your ass last time and return the favour!

This could be a possibility, small icon 16kb or smaller, something in the future to look at when we adding little touches