Old Ideas, New Moon

OK I had started a thread to talk about some of the thoughts and Ideas I have when I look at what's been done in the Arkadian planetary system and it sort of got derailed with current events.

That's fine I'm interested in that too. But I really want to talk about this. See, I'm not 100% against the way things are right now. What's happened, and for SURE how it's being handled, rankle me a little bit.

But there's good here. And honestly I'd like to explore it. However the way they have delivered this has caused an obvious backlash of emotion and it seems like if they're actually wanting to gauge the community reaction (as rumored only) then they have created a "perfect storm" where with no context and no idea of what's being considered the community as a whole is blindsided with a ton of negativity.

Nobody has provided a framework or even a hint of direction that would allow for potentially positive discussion.

So this post will be a ramble but it's nothing important if you don't want to read it. Round 2:


A long time ago when we were waiting for the space release my friends and I (like many here) used to talk about how it might work and things we would like to see. I got an idea in my head that I would still like to see today, it's only one of two ideas that ever tempted me to find out about being a planet partner.

I have since almost the very beginning of "planets" wanted a planetary system comprised of many small bodies. Something like the star system on Firefly, not like Earth's system. Large and small bodies with different access mechanics, space hazards, pvp (not necessarily all lootable) and various mobs as well.

What do I mean by "access mechanics"?

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Space Stations: We have these they work fine. Within this specific planetary system there may be several small to medium space stations with retail, living, research, or other purposes.

Domed Asteroids: Similar to FOMA and CP in execution is fine but these could also take advantage of the next (still missing) mechanic for entry and exit.

Direct Surface Landing: Yeah I was the only one who wants space/asteroid mining. MA has teased it but first we need (L) space suits and working hatches on our ships I guess. If we had this we could have small domes and other additions to our space adventures easily.

Instance / Zone landing: THIS IS ALMOST THE EXACT MECHANIC ON THE MOON RIGHT NOW. 360 degree access, and direct launch to space from any point in the server. Big Change: Spawning point when you leave the instance is randomly somewhere in the zone immediately around the "body" in space. Arrival Protection is personal and lasts long enough for someone to load space, look around, make a decision, and hit the "planet" again if necessary. 90 seconds maybe, or until you hit a thruster.

"Planetary" Entry: this is a mechanic like what we have on a planet, and it's for bodies big enough to have a notable gravity well and atmosphere. There would be a Space Station / Teleporter link like planets have now for bodies of this size.
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This would enable so much activity, definitely creating new gear, use for more types of space/space ship, depending on the mechanics maybe new types of space/atmospheric ships too.

Fast transports vs miners, gunships, the valkyries and pitbulls and gugnirs of space.

Obviously we have our sleips and quads. Maybe quads couldn't even be adapted for asteroid mining and so always for dogfights, capital ship escorts and solo moves between planetary systems (EU/MA interplanetary space).

We have an "X-Wing" But no "Tie Fighters".

Maybe some of the in-system ship types wouldn't be able to enter that "interplanetary space". We've never had use yet for something like a shuttle (or dropship HINT HINT) that has space capability but can't necessarily get you to another planet.
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Hmmm I have a lot of thoughts and ideas about a real merged planetary/asteroid/space zone and this post has gotten pretty long already. Hopefully this will open some people up to different ideas or to sharing ideas they've had.

Also maybe this gives some insight to those of you who can't conceive of any reason for this to be happening or are 100% convinced it's all just a huge mistake/MA problem.

More importantly, if they're judging reaction to the setup on the moon for decisions how to proceed while they create a shitstorm of surprise and negativity and then just allow it to simmer, I'd like to encourage some positive ideas, and maybe constructive discussion.

The "Fix" that I would like to see for the current setup is that they make the spawn coordinates random over too large an area for a small team to cover easily and implement arrival protection.

In time maybe they could get their "planetary system" closed off from "Interplanetary (Lootable) Space", but if they did i do honestly believe that it should still be non-lootable PVP.

I suspect that due to an outcry of threats and upset what we're mostly going to see after this awful presentation is spawn in safe zone, TP to planet, etc... everyone will just think I'm crazy and be able to say "see it was in the release notes".

But it isn't. And while it may or may not resemble any of what I'm describing, I really, really hope that something new and different is happening. I don't know why they won't discuss it.

Honestly, is there anything you would like to see out there, besides "Just Copy F.O.M.A. Please"?

 

Sadly the idea of time travel died a bit with Next Island... but it may be possible to bring it back. Many time travel sci fi adventures involving space come to mind from science fiction... Dr. Who, Star Trek, Quantum Leap, Legends of Tomorrow...even Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure... tons of potential to create very interesting history in space and link it all together with time traveling themes and stories...

As for space, the idea of massive adventure has been in the community's back of the mind for many years since Mindark put the buzz there itself back in the day out of the lips of Marco... as well as some other Mindark mouth pieces...

Also, 'safe paths' in space would be nice...
http://www.tentonhammer.com/articles/entropia-universe-an-exclusive-ion-interview-with-john-bates

 

So much teasing, and so little delivering. LOL and yet here they are still going. And here we are still playing.

I think this may be a sign that space delivery missions and all that might still be coming on some monolithic, hidden MA time table.

Was it also Marco that was last to mention space mining, or was that someone more recent? Even a ship-mounted finder attachment with an excavating arm. Something.

I wonder how many people have ever had a crafting run out at the old pirate asteroid. Is that still there?

A crafting machine with no planet partner

I hauled out some mats and clicked a run of helicopters there once. The results were not impressive.

 

Simply put we need to wait for the update - should be one this next week. We had this happen many many times in the past which has always been worked out. Sometimes it took MA up to 3 updates (weekly) to get it right.

But mind you, if this isn't a bug and we do find these issues still here in 3 months with no sign of change I will be totally on your side and most likely bitching about it myself. But again for now, just need to wait and see -- yes sucks.

Also why we have so many pirates here now is they know MA and knew that 99% chance there would be such a bug so they came online waiting for the exploit.

 

I know that's a lot of words but I feel like you skipped pretty much all of them man. I don't even mean to be rude by that. From your response, I just think you missed my point.

Ah, I'm not bitching. That's why I abandoned the other thread that got turned into a "bitch" thread.

I WANT this. I'm SUPER excited for it. This is a thread about this sort of change begin the first step in a VERY positive direction.

I'm afraid that since they've said nothing, and (among those that bother talking about it outside the game) there have been almost nothing but complaints, and a strong insistence that it will "all be put back" to a way it never was before.

*sigh*

The last time I was this excited by a change to the game it was when they redid the whole crafting terminal.

Where are the people that have spent years pushing for change in space? Where are the people that are always saying we need something new in game? Any change benefits some, even if it's only a matter of "creating opportunity" but no one is interested. Too angry about the pirates to bother looking for personal advantage.

I literally had people appearing angry at me for pointing out that 'the planet will be fixed" does not mean that the moon will work like F.O.M.A. and everybody can just keep their head down, bitchin' and grindin'.

Of all that's happened here the most enticing rumor for me has been the person who posted that arkadia staff/dev in game had stated that they DID do this on purpose, and that they were gauging community reaction before deciding how to proceed.

Well, community reaction has been a mix of "FIX THIS (make it work like a SS/asteroid) NAO!" and the more stable "wait and see". "Wait and see" means that the "OMG MAKE IT LIKE FOMA" crowd are the only voices speaking out.

Hell I'm linking from PCF too.

IS there even one other person out there who can look at this and see an avenue towards positive change?

 

If you can pick your own spawnpoint from the moon (like teleporting) , maybe from information from society mates or mothership co-workers and you get "grace time" to load space, then I would be on your side. Then it would still be risky taking anything from the moon, but it would be a challenge.
Another one would be random spawning around the moon (if programming a teleporting type spawning cannot work).

Space mining would be awesome.

It would also be awesome to have a 4 player spacecraft, with one pilot, 2 gunners and one repairer, which cannot warp, but fly the same speed as an equus, but this time with 4 times the inventory in KG

taking damage from small asteroids and rocks would also be cool then (in deep space).

A quad should be what it's meant for, to deliver enhanced protection incase a mothership gets attacked. It should not even be able to reach other planets, That's where the 4 player spacecraft comes in and the privateers and the motherships.

 

That is brutal, I love it. We already put up with it planetside and it is 100% realism.

I'm not even trying to be like "MA Take my money" here but they do need decay and I would so much rather it be realistic stuff like this than setting up pirate traps and making pirates rich while MA just gets scraps of decay from the destroyed ships.

Someone there obviously loves pirates because that's a crap revenue plan. I had mentioned in another thread that I want to increase SI on my sleip but would never spend PED on a (L) armor for pirates to eat.

I would 100 percent armor up against asteroids and meteorites if that was a live obstacle and I wanted to space mine. That's realism in a RCE. Pirates are not realistic those guys would have been 6ft underground years ago if this was IRL.

I would make my largest deposit ever to buy a gun that would let me delete <a particular pirate> from this game.

There's so many different things that could happen also if we had "planetary systems" and "interplanetary space". I know if they're bothering to read this some MS owners might have thoughts on that lol.

TBH I'm 100% for all space being PVP. Even though I'm bad at PVP. But I think that LOOTABLE PVP should be limited, as always, to designated areas.

At least if there was some separation between areas PPs could give us some less destructive fun while MA keeps their barrier between planets.

Also who will be the first to introduce a single user, space only craft? I guess we need a lot more going on, to attract full time, space only players before anyone puts that on the table?

Thanks spawn great food for the mind. I never thought of meteorites that's great lol. WAY better than pirates.

 

Microsoft Freelancer.. old game (2003) Space debree check it out at 30:00 or so minutes,

 

Awww man that was 2003? lol EU.

I can't honestly remember right now, but if you go into one of the asteroid fields in space and ram an asteroid, do you currently take SI damage?

 

No you just bounce off. I did ram one in the interests of research just to see if it did damage the ship

 

Thanks I haven't flown off of one or two straight paths in a while

That's probably for the best here, what with MV on ships how it is.

If you decline to enter the arkadia moon you can fly through the atmosphere containment field or whatever that is and bump into the moon, too.

 

I would really like it if they added more RPG in space.

Think of it... space stations owned by planetary government are being camped. Thats like modern day robbers waiting at the freeway entrance taxing folks while the cops kick back and eat donuts...

There should be "police" space mobs equal to dropships in strength at least patrolling the stations and attacking evil karma ships. But to do that MA would first need to fix the karma system by binding it at least partially to the player, and also listing karma on vehicle info so people dont buy ships with bad reps off the AH randomly because there is no way to check.


My wish list is about as long as yours, and has many of the same things!

 

I think that's a great idea. Classic RPG PVP penalty the "town guards" kick your butt if you try and come into town.

I wanted to get proper karma on my sleip so I took it hunting today, the way karma works here is really convoluted. Also, like so many EU things, not quite as advertised. It really does need a fixing.

 

Since it has never made any sense for the Karma to be based on the vehicle at all, it should simply be player bound. That removes any need for checking ship Karma on purchase, it avoids pirates showing a good Karma by changing to a new quad or resetting an old one. If you want a multiplier for additional Karma, then use the points of one of the space based skills.
This would also avoid the silly situation where pre-emptively shooting a pirate can damage your karma.

 

How do you reset Karma? Being somebody who bought a quad from AH which is permenantly rude. Which I find funny actually lol

 

Karma is very bad. I myself never had a gun on my quad (as many know by now) yet I think I'm still a red dot in space. How can this be? Well, for years I would simply jump out of the quad when landing on planets and try and pick up the Quad as I was falling to my death. Very sad to say I found this effects Karma.

Anyway, to your question, you simply need to use the quad over and over again to have it slllllllllloooooooowwwwwly reset due to pirates exploiting it if is was any faster.

 

i suggest to buy a fresh new full TT quad or craft one yourself

 

Now I'm flabbergasted, never occurred to me to suspect such a thing. I've been doing this since a long time and haven't seen any effect, but maybe it is just around the corner then if it's only because I haven't gone often enough. Now that the landing fee is gone...

 

Or just if I have a ride and I kick them out as I'm picking the quad up maybe?

 

Apparently you have to work it down point by point.

Since mobs are supposed to reinforce the existing karma you might have to do it by killing ships with negative karma. Neither of my ships had negative to start so I don't remember that part.

Hmmm I've had my sleipnir and quad for a very long time. My quad had "fair" because I hunted horrors once when they were new. My sleip had no karma points or title. I skydive on planet entry all the time, which is why I'm saying this I never had that (apparently) happen.

In fact I was upset when they moved the caly spawn point to the mall. The mall is better but I always liked coming into caly and then splashing down for a swim. Now, though, I usually just change seats if I'm alone, and then try and pop back into the driver's seat just before the ship actually hits.

Ahh the things we do to amuse ourselves