Brainstorming Archive 1

From Cowboy Bebop: Space Cowboy

This was archived by Funf on 2007-10-23. Feel free to move pertinent items back to the main page. --Funf 16:59, 23 October 2007 (CDT)

This section is for new code-related ideas. Post here, with a new level 2 headline for each idea, and end each post with a signature, like this template.

Contents 1 Engineering Ideas 2 Idea About Background/Hackwho 3 LSC 4 Ship Based Combat 5 Sub-Class/Cross-Class 6 ISSP Pay System 7 Clan Wars 8 Weapons Idea 9 Bank System 10 Vehicles 11 Aliasing Ideas 12 Apartment Rental System 13 Game Balance 14 Hacking Ideas 15 Clan Items 15.1 Combat 15.2 Roleplaying 15.3 Oldbies 15.4 RBH and GLM 15.4.1 GLM 15.4.2 RBH

Engineering Ideas

I would like to do the following with Engineering:

Decrease the chance to improve the skill % on each success/fail.
  -Make it take longer, and more wulong to master the skills.
Add more randomness to the skills.
  -Increase the base values on PC made goods slightly.
  -Make player made eq more varied.
  -Keep even master PCs making multiple items to get a better roll.
  -Make the amount of randomness based on Skill %, and Enegn Level.

If any of this isnt making sense, just ask me. Rengar 02:12, 2 January 2006 (CST)

It makes sense, but how are you planning on going about this? Also, it'd be nice to find a way to make engineering less grinding oriented and more engaging. Making it take a long time isn't bad, but remember that the priority is making the game fun. And look at how LSC turned out :P Lots of grinding, but not a lot of fun and it took entirely too long. We need to find a balance in this somehow. But all in all, I'm for some changes in engineering. --Shaikoten 02:16, 2 January 2006 (CST)

my idea is this. Start with a raw material. Copper, Zinc, Oil, Iron, Silicon, ect. Learn how to work with it. Make it into a useable form, Steel, Plastic, ect. Then learn how to turn the materials into parts, barrel, Blade, Handle, case, ect. Then from there learn how to put the parts together to make items. I seen it on a graphical MMO i used to play. worked well. (they also had Mining skills to get the raw materials) Rengar

This would also create a kind of subclass miner though, very much similar to World of Warcraft, etc. It's something that's got potential, but would be a very major change that'll require a little more thought. That'd essentially create another non-combat class, which IMO would be a mixed blessing.

--Shaikoten 13:05, 2 January 2006 (CST)

How would you feel about making it so once someone has reached level 200 in any class, they can then choose one skill to get set at 101%, this woulda be specialy coded to allow them a bonus on just that ONE skill. Rengar

Well, 101% isn't much of a bonus, perhaps a slightly higher percentage, maybe 110%. But that A) would have to only be applicable to ONE class, (for example not bh, engin, combat, etc.) and B) has the potential to break some skills already coded in, or make them successful 100% of the time. It also would have to be something the player could do automatically and that imms wouldn't have to be bothered to do. --Shaikoten 20:32, 3 January 2006 (CST)

Well it's like this, the code for each settable skill( there would be a list) will test to see if the skill is 101% and then do something fantabulus with it. EG: Makerifle at 101% will roll a chance to make the rifle have +1 HR on it OR: Makearmor at 101% could roll to have -1 Ac on it. (-1 x each slot adds up!) Rengar

I like that--but basically every skill would have to have some code added. Which kind of sucks. --Shaikoten 18:35, 4 January 2006 (CST)

Not every skill. In the struct for skills, put in a new bit for allowing 101% on it, if it dont have it, then dont let the players get that skill to 101%. That way you dont have people begging you to code in a million extra damage for 101% on backstab. I was thinking this would be good primarily for Engeneer/Chemist. --Rengar

• I'm all for maxed skills getting a bonus of some kind, maybe being able to pick which one you try for, if you want either one point of dam or hit and letting the engineer just have the point able to be crafted into something if he is a master of the field and the skill. I am also all for the subskills that come with the seperate levels in different fields, which is an awesomely cool idea. --Candi

• I know GLM is not a clan, per say, and nor should it be, but making them a bit more organized in the defense that they are an "organization" would be a good thing. Something along the lines of a GLM radio that anyone could access to discuss and request orders would be totally awesome. However, if there were actual changeable frequencies on our radio comlinks (seperate from the clan channels), a freaky bunch of us could just get together and pick a number and call it GLM radio and that would be that. After the entire engineering field and all skills are 100% adepted, labeling these people (Master GLM) and giving them recruiting abilities makes me tremble in a good way. (Master GLM Sensai) could be a label given to those GLM who have the field and skills maxed but also have a base 18 intelligence rating. The position of a GLM CEO, who must be at least (Master GLM) and whose role would be more of an RP position with the ability to change pilots on GLM ships, should be created. I think it would be cool if I could donate my ship to GLM if I was ever able to get a better one. They do have an enlistment office, and so must have a base run by someone even if they are an NPC at the moment, so they aught to be able to own ships...or at least look at it as other people allowing GLM to slot their card in the ignition and be able to use it freely. A big ship like the one that used to be outside Earth before the slayn crash would be neatos as well. You could basically buy anything there in the show, and oh yes, please make batteries available more places. -- Candi

Just some things that've come up on my way to master GLM. It's definitely worthwhile, but there're some things that seem a little strange. Grenades: they don't seem all that great. HP damage didn't seem to change at all between 26%/18 int and 100%/20 int. Fuse time seems to shorten though. Maybe increase HP or equipment damage unless there's something about 'em I'm missing. Comlinks: Doesn't seem to have any effect at 100% other than better success rate. Not sure if it really has a use outside pure RP. Cell phones are nearly free. Made comlinks can be worn, but they usually break quickly anyway. Land mines: I'm told they're really powerful, but it's easy to see the huge lack of places they can actually be used. Might be nice if there were other setting modes. Maybe being able to set them (not buried) as a visible trap? Then let sneaking people get a check against not tripping it? Maybe let 'em throw something into the room to trip it? Knives: I've had others tell me a few times that GLM-made knives don't have much point. Especially with clan equipment being handed out to just about everyone. I'm not especially informed on this part, but I'd like to be. Guns: I have issues with telling what size clip a gun takes. It's just trial and error, but I know all mine are gonna take the biggest clips. Why not allow smaller clips to go in, but not bigger ones? Or show clip size when examining guns? Items: Like I pointed out in the wrong place before, I've got issues with being able to tell what an item actually is. It kinda applies to item weight too. And possibly what optional material was used in the construction. Probably not like a total giveaway of the quality, but knowing what used denim and what used flak would be handy. Critisism would help if there's any. --Nell

Yet more random ideas, but partially related to the first comments about more varied engineering results. What if we could craft our own tools? By the time each one hit 100%, custom tools could have a small chance to make a weapon with a (very?) minor bonus. Being able to craft medkits and other useful items would be nice too, but those might end up in their respectful classes. Like makelaptop at the end of hacking. The other idea involves creating ships. The skillset would probably be nothing but skills like "make(shipcomponent)". Ship plans and designs could be submitted for approval by master shipwrights. If a plan's approved, it'd be given a list of components required. So then there'd be a real time and money investment for making ships. The same components could be used for ship upgrades too. Like weapon replacements. --Nell 11:24, 29 March 2006 (CST)

Trademarks

Many GLM members build up a reputation as skilled craftsman and even develop their own personal brand names and symbols for the gear they produce. Unfortunately, their is nothing in this game to prevent others from simply putting that logo on their equipment and stating that it was made by those people. What I wish to propose is the introduction of a new command, Trademark. Similar to semote it would require that you have your name listed in the trademark and this trademark would show up whenever the item was examined. In addition to the benefit of having a way to confirm who crafted the item, it adds more flavor to the item and offers additional RP uses. Some players like to create special items such as my wallet and IDs. Currently there is no way to immediately verify authenticity of a document such as these but with a trademark you could. For example upon examination my Certificate labeled ISSP Licensed Pharmacist could very well show Signed by Katya verifying it's authenticity. --Jerel 16:10, 13 October 2006 (CDT)

Idea About Background/Hackwho

Include Weapon Liscence status in it? Rengar

That's a good idea, I'm all for it. --Shaikoten 20:27, 3 January 2006 (CST)

was tossing around an idea about making an array in the PCDATA to track the last 20 bounties/arrests added to a player. Also changing teh bounty/hackbounty command to include a required reason bit. or making a list of offences and making the officer/hacker chose from them. EG:

1 - Making Drugs
2 - Murder
3 - Theft
4 - Lewdness
5 - Insulting Spikes Mother's Honor

whatcha think?

--Rengar

Yes... only if you're 100% sure it won't fuck up the current pfiles though ;) --Shaikoten 21:24, 5 January 2006 (CST)

Thats why I have a copy of the code with no players... just incase I do fuck it up. --Rengar

Awesomeness. Should make it the added argument in quotes after addbounty stuff. From: LucyFur

If your going to have a list of offenses, it's gotta be more to it than that.

- Creation of Narcotics
- Possession of Bloody Eye
- Possession of Yellow Eye
- Possession of Lesser Narcotics
- Under the Influence of Narcotics in Public
- Posession of Unlicensed Weapons
- Major Theft (Item over $ amount)
- Minor Theft
- Wulong Theft
- Private Ship Hijacking
- Clanned Ship Hijacking
- Targeting Civilians
- Firing on Civilians
- Targeting Police
- Firing on Police
- 2nd Degree Vehicular Homocide (PC)
- 1st Degree Vehicular Homocide (ISSP)
- 3rd Degree Murder (NPC)
- 2nd Degree Murder (PC)
- 1st Degree Murder (ISSP)
- Accessory to Murder
- Resisting Arrest
- 3rd Degree Assault and Battery (you get the idea)
- 2nd Degree Assault and Battery
- 1st Degree Assault and Battery
- General Hacking 
- Bank Account Tampering(hacktransfer, hackbank)
- Bounty List Tampering (hackbounty)
- Illegal ISSP System Access (hackwho, hacksystem, hackbounty)
- Illegal Public Broadcast (hackbroadcast)
- Did I miss anything?

Vincent Volaju

Due to the lack of any better spot, here's some ideas to limit the ability of hackers.

You have to connect to the internet first off. Using a public ISP to hack anything should give away location and identity since I'm sure a coffee shop/wifi owner would agree to let ISSP moniter their connection. More or less, whatever.

Another thing is people being stunned, hacked a bounty, then killed. That's solved by #1.

This point gets its own simply because I think it's a larger issue than is addressed 

above.

What if even a private line could be monitered? That would take the guess work out of who's hacking my account, and give pk reason from hacking some sanity.

From watching Edward, I saw that she became totally fixated on the computer, and when she wore the goggles she couldn't see anything at all.

It would be more realistic to make more to hacking than 1 command. You should have to enter a site, crack some sort of code to get in, then go through a list of files to find what you're looking for. Backgrounds, and bounties and the like would be in an ISSP site, whereas wulong information would be in whatever bank files.

Laptops should be more expensive, and not be inexplicably damaged by hacking. Your traced and found. Laptops should also be of varying degrees. Buying a PDA will give you basic access to who and maybe be able to enter a system, but not do anything, whereas a megauber desktop would handle hacking much more in depth, and with less delay than say a cheaper one. Laptops would be somewhere in the middle I guess.

That would solve alot of our problems, and make hacking a bit more realistic. Vincent Volaju

That's a fantastic idea, and one I've briefly thought about before. The reason I haven't asked anyone to take it on is the fact that it would be an immense pain to implement IMO. It's something that needs to be thought out logistically in terms of code before it can be implemented. --Shaikoten 08:12, 9 March 2006 (CST)

Great idea! It should be a bit more like combat. - Martin

LSC

Well, along with making it more progressive, it was admitted above that LSC has too much grind to it... So why not simply scale the values down by a reasonable factor... It makes making things gradually decrease easier on existing players (since their stats may actually go UP if the necisary values are tweaked) as well as makes things less tedius and makes it easier to get more buffer room. (with the new system I'd assume that people would want to train a shitload longer than they did in the current system to have some buffer room over their stat's exact point of change... So lowering the value necisary to get 18 in a stat makes sense to keep from there being even more pointless grind necisary. --Tiak

Locke is working on more ways of passively gaining, which I think will solve this issue. --Shaikoten 06:26, 6 January 2006 (CST)

Yep, its going good, having LSC gradually decrease and mixed with passive gain is a nice mix, some tricks to passively gain stats is by using tells-charisma, being overburdened while walking-str, using a skill effectively will increase your intelligence some, dex, dex can be gained by doing what is down currently for dex, ship combat and what not but they are increased to stay steady with the new system, con can be gained through getting your arse handed to ya, depending on how much damage was dealt, these passive ways unlessed used EXCESSIVELY will not increase that such stat, but only to keep them at a steady position without having to shadowbox or whatnot. --Locke 01:47, 7 January 2006 (CST)

• I have heard a lot of people whine about the new changes, but I really am pleased with the new and improved version. Good Job, Locke. One thing I thought of long ago and wrote about before the slayn crash was LSC gear to go along with stat training. One could buy heavy (Maybe 300+ LBS) punching bags (For STR) and exercise mats (FOR DEX) and cement buckets (FOR CON) at the Mars Dayton Gym. All of these things could then be dropped in any room to make things like shadowboxing possible there, and also boost the effectiveness of the other workouts as well in rooms without stat train bonuses. You could basically be like Rocky (#5) with your own work out room in your basement or have your own ghetto dojo. This would be convenient for people, like me, who like to focus on their stat training without being disturbed. Gyms should be available on Ganymede (At the Dojo) and Io (Maybe at the Yoga Center?) and Earth (Somewhere Around the Mall?) and Pluto (Somewhere at the SI Mall) due to the fact that work out centers really are common. A library on each side of Mars, Io, and Venus, along with the Earth and Pluto Malls, would be really hot. All the cap ships, especially ISSP's, should be able to buy gym/yoga centers if the clan so wished. Smaller ships should not have built in gyms, but if they wanted to use the forementioned LSC gear in one of the ship rooms, I would be all go for that. --Cat Shaman Candi

What if no one knew their stats? They could bench a certain amount to reflect their strength, also have that reflect the gained and lost muscle mass in weight. IQ for Int and wis combined maybe? Maybe have it impossible to have maxed dex and str since all those muscles and weight would obviously get in the way of being so quick. Dexterity isnt very realistic to its importance in a real fight. So ya, make a maxed str vs maxed dex. Makes it more dynamic to find a good balance, instead of just maxing them both. Wisdom should come with age, or atleast hours on the mud. Int should be polarized from str and dex as well. Charisma should be unknown, since theres no real way of measuring it. Con only measured by manually keeping time of how long u last on a treadmill or something. o00oo00oo new thought, what if u could work certain muscles in ur body to make certain skills more effective? just a pop in my head. Sir Volaju

Again, a good idea, but the problem with this one is different. I think most players like seeing their stats. Stats need a definite restructure, but this will also cause a revolt by old players. It basically reworks who has good stats and who doesn't. Oldbies like to complain a lot about the new changes screwing them over. This would only amplify that. While it's the best thing to do for the game's balance, it's nessecary to factor in opinions. --Shaikoten 08:24, 9 March 2006 (CST)

Living Stat Thoughts

As suggested in-game, I'm copying my post from the ideas board to here. Whee!

I always did think allowing automatic stat training was silly. Now I feel like it's keeping the community in a slump. At any time, it seems like most of those online are botting for stats. Makes it kinda hard to get anything useful done.

So a few tiny thoughts about fixing it:

1. Disallow automation of any kind. Except maybe fun ascetic things like harmless social triggers.

2. Add a reasonable maximum to training durations. No more STRETCH 10000.

3. Add a gainage cap. 200% or 300%, maybe. Some kinda stopping point to prevent things like 4700% dexterity. Or maybe a cap and a reasonable gainage penalty that goes with death.

I'd like very much to actually speak to someone instead of being met with AFK training triggers. Give 'em a reason to at least pay a tiny bit of attention to what's going on.

Expanding on it a little, the point is to prevent the obscenely long AFK training periods and create reasonable bounds for us to work within. It sorta starts on my thoughts about death penalties too. --Nell 22:14, 20 September 2006 (CDT)

There's been talk of stat rebalancing again, but none of us seem to know how to weed out the dump stats. So here're my ideas for each one.

Strength: Use it for maximum carrying weight, melee damage, and ranged accuracy.

Dexterity: Melee accuracy, ranged damage, and natural chance to dodge or block attacks. The distinction between Str and Dex in relation to melee and ranged weapons is mostly for variety and a chance for a little customizing for players. Help files also say Dex changes the size of the inventory. I think it should be at a permanent 20.

Constitution: HP recovery rate, natural damage reduction, and maybe let it change max HP a little. Something like a range of 200 from 8-18 or 10-18 maybe. Maybe even let it affect drug side effects.

Intelligence: Practice/Teach bonuses, medic healing bonus, engineering stat/repair bonuses. Make the bonus for adepting a flat rate, maybe. It doesn't seem especially worthwhile for engineering right now. I can't say exactly how much 20 Int is doing for me, but it doesn't seem to be very much at all.

Wisdom: This could maybe act as a small second chance to succeed on failed skills (hackers might love it). This means we'd also want it to slowly drop like our other stats currently do.

Charisma: Shop prices and diplomacy success rates. I like how it works now, but it's an incredible pain to keep up compared to other stats and most diplomacy skills fail almost all the time with less than 16. Some don't seem to work at all at less than 17.

This isn't even accounting for skills based on a stat. I don't even know of all those. --Nell 22:38, 22 May 2007 (CDT)

Ship Based Combat

I know Spike and Funf have discussed it, but i figured I would open a block for it here. The main issue is that you cannot KNOW who is in a ship unless you see them enter it, tehn you dont always know 100% who else is in it.
My idea is to code in a F/F transponder system, then when you type launch(hijack) the ship reads your id, and broadcasts it when properly queried. This would only list the Pilot tho. So mabey when it launches, it should create a manifest of all onboard. This could be obtained in may different ways, and those would all be up to the admin. It would also allow for some more hacking skills, or could even lead to some cross-class skills or even a sub-class. Just wanted to get an idea out there, Let me know. --Rengar

• The problem with this, is what about ships with bays?... many midships and cap ships would have to constantly get a new manifest to keep anything current.... And, at least for hijacking leaving with a legit crew manifest and their own identity correct, seems extremely unrealistic... Personally what I'd suggest as a solution to this is a simple ID command, that confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt the user's identitity to another ship through a secure channel via your DNA (there shouldn't be a skill to fake it or it become pointless.) And then add maybe an ISSP command to request an identity of someone on a nearby ship, if they don't identify themselves in say, 10 seconds (during which they wouldn't be able to land or hyperspace but can still fire.) The ship siezes up (basicly just stops) and refuses to move again for, say, 30 seconds... As ANOTHER alternative, seeing as every cockpit/bridge we see in bebop has glass or a glass-like material, why not just have a command to visually scan someone's cockpit when you're within a limited distance of the ship, if you want to get tricky make it in front of the ship. These commands don't necisarily adress other people in ships... But there's no logical reason people couldn't be smuggled along hidden in parts of ships. --Tiak
  • It's good we're discussing this, but Funf and I basically have this one pounded out at this point. It's probably not 100% logical, but it's always best to remember it's a game, and this will make things much more fair ;) You guys will see shortly, I'm waiting for Funf to get a little less busy with school. --Shaikoten 09:30, 19 January 2006 (CST)

Now, what about a slightly more combat-related section of space combat ideas... actual combat... I dunno, it just seems to me that combat as we know it is absolutely non bebop-esque. While there's building opinions I have regarding ships, (fighters should be fast, midships should be slow but more damaging usually.) they probably don't belong here, so I'll stick to code related things... For one, why not just throw in a passive and simple dodging skill to make for more interesting combat (less hits and more interesting combat with dodges, less damaging hits, close shots, and the rare shots accidentally causing more damage... A usable dodging skill could be thrown in too, you basicly would just type "manuver" or "evade, and it spins you around a bit, making you a lot harder to hit, and then spit you back out in a completely random direction. Oh, and in my opinion ship weapons need a lot of rebalancing.... Single machine guns make no sense to be more damaging than double machine guns, missles should be a lot more damage efficient than machine guns (but craploads less ammo efficient, grappling hooks should do a LOT more damage (to make up for difficulty of use.), etc. Basicly the only weapon which seems about right with what seems reasonable is the super plasma cannon.... That's enough of my ranting on this, what do you guys think? --Tiak

• Single MGs were fixed, that was never put in the changelog. There has been a good amount of rebalancing to the weapons, though, ala Funf. The lag for ship combat is being retooled so ship fights aren't just 10 WTS sitting on a midship and blasting everyone out of the sky instantly. It will be per-weapon lag, not per-person, which I'm sure everyone agrees makes much more sense. --Shaikoten 09:30, 19 January 2006 (CST)

On another note, what about hyperspace combat?... It seems like it wouldn't be that hard to connect every system that's added to the mud by two new systems (one for each way.) that for example have a min and max y and z of -50 and 50 respectively, and have the distance as the size of the x, when you reached either x you'd emerge (I believe ships did turn around in either boogie woogie fung sui or the one with Ma and the Ganymede Space Rats... So it is possible.) opinions? --Tiak

• This would be very enjoyable. <3 I'm not sure how hard this would be to implement, but it would definitely spice up space combat and chases, and make speed much more important. --Shaikoten 09:30, 19 January 2006 (CST)

New Idea, simple enough, up repairship hull a bit... right now it takes anywhere between 100 and 200 uses of repairship hull to completely repair a given ship, each use takes around 5 rounds or so... that could be 1000 rounds, about as long as limber lasts... Most of the time this leaves it being infinately easier to just blow a ship up... Kinda sucks, doesn't it?... Oh, and though it's unconnected... Some kind of actual penalty to dying in space combat would be cool. Say, maybe a "vacuum exposure rehabilitation center" This center would lag you and force rehabilitating commands upon you for a while and then give you a few temporary stat losses, (maybe 3 rounds after you leave.) Of course the real annoying part of it is, while you're in the center, your items (the ones you were holding.) are "safely locked up", leaving them open for anyone to break in... That's it for now --Tiak

While about as small an idea as could be... What about switching space distances to actual distances?... Right now just about every distance check in space is whether the X, Y, or Z is over a certain ammount, why not make it so the actual distance between you and another object is a set ammount... makes more sense...--Tiak 19:43, 30 January 2006 (CST)

Sub-Class/Cross-Class

OK, I kinda touched on allowing players to 'master' some skills. I also thought about making some new classes that players could focus on. If we were to implement 6 of these Sub-Classes, each player, when certian critera are met (so many classes at level 200, and so many at 150), then they can chose a sub-class to start working on. Let me give you an example: Sniper. focusing on this clas would have skills that increased Rifle use. Increase damage for snipe, may even have a command to 'Scope' another room. To set Sniper as your Sub-class, you would have to have 200 in combat, and BH, and 150 in Engeneer, and Smuggle. I have a couple other ideas on this, but I am waiting for response on this before I continue.

Cross-class: OK... what if we make/move some skills to cross-class. For example, move RepairShip so that not only is it an engeneer skill at whatever level, but you also need a Pilot level of 50(?) to get it. Or make a Cross-class skill of Rapidreload, it automaticly reloads your ammo based weapon(if you have the clip in inv) on a successful skill check, but to get it, you need to have Combat at 150 and Engeneer at 150. (The levels are just examples pulled out of my head) the Skill "Sedate" could be a Smugle/medic skill, like steal you have to be sneaky, but you need the medical knowledge to properly sedate the target, and then they would slow down(reducing the chance of second, and third attacks, possibly making AC worse). That could also have a Chemist level requirement, since you would be using a 'drug' on them. Mabey even make a chemskill called 'MakeSedative' Just tossing these out as they occur, give feedback freely guys! --Rengar 1700 CST 01-06-2006

Neato Misquito. From: LucyFur

ISSP Pay System

You know, i was thinking about it, and the reason most police in the game dont go after bounties is because they only get 1/4th of it, and thats fine. Instead of increasing that and just making them glorified bounty hunters, add a stat that increases slightly when they make an arrest or take a criminal down, its easy really, and then with that stat make a paysystem that is based on that, but cant go lower than 50k, which is their current paycheck. 50k isnt much in the mud, it was probly an arbitrary decision to do that, but today is different and because the police need to use their own money to addbounty just have a better paysystem that would make them get off their butts and get the bounties. Also it would gradually decrease, that way if they stop doing their job thinking they can continue collecting a nice steady pay, they are wrong, it would decrease every tick or so. Also OOT what about WTS pay system, its based off of their bounty, which doesnt seem right, wts are extremists, not criminals, they are ppl who beleive in their religion and arent like RDS looking to cause trouble, im not sure as to what to do about that system but yea, theres a bone, take a bite and tell me what you think.

'''<3''' I totally agree that ISSP should be paid more monthly, but I really think that more goes into law enforcement in the show than their ability to catch bounties, which is why there is RBH. (And yes, I am going to die here preaching THE SHOW basically because if we do not make this a Cowboy Beboping World, we might as well rename the MUD to something that suits this game.) Anyways, back to the point I am making, I say make it a flat 1 million wulongs per month for any regular officer with bonuses for the Leader, First, and Second. *** All officers should have "rembounty" abilities, but this time around it would only work on ISSP, like filing a voucher for yourself or fellow comrades. These rembounty abilities would only work on HACKED bounties and not bounties set by other ISSP officers above you. If ISSP officers set a bounty on themselves or have a hacked bounty for which they do not file a voucher by simply using rembounty, then when PKed by RBH or ISSP, they would be taken to ISSP headquarters healing place. *** Other ISSP officers should only be able to set a bounty on another if they are a higher rank than the officer they are attempting to bounty. This deal with grunt ISSP bountying a Leader, First, or Second officer and them getting jailed crap is not really logical. In the event that a higher-up sets a bounty on someone below them without outcasting (or if someone had a bounty before they were inducted), and they get PKed by RBH or other ISSP, they would go through the regular jailing process like the rest of criminalization. *** ISSP are the police, and therefore they should be a fraggin roxoring bomb. YEAH! --Candi (I would use paragraphs if I could figure out how. :/)

• Well, there is a lot to be said about WTS, for it is a rather unique premise which has grown with the implementation of Sayaka's Church of the Almighty. However, getting rewarded by the syndicate for having a bounty is part of the real job of being spiteful against ISSP, in all actuality. Do not forget to read the help wts file on the MUD, and by doing whatever crimes WTS pleases to rebel against the current laws other humans have set down, and playing the getting-bountied game with the cops, is all part of the freaky charade. If anything, the cap on how much you can earn from your bounty should be removed since hackbounty cannot really up you by much anymore. With Much Despise, LucyFur, the off the topic girl.

I'm all for an increased paycheck for ISSP. A varible rate paycheck is definetly a nifty idea. I'm against any sort of seperating of hacked bounties and real bounties code-wise. Hackers wouldn't leave a flag in the bounty computers saying "Hi, this bounty isn't real." If ISSP got rembounty, it should work on anyone. I never really figured out why the leader couldn't have rembounty since that seemed to work in the past. --Funf 01:49, 28 January 2006 (CST)

• Then we should change the echo to no echo at all when someone gets a bounty, making them look it up like they had to in the show, or change it so the echo is the same for both bounty types.

--Candi

Clan Wars

By Balmung: This is straight from gb 1 gn 7

I have an idea that may solve this whole ugly war situation, so listen up all. With this whole old ways or war thing going on its gonna continue until someone gets so angry they give up right?

Heres my solution, We make a prison system, each clan gets so many pk's lets say.... 10 then after that every person pk'ed by the war'ing clan gets sent to their prison. There you stay until 1. someone breaks you out (wait till i explain the prison break rules) or 2. your leader or owner types a command that surrenders the clan. Some of you may say, oh but thatll piss players off, well what is war then? it always pisses ppl off, of course the prisons should have a place to keep stats up, and the essentials that players can buy.

Now about breakig out of the other clans prison, i think for every pk we should get war points that we can use to get items like *prison key* which would be used to release one clan member, the amount of pk's required would be based on how many are in prison.

In order to free a clanmate from prison you must first get the points, buy a key, go through some tough area maybe something similar to a clan hq and then fight a mob as strong or stronger than zurata, then use a command like prison break (name) and it would get that person out, you would then have to make a break for it.

If your both pk'd trying to get out your both in jail.

No one is released till one side surrenders and i think thats a good way to do war. Let me know your ideas. This is just a general idea to start with.

Reminds me of Prison Dodgeball I played in HS... --Rengar

Nothing to do with Balmung's post, but I was thinking how likely it is that a clan would war on the police. The only instance I can think of thats even close to that is Al Capone ordering the murders of the FBI agents 'Untouchables'. Other than that, and I admit not to be privy of the mangas, but it just doesn't make a damn bit of sense to have ISSP involved directly in wars. They're just police, there to keep peace. Now to the actual point, what if we had a new clan, the Blue Snakes? -winkwinknudgenudge- Sir Volaju

Weapons Idea

How about Tranquilizers?

Could be used in melee like a knife but instead of dealing damage would reduce Stamina, and possibly remove adrenaline and cause the victim to sleep.

The darts could also be loaded into tranquilizer guns (Thinking 1 Ammo Weapon) and used at range... would make Snipe pretty decent.

Would also open up more options for nonlethal damge weapons. I've always been a proponent of abolishing PK when it comes to bounty hunting. Bounting hunting should be live bounties. Also has the bonus of being usable to remove adrenaline to prep a patient for healing. Really an one, or a combination of all would be cool.

One thing that might work is making "stun" damage and "physical" damages seperate. Any "blunt" weapons would stun then do physical damage after a victim has been reduced to 0 stun damage, and "sharp" weapons would do straight out physical damage. Or, like you guys said, use stamina as the stun monitor and when it hits 0 the character has to go unconscious or sleep without being able to wake until they come back up to about 200 or so? I am all for live bounty capture. From: LucyFur

NPCide should be worth more than just 50k per kill since murderers would be more wanted than that. ~LucyFur~

• I second the motion on Tranquilizers. However, I think they would fit right in as a set of chemist skills. Making various tranquilizers would not be illegal, and you could progress down the illegal or the legal path, depending on what you wanted to make. Some tranquilizers would slow the person down, others would significantly reduce stamina. Once a person hits 0 stamina, they already are unable to move, so not much needs to be programmed there. Of course, since this is a biological attack, Constitution would play a role in resisting the effects either entirely or partially depending on how well the tranq is made.
  

Beyond this, I would suggest new uses for swords and rifles. Rifles get snipe, but it seems to lag too much to make the skill really worth it. It's not very hard to figure out where a person is, so by the time your lag is up you have already been hit a couple times, or even backstabbed. I think sniping should utilize hide as an element to determine if the player can know where a shot came from or not. Also, the damage should be based on how long you study the target. This way you could be rewarded for shooting at a person who has been standing around for longer than normal. As for swords, perhaps there should be some new skill for them as well. Perhaps a hamstring attack or something that reduce a persons movement speed or do stamina damage.
--Marent-- 1:42 am EST, 4/13/06

Ok, new idea. How about subclassing out weapons? That way, combat might be spiced up some. Like, at level 100 combat, you'd have to pick two weapons to work on. Maybe a primary and a secondary. Then, you might be able to get combat up to level 120 for unclassed weapons and 200 for your specialized weapon and 160 for your secondary weapon. Because really, some skills don't work for all weapons. How the hell do you get third attack with a rocket launcher? There's already an idea to get more weapon specific skills in place ala circle, quickdraw, snipe, and backstab. With this, rifles might only get dual wield and no second or third attack. But we could up the power and you'd still get snipe. Knives could practically stay the same (maybe a little less power), just move their skills from Bounty Hunting. With this, we might end up with realistic damages (unarmed -> knives -> pistols, swords -> rifles -> heavy weapons) balanced by skills, usability, and hits/round. We could do fourth attack or something for unarmed. It could automatically use punches and kicks. Think Zurata-ish. The first 100 levels of combat would still be generic skills. Enhanced damage, disarm, etc. But then we can start seeing real variety in players. Anyway, yet another idea from me. --Funf 20:36, 12 August 2006 (CDT)

Bank System

I'm not honestly sure how to code any of this or anything, but wouldn't it be easier (instead of having to type out the numbers) to also add the command of something like, "bank deposit all" so that all the wulongs your holding are automatically deposited? Or it could be used vise-versa as, "bank withdraw all" so that all your wulongs are automatically transfered to you. Its just an idea.

- Arix -

Vehicles

Ok, I know there are ships, and they are really cool, but what about cars? I havn't noticed any car lots or anything in the whole mud where you could buy a car. I also noticed the skill "mount" in the combat list. Well I've got an idea for a car or vehicle. You could make a car, any type you want, (the imms that is) and sell it, auction it whatever. I'm not sure how the coding to all of this would be but the command to move could be "go" or "drive" north/south/east/west/ne/nw/sw/se. It would save stamina of course by doing this. And some would say it would be dumb to type out "drive ne" like 10 times to get to one area. Thats why you add on a number "10" at the end and the car would automatically drive 10 rooms away. Then you would also have a fuel system where if the fuel ran out your car would, of course, break down. Not necisarrily explode but just break down. You could even make a little gauge like (my "text" art is horrible): (In order to see the picture below, you must go to "Edit" which is just to the right)

&c---------------------------------- &c| &RF &c| &c| &w3/4 &R| &c| &c| &R| &c| &c| &w1/2 &R| &c| &c| &R| &c| &c| &w1/4 &R| &c| &c| &z_&R| &c| &c| &wE &z/ \ &c| &c| &z\_/ &c| &c----------------------------------

That would be a full tank. You could type status to see it. You could also make it easier by just using numbers instead of a picture. Just was thinking creative since you have the dayton/zypher interlink as a picture. Of course, if you had that picture, you would have to make it where the lines would some how move to make it look like your losing fuel.

The Fuel system would be based on how many area's you go thru. So if you have an amount of 200 feul, you would be able to go 100 rooms. Or 200 rooms. This would also create rp in ways of using mine or creating another skill to plant a bomb on a car. You could of course make a command like "startup" to start the car and "switchoff" to turn it off. Who knows, maybe you could somehow make a way to make it where you could shoot out the window.

I was also thinking of using the skill mount for a two wheeled type of vehicle. When you mount it, you could also type status to see the fuel and also use "go" or "drive". Just you woudldn't have to open it like a car. You would just "mount" a motorcycle and of course be able to use a weapon on it.

Doing this though, would mean LOTS of work. You would also have to make gas stations or some way of refueling your vehicle. Plus you could have the skill "pick lock" integrated into it and make a new skill called, "hotwire" if you wanted to steal a car that doesn't belong to you. It's just an idea though and I don't know how to code ANY of it. :-P

Aliasing Ideas

I have been thinking of a way to incorporate aliasing within RP and still have it fit with the theme. You could add a skill (probably to hacking) that would allow you to run a shell program on your laptop. With this shell you could do a few different things: GPS system (for aliasing most used paths or space travel), bank transfers (just another means in case you have no access to a com device or atm), possibly some sort of remote ship control where you could install a shell program onto your ship computers and bring it back to where you are (in case it is stolen- you could also have a remote alarm, or if you are killed and it's offworld), then a global aliasing system could be added. All of this would allow any commands the player needs while away from his/her main computer to be portable... These are just a few ideas I've come up with so far. Been thinking about some more but I still have to hammer em out a bit. --Akarui

Apartment Rental System

I have been having quite some difficulty finding an apartment in a common area and was brainstorming with Nell just a few moments ago. We came up with the idea of having a rental system where you sign an agreement, 6mo's or a year or whatever... It could be something like if you haven't come on and re-signed your rental agreement witin 30 days of it expiring it is emptied, cleaned and set up for rental again. Nell was saying some of the people who have rented haven't even been on in a year or so, it just makes sense anyways, they're apartments not condo's... not all of them at least :P --Akarui

I still think this is a good idea, but I s'pose it'd be a bad idea to just wipe the apartment clean the moment the rent isn't paid. Maybe lock the apartment for a short while first. Then wipe it after an extended period of non-payment. --Nell

• that's what I meant by giving them 30 days after the agreement expires. --Akarui

Game Balance

I ran into something interesting today. What's the point of having ship permissions if anyone that matters can just walk up and hijack any ship they want with no costs or penalties? The same person would have no real trouble blowing just about anyone out of the sky, cutting them to pieces, sneaking around, AND manipulating NPCs all at the same time. I read lots here about classes, but there aren't any. Everyone just masters everything, loads up on drugs, and has no need for anyone else. Even almost everything made by GLM is pretty useless. Especially with clan equipment being handed out like candy on Halloween. Will there eventually be some kind of limit on skills? On a similar note, bounties don't seem to mean anything either. Seems like everyone able to actually collect them has no need for the money.

• Being listed as a pilot has the perks of being able to override, which allows you to remotely affect and even disable your ship if someone chooses to hijack it, and logging off in your ship. Additionally, being owner allows you to rename, sell, or buy upgrades for a ship. Spread rumors, while not an ideally balanced skill, can be counter acted or at the very least avoided. The no set class issue is a valid one. It is by design though. Unfortunally, CB:SC inherited much code from classful systems (SWR) and balance was thrown off as a result. In a classful system, it was fine to make a overpowerful skill available to the small minority of people who focused on its class enough to reach the highest levels. Some good examples might be beserk or hijack. They constitute extremely powerful skills without any drawback of note except that only the most specialized could acheive them. As becomes apparent, this is no longer the case and active efforts should be put into retooling these skills. To continue with our example, beserk was removed and hijack was made to fail more often and give bounties on failing. The latter change was reset after the slayn.net wipe. Drugs are an issue as they cause escalation. If damages become too high, surprise attacks dominate instantly. We understand this issue and some current solutions being tossed around are: 1. Limit how many drugs you can stack (example: 2) 2. Each additional drug provides less benifit 3. Drug benifits stack normally while drawbacks escalate faster than benifits with each additional use (favored by Spike). The clan equipment of note includes: ISSP badges(neck), RDS fields(shield), WTS rings(finger), WTS armbands(arms), WTS daggers, and RDS katanas (arguably others). Quest equipment of note includes: Yellow jumpsuits(body and about), Spiked asteroid rings(finger), and Wrist blades(wrist). Shop equipment of note includes: Soukai sunglasses(eyes) and Flame pants(legs). Sadly, this only leaves GLM with a monopoly of the following slots: head, feet, hands, waist, ears, ankle, back, face, and hips. One of the largest issues with bounties is hackbounty. While well intended, I'm sure the thought of people actually having it occured when it was created. It gives the ability to remove bounties at will and people use it as such all the time. The sort of honor belied by having a bounty has also faded in time, so the community aspect of this problem must be considered as well. While 'nerfing' hackbounty is an option, we are currently looking for alternative solutions. Any suggestions on this matter will be considered. Anyway, I hope that's enough feedback for you now, --Funf 11:51, 23 March 2006 (CST)

• I know it seems more than a bit whiny and I understand the game's still working things out. Most of the solutions I think of right away involve putting in heavy grinding. No one likes grinding... except maybe the crazy people playing MapleStory. What seems to be the preferred fix for drugs does bring up the idea of penalties players would actually consider. Like the heavier withdrawl, death penalties that won't set the player back a week (2-4 randomly lost stat points?), or a temporary HP penalty (with a cap). The easiest fix for class limitations I can think of is to set a limit to the total number of levels you can have between all the classes. Like 500, maybe (they stop at 200, right?). Then a way to drop levels from a class too. Like forgetting or "un-practicing" straight to 1 in a certain class to make room for learning elsewhere. The special equipment I don't mind at all. The only problem is when I can walk around with all of it on at once. I wouldn't mind if I had to give mine up because only members of each of the groups could actually wear them.

...I'm out of random thoughts now. --Nell 12:10, 23 March 2006 (CST)

Also, I think it's appropriate for me to note that if and when we try to change the slightest things to balance the game, the backlash is so violent, ungrateful, and extreme, I get the urge to shut the mud down. I agree with your sentiments of unbalance on most of the listed accounts, but unless you can somehow drill it into the oldbie's heads that these changes are good, or get a huge new crop of players, changes like this have to trickle very, very slowly in. --Shaikoten 14:30, 23 March 2006 (CST)

Some new thoughts of mine (Funf):

A little brainstorming I had: First off, the concept of game balance involves some sort of tradeoff to every good skill. In most games, this is accomplished by a 'class' system. The inherent tradeoff is that you get a couple really really good skills from your class in exclusion to all the other really really good skills out there. Without going back and reimplementing classes (possible option, would make us less unique though...), we have to identify other means of balance.

I've identified four balances we currently implement. The first one is a monetary or resources based balance. Want a good ship? You need money. Want some good armor? Requires money or material. Any skill that requires a expended material component or that costs wulongs to use falls under this balance method.

The second balance I identified would be time. This includes real-time skills that have lag and any sort of grinding. The current stat system (except for the practically inept statlimit) is balanced completely off of time. Hacking is mostly balanced by grinding and by resources. Engineering and chemist the same way but less so.

The third balance would be location. This is the least utilized balance and is only a factor in stattraining and certain hacking skills (hackbroadcast, hackbank, hackclanaccount, hacktransfer). In a way, safe rooms limit combat skills and naturally ships limit piloting skills.

The fourth and possibly the most important balance is bounties. Not only do bounties give atmosphere to the game, they serve as a major balance feature. Hacking and, to a much lesser extent, chemist are currently balanced using this method.

This brings me to a important conclusion, any method of balance is useless if it is easily circumvented. For this reason (though we were barely consious of it at the time) we removed hackbank for destroying monetary game balance. It is my suggestion that hackbounty be limited to only adding bounties. Of course, ISSP should have a method of removing forged bounties.

An important question arrises about whether ISSP should be able to remove any bounty or just hacked ones. The simplest and perhaps most realistic solution would be to allow the removal of all bounties (like it is now), but there should still be balances to that as well (since a way around a balance negates its effectiveness). Perhaps excessive lag (already implemented but not in place) or a fee might be adaquate. The monetary solution of course shouldn't be required to remove hacked bounties but that adds another level of complexity.

Here we have to understand that there are certain 'must have' skills. Let's take enhanced damage (or almost all of combat) as an example. If you want to fight people or even mobs, you have to have it. There is no way to remain competitive and not have it. Naturally, in a classful system, you could easily go without something like third attack or space combat 3 on the basis that only specialists would have it. Therein lies the root of 'must have' skills. They have no balance, no downside at all in a classless system. Before you would take them in exclusion of all other unbalanced skills and it was the core of your personal power.

The solution, if we want our classless system to really work, is to identify unbalanced skills and add another balance method to them if possible. Another option would be to make them less powerful, that doesn't "balance" them but it lowers the effect of them being off balance. Where that might work is something like limber. In fact, we screwed limber up trying just this (lowering it to +3 dex from +5).

Example time: Let's take hijack. Only firstrate smugglers (Han Solo...) would have all ships to their disposal. Hijack always works. No penalties except that you would have had to specialize to get it. We've had many complaints that there is "no reason" to own ships since anyone (and everyone) can just walk up and take what they want. The solution is to add a balance feature. Hijacking kits? Maybe. Excessive lag? Maybe if you want to forge a MONO key. The obvious solution (since it's illegal) is to have them get a bounty for failing and lower the success rate. This ties into the removal of "hackbounty remove", of course, since only then would it be meaningful.

For skills that aren't illegal and highly practical, (like the entire combat and piloting skillsets), it might be more beneficial to revamp the skillset. Of course some skills could be lowered like space combat 3. Space combat 3 makes it practically impossible to miss besides the hardcoded 10% miss chance (there's also a hardcoded 10% hit chance, ever shoot down the Sonic Siren?). It'd be pragmatic to merely keep the gains of the space combat skills reasonable instead of as godly skillful as it is now.

For skillset revamping, I've come up with three possible ideas to keep in mind for the process. The first one is to make it so you aquire general skills at a lower level and specialized skills at higher levels. This might mean you get bash and disarm later than enhanced damage and dual wield. Of course, there could be mixing amoungst the powerful general ones and the weak specialized ones.

The second, and most important, idea is to allow skills to grow as you do. Enhanced damage could factor off of combat level. Medic could be completely redone this way. You might start with one fast skill like attend or bandage. Pick up a long skill like treat or surgery. Then have the specialized skills later on (MM, Recover, Resusitate, Self Med, etc). The early bandage might be like attend and later grow to heal more and have a larger 'too hurt to help' margin. A level 200 medic might be able to bandage down to 500 hp and treat down to 1 hp.

The last idea is to make sure you maintain difficulty in leveling up (grinding). This applies to Engineering mostly. Callisto bums could be toned down for one. Also, some of the stat training (strength) has become a joke (LSC specific problems is another topic all together).

I think I've thrown in a few more pennies than 2 cents (you get my point). Signing off until next time, --Funf 11:44, 3 July 2006 (CDT)

• Random idea time! For balancing skill availability without bringing back classes, what about putting a hard cap on total skill levels? If all skillsets were rebalanced to end at level 200, that'd make 1800 total levels among all of them (here for reference). There could be an absolute limit of, say, 700 levels between all of them. We could max out 3 and get to 100 on another or spread 'em out more. We could have total outlaws with 200 hacking/smuggling/chemist and enough combat and piloting for second attack and midships. ISSP officers with 200 combat/bounty hunting/piloting and maybe a little diplomacy or medic ability. This could create problems with people that never put skill levels into piloting. Maybe either put the most basic of basic piloting abilities within the first 20 levels or so or create a special simplified (unarmed, at least) type of rental ship that's only useful for puttering around the inner solar system. Or let them learn to be nice and make friends with piloting abilities. Then to prevent the desire for oodles of alts and give us variety, make it possible to manually lose levels in something. Y'know... I think I'm stealing this from somewhere, but I don't remember the name. But I like the idea and I think it'd work. I know no one would appreciate a full skill reset if such a change took place. It'd probably be an awful pain for those in charge, but there's a little idea for that too. Allow players a week or two to send a message to one of you detailing what we want to keep within the new skill limit. We'll still lose things, but won't have to ditch the most important ones (to us). Or maybe wipe 'em all anyway and make skill levels rise faster for a short time? --Nell 14:26, 3 July 2006 (CDT)

Hacking Ideas

Alright, I'm going to break down my fixes for a few skills. I don't have actual programming knowledge so this may or may not be as easy as I think it is. Ultimately I think each will be a great addition tothe game and will restore balance. I'll start with Hackbounty because its the obvious choice.

Hackbounty Currently this skill is too good, as it allows quick and easy removal of bounties which, in short, messes up the game economy and dynamic. The problem as I see it is that hackbounty is too permanent. It creates a real bounty or removes a real or fake bounty. I think the system should track bounties, and hackbounty just edits the list viewable online for a certain delay. If necessary for programming purposes you could have it edit a master copy as well, and players wouldnt know the difference really. But, after a set amount of time, fake bounties go away or real bounties come back as the "paperwork is processed". The problem I see here is that after it goes back to normal, the person can hack it again. For this problem I would reccomend making the check harder as "defenses" are beefed up after hack attempts. Again, not sure how to program it, but it could be cool. Alternatively, make the file inaccessable from internet once it has been hacked once. If jailed while shackled with a false bounty, a player is released as soon as it is processed.

New thought Just aother thought on hackbounty. First, I think I figured out an easy way to program it, though I can't be certain. This is based off my trivial basic knowledge though. If, when hackbounty was used, it stored the current bounty on the target, whether none, or a value as a variable, the fake bounty could be used in the displays. After the set time had elapsed, the variables switch back. Just a thought. Also, another way to fix hackbounty is to make removing a bounty work similar to adding a bounty. Instead of removing it outright, it could reduce a current bounty, and when it hits 0 or lower it is simply removed.

Hacktransfer This is another skill that needs work. Its not so much that its overpowered, as fun reducing. I think the spirit in which the skill was created was to get around the freezing of bank accounts, or to simulate money laundering. As such, it would not be so bad. As a fix for this, I suggest just requiring linkup between accounts. Before making the hack check, the system checks to see if accounts are linked, accomplished by a new command in hacking, link account. If the accounts are flagged as linked (which must be accepted by the player beeing solicited from the hacker) then the hacker can transfer in or out of that persons account and their own. Hackers could only be linked to one account at a time, or maybe 2. Also, with this fix I think that it should no longer need to be done in a bank. Seriously, its completely unrealistic.

Hackbank Another strong skill. This one literally makes money, seemingly overpowered, right? Not in my opinion. If you had the money to max out hacking in the first place, you probably didnt need to be able to make it. Beyond that, needing to be in a bank? again, not realistic. But then again, I dont know how broken this can get, so I honestly dont have much in the way of opinion except, dont limit it, work around it. Give people ways to realize this stuff, like players noticing a persons acct inflating. Make it a bigger crime with a higher bounty maybe?

Funf's Response In response to Marent on hackbank. It takes a few hundred million to reach hackbank. Granted. But once you get it, you could make a few hundred billion or more in the same time frame. Once the economy has a few multi-billionaires in it, all hell breaks loose. Suddenly, you only need a rich guy to like you to get the start-up money for yourself. It becomes a non-issue. A gap forms between the uber rich and everyone else and players start resenting each other over it. Also, I've spent enough time talking about game balance (see a bit above), but monetary cost is one of the main balance factors. If engineering is supposed to be hard because of the cost of supplies (it's not), then having too much money in the economy blows any balance out of it. There's no down-side, so it becomes the defacto standard. --Funf 12:36, 29 September 2006 (CDT)

Hackbroadcast I believe that with the above fixes to hackbounty, the problem with hackbank and hacktransfer will balance themselves out. Hacking would bring hard bounties that would at best take a good amount of time and effort to remove. While doing so, a person could be captured. And so, I think at tht point, hackbroadcast would not need to be done in a broadcasting station. The whole point of the skill is to not need max diplomacy or the location. How else are bounties to call out people? Either way I also see it as somewhat funny in practice. Radio Executive-"Someone has hijacked our broadcast. Lock the doors!"

Hackwho Hackwho is hardly the best hacking skill, but for a bounty based game, shouldn't it be more worthwhile. I mean, Ed could completely shut down any aspect of a ship and research a persons underwear size! (Not literaly I know, but he could do quite a bit and find out anything) So I think Hackwho should display more information. Perhaps it could list bank holdings, location of apartment, location of ships owned or driven by the person and their current coordinates. The amount of information found would be based on total hacklevel. So a person who just learned hackwho might just get the current setup, while a level 100 hacker might get that plus half of the above. Just a thought to keep things interesting.

Suggestions for Hacking in general Ok. So far I have been discussing my ideas for hacking on terms of specific skills. However, there are a few other pressing issues I think may merit some looking into. Here's my first gripe: hacking in hyperspace. Now, before people jump all over me regarding what I am about to say, keep the following in mind: I use this method liberally. In fact, this is the only way I hack, and even I don't like it. A cell phone is a vital part of hacking. How do we get reception in hyperspace. Granted, we are in an advanced age when fiber optics have probably been surpassed easily, but even at the speed of light one could not retain reception. There are no satellites in hyperspacethat I know of. As far as I'm aware, they only hacked in real space, not hyperspace. This being the case, I thinking hacking can be easily balanced, and the game made more realisitc and enjoyable, if cell phones do not function in hyperspace. No phone calls, no conversations, no hacking. Kind of a good incentive to not spend much time there, huh?

Next gripe. Unless there are countless sattellites in real space, there would come a point when you didnt have reception. even if there are plenty of satellites, what if your ship's com range weren't close enough to one to transfer signal? I think if we implemented sattellites it would give people more than just two places to hang out: planet and hyperspace gate. People would be interested in staying close to satellites and interested in an often overlooked ship stat: commrange. It would also make hacking in space a bit more difficult and flavorful, which I think it could use.

That's all I have regarding hacking. If I think anything up I'll add it in later. Thanks a ton. --Marent

Clan Items

Hello all. Marent here with some more crazy ideas. I was thinking mostly about clan equipment. We've all seen it. Bounty hunters, cops, criminals and random people on the street all carrying around the same disparate stuff. They have 2 ISSP badges, a WTS issue dagger, RDS issue katana, ISSP issue beretta, the RDS stealth field and maybe a WTS ring or armband. Rarely a person will spend QP to change the name, but I honestly haven't seen much of this myself. So far, I only know I do it for flavor, and then never use those versions for fear of them breaking.

My proposal is this: make it so that clan items only function for members of the clan they are keyed to. I know, its radical. Suddenly only the cops can have str 20 and the 500 lb. carrying capacity. All of a sudden everyone but RDS has a dex lowered by 1. Only WTS can make maximum use of circle and backstab. And of course, there are the hardcore oldbies intent on pk who will be grossly inconveinenced by this proposed change. I'm going to examine each issue separately and give what I think the potential solutions are. First, the combat.

Combat

Think about current combat tactics. Wear Flak and Titanium until you're carying 300+ pounds of stuff, get your katanas or daggers and go mess the guy up. Maybe throw in some dugs for good measure. Or WTS rings for accuracy and such. Now think about what happens when clan EQ only works for clan members. First, RDS members become harder to hit and do more damage with their viscous katanas. They can't carry as much armor but they can use their high dexterity to their advantage. WTS suddenly becomes the king of backstabbing and circling, making very accurate strikes for less damage. They have slightly lower armor values than RDS but hit more often and with more devastating attacks. ISSP gets to suit up in full combat gear and crack skulls with their auto-reloading pistols. I'll address RBH and GLM later.

Doesn't this sound mildly interesting? All of a sudden different clans will employ different combat tactics. People will have to make choices about what benefits they want and how they want to fight. Sure, this will shake things up significantly, but won't it be for the better? At least there will be variety. And, there will be different tactics to fight different clans. RDS will probably employ devastating hit and run tactics as would WTS, whereas ISSP would deck out for the long in-your-face combat. Cops would have to chase down criminals and get their shots in quick before the clanner hit them and ran away. It would bring back the chase, and remove the Roshambo Style that everyone seems to employ.

Roleplaying

I don't know about everyone else, but I know that as useful as I find my miscellaneous clan EQ, I still hate wearing an ISSP badge and not being in the clan. I hate using the RDS Stealth Field and not being in RDS. I hate wearing things that indicate I'm a part of something I'm not. I know, you're going to say then don't use them and stop telling us we shouldn't either. I understand that. But doesn't it seem bizarre that everybody has this equipment and no one cares? I mean, I hate seeing a criminal running around with 400 laptops and flak armor all because he's wearing two cop badges. Or, worse yet the ISSP using WTS daggers and RDS katanas when they have their own custom made gun. I think removing benefits of clan eq for non clan members enforces the roleplaying a bit more. I've been in WTS hq (as a member) and seen that they have a lot more than just daggers and rings for sale. So does RDS (I raided their hq as a WTS member during a war). Also, having been a member of ISSP I know they have stuff other than badges and guns. Wouldn't it be much more thematic to see the RDS running around with stealth fields, armbands and personal communicators while WTS dons their own stuff and ISSP suits up with the riot gear? Wouldn't it add to the feeling of the game?

Oldbies

Here's the big one. All the old players who have this stuff and love it. I'm not putting anyone down here. I'm a veteran of the game too, even though not so much as those such as Simon or Lucy or Hayden. But, I have been around, and I admit I love the benefits the clan EQ bestows upon me. Would I complain aboutlosing the ability to carry 250 extra pounds of gear? Probably. Would I stop playing the game? MOst certainly not. And that is my argument. All the veterans will complain. And its expected. But this mud has changed significantly in the past 3 years I've been a part of it, and some veterans have left, but most have stayed through thick and thin. Those that left left mostly because of problems with ims that appear to me to have been dismissed now. So through one change or another they have stayed. For example, I heard clan weapons now have a cap on them, so they aren't as randomly beastly as they used to be. I remember the rigged eq, and the horrible clan weapon wipes. People complained loudly. They still play. And they will still play if all clan eq functions only for clan members. I think it will balance out the game nicely and will make veterans defend their status as the best against those who don't stand a chance because tactics are out the window. I know that Spike has alts with low combat skill that can take out fully decked characters. I also know that the tactics necessary to do so take a considerable amount of time, time that could be better spent using thematic equipment and new tactics. I believe this change would bring new life to combat and to other aspects of the game as well. It would stop clan recalls of items for statistic reasons and make them esthetical, which is as it should be. How many times has WTS cracked down and said give us our daggers? How many times do you think it was because they wanted the tactical advantage? What about just the game-feel. I can pretty easily say it was probably for the tactics. Same goes for ISSP recalling badges. Or RDS and their katanas and stealth fields.

RBH and GLM

Here's anoter issue. If clan eq only works for clan members, what happens to members of RBH or GLM who can't use any clan EQ? First, lets examine the intent of each organization and then look at potential ways to fix the problem.

GLM

The Galactic League of Merchants. Pretty much says it all, I'd say. They should have clan eq. But make it stuff related to creating items. Give them a +1 WIS item so learning crafting becomes a bit easier. Give them an INT boosting item for the same reason. Give them special toolkits to make their gear that confers bonuses on the items. And make joining and leaving the clan something people won't do just for the great crafting. Since GLM isn't much of a fighting organization anyway, I don't see how they would lose from this change. Maybe give them places to make things that can store extra materials, or a STR boosting item for their satchel or hip or something so they can carry materials. Maybe give them a storage locker or something in the engineering rooms.

RBH

Here's the real issue. Registered Bounty Hunters. Who are they hunting but clanned up criminals from WTS and RDS? How do they compete? We've all heard talks about a new criminal syndicate, the blue snakes. Why not a bounty hunting Clan? I know there's ISSP, but that is very different from the bounty hunters. What about making a clan for bounty hunting and giving it the appropriate EQ? Perhaps a STR +1 item that can only be equipped in one slot so that ISSP maintains a slight advantage. Perhaps a more accurate sniper rifle that lags less than standard ones. Maybe some cool headband armor or CON bossting item to give them more endurance for the chase. These are all just potential ideas, but I think the discussion of a new clan deserves its own topic here on the brainstorming page. The main idea is that with a change to who can use what items, the game becomes more dynamic and less defined. It stops being "Get the standard eq and go beat things" to get the eq you can use in your clan and figure out how to use it to your advantage"

These are just my thoughts on the issue. What do you think?

This is Funf in response to Marent above. I like how in depth you've gone into this idea. There have been plans to redo all the clan equipment (as well as clan hqs) since early this year. As a matter of fact, it was in May that I implemented a new mposet command expressly for the purpose of making clan items "clan only". How it is currently implemented (in the ship phase I code), a oprog fires on the clan item when it is worn. If the owner is of the associated clan, it'll set its own stats one way, else, it'll set them another way. For example, to do much damage with a WTS dagger, you need to be WTS. Otherwise, it's attack power is so low that it won't be worth it. As it is currently implemented, it can only change obj values, as opposed to affects. So, armor might protect more and weapons might do more damage, but stat bonuses will still be on. This is because the change was mostly to help with clan weapons, to tell the truth. In the future, I'd like to see this system expanded upon more as well. Anyways, it's great to hear fresh ideas. --Funf 18:15, 15 October 2006 (CDT)