Deadman:
Here's the big problem, as I see it:
OOB, as it exists now, is a system where there are only X "nifty" ships per race. As "nifty" ships are often the real powerful / effective in D2 ships, who do you give them to? The player who'll "protect" it by not being a target for 8+ hours a day, or the player who'll make sure it's on for the maximum time available in the server and have it run the most missions?
Sadly, that leaves the casual player on the short end of the stick, currently. It's just not "proper" for them to ask for one of the poweful, limited ships, and either promptly lose it, or not use it to it's fullest potential. Nor is it the best choice 90% of the time for a RM / ship assigner to make.
Therefore, I'm trying to expand it. Yes, there will be periods where 90% of the playerbase will have these "uber", "powerful" ships. However, 90% of these ships won't be online for hours on end, they'll only be on for a couple of hours per night, and, there will be conditions that encourage all people (life limits) from using these ships all the time. The way I see it, the crowd that currently gets them will probably wind up keeping them all server (as they do now), but those who don't now get a shot at them...
Some pilots will find themselves quickly burning through their life allotment, others will conserve them like gold, saving them for the 1 "super-nifty" ship that they might lose 10 hours after they buy it (which, for some players, might need 5 days of playing...
) Either of these people will find themselves flying "line" ships as much as they find themselves in the "nifty" ships.
This
is an actual solicitation for feedback, while I haven't edited the first post yet, I am planning on adding a (hopefully) simple rule that adds some sort of slot system. A system that relies on "in game" mechanics as much as possible. Therefore, the limit will "kick in" for players who've acheived Commodore rank on the server, and that slot limit will eventually raise itself up to the "rear admirals" once enough "casual" players (who this rule is aimed at helping) make Commodore (which is usually late in a server anyway...)
Also, I'm giving strong consideration to lenghening the build cycles. Instead of allowing a player to replace his lost special ship in a couple of days, longer build cycles will mean that they're stuck in the line ship longer after losing their "nifty" ship...
Topic: "Radical" new OOB concept (Read 5351 times)