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Idea for new faction: Splinter group
jestersage
Member Posts: 8 Arc User
If you actually look at Trek history, you will notice that among the seemign unity of all three major superpower, you have splinter groups that basically was against the traditional values
Thus, what cryptic can do is to create splinter group, which would allow "bad guy to play good guys" - satisfying the goal of "players want to play good guys". Also allow "good guys to play bad guys"
Here's the proposal:
Section 31: Believe that war is essential to make sure Federation don't become complacement, they are the shadow force that helps drive the war hotter. Attacking on civilian/science vessels, destroy peace conference, and genocidal is all part of the plan. Support by canon source in Undiscovered Country, JJTrek 2, augment virus problem (who knows - they may PURPOSELY infect klingons to weaken them), etc. Probably worse than Tal Shiar
House of Martok: Believing the Empire is heading to a dishonorable path, the House of Martok, through Worf and D'vak,, start to create subversion to help create peace with Federations. There are bigger enemies to fight, and federation is not one of them. It can also set a bridge toward the canon depiction that Klingon joined the Federations by the 29th century.
Tal shiar Masters of subterfuge, infiltrate RR to destablize them. Have dealings with Klingon Intellience and Section 31.
Mechanics: Once Player hit Lv30 (captain), they will go to an optional mission that will allow player to choose whether to go with the main branch or the splinter group. The optional mission can be repeated to change alligence.
By joining the splinter group, one can access the two other's faction's ship and consoles, upto T4. They cna also play any unlocked missions. However, they will suffer some kind of penalty:
-House of Martok, because they are honorable, gain -10% damage resistence (work effect)
-Sector 31 / Tal Shiar: Gain 15% alpha strike bonus but have -10% general damage capability
Also, in unrestricted PvP, they can target their own "teammates", but will allow teammate to fire back. Possibly with extra damage buff
This will help with the game balance, since it will allow other groups to gain special consoles (without being lobsided for Feds as it is right now)
Edit: and yes, I know the PvP part can be considered trolling, but if it's "as intent", it's a feature, not a bug. All one have to do is out troll the other guy. Plus, you cannot roleplay Tal Shiar or Section 31 without doing somethign dirty.
Edit two: The keyway splinter group will work is that they must suffer some kind of penalty, such that they gain flexibility, but lose out on some other stuff.
Thus, what cryptic can do is to create splinter group, which would allow "bad guy to play good guys" - satisfying the goal of "players want to play good guys". Also allow "good guys to play bad guys"
Here's the proposal:
Section 31: Believe that war is essential to make sure Federation don't become complacement, they are the shadow force that helps drive the war hotter. Attacking on civilian/science vessels, destroy peace conference, and genocidal is all part of the plan. Support by canon source in Undiscovered Country, JJTrek 2, augment virus problem (who knows - they may PURPOSELY infect klingons to weaken them), etc. Probably worse than Tal Shiar
House of Martok: Believing the Empire is heading to a dishonorable path, the House of Martok, through Worf and D'vak,, start to create subversion to help create peace with Federations. There are bigger enemies to fight, and federation is not one of them. It can also set a bridge toward the canon depiction that Klingon joined the Federations by the 29th century.
Tal shiar Masters of subterfuge, infiltrate RR to destablize them. Have dealings with Klingon Intellience and Section 31.
Mechanics: Once Player hit Lv30 (captain), they will go to an optional mission that will allow player to choose whether to go with the main branch or the splinter group. The optional mission can be repeated to change alligence.
By joining the splinter group, one can access the two other's faction's ship and consoles, upto T4. They cna also play any unlocked missions. However, they will suffer some kind of penalty:
-House of Martok, because they are honorable, gain -10% damage resistence (work effect)
-Sector 31 / Tal Shiar: Gain 15% alpha strike bonus but have -10% general damage capability
Also, in unrestricted PvP, they can target their own "teammates", but will allow teammate to fire back. Possibly with extra damage buff
This will help with the game balance, since it will allow other groups to gain special consoles (without being lobsided for Feds as it is right now)
Edit: and yes, I know the PvP part can be considered trolling, but if it's "as intent", it's a feature, not a bug. All one have to do is out troll the other guy. Plus, you cannot roleplay Tal Shiar or Section 31 without doing somethign dirty.
Edit two: The keyway splinter group will work is that they must suffer some kind of penalty, such that they gain flexibility, but lose out on some other stuff.
Post edited by jestersage on
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Comments
Do not attempt to weakly use RP to shield your jackassery.
I quite liked that. In some ways it comes close enough to what I was talking about in a lengthy rant about faction "flexibility" a few hours ago. (Perhaps I could interest you in giving it a read? In case, you will find it here)
Basically, I believe anything they can do to allow us to play a micro-faction beyond the huge groups supported by the majority would be welcome by the fanbase... especially if it would allow Romulans to play Tal Shiar and (if they were ever added as Fed protectorate species) Cardassians as True Way followers! :cool:
Honestly, I can hardly see that as trolling. If you play a small "evil" splinter faction, it is understandable that you might shoot one of your enemies at will or that an enemy player might or might not decide to shoot you on sight, simply because of that....
Besides, I can imagine that if a "Section 31" player started shooting random Fed ships in Fed territory, the targeted people would post a message in the local chat channel and get reinforcements to smash him/her in a few minutes...
Gosh, now I am thinking Horde/Alliance city raids on WoW PvP servers. Even if it could happen, it still did not happen often at all... so when it did, it actually was fun (not to mention granted special achievements to those who took part in it). I do not see why it could not (or should not) be implemented in some way.
- Judge Aaron Satie
Realistically, however, it never happens that way. World PvP, as it truly happens, is not PvP. It's bullying. It's some level 50 jackwad waiting out of sight for some level 20-or-under person to be tied up with mobs or low on health or trying to go about their own business and ganking them, then gloating about how l33t they are. As soon as somebody of equal strength shows up to see them off, they run away because they're not interested in a real fight.
Also, there are not PvP servers in STO. There's just one server. If you want to PvP, that's fine. Go PvP, but don't ask for it to be forced on everyone whenever and wherever YOU want it.
We could put some safe guards on this. Maybe we get a separate PvP server only with "safe" starter areas. Or maybe restrict this to highest level content only.
I don't want to see ganking of low level characters. But I do want more PvP content if it is balanced well.
- Judge Aaron Satie
Much as people malign the game, Warhammer Online had a great PvP system. Sure, there were battlegrounds you could queue for, much like we have here (although better designed), but the real fun was in the RvR lakes. They were clearly labeled as PvP zones and if you didn't want to go into them, you didn't have to! There were persistent objectives in the RvR lakes and, more importantly, keeps to be sieged and taken. Once a zone was completely under one side's control, global rewards to everyone who participated and your faction got progress towards attacking the enemy capital.
Best way to do this in STO, I think, would be to make a new zone that works like a giant RvR lake. If you go into that zone, it's PvP and it's clearly labeled as such. There are objectives to take that give your side bonuses IF you control them ALL (to prevent steamrolling too hard) and a NEUTRAL starbase to overcome and capture. Once a faction controls all objectives AND the starbase, that faction controls the zone. Rewards for all who were IN the zone when control switched hands. Players can also contribute resources (earned through fighting in this zone ONLY) to bolster the starbase to make it stronger.
Well, for a starter the "splinter faction" should be joinable only by players who have reached level 50. And then I believe it could be coded that they simply aren't allowed to shoot anyone below their level, or if they do, that they get a "debuff" that actually temporarily lowers theil level (and skills) to something balanced to that of their opponent. You attack a Lev 10? Fine. Then your cool weaponry will still only do as much damage as DEFAULT common level 10 weaponry would make.
Also there could be NPC patrols with over-the-top level aggroing automatically any attacker entering a "n00b" area to defend them...
It may be the case for some people, but personally on WoW I never took part in the attacks but rather, found myself being attacked unexpectedly or having to defend a city. I am more a RPer than anything else, but there I used to pick RP+PVP servers because the environment felt more realistic. As silly as it may sound, it felt reasonable to run the risk of being attacked by the enemy while I wandered around, seen that we were at war. :P
What can I say.... Sometimes I was ganked, called for help, and the help came. I find it hard to imagine people would not do that if they were true to the Fed values in the Star Trek world? :P
Anyhow. I still think it is a matter of HOW things are managed. If they are badly managed, it would only cause annoyance to everyone. But if they are well-thought, it could have the potential to become something fun. IMHO.
First off, no faction should be able to get access to the other factions ships. that simply creates a situation where there is no distinctiveness.
However the three groups identified would work, potentially, as reputation systems provided there was an alternative that was mutually exclusive.
For instance klingons could choose ebtween the House of Martok or the House of JmPok.
Romulans between the Talshiar and Ferengi traders
Federation characters could choose between Section 31 and, let's say, the Federation council.
Each path would have different bonuses and would require, instead of reputation marks, dilithium or GPL to progress.
However, the main thing is that each path would preclude following the other.
Absolutely agree.
In WoW they have done it for years and years already, having reputation with each faction built so that you would lose reputation with one faction while you gained it with the other.... I do not see why something similar should not be doable for STO.
Interesting, a pair of reputations effectively tied together as a seesaw.
I have a vague memory of a non-MMO game that did something similar.......my aged brain is not being cooperative though. Was it Morrowind?
Yeppers. Also, the rep you lost with the "other" faction would grow exponentially the farthest you got into "favor" with the other.
Say, for example, that there were three levels of "membership"
Tier 1 - from 1 to 100 rep points, for each 1 point you gain here, you lost 1 there.
Tier 2 - from 101 to 1001, for each 1 point you gain here, you lost 10 there.
Tier 3 - from 1001 to 1000, for each 1 point you gain here, you lost 100 there.
Of course, the further into "favor" you got, the better rewards the faction granted you.
Switching back later was possible starting to farm huge amounts of rep as long as you still were somewhere in Tier 1... but made it about impossible to switch sides if you had gotten farther than that.
Not to mention, a number of items would stop working if you switched sides...
Also, after Tier 1 (which saw them, if they weren't already, become hostile to you) the NPCs members of the other would of course start to shoot you on sight.
I regret I wouldn't know, sowwy!
LOL
You know, now I am starting to think the Alien creator needs to have more animal-like parts to enable us creating a Rat-Like captain with four favorite Turtle BOFFs...
But we have to think about it in terms of Cryptic, where they pioneered complete customness (read champions online). Therefore, for PvP, everyone is a spike damaged oriented tank with lots of holds.
It IS do able, especially if it's done by Cryptic. I think CO is one of the few games where they managed to break away from the traditional class/trinity based system, and one of the reason I decide to go to STO - precisely because it's no longer rigid.
Considering they were exterminated 40 years prior to STO, you really don't.
Ah bonnie-kin, well I don't know how many times that the Borg have been exterminated, yet they still keep coming, or the Iconians which are supposed to be mythical, yet have some existence....
So I think the Maquis should be included. Besides, they can never claim to have killed every single one, I mean we are dealing with cardassians after all.....
Actually, they can. After Cardassia joined the Dominion the Jem'hadar wiped out the Maquis with extreme prejudice. Out of a movement of thousands, only about half a dozen survived the war (and then only because they gave up their fight after being massacred). In addition, with Cardassia becoming a de-facto Federation member after the Battle of Cardassia, the Maquis primary reason for existence becomes moot.
Simply put: even if you play the resurrection card, there is no reason for the Maquis to exist at all anymore.
I imagine it as a system space that stretches from K7 to the Klingon equivalent that I forget the name of.
You know, we could eventually have planetary invasions via players, and so on. Large numbers of participants. Rewards that make it more lucrative than Ker'at, and none of this Klingons and federation spawning on top of eachother.
Cool?
"Second star on the right, and straight on till morning."
U.S.S. Weatherlight
Not sure I'd enter it often but yes, I don't see why they couldn't give us that. :P
well s31 is already done, there are a few episodes where you get contact with franklin drake who is a member of s31. so that is done.
house of martok looking for peace? why would a klingon house risk dishonor before the council to even suggest the idea? officially it is still war and most klingons are none the wiser about TFO with the feds and the rommies. not only would they risk dishonor with the idea, but it would be considered treasonous. so no, that will never happen.
tal shiar? you get a few episodes to play as an operative on LoR, so thats done as well.
as for the rest, its not needed.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
Pretty much. Open PK/friendly fire really has no place here, if you want that there are plenty of other games that have it.
Except more and more of this games progression is done after hitting level 50. A level 50 with full purple tier XII equipment, maxed out reps and a fleet/lockbox ship will wail on a fresh 50 just as one-sidedly as he'll wail on a level 45.
That won't work in STO. STO is a heavily instanced game where running into someone either requires that you both sign up for a random group queue, where you're presumably working together, that you both end up in a social area where PVP would be restricted for the sake of getting business done, or that you willingly group with someone. On the other hand, ganking lowbies would also be almost impossible.
MINOR SPOILER ALERT!
Considering that K'mek definitely did something dishonorable in the eyes of Klingon Empire, who further dishonor himself by having basically the Section 31 involved, all helped by you as your first act as a Klingon captain, I would say that it is still some what plausible.
Which reminds me: Why would Section 31 even bother helping out K'mek, when Worf outright refuse to recognize him?