1.6 Feature Update: Fleeting, Faction Armories, and Hero Units Discussion

[Tefka]

Me and Spenser touched on this a bit on Skype. We need to push forward on this, and have much more productive conversation than we usually do concerning it, lol.

My idea was to create an "Admiral" and a "General" custom title, or assigning one during each invasion, and only they can control the NPCs.

After that, only 1 character may control a Hero Unit. Each faction may have up to 15 Hero Units. These are buffed up Factory vehicles/ships. Or we could even introduce a new template for creating hero units in the Factory. Or we could do away with Hero Units altogether.

Thoughts on 1.6?

 

[Louise]

It's all gravy to me.

 

[Darth Metus]

I believe that, as you had suggested, a General and an Admiral tag be created. Those with the general tag would be in charge of the npc soldier population while those with the admiral tag will be in charge of the fleet. I also propose that only one General and only one Admiral may influence the mass actions of army/fleet npcs during Dominions, Invadions, and Weekend Events. (Faction members may still "command" npc units, but only like a handful as opposed to a whole military division). Factions may have only a limited number of these Generals/Admirals, and this number will be based upon faction population. The more members/planets you have, the more (logically) troops and ships you'll have, so you'll need more people to lead them. At this point in time, it'd be only one each for each faction.

I also propose a new template for "Hero" technology units. Simply put, most of the technology that is within the Factory is that which makes up the general ship population of the various factions. They are the staple units: starfighters, bombers, capital ships, arms, etc. the Hero unit template will cover submissions that are personally suited to Ike's character, such as Kaine's prototype TIE fighter (Kaine will personally be flying it I assume, thereby classifying the technology itself as a hero unit.) By default, Hero Tech will be a slight cut above the average and will be generally modulated versions of existing tech or something. I'm sure Spencer and Ayden will collaborate to define a standard for approving them.

Anyways, that's my two cents.

 

[Ayden Cater]

A thought that occurred to me ; how do we, as RJs, look at an Invasion where one faction might be significantly larger than the other? If we look at strict PvP action, obviously the one with more people to throw at it would win, which turns the whole thing into a purely numbers game.

 

[Darth Metus]

I'm going to borrow a concept from Game of Thrones, tweak it, and propose it. When it comes to invasions when the Faction being invaded is vastly smaller, only a specific number of members from the attacking faction can carry out the invasion. Like, say Faction A has 10 members and Faction B has 30. Faction B would only be allowed to use the amount of members Faction A has within their faction to carry out the invasion. In this way, it'll be more fair and far from being a numbers game.

 

[Soeht]

This is honestly where non-Force user tiered ranks would help.

 

[Ayden Cater]

Kinda of what I was thinking, Isley.
Apparatus, elaborate?

 

[Darth Metus]

The Mandalorians have a three-tier system, I'm still mulling over the Republic's but it's looking like: Soldier, Officer, General/Admiral

 

[Soeht]

Just fleeting in general would help if there was a way to gauge a certain character's ability. In Star Wars, the numbers and tech never mattered in the end. The focus was usually on the characters. It will clearly define how powerful a character is with certain parts of fleeting/dogfighting. It also is a decent way to prevent green role-players from jumping in an summoning twelve Death Stars. I just do not want this to go down the path of TGC's Shipyard Takeovers where everyone was too focused on the tech and numbers and stats of each faction's armory rather than the character that are being written.

Which also leads to this: we need a system in which even non-Force users are required to have been through training. One idea is to have three tiers for them. One idea from Matt Brown is that we don't give them custom ranks until they have been trained, basically a two tier system of the Amateur and Professional.

Another thing I believe is required for 1.6 is that each faction sets up rules and a clear system for training, specifically a training forum. At the least, there needs to be a Pupil - Trainer system. Right now, TSE is the only faction with a fleshed out training program.

 

[Darth Metus]

The Jedi are making progress in the Master -> Pupil training, though we lack enough Knights/Masters to individually train with each of the Padawans. Since three have made it apparent that this development is going to happen, I surmise the Republic can start with training sessions on Carida in which the soldiers are put through the paces under the supervision of an Officer. At least this will amount to the Amateur->Professional relationship you just outlined.

 

[Tefka]

We've got two weeks to work out the idea of Non-FU's and how they'll be trained.

Some solid proposals have been put forth already. Isley has a project he'll be working on with Rank Titles and we'll present it here in staff first to discuss.

 

[Tefka]

Like, say Faction A has 10 members and Faction B has 30. Faction B would only be allowed to use the amount of members Faction A has within their faction to carry out the invasion. In this way, it'll be more fair and far from being a numbers game.

I love this.

 

[Tefka]

" I think a new staff rule should be that one roleplaying judge actively watches an invasion"

This'll be a thing, thanks Chris. It'll be an RJ not involved in the Invasion.

 

[Tefka]

If we let a bigger faction match a smaller faction

Should we allow multiple invasions as long as they can match another faction's players?

 

[Soeht]

I love this.

I don't. We shouldn't deny people from participating if they want.

This is assuming those 30 members are all unique members. For the most part, I say having a de facto *strong* suggestion to have each writer use only one character in Invasions is a good thing, though. That way, they can participate yet not at Kane E. Smart levels of idiocy. Also less to write down in the rules, for now.

After all, I agree that we should not have a ton of rules this early and complicating things. Instead, we should work on setting precedence for certain role-playing habits that would be beneficial overall.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

I don't like limiting members. Say Faction B has 30 on paper and 10 join up to fight Faction A...what happens if some from B become inactive? Can replacements be drafted in? Who decides this? What happens if those people want to come back in?

Personally I've always thought that basing things too much on characters misses part of the point of Star Wars. Yes, characters make up a big part of things, but Luke couldn't win Hoth by himself, Han would never have destroyed the shield generator without help, and the Jedi would never have won the Clone Wars without help. There needs to be a balance.

The Admiral/General CT is a great idea as it lets that player control the faction's military.

Hero units should be reserved for unique, player guided ships and equipment, like the flagship of the Republic or a Sith Lord's personal fighter.

The other stuff in the Armoury are all the 'modern' regular ships and vehicles and shouldn't be restricted.

 

[Disciple]

I don't like limiting members. Say Faction B has 30 on paper and 10 join up to fight Faction A...what happens if some from B become inactive? Can replacements be drafted in? Who decides this? What happens if those people want to come back in?

If some from B become inactive we entertained the idea of having a set number of replacements available to either take over or fill in. I think though, to avoid confusion, that if the first person returns and wants to rejoin... he needs to wait for someone else to become inactive; kind of as an incentive to stay active so that you can continue to enjoy the Invasion.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

Sounds like a lot of work to maintain?

 

[Darth Metus]

How's about we keep it simple? Factions will be encouraged to match the population of the groups they plan to invade. As incentive, should they match, they'll be permitted to launch a second invasion against another faction (should they be close enough and have enough people to start one). The decision to match or not falls to the faction leadership and once it's decided you can't back out midway through and send extra people. This way, it's simple.

 

[Soeht]

It's simpler to just not try to match populations in invasions, yet harp on writers that try to stack a role-play with alts.

Again, we should not discourage people from participating and we should not complicate what should, at the moment, be a simple process. Also, larger factions will naturally have an advantage anyway in size - yet that never means they are automatic winners. Plus, those that have smaller factions that are concerned about larger ones should find a buddy faction - increasing involvement of the entire community.