D I R E C T O R
This is an unofficial follow up to Annassari's thread here, in case you haven't read up.
TLDR:
Basically for progression, I think for at least the first half of tiers the most emphasis should be on the Marketplace. The Marketplace serves as basically Chaos's economy (in the loosest of terms) in the sense of while there is no credit system, there are still writers making purchases and therefore you are theoretically making profits, or at least making creds. Basing off initial progression mostly or solely on the Marketplace would put a better emphasis on curating storefronts and reward company owners for making submissions that are popular, or company owners who have worked hard to make a marketplace storefront. I also think that Major Faction contracts should figure into this as well.
Let's make a hypothetical progression system, say to get from Tier I to Tier II. In this hypothetical progression, you need 25 points to get to the second tier. A Major Faction contract (which would be producing any amount of anything for the use of a Major Faction) will net you ten points, while a marketplace purchase will net you three points. Therefore, you'd need a major faction contract and five marketplace purchases to progress to a tier, or two major faction contracts and two marketplace purchases to progress to a tier, or nine marketplace purchases to progress a tier, so on and so forth. I'm not suggesting this exact scale of points and progression, but merely using this as an example of the system I'm talking about.
Once you get past half the tears, I think the requirements to progress should change and the rewards from here would begin to ramp up. Let's say that this is a six-tier progression system like the old one (although correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while). Tiers I-III would progress solely through marketplace purchases/major faction contracts. Tiers IV-VI would require an increasing amount of development threads alongside marketplace purchases. Each tier would have a progressing number of points needed to progress (i.e. for Tier I, you need 25 points while to get Tier VI you need 55 points, increasing each tier by increments of 5 points) and at higher tiers, you would also need a development thread to progress. However, at these higher tiers, you would begin to unlock perks for your company that makes the 'grind' worth it. Some examples I've thought of are being able to field larger ships, or being able to produce larger ships and stations at lower production rates (for example, Tier V could unlock producing civilian space stations at any size at a semi-unique rarity).
Of course, this is very roughshod and of course if/when an actual tier system is reintroduced, it would be much more finer tuned. But I personally hope this can be the direction that reintroduction would align with. And as always, feel free to pick it to pieces
TLDR:
- Company Tier Progression should come mainly from marketplace purchases/major faction contracts and development threads should be more endgame requirements.
- Tier rewards should feel like actual rewards, such as being able to field larger/more ships and build things like large civilian stations at a lower production rate, etc.
Basically for progression, I think for at least the first half of tiers the most emphasis should be on the Marketplace. The Marketplace serves as basically Chaos's economy (in the loosest of terms) in the sense of while there is no credit system, there are still writers making purchases and therefore you are theoretically making profits, or at least making creds. Basing off initial progression mostly or solely on the Marketplace would put a better emphasis on curating storefronts and reward company owners for making submissions that are popular, or company owners who have worked hard to make a marketplace storefront. I also think that Major Faction contracts should figure into this as well.
Let's make a hypothetical progression system, say to get from Tier I to Tier II. In this hypothetical progression, you need 25 points to get to the second tier. A Major Faction contract (which would be producing any amount of anything for the use of a Major Faction) will net you ten points, while a marketplace purchase will net you three points. Therefore, you'd need a major faction contract and five marketplace purchases to progress to a tier, or two major faction contracts and two marketplace purchases to progress to a tier, or nine marketplace purchases to progress a tier, so on and so forth. I'm not suggesting this exact scale of points and progression, but merely using this as an example of the system I'm talking about.
Once you get past half the tears, I think the requirements to progress should change and the rewards from here would begin to ramp up. Let's say that this is a six-tier progression system like the old one (although correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while). Tiers I-III would progress solely through marketplace purchases/major faction contracts. Tiers IV-VI would require an increasing amount of development threads alongside marketplace purchases. Each tier would have a progressing number of points needed to progress (i.e. for Tier I, you need 25 points while to get Tier VI you need 55 points, increasing each tier by increments of 5 points) and at higher tiers, you would also need a development thread to progress. However, at these higher tiers, you would begin to unlock perks for your company that makes the 'grind' worth it. Some examples I've thought of are being able to field larger ships, or being able to produce larger ships and stations at lower production rates (for example, Tier V could unlock producing civilian space stations at any size at a semi-unique rarity).
Of course, this is very roughshod and of course if/when an actual tier system is reintroduced, it would be much more finer tuned. But I personally hope this can be the direction that reintroduction would align with. And as always, feel free to pick it to pieces