Cira
Best Onion
First of all, I'd like to thank the member base for their patience. The Factory staff realizes that the Factory is near and dear for Chaos. It has been almost a month to the day since we closed factory to prepare for the "No More Development Threads" Campaign and it has been interesting, to say the least.
It wasn't a simple matter of tossing dev thread out the window, but we had to think about what this meant not only for balance and fair play but also how this may affect creativity. It was an interesting shuffle, but I believe that we managed to get a sweet spot with the new templates.
Now for the big stuff: to join with this significant change, we also tossed a few rules out and implemented a more standardized guideline on the differences between what a Major Faction, Minor Faction, and Company produce as well as field.
One of the biggest concerns our members have stated is that there didn't seem to be any viable difference between Major and Minor besides the map and some ship limitations; now the difference will be crystal clear.
Companies also had to go through a revamp. While it is now easier to tier up, companies will also face production limitations as well as ship/space station max limits based on tier. So if you want to create the big stuff, gotta move on up!
I'd like to take the time to thank our Factory Judges, past and present, who have helped us get here. Real life can get hectic, and while [member="Vixley CM-01"], [member="Garett Van"], and [member="Julius Sedaire"] are no longer Factory Judges, they were equally a part of the change. I'd also like to take the time to introduce our newest Factory Judge, [member="Alric Kuhn"]. As a previous Factory Admin, he will be vital in helping to keep this big machine running. As always, the Factory has an open application policy for new Factory Judges. If you would like to be considered as a factory judge, please check out Factory Judge - Open Applications.
Now without further ado, here are some changes we have implemented:
New Factory Standardized Rules
Overall
- Development threads are no longer required. Restricted Materials, Companies, and Unique Canon items have been revamped as Missions, Expansion, or Objective threads.
- The factory staff created cookie cutter templates for Technology, Vehicle, and Starship forums. This includes weapons, armors, substance, etc.
- Design: Added both Codex Rules and Factory Rules to the Navigation Bar drop down for ease of use.
- Vehicle templates now have less emphasis on metric measurements.
- Particularly rare or powerful special features may necessitate using a lower production (for example, cloaking technology, crystal grav traps and equivalent technologies will be permitted at Semi-Unique only)
- The max length of what may be fielded by companies, Minor Factions, and Major factions have been expanded and fixed in length.
- The max production and manufacturing for companies and minor factions are now fixed.
- Flagship guidelines no longer have the 400 post requirement, but will require the participation of Two Tier 6 companies.
- New starship templates have had ratings simplified to: Extreme, Very High, High, Average, Low, Very Low, and None for Armament Rating, Defense Rating, Speed, and maneuverability.
Speed ratings are now relative to the size of the vessel, just like defensive and armament ratings. Examples show how more rare vessels (lower production) can be more powerful than common (mass produced) vessels.
- Battlecruisers are limited production only.
- The Maximum production for all restricted values is now Limited.
- The Maximum production value for Voidstone is now Semi-Unique
- Passive and Active Company Expansion Objectives have replaced the requirement of Development threads for company tier up.
- Company Tier up requirements have been streamlined to offer more options for tiering up.
- Company unlocks state the max limit of production and manufacturing unlocks. (Ship lengths, Space Station lengths, Subsidiaries)
Highlight: At Tier Six, a Company can sponsor another Tier Five company and up much like a Major Faction. - Highlight: At Tier Six, a company can select a single Restricted Material as their specialty, which allows them to submit submissions with no restricted material mission at a max production of Semi-Unique (only a handful of characters). (Excluding Impervium, Orbalisk, Stygium, Void Stone, and Wintrium) Limit one per writer regardless of company. (( IE A Tier 6 may select "Beskar" as their RM Speciality and be able to submit submissions without an RM mission objective at a max of Semi-Unique))
[*]Workshops have been implemented as a new niche option for crafters. They will have their own tier up requirements and Workshop unlocks. At Tier 4, they may use "Master Crafter" signature bar, and at Tier 6, A workshop may choose one Restricted Material (specifically beskar, phrik, cortosis, songsteel, Echani graphite, ionite, or pyronium) to add to its Specialty list. The Workshop is exempt from RM objectives for that material at a Semi-Unique (Only A Handful of Characters) production level in the Technology forum only.
Unique Canon Items
- Streamlined rules and guidelines, to include a new Unique Canon Item Mission Objective:
Unique Canon Items Mission Objective: (( Embark on a quest to research, locate and recover the canon item in question. There is no set post limit, though you should tell a complete story. ))
I realize the new restricted material options with companies and workshops is placing a lot of trust on the members. I hope that this will not result in abuse and prompt me to remove the benefit.
There are several other ideas that Factory Staff is tossing around, but we would like first to see how these changes work.
For the next two weeks, I am placing a Three Factory Submission limit per writer across all Factory subforums. This means that a writer may only post 3 submissions only in the factory as a whole.
So yes, guys...
