Ideas on a VS-based MMORPG: PvP and Clans

[Michael]

Hi! I like VegaStrike a lot and have some (hopefully) simple ideas that can help push MMORPG development along a little, or at least provide my perspective on how this would work. I've played a variety of games, MMORPG and not, over the years and this is what I think would work best with VegaStrike after skimming through this forum. I am suggesting not what I think will be cool (though tempting), but what I think will be doable. There's a lot of idea threads so I decided to create my own with a little theme, if you don't like it to be in its own thread feel free to merge it to its proper location. Since this is a rather long post, I've broken it down into sub-ideas for people to focus on in replies.

Idea #1: PvP and Respawning
PvP should be enabled, but each player only controls one ship to keep the game's essence the same as single player. To prevent abuse and newbie killing, certain zones (probably entire systems, the ones where newbies start) should be labelled "shielded" and be PvP-safe (at least for independent non-clan people). Therefore, people in the easy starter areas do not have the worry about being PvPed by people 10x their strength and newbies are not pressured to join clans for protection initially. It should thus be entirely possible to play the game like single-player without having to worry about human interaction, at least initially.

If you are attacked and killed, I don't think it should be a permanent death, but I don't believe you should be able to keep dying without negative effects. Therefore, I think you should be able to save your spot at a station (similar to single player), but if you do die, everything is reset back to how you started - you lose all your money, cargo, etc. It is thus a big gamble to do individual PvP, and for the sake of protection (both aggressively and defensively), there should be clans. This also makes doing missions individually harder than single player mode of VS.

Idea #2: Clans and Factions
Clans should never be mandatory. If you choose to be independent, you don't have to pay taxes to the clan's coffers and you are always sheltered in a non-destructible base. Of course clans can offer a whole new dimension of social gameplay that is lacking in the current VegaStrike. They also provide an easy way to discourage PvP in the PvP-enabled areas: if you attack a ship and it is part of a clan, you'll have the whole clan and possibly more going after you (see idea #3).

Already there are factions, and everyone is part of a faction. There should be a way to go from one faction to another and from one clan to another (though it should cost money or have another (reputation?) penalty). To prevent too much complexity, clans should be restricted to a faction or a set of always-allied factions. Clans within the same faction should by default be allies diplomatically. From a game world perspective, clans represent units part of a larger group such as space-navy regiments under generals or bands of pirates. Some factions (such as pirates) should be more prone to infighting of clans, other clans should be able to cooperate much better.

Idea #3: Clan Bounties, Missions, and Wingmen
Let's say a random ship going individually from Clan A is attacked by another ship. The leadership should in a control screen (see idea #5) get information on all attacks such as this, which includes the player, their faction, and their clan (if applicable). They can thus set a bounty (for a certain initial listing fee) against that player. They should also be able to set some other missions (for their clan to do) and even be able to declare war against other clans (and do a generic bounty per ship against all ships of a certain clan?).

Thus, this gives rise to people who can be rogue (or clan-oriented) bounty hunters who choose to earn money by hunting unaligned people (or even risking it with clan members) who have bounties on their head. There's also the possibility of epic clan fights or several clan-members-in-training being able to hunt rogue PKers down together.

Wingmen should only be able to be humans because AI wingmen for each individual player would mean there could be far too many ships in a battle and it would be less up to human skill. Being in a clan enables you to go on joint missions with wingmen from your clan, making things easier for you.

Idea #4: Banks and Storage
Later in the game, it would be pretty harsh to completely restart on death. Therefore, there should be banks for storage of money and generic storage for the rest of cargo. The idea is pretty simple: you put your money in one place and receive interest on it, but there is a slight fee to remove money and "taxes" on the interest. Interest rates, tax rates, and fees vary.

Cargo and item (e.g. storing spare missiles) storage should be more expensive - you should have to initially pay by size and then pay a regular smaller fee (about as regular as you get interest in your bank). While bank money may be accessed anywhere, cargo and item storage should be restricted to one location and you should then close it one place to open it somewhere else (unless you want to pay extra fees, which will eat at your money). It is thus best to store stuff in the same place where you are saved.

Clans should be able to open their own banks and storage in their bases (see idea #6), where they can profit from the fees and taxes and set their own rates. They should also be able to set it open to all, open to all allied, or open to clan members only. Still, neutral places should generally be better to use (and have infinite overall storage space to rent) and clan locations should be primarily for

Idea #5: Clan Leadership and Economy
Clan leadership should be a simple system: the leader should be initially the founder. The founder is the absolute leader, but he can resign his position and become an honorary leader, disband the clan, or resign his position and become a regular member (or even leave the clan). The founder can also appoint anyone else to be leadership. They would have the ability to buy bases for the clans with the clan coffers, change clan tax rates, set up things in the clan bases (such as banks and storage), etc. If clans choose to be democratic and hold elections, that's great - it can all be done manually on clan forums and then they can set new leadership after every election. Keeping it simple in-game should be key.

Clan economy should also be pretty simple: they should have a sum of money that can be donated to by a player and is collected by taxes (and bank/storage fees). Money can be given to a player in need or used as a clan to buy bases and upgrades to bases.

Idea #6: Clan Bases (and Capital Ships?)
Bases should not be given to every clan but should instead be an achievement of a well-organized and large clan. Bases should be really expensive and take a long time to build after purchase, and also hard to destroy (it would take a large group of ships from another clan to destroy it, and those ships would have to face ships from the clan's base). Bases should be customizable to function like any ordinary space station (but closed to outsiders of the clan), but should be almost entirely immobile. Upgrades should be expensive and be things such as AI fighters to escort the base, heavier weaponry (though weapons should be in general close-ranged), more hanger space, etc. Upgrade space on bases should be limited, so very large clans might have to have several bases for its members (either in neighboring systems or in one system in an attempt to "own" the system).

Perhaps "capital ship" bases should be available as a variation of "space station" bases. These ships would be slow, but not immobile, and would be slightly cheaper than "space station" bases. These ships would be smaller, however, and have less room for things. These bases would be able to move around from system to system (e.g. if they're owned by a hunted-down pirate clan) and should be able to have both anti-capital-ship and anti-fighter weaponry (though limited slots) - therefore, someone might buy a capital ship to destroy a base. A capital ship would be piloted by a leadership person, or someone appointed pilot of that particular ship by leadership, boarding the ship and walking to the command area. A capital ship can be put on autopilot (more like auto-orbit, because it would function as a regular "space station" base in that case) and be AI-controlled if no human wants to pilot it. A capital ship is a very good achievement of a large clan or even a very successful individual player, but they are more easily destroyed than bases (killing everyone docked on-board and forcing them to restart in the nearest neutral base), and are a very expensive gamble unless you can have them well-escorted. Generally, capital ships are for clans who want a mobile-but-smaller base (e.g. people who focus on raidings, such as pirates) or for major clans who want an edge in a clan war.

Conclusion
Yes, there can be bad clans. In fact, I'd encourage there to be bad-guy-pirate-clans that organize to be aggressive and to rob others just like there can be good-guy-help-everyone-even-independents clans that can wage war on the aforementioned pirates. The freedom and flexibility to do this would be great. And with PvP-free-starting-zones and maybe even a PvP-free-server people wouldn't be pressured to join clans and yet clans could add a whole new dimension of epicly large battles where you play merely one ship.

[loki1950]

Welcome Michael there has not been much activity code side this summer but ideas may spark some discussion at least

Enjoy the Choice

[ace123]

The faction system as it exists right now doesn't allow for much expansion--it only allows for a player to be part of a single faction/clan/group... whereas it would make more sense for a player to be a part of many different groups at once...perhaps each with a "weight" on the player's relations

Making certain areas "safe" would be a nice feature to have... I'll think about a good way to do that. Also, keeping you safe when you are docked would be nice.

Allowing players to place bounties on other players would be pretty cool and indeed a lot of code is in place to allow for that, but there isn't an easy way to award money once that person does die.

Beyond that, the economy in single player also needs some serious work.

[JsnMtth]

How about an internally movable 3d rendered First Person Shooter Capital Ship? Integrate Networking and Sound to have an internal Team Speak type of setup, then have an entirely Massively Multi-Player Crewed Capital Ship (Star Trek Style). Then the ability to Captian Ships and Admiral Fleets could be the big difference between a good and great clan. Not to mention ALL kinds of specialties for people to participate in (flying fighters, Tactical, Sensors, Fleet Movement, Boarding Parties, Security, Gunners, Engineers). It could make possible the kind of large scale space battles witnessed at the beginning of Star Wars Episode III, fully controlled by strategic thinking and team working humans!