Neo LoneWolf
15-10-03, 01:38
After reading Style's thread here (http://neocron.jafc.de/showthread.php?threadid=78684&perpage=15&pagenumber=1) a chord was struck with me.
The other day, someone walked up behind me and started shooting at me in PP1 (there was no one about when I happened through). It was the first time someone had randomly attacked me in months. My response was to run. I didn't think about it, I just reacted.
Why?
Because it was a reaction ingrained into me during the first few months of playing Neocron. Going around without an LE in meant people shot at you. It didn't matter if you were too low level to drop anything particularly good (and 9/10, I dropped a medkit for their troubles), but it happened anyway - unless you were particularly good at running or hiding.
I died a lot to random gankings. Sometimes I lost my 3 slot TAR, or whatever.
It was dark.
It was dangerous.
It was atmospheric.
It was deadly.
It was thrilling.
It was cyber-punk.
It was fun.
It didn't really matter - I could always get another gun. I could look forward to getting to a level where I wouldn't have to run - where I could turn around, and open fire with the chance to actually win.
With lower consequences to death (easily replacable stuff), the added thrill of watching over your back for some low life coming at you without warning made the game so much more moody.
But.
At the top end, players were bored. The only thing to do was run around killing people - either randomly, or in a more organised fashion (Ops; duelling; etc.).
They called out for high end content. They called out for the need for teamwork. They called out for harder mobs - for more of a challenge. They called out for rares to be rarer.
But with rares becoming rarer, and mobs becoming more of a challenge, the input to the rares available would dry up.
And so people who cared more about their nice rare weapon gained Safe Slot One and hackbelts.
Anti-PK nerf happens as those who decide to remove their LE chip demand protection against ganking anyway.
Hmm, well. I would like to give you a list. My list. You could call it 'Why I'm looking forward to Neptune' list, or 'What I feel is wrong with the game' list. Maybe 'When I earn enough cash from playing drug dealers at poker, I'm going to steal one of thir guns, walk upto MJS, and force him implement unless he wants to lose his manhood' list.
Whatever.
I'd call it my 'neocron wishlist'. It seems to fit best for me.
No soullight. An idea of good and evil in a post-apocalyptic cyber-punk world jars too heavily for me. It's effects are just . . . urgh. Copbots have a built-in 'seek-evil' chip? The evil drop more when they die? It's ridiculous. Yes, there should be consequences for random murder, etc. But please - soullight is a bad idea and retarded in implementation.
No safezones. If it's a safezone because anyone drawing a weapon is shot dead, then cool. If it's because of some bizarre eery field that means you can't even raise your fist unless it's gloved or wielding a tool, then it's not cool.
No Safe Slot One. With adjustments noted below for an increase in rares input, just use the drop for the belt can be any of the ten most valuable items on you. Also, give belts a first-access rights type system, whereby the person killed, is the one with first-access rights (no-hacking required), and that the belt becomes hackable to everyone at a random level maybe determined in part by the deceased's hack-skill. No soullight, so only one item drops regardless.
Redefined weapon curve. The disparage between shop-bought and rare-weapons is too enormous. A suggestion is to either add another weapon of each type between top-shop bought and rare-version, which is not available in the shops (drop only), but can be BPed, and requires WP 9 and/or 10. Or, make the top shop-bought of each weapon type drop only, and up it's power to closer to the rare's, and give the lower one some boost too.
Make it sensible about which Implants are available in the shops, and which ones aren't. Make *all* level 1 imps available in the shops - they are only used by levelling people (except some hearts) - where it's normally quicker to level up the next stat/skill point than try and get the imp. Make level 2s high number drop from mobs, and level 3s slightly rarer. The exceptions (those that would be sold in the shops upto level 3) would be Str Boosters; Dex Boosters; Neural Advancements; Motoric's; Psi-Memory's; the upcoming +Str brain imps (equivalent to motorics, etc, but for +Str); and the upcoming Psi-Booster imps (+Psi/-Int backbones equivalnet to Dex-Booster).
Other added imps would be the missed Heavy-Combateyes; and possibly something like 'Artillery chips' - +1/2/3 Str, +5/10/15 H-C, +3/5/8 T-C, +3/5/8 WEP, -1/2/3 Dex, -5/10/15 Agl.
Increased emphasis on Faction Sympathies, with more visible effects. Make the Sympathies more important than the overall faction-to-faction relationship (allied/neutral/hostile).
Revised mob loot to include more usable and valuable items - weapons, armour, etc than junk are dropped, that you don't get automatic money for killing mobs (this is just stupid) - that the loot is increased to be of a value equal to what it would have been given automatically before. That your available load is increased (and affected contiguously by transport). Make loot /interesting/.
Revise Quick-kill and similar kill-mob Missions to make sense. That factions /care/ where the mob was killed (and being hand-me-down generic 'City-Admin wants stuff dead and is paying us to pay you if you kill them' is an awful reasoning for not caring). Perhaps give every faction it's own series of dungeons, and that you can take missions to earn cash by killing the stuff that's in their own faction-hq dungeons - payment for each and every kill until the timer on the mission gives out (no limit on number of kills), giving fac symp for every X kills, dependant on level of mission.
Some easier way to cross the wastelands - More Genreps in anarchy zones around the map; More ASGs, I guess.
Lots of Yo's vendors in Pepper Park, none in Via Rosso. It'd just make more sense.
No LE. Within certain confines, I can see them being of some use - inside the city, and only preventing other LE users from shooting you, and you shooting them - then fine. That's pretty tight confines - better to bin it.
Reworked Psi. I gave a proposition on the matter before, but most people didn't seem to see it from my PoV. *shrug*. But whatever it is that needs to be done - it needs to be done.
Have armour cut a % off your runspeed - each piece is different - getting heavier up the TLs, but make STR reduce it's effects slightly (but only slightly). This is on top of any carry-weight contribution. Make it so you do have a better-resists vs speed-reduction decision.
Make all armour visible. Make more variety in the player-models (skins). Give people individuality.
Remove first-access rights. Frigging mystic forces affecting the game-play. If you don't have the ability to protect your kill from someone - you probably didn't deserve it.
I should point out - I hate game-imposed gimping. The safe-zones, the LE, soullight, first access rights. Not seriously explainable inside of the game, just things imposed for the sake of dealing with an issue. Half the time, there is a much better way of doing it as part of the game. Atmosphere. Mood. Roleplay.
Erm.
I got carried away.
Ah well - that's what I'd like to see happen. Hopefully my typing hasn't been too bad, and the sentences actually follow.
Er, whatever - thing submitted just for consideration.
The other day, someone walked up behind me and started shooting at me in PP1 (there was no one about when I happened through). It was the first time someone had randomly attacked me in months. My response was to run. I didn't think about it, I just reacted.
Why?
Because it was a reaction ingrained into me during the first few months of playing Neocron. Going around without an LE in meant people shot at you. It didn't matter if you were too low level to drop anything particularly good (and 9/10, I dropped a medkit for their troubles), but it happened anyway - unless you were particularly good at running or hiding.
I died a lot to random gankings. Sometimes I lost my 3 slot TAR, or whatever.
It was dark.
It was dangerous.
It was atmospheric.
It was deadly.
It was thrilling.
It was cyber-punk.
It was fun.
It didn't really matter - I could always get another gun. I could look forward to getting to a level where I wouldn't have to run - where I could turn around, and open fire with the chance to actually win.
With lower consequences to death (easily replacable stuff), the added thrill of watching over your back for some low life coming at you without warning made the game so much more moody.
But.
At the top end, players were bored. The only thing to do was run around killing people - either randomly, or in a more organised fashion (Ops; duelling; etc.).
They called out for high end content. They called out for the need for teamwork. They called out for harder mobs - for more of a challenge. They called out for rares to be rarer.
But with rares becoming rarer, and mobs becoming more of a challenge, the input to the rares available would dry up.
And so people who cared more about their nice rare weapon gained Safe Slot One and hackbelts.
Anti-PK nerf happens as those who decide to remove their LE chip demand protection against ganking anyway.
Hmm, well. I would like to give you a list. My list. You could call it 'Why I'm looking forward to Neptune' list, or 'What I feel is wrong with the game' list. Maybe 'When I earn enough cash from playing drug dealers at poker, I'm going to steal one of thir guns, walk upto MJS, and force him implement unless he wants to lose his manhood' list.
Whatever.
I'd call it my 'neocron wishlist'. It seems to fit best for me.
No soullight. An idea of good and evil in a post-apocalyptic cyber-punk world jars too heavily for me. It's effects are just . . . urgh. Copbots have a built-in 'seek-evil' chip? The evil drop more when they die? It's ridiculous. Yes, there should be consequences for random murder, etc. But please - soullight is a bad idea and retarded in implementation.
No safezones. If it's a safezone because anyone drawing a weapon is shot dead, then cool. If it's because of some bizarre eery field that means you can't even raise your fist unless it's gloved or wielding a tool, then it's not cool.
No Safe Slot One. With adjustments noted below for an increase in rares input, just use the drop for the belt can be any of the ten most valuable items on you. Also, give belts a first-access rights type system, whereby the person killed, is the one with first-access rights (no-hacking required), and that the belt becomes hackable to everyone at a random level maybe determined in part by the deceased's hack-skill. No soullight, so only one item drops regardless.
Redefined weapon curve. The disparage between shop-bought and rare-weapons is too enormous. A suggestion is to either add another weapon of each type between top-shop bought and rare-version, which is not available in the shops (drop only), but can be BPed, and requires WP 9 and/or 10. Or, make the top shop-bought of each weapon type drop only, and up it's power to closer to the rare's, and give the lower one some boost too.
Make it sensible about which Implants are available in the shops, and which ones aren't. Make *all* level 1 imps available in the shops - they are only used by levelling people (except some hearts) - where it's normally quicker to level up the next stat/skill point than try and get the imp. Make level 2s high number drop from mobs, and level 3s slightly rarer. The exceptions (those that would be sold in the shops upto level 3) would be Str Boosters; Dex Boosters; Neural Advancements; Motoric's; Psi-Memory's; the upcoming +Str brain imps (equivalent to motorics, etc, but for +Str); and the upcoming Psi-Booster imps (+Psi/-Int backbones equivalnet to Dex-Booster).
Other added imps would be the missed Heavy-Combateyes; and possibly something like 'Artillery chips' - +1/2/3 Str, +5/10/15 H-C, +3/5/8 T-C, +3/5/8 WEP, -1/2/3 Dex, -5/10/15 Agl.
Increased emphasis on Faction Sympathies, with more visible effects. Make the Sympathies more important than the overall faction-to-faction relationship (allied/neutral/hostile).
Revised mob loot to include more usable and valuable items - weapons, armour, etc than junk are dropped, that you don't get automatic money for killing mobs (this is just stupid) - that the loot is increased to be of a value equal to what it would have been given automatically before. That your available load is increased (and affected contiguously by transport). Make loot /interesting/.
Revise Quick-kill and similar kill-mob Missions to make sense. That factions /care/ where the mob was killed (and being hand-me-down generic 'City-Admin wants stuff dead and is paying us to pay you if you kill them' is an awful reasoning for not caring). Perhaps give every faction it's own series of dungeons, and that you can take missions to earn cash by killing the stuff that's in their own faction-hq dungeons - payment for each and every kill until the timer on the mission gives out (no limit on number of kills), giving fac symp for every X kills, dependant on level of mission.
Some easier way to cross the wastelands - More Genreps in anarchy zones around the map; More ASGs, I guess.
Lots of Yo's vendors in Pepper Park, none in Via Rosso. It'd just make more sense.
No LE. Within certain confines, I can see them being of some use - inside the city, and only preventing other LE users from shooting you, and you shooting them - then fine. That's pretty tight confines - better to bin it.
Reworked Psi. I gave a proposition on the matter before, but most people didn't seem to see it from my PoV. *shrug*. But whatever it is that needs to be done - it needs to be done.
Have armour cut a % off your runspeed - each piece is different - getting heavier up the TLs, but make STR reduce it's effects slightly (but only slightly). This is on top of any carry-weight contribution. Make it so you do have a better-resists vs speed-reduction decision.
Make all armour visible. Make more variety in the player-models (skins). Give people individuality.
Remove first-access rights. Frigging mystic forces affecting the game-play. If you don't have the ability to protect your kill from someone - you probably didn't deserve it.
I should point out - I hate game-imposed gimping. The safe-zones, the LE, soullight, first access rights. Not seriously explainable inside of the game, just things imposed for the sake of dealing with an issue. Half the time, there is a much better way of doing it as part of the game. Atmosphere. Mood. Roleplay.
Erm.
I got carried away.
Ah well - that's what I'd like to see happen. Hopefully my typing hasn't been too bad, and the sentences actually follow.
Er, whatever - thing submitted just for consideration.