Careful dude. He was in beta!
You missed my point completely thread starter.
My original profile was FlashFF so I joined the forum in September 2002 and the game at the same time. I don't really remember version numbers, it's not something I paid attention to back then.
Yes, I'm aware that Plaza 1 being a non-safe zone was less than fun.
William, I think you are missing my point to be fair.
Ill break it down as best I can:
What I want is VARIETY. I'm not asking them to break plaza 1, I just don't want to have to always go to Plaza 1 to do anything. It's boring as hell to never have to go anywhere else. People just jump back and forth from Plaza 1 to one of the 4 levelling areas... Sigh.
The reasons I think TH will be a good place to open up to potential traders are:
1. TH is currently unused, so it will not affect any existing players to make it safe
2. It has a good spot which has been tried and tested as a trade area and works.
3. It's the home of the tradeskill faction so it makes RP sense
4. It's far enough away from NC to make it a good spot to spread to and give people a reason to travel there.
5. It's a good spot in the world map and it's between MB and NC and close to reagants with an ASG outside.
I understand if you disagree and that's fair, however you will never change my mind, so stop trying, expecting me to suddenly say "You're right! I retract my opinion" as that's never going to happen.
I love NC and I want it to be a game that everyone can love again, but as it stands currently its not very fun to play. A huge portion of the players have their LEs in. There's few active clans, with no real RP or politics going on between them, and the economy is destroyed. Basically at the moment everyones just playing to quickly grind up to close to cap, then either pvp or just gather masses and masses of techs and cash.
I loved TH and used to run a trade clan there. I want the chance to do that again. AS it currently stands there's no RP reason for me to make a clan to do this as I'll just be standing around in P1 surrounded by enemies.
Last edited by Lucas Kell; 01-03-13 at 11:52.
I wouldnt dream of changing anyones opinion. I love a good discussion and I love reading passionate posts about something that people feel strongly about.
I have thought about your idea some more today and honestly I could see it working in the future. However for that to happen the game would need to have double the server pops constantly. If p1 got so crowded as to make it impossible to be there then the natural claustrophobia would push people out to other places. Possibly TH.
Many years ago I posted a similar idea - to give HQs a bonus to tradeskilling but it was shouted down as it would split the population and make the game look empty. Fair point.
However what you are asking for in the bigger picture is not just the safe zone being implemented in your beloved HQ but you are asking the player base to change its mentality. Hypothetically lets just say you get your wish and the powers that be do grant you the request.
The Fallen Angels faction would need to be huge (lots of tradeskillers online around the clock) to make it work. The pro city tradeskillers (those who are not in clans and work for tips) would naturally gravitate towards P1. The FA guys would all love to go back to TH as they have said down the years.
The anti-FA (TT etc) would still stick with Plaza 1 also.
The noobs who are actually new would have a choice.... walk 4 zones to tag a gr where there may or may not be a tradeskiller online - yes they can GR there next time around but they might not know that. OR they can go to p1 where they can get all manner of tradeskills for the same price without the GR cost. They can spend that money on a tip for the tradeskiller.
Higher level players will either have their own tradeskillers (in which case their apts are in NC and they probably log out in NC) and they will ALL have the p1 grs marked. If their alts are in p1 then they will go to P1 also to swap stuff. The ones in a clan will all use their clans tradeskillers - I know my clan does bar the odd exception when one is not logged in. We even use our own pokers before asking for one outside of that.
So essentially what you are asking for is an extension of a zone (the FA hq) that noone uses already. Why would they put in a 2nd zone when the first one is not used?
So yeah you want another cool place to hang out but there will probably only be a few of you there and you are all die hard FA guys. The faction just is not big enough to support this change.
If FA was the dominant force on the server and EVERYONE wanted to go there then it might work but as it is there is no valid, viable reason to go there over p1 and I do not think that changing ANY OTHER zone in TH to be a safezone is going to change this.
There just is not the benefit. Even from an RP perspective. You can see this for yourself, any splitting of the community will lead people to favour the simplest quickest option. You can try this out and prove me wrong if you like. Go to the FA hq and tradeskill for one week and tell me how many people actually come to you instead of going to P1 and then tell me what faction they were.
People are inherently lazy if they can be. Even digital people are. The quickest and most convenient route to solving their problem is always the most favourable. I would be willing to bet real money that over 3/4 of the people who reply to you if you offer tradeskilling in TH would say "nah its ok I will try P1" or words to that effect.
That is the reason why I do not think your idea is worth doing.
Understandable, and I fully agree it's not going to suddenly become a popular place, but I know there would be at least a few of us there, and we can start getting at least one clan in there to get started. Once there are a reasonable amount of traders there however, coming from the usual places people are levelling and farming, NC will be no more convenient than TH. Doing the groundwork before the population increases can't hurt though and as far as I'm aware this is not a tough change that needs to be heavily developed, its a flag on the map.
It's not really an extension of the HQ however. the HQ would be good to use, but if you haven't been there before its a bit out of the way, and if you are not friendly with FA, you'd never make it. Much like NC, TH 1, 2 and 3 should be open to all, but all HQs should not allow enemies.
I'm sure you're right, most people will prefer to stick to NC1 to trade, but a change like this wouldn't have any negative effects and for me to get people there would require me to make them better deals, and perhaps we can get a bit of real competition going in trade
That is my point exactly... if you are not friendly to FA...
P1 is friendly to all, as it should be. Easily accessible, thoughtfully designed and modern. It has everything that everyone needs. I suggest trying out your idea for a month and then coming back and detailing us with your experiences.
Well yeah, but TH 2 should be open to all too. The HQ however shouldn't, so using that is out of the question. Much like using CA HQ is out of the question as many people would get shot to death in there too.
I'd be happy to trial run the idea, but for that to happen it would still need to be a secure zone
Without that, the issue is always going to be that non-LE runners will not take non-locked slot high value items into a combat zone.
Well and they really should be shot to death in Sector 2 too. At least one entrance is protected with warning shots, the other one although is undefended.
The same way known terrorists should be killed on sight in Plaza 1. Tech Haven is not a safe plaze to be, thats why there are Angel Runners, because there are people out there that would really like to harm them. Crahn, Tangent and Black Dragon if you want to name them. Thats not half the population though, just to mention it. To populate Tech Haven you need players start there, decent leveling possibilities for the low ones and a few shops. If that doesn't help after a while, then maybe a safezone can be brought up again (although In guess i would still be against it).
I just wish they would bring the Security Bots back to Sector 2, but I think they were to buggy in that sector to really work.
I may not agree
with what you have to say,
but I'll defend to the death
your right to say it!
- Voltaire
In the same way though, how come TG can freely walk around in Plaza 1 when they are supposedly the main enemy of the city. - It's because regardless of faction, it's a tough world and there's a need for trade, so there are areas that people are freely allowed to go and trade as long as they don't start anything. HQs are not that place however.
A lot of work needs to be done to TH to bring it up to speed with the rest of the game world, but this idea is a way to get this started without anything new being developed.
While I was a fan of TH being a trade hub (as it made more sense than plaza 1 to me - even though plaza 1 still saw a fair bit of trade when TH was THE trade hub) i think life should be given to the area. Having fallen angel runners start there would be a good start, tweaking the dungeons there so it's a viable alternative to cyclops/aggressors might be good too because if i remember correctly last time I checked out the cores or w/e they were called the levels of the mobs there varied greatly with level 2 being ridiculously easy while level 3 would instant gib you.