|
Post by Tsolanth on Feb 18, 2012 11:33:58 GMT -5
As I understand it, the idea has always been that the wages paid by the team and the gangs and Kast Corp for that matter covered rent, food, and those types of daily expenses, but didn't really contribute to outfitting beyond the basics.
|
|
Albel
Thunder Force
Carefree Confusion
Posts: 27
|
Post by Albel on Feb 18, 2012 16:47:24 GMT -5
Rent, we actually have to pay that? I've always figured that since Thunderforce was founded by the GTC, our headquarters was provided by them, and that this was a similar case with the other official Teams. Food, I can see how that would be caught into it, but again, it's less RP-related and more topic-related. Like I said earlier, our chars can buy stuff from vendors or shops in a thread and it's not gonna be deducted from our wallets. What's to say that the same can't be applied to just visiting the grocery store? I also distinctly remember one time when Kaze pulled out a random grenade as part of a joke or prank (long-ass time ago), his yen wasn't deducted for that grenade. Then again, it was also taken from him by another Thunderforce member and disposed of before anything came of it, if I recall correctly. Daily expenses. Again, revisiting the possibility that the GTC is the one who provided our headquarters, I doubt that we're being charged directly for such things.
|
|
|
Post by Tsolanth on Feb 18, 2012 18:17:51 GMT -5
The general understanding is that whatever a character's day to day expenses are, those things are covered in their 'wages' from whatever faction they're associated with and if you'd like to upgrade yourself, or acquire objects that can do damage to other players, those things must be paid for from your 'bonuses,' ie. at the end of quests and what you steal or confiscate.
|
|
Albel
Thunder Force
Carefree Confusion
Posts: 27
|
Post by Albel on Feb 18, 2012 19:23:28 GMT -5
A general understanding that can be quickly shattered by a character that is unaffiliated with a Team, Gang, or Kast Korp and has no known way of getting such funds, yet has probably had a part of many an SQ or MQ and has gained powerful toys with which to play. Are we to assume that this theoretical character has rummaged through an armor shop to find a piece of their Power Armour collection that the absent-minded clerk accidentally threw out with a pair of his brand-spanking-new shoes? There probably was once a character like that at one time, not the point.
The point is that, regardless of what side gets how much money, through whatever manner available, our system works as is and with a few adjustments can be even better. I agree with you about how Zandra's effort probably equaled up to a much more generous reward, but to ensure that fairness and order is kept, there is must be a cap to how much one can earn doing what kind of job, be it Side-Quest or Main Quest. Zandra did a damn good job, and she deserves more for her effort, but we're also trying to keep things to a certain balance that works as well as tell the stories of our many characters throughout their survival and existences while civilization tries to rebuild itself and a new threat comes to be. If we let things run rampant, then people would be grabbing the most powerful gear mere hours after their characters have been submitted and accepted. And we can't have new people just, all of a sudden, becoming awesome badasses that can quickly kill off our well-known and established-through-long-time-and-effort veterans. All of a sudden we'll have an entire army slaughtering the big bads of these story arcs, and things just don't work without BOTH time and effort. While I respect newbies (not n00bs, that's the bad kind), I believe they will still lack in the area of "time" while they put forth an unending multitude of effort.
However, in times like these, where people are just trying to pick up the pieces of their beloved hang out we all call SDEZ, we must also restart. Zandra put forth her effort and time, and she got something out of it, not what she deserved, but what we could provide as a system that tries to provide a basis for people to work upon. Kaze provided us with new things to power up our characters with, which means they must be worked into the balance or omitted entirely. He also got a reward that we could provide, in this case, probably exactly what he deserved seeing as how it's not thirteen pages, or graded on a system of 1~5 in grammar and other elements. But graded more on "hey, he took the initiative and he did/expanded on something we can work with."
|
|
|
Post by Beowulf Keyes on Feb 18, 2012 22:20:59 GMT -5
Absolutely. Thank you Albel, for putting it so succinctly.
|
|
|
Post by Tsolanth on Feb 19, 2012 6:59:06 GMT -5
Alright, here's my basic point. I'm using Zandra's side quest as a scale with which to gauge the pacing of the game. The old SDEZ was a fast paced game with a low limit such that with 3-6 months of consistent activity, you could have a strong, well-outfitted character. That type of game requires the administration to constantly make new and more interesting items for the higher level players to pursue. On the other hand, using Zandra's side quest as a scale, the current system is much more slow, such that to achieve the same level of capability as would be possible in 3-6 months in SDEZ iteration 1 would take 9 months to a year here. I used the example of the new items because to write a side quest to get enough money for those would take, at the pace she wrote, almost seven years. My objection is to that pacing. By my understanding, Beowulf's intention is to have leveling progress at about 300% the rate of side quests in training, and for a 3-500% rate increase in income in the main story.
As for balance, there are two types of balance you might wish to attain; balance within the system and balance among the players. I hope you mean balance within the system, because that's the type of balance you should be after. That prevents people from breaking the game, and prevents certain avenues of development from being significantly more desirable than others, such that people pursue them for the benefit rather than the adventure. Balance among the players is what is achieved by a slow paced game. Basically, in a system with a low rate of attrition, players who are more active and more skilled don't accumulate significant advantages over players who are less active and less skilled except over large periods of time. It protects the newbies and the lazy at the low, low cost of the effort and frustration of the most active players.
Now, with regards to wages. In order to rob banks, gang members must commit to writing that. If the offset for the teams is a periodic gift of yenko, then the teams are being rewarded for zero effort whereas to achieve the same reward, gangs must be active. Thus is balance among the players achieved at the cost of balance within the system. It then makes sense to become a team member, suck up your income, and if you write as much as the gangs you end up with more yenko.
Now, in my opinion Kaze's reward is quite appropriate and his contribution interesting and valuable. Zandra's is appropriate if that is the desired pacing for the game. If that is the desired pacing for the game, then by the time someone outfits themselves with the most expensive power armor and weapon, they will be too busy fending off the rise of our robot overlords to make the purchasing post. Conversely, if the pacing of the game is increased, then in six months everyone is running around with the Master Chief's armor on and rocket launchers blasting the imaginary architecture of Osaka to smoldering rubble and the ever industrious Kaze makes more cool toys and we work and buy those a few months later and then we're slapping each other around with the Great and Holy Cod of Destiny or whatever he comes up with and a good time is had by all.
|
|