03-17-2011, 08:47 PM
let's just face it: there aren't enough players to support the traditional model of greening in chaos anymore. starting with 0 or 30 or even 50 bounty was fine when there were 30-100 players in the arena and you had teams of up to 7 helping you green and getting you ready to fight. there was action enough for everybody in those days, whether they wanted to green or not - and what's important is that the promise of that action meant players were willing to green up and make it a little more high-stakes when they did make it to the fight.
forcing players to green was fine when there were *always* other pilots in; that's simply not the case anymore. a substantial portion of the time, the zone is empty. THIS IS A TERRIBLE THING. when there are no other pilots in the zone, or only 1 or 2, the fact that you have to spend 2-4 minutes greening up before you can fight on an even keel is a huge barrier to entry for most people.
we want to ENCOURAGE people to unspec. making them green up before they can fight DISCOURAGES THEM from doing so. worse, it discourages them from dying. this leads, eventually, to the kind of play that drives most league players away from chaos pub in disgust. you guys know who i'm talking about.
* IT'S NOT CHAOS PUB WITHOUT GREENING. okay - i accept that. but chaos pub, to make sense, always depended on a bigger population of players than it has now. we need some sort of hybrid - a zone where greening is still a part of play, but one that also immediately encourages players to unspec and jump in the action right away.
we can have this zone. start players with a full ship - full energy, full weapons, full ?status. those who want the traditional chaos flavor (mine repping, lobbing blueberries from afar and repping anybody who comes close) can green for their specials - for reps, bursts, bricks, whatever. you can even make people green for antiwarp, stealth, x-radar, and cloak. but don't make people green just to be able to play - you can't afford it anymore.
please, chime in. we need a discussion.
forcing players to green was fine when there were *always* other pilots in; that's simply not the case anymore. a substantial portion of the time, the zone is empty. THIS IS A TERRIBLE THING. when there are no other pilots in the zone, or only 1 or 2, the fact that you have to spend 2-4 minutes greening up before you can fight on an even keel is a huge barrier to entry for most people.
we want to ENCOURAGE people to unspec. making them green up before they can fight DISCOURAGES THEM from doing so. worse, it discourages them from dying. this leads, eventually, to the kind of play that drives most league players away from chaos pub in disgust. you guys know who i'm talking about.
* IT'S NOT CHAOS PUB WITHOUT GREENING. okay - i accept that. but chaos pub, to make sense, always depended on a bigger population of players than it has now. we need some sort of hybrid - a zone where greening is still a part of play, but one that also immediately encourages players to unspec and jump in the action right away.
we can have this zone. start players with a full ship - full energy, full weapons, full ?status. those who want the traditional chaos flavor (mine repping, lobbing blueberries from afar and repping anybody who comes close) can green for their specials - for reps, bursts, bricks, whatever. you can even make people green for antiwarp, stealth, x-radar, and cloak. but don't make people green just to be able to play - you can't afford it anymore.
please, chime in. we need a discussion.