Factions

[Brok Ironfist]

Okay a couple of thoughts on factions. 

  -- Membership --

           1. It would be nice to see who else belongs to the same faction and their current rank.

  -- Ranks --

          1.  Ranks are cool and all, but I think they should add a bit more to the hacker who achieves them.
                 --  For each rank you have attained you are paid a retainer of 100 HPD per day.
                      It's the Mega-corps way of encouraging that hacker to stay with them and to help out their goals.
                      -- Thus a Rank 10 player would make 1,000 per day.
                 --  The reasoning behind this is
                            to encourage players to rise through the ranks and to give a penalty for changing factions. 
                      The higher your level the more the hacker is paid and you would loose that pay from switching factions. 
                      It would help out the lower level players and encourage them to achieve higher ranks. 
                      In addition it would be a nice benefit to the upper level players without getting out of hand.

         2.  Higher level titles may be limited to a certain number of hackers.

  -- Servers --

        1.  While you work your way through the ranks and have shown your loyalty to the faction they will start assigning server(s) to you.  These servers become your responsibility to protect and nuture. 
                  a.  For every five ranks the hacker is put in charge of another server or moved to a bigger server.
                             1.  Only one hacker is assigned per server.
                             2.  In addition, If they get outranked and there are no more servers available the lower ranked hacker will loose his server.
                  b.  Special missions just for the hacker who is in charge of the server are now available.
                             1.  Disinfects for his server(s)
                                         -- Special disinfect missions are available for the hacker. 
                                         -- These missions gain faction standing as well.
                                 a.  Hackers are also penalized for virii installed on their server.  A certain percentage of the income lost to the faction is is deducted from his retainer fee.  Penalty can not reduce the fee below zero.
                             2.  Special Research missions
                                         -- Research on Faction servers are unstoppable but progress at a much slower rate 1/5 normal.
                                         -- Research must be done on Faction specialty programs.
                             3.  Hardware upgrade missions
                                         -- 5x more expensive to upgrade server.
                                         -- Hardware installations take time and money to complete.
         
                   
  -- Server Names --

                1.  While this could be more of a cosmetic item.  I would like to see more variety in server names and types.   The same name plastered to every single Secret server just annoys me.  The same goes with unlisted servers.
                         a.  Server Types
                                  1.  Main HQ server
                                         a.  The biggest and baddest computer run by the faction. 
                                         b.  Only the most powerful hacker is put in charge of this machine. 
                                         c.   In addition the hacker must be of a certain minimum rank.
                                  2.  Regional branch
                                         a.   Larger server in charge of a geographic region
                                               1.  North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Russia
                                         b.   Mid level hacker minimum rank required.
                                 3.   Principal branches
                                         a.   Mid range servers that represent larger metropolitan areas.
                                               1.  Europe Region could have
                                                          - Paris, London, Madrid, Rome
                                               2.  North America region could have
                                                          - New York, Chicago, Montreal, Dallas
                                         b.   Lower level hackers
                                 4.   Minor branches (public Servers)
                                         a.   Smallest servers representing smaller cities and reporting to principal branches.
                                               1.  New York could have;
                                                         - Jersey City, Newark, Yonkers
                                         b.   Newbie hackers

 

[Exousia]

         2.  Higher level titles may be limited to a certain number of hackers.

Or Gold members? I play another game which reserves the highest rank and its privileges for paying players. Of course, if this would make Gold members too powerful, I'd scrap that idea. lol


Overall, I see potential. I'm always in favor of fleshing things out and giving the game more depth. The stipend with responsibility concept is also interesting, but how do you feel about allowing "less active" players to choose to pass on the stipend and the responsibility and go "freelance" or "consultant" instead? This will free up servers for those who actually want to play that part of the game. Going back to the active roster would put one on a waiting list for a position to "open up" if they choose to drop "freelance" status. Of course, priority would go to higher ranks and then first-come-first-serve.

[Brok Ironfist]

Or Gold members? I play another game which reserves the highest rank and its privileges for paying players. Of course, if this would make Gold members too powerful, I'd scrap that idea. lol

Honestly, I'd prefer to not exclude the non-gold members.  If they manage to reach the maximum rank then all the power to them.  Gold members already get quite a bit more benefits over the non-gold members.

The stipend with responsibility concept is also interesting, but how do you feel about allowing "less active" players to choose to pass on the stipend and the responsibility and go "freelance" or "consultant" instead? This will free up servers for those who actually want to play that part of the game. Going back to the active roster would put one on a waiting list for a position to "open up" if they choose to drop "freelance" status. Of course, priority would go to higher ranks and then first-come-first-serve.

I've got no problem with that idea. 

Of course less active players may be quickly passed up by the other players.  There could also be penalty faction points assigned to the player if they fail to keep their server clean on top of the HPD loss perhaps something like one percent of the HPD lost... or not...

[Exousia]

Or Gold members? I play another game which reserves the highest rank and its privileges for paying players. Of course, if this would make Gold members too powerful, I'd scrap that idea. lol

Honestly, I'd prefer to not exclude the non-gold members.  If they manage to reach the maximum rank then all the power to them.  Gold members already get quite a bit more benefits over the non-gold members.

Kewl. I just thought maybe that's what you were leading up to.