Hello Frontier! I really like the faction tracking tools you provide squadrons. I even created my own squadron for the sole purpose of tracking a faction I was working for. However, this prevents me from being a member of an actual squadron, and it feels a bit overkill for accessing this one specific feature.
What I propose is the ability for a player to pick a single faction to support, giving us these same tools for tracking that faction that squadrons have. You already have all the pieces in the game - the ability to pick a faction is there in the squadron creation UI, as is the ability to quickly see the state of that faction in any system. Note that I'm not asking these features to be moved from squadrons to single players, but rather mirrored, as players like myself will often support a single faction for a few weeks and then move on to another sector of space. This is particularly useful for those of us who support superpowers first, using factions as "pawns" in a bigger game of galactic Othello.
In response to the two arguments I'm expecting - yes, I know I can just create and disband a one-man squadron to do this now. My main problem with this isn't the cost (though it does get expensive), but rather that this prevents me from joining an actual player squadron. It should be possible to be aligned with a player squadron while also being free to pursue my own goals. The second argument is to just use 3rd party tools, but I much prefer using tools that are already in the game, both from an ease-of-use and data-reliability standpoint. Like I said, these tools are already in the game, so it would be nice to copy-n-paste them into a simple new UI as described above.
It would also be cool to go the final step and add our faction allegiance to our ship's scan data, just like NPCs have. There's lots of discussion of BGS in Open and the ability to protect one's own faction against other players, and such a pledge tag could help with this, as it lets us see who our enemies and our allies are.
Anyway, just something to think over. Hey Will, this isn't even constructive criticism, it's constructive PRAISE, as I really do like these tools and want even more access to them
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What I propose is the ability for a player to pick a single faction to support, giving us these same tools for tracking that faction that squadrons have. You already have all the pieces in the game - the ability to pick a faction is there in the squadron creation UI, as is the ability to quickly see the state of that faction in any system. Note that I'm not asking these features to be moved from squadrons to single players, but rather mirrored, as players like myself will often support a single faction for a few weeks and then move on to another sector of space. This is particularly useful for those of us who support superpowers first, using factions as "pawns" in a bigger game of galactic Othello.
In response to the two arguments I'm expecting - yes, I know I can just create and disband a one-man squadron to do this now. My main problem with this isn't the cost (though it does get expensive), but rather that this prevents me from joining an actual player squadron. It should be possible to be aligned with a player squadron while also being free to pursue my own goals. The second argument is to just use 3rd party tools, but I much prefer using tools that are already in the game, both from an ease-of-use and data-reliability standpoint. Like I said, these tools are already in the game, so it would be nice to copy-n-paste them into a simple new UI as described above.
It would also be cool to go the final step and add our faction allegiance to our ship's scan data, just like NPCs have. There's lots of discussion of BGS in Open and the ability to protect one's own faction against other players, and such a pledge tag could help with this, as it lets us see who our enemies and our allies are.
Anyway, just something to think over. Hey Will, this isn't even constructive criticism, it's constructive PRAISE, as I really do like these tools and want even more access to them
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