OMG the Illuminati, Mongol hordes and Gangstas are here too! :0
How FD can fend off a hypothetical goon takeover (or even a real one)
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OMG the Illuminati, Mongol hordes and Gangstas are here too! :0
To be fair, their news site actually has some really good coverage of Elite, and Impression articles on the specific ships are pretty good. I haven't actually seen any of the articles themselves say anything bad about Elite.
Hi Ho, Goon Commander Kermit Laphroaig here AMA
Oh, Hi ho! Kermit Laphroaig, crack pilot, trailblazer, coffee drinker here. I usually work for the Frog Corporation out of the Frog system (hallowed be thy name) but lately, I have been working for "Goonfleet" as a scout and field commander.
I guess you could call me a Goon Commander. Now, I know some of you think that means I eat babies, and I do, but only in moderation and in anarchy systems, so prove it in court.
Anyway, there seems to be many misconceptions of what Goons are doing in this game. First, allow me to assure you there is much Goon interest, or Goontrest, to be had in Elite Dangerous, and that other one with the ships made of money whose name escapes me.
I would first like to thank the thoughtful posters here who thought this game is too difficult or just needs too much skill for a Goon to play. I am pretty good at Super Mario Bros, which is also a video game like Eve Online and ED. I can do the infinite 1-up trick with that koopa shell, so I think we can safely put that whole 'skill' rumor to rest.
As for blockades and ruining fun, we have a very strict quota we usually have to fill by the end of each month, so if it seemed like we were oppressing you more often than usual last week, sorry. There's only 160,000 inhabited systems we know of, and blockading all of them at once is taxing. Rest assured if you are interdicted by a player, for whatever reason, it was most likely a Goon just trying to make ends meet. Stop oppressing us.
I have a few more things on the whole politics of flipping station allegiances and such, but because I could use a good laugh I will answer some questions first.
So go on, ask your ol' pal Kermit anything.
Oh, Hi ho! Kermit Laphroaig, crack pilot, trailblazer, coffee drinker here. I usually work for the Frog Corporation out of the Frog system (hallowed be thy name) but lately, I have been working for "Goonfleet" as a scout and field commander.
I guess you could call me a Goon Commander. Now, I know some of you think that means I eat babies, and I do, but only in moderation and in anarchy systems, so prove it in court.
Anyway, there seems to be many misconceptions of what Goons are doing in this game. First, allow me to assure you there is much Goon interest, or Goontrest, to be had in Elite Dangerous, and that other one with the ships made of money whose name escapes me.
I would first like to thank the thoughtful posters here who thought this game is too difficult or just needs too much skill for a Goon to play. I am pretty good at Super Mario Bros, which is also a video game like Eve Online and ED. I can do the infinite 1-up trick with that koopa shell, so I think we can safely put that whole 'skill' rumor to rest.
As for blockades and ruining fun, we have a very strict quota we usually have to fill by the end of each month, so if it seemed like we were oppressing you more often than usual last week, sorry. There's only 160,000 inhabited systems we know of, and blockading all of them at once is taxing. Rest assured if you are interdicted by a player, for whatever reason, it was most likely a Goon just trying to make ends meet. Stop oppressing us.
I have a few more things on the whole politics of flipping station allegiances and such, but because I could use a good laugh I will answer some questions first.
So go on, ask your ol' pal Kermit anything.
I'd agree with the OP something needs to be done. Here's my suggestions.
Good guy/Bad guy alignments.
Increase good guy alignment by killing any other ship in a conflict zones.
Increase bad guy alignment by only killing player ships that are clean.
Working on a scale of 100 to -100 with 0 being the starting point.
If you go above 50 you get a small bonus to conflict kill credits.
If you reach 100 you get offered special player based bounty hunting missions from the bulletin boards.
If you drop below -50 you become permanently wanted.
If you reach -100 special player based bounty hunting missions start to be offered to players with 100 good guy rep from the bulletin for your head.
This would stop groups of murders killing each other to claim the the special bounty hunting mission rewards.
Feel free to add or expand on this idea.
Good guy/Bad guy alignments.
Increase good guy alignment by killing any other ship in a conflict zones.
Increase bad guy alignment by only killing player ships that are clean.
Working on a scale of 100 to -100 with 0 being the starting point.
If you go above 50 you get a small bonus to conflict kill credits.
If you reach 100 you get offered special player based bounty hunting missions from the bulletin boards.
If you drop below -50 you become permanently wanted.
If you reach -100 special player based bounty hunting missions start to be offered to players with 100 good guy rep from the bulletin for your head.
This would stop groups of murders killing each other to claim the the special bounty hunting mission rewards.
Feel free to add or expand on this idea.
This is great. +1.
*cough* Oh ya questions.
Is it true goon members demand your children as payment for food then kill you anyway?
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Kermit,
Why did you poison the Emperor?
Are you really a Frog?
What are your nefarious plans? Are they devious?
In light of the post after yours, are you a good guy or a bad guy? Please place yourself on a scale of 100 to -100. I assume all goons are the same?
Why did you poison the Emperor?
Are you really a Frog?
What are your nefarious plans? Are they devious?
In light of the post after yours, are you a good guy or a bad guy? Please place yourself on a scale of 100 to -100. I assume all goons are the same?
People are killing in the starter systems, wiping their account then repeating with their Freagle? There are ways that FD could easily nip this without affecting game play.
I've never been to Lave. It's a big galaxy.
- 48 hour cool down between wipes or a graduated cool down. First wipe-1 hr, second-24hrs, third-48hrs. Problem solved. They will get bored and stop.
- True random spawning across a broader area. 1000ly maybe. Problem solved. They will get bored and stop.
I've never been to Lave. It's a big galaxy.
vonvonbraun
Banned
I agree an harsher bounty for player killing a clean should be a nice deterrent. Once you killed many you will think twice
Awww man goons always ruin the fun or have the most fun not sure... (TEST or inactive TEST pilot here)
(mod hat off)
You might be interested in The Hero Trap and Elite: Dangerous and What's in a name? A griefer be any other name would smell as sweet (the latter created by me long before I was a mod). Those threads are quite old and things have moved on a bit, but both discussions were really interesting.
If you accept The Hero Trap's premise that running away is a valid style of gameplay, then you have to distinguish between people who enjoy cat-and-mouse gameplay and those who measure their enjoyment of the game by how much enjoyment they can take from other people.
Cat-and-mouse gameplay is just another balance issue for the devs to work through - is it too easy to hide? Is it too easy to seek? Do we reduce the power for X or increase the reward for Y? People will debate this for as long as the game is played, but it's just the way things go.
Zero-sum gameplay is a different issue, and for purposes of this post (mod hat very much off!) I'm going to assume it's not wanted in ED. Others have mentioned solo mode as a solution, which should be pretty easy for the devs to build on. For example, they could search for players who spend at least 75% of their time in open, then find systems where those players have a more than 50% chance of playing solo (i.e. systems that cause players to go solo). Then they could find players who spend most of their time in those systems (i.e. players suspected of causing others to go solo), and tweak the matchmaking algorithm to reduce the probability those suspects were matched with players in weaker ships. Obviously that's a simple example, but hopefully it shows how matchmaking and solo mode could be used to detect and dissuade behaviour that Frontier decided was beyond the pale.
You might be interested in The Hero Trap and Elite: Dangerous and What's in a name? A griefer be any other name would smell as sweet (the latter created by me long before I was a mod). Those threads are quite old and things have moved on a bit, but both discussions were really interesting.
If you accept The Hero Trap's premise that running away is a valid style of gameplay, then you have to distinguish between people who enjoy cat-and-mouse gameplay and those who measure their enjoyment of the game by how much enjoyment they can take from other people.
Cat-and-mouse gameplay is just another balance issue for the devs to work through - is it too easy to hide? Is it too easy to seek? Do we reduce the power for X or increase the reward for Y? People will debate this for as long as the game is played, but it's just the way things go.
Zero-sum gameplay is a different issue, and for purposes of this post (mod hat very much off!) I'm going to assume it's not wanted in ED. Others have mentioned solo mode as a solution, which should be pretty easy for the devs to build on. For example, they could search for players who spend at least 75% of their time in open, then find systems where those players have a more than 50% chance of playing solo (i.e. systems that cause players to go solo). Then they could find players who spend most of their time in those systems (i.e. players suspected of causing others to go solo), and tweak the matchmaking algorithm to reduce the probability those suspects were matched with players in weaker ships. Obviously that's a simple example, but hopefully it shows how matchmaking and solo mode could be used to detect and dissuade behaviour that Frontier decided was beyond the pale.
How does a high bounty hurt me?
Yes, please do this, they dropped the murder bounty down below 5k again and it is taking me FOREVER to get back up to my 200k desired wanted-range. Harsher bounty means more reason to target clean players, so I'm down with that.
Goons can't have children on their own for reasons that should be obvious, so yes to the first part. For the second part, we kill you only if it's hilarious.
Making your ship puke out one ton of newborns isn't a profitable as going after a wanted Python NPC that didn't bother equipping a shield generator, so a lot of the complaints I heard in here so far are people seriously flattering themselves too much.
After negotiations and skirmishes died down, Frogs quietly withdrew to the Frog system, among others, and blended in with you hairless monkey flesh-mammals. It was determined that was cheaper to out-do you in commerce than fight you in open warfare, which is why the Frog Corporation now out ranks the old Frog autocracy. Which sucks, because I was 258th in line for the crown.
My plans are basically to drink, and work enough to afford more booze when I run out.
I rank myself a solid 0 on your loaded scale, because IDGAF heh.
That seems like a lot of trouble for a problem that doesn't even remotely exist. Real goons have like, 20 beta copies of the game already so rerolling is a snap. Goons win again, Crabwich!
This one is true. Actually, the Emperor is not even sick, he just spends all his time trolling newbs under the alias "Lowtax". Perhaps you have even seen him tooling around in his unshielded sidewinder, also NGAF
Spot on.
Very nice. I think the Hero Trap article should be required reading for everyone complaining about being set on by pirates (and all pirates).
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