New "Career" Focus

[xtLanc3r]

Something I've noticed about the ED community is when you meet people we are often quick to state what our roles are. "Oh you're a bounty hunter? Thats awesome. I prefer exploration/running cargo/smuggling.." ect ect. We all have different activities that we enjoy doing or grinding out for money, or rep.

What if Fdev introduced into the game a certain "Career" or "Specialty" mechanic that would unlock special skills as you performed in said pathway. You could accumulate points every new level, or milestone. A milestone could be something like "Deliver a shipment to 10 separate locations." And the next tier can be ".. 20 locations". It would increase overtime but the rewards would also.
Edit: Another idea is to introduce a special type of currency that allows you to visit a unique vendor spread out amongst the galaxy and spend said currency for unique items, or rewards.

Example: You love to run large shipments of cargo great distances for really good money. You dropped a point into "Flight or Fight". This skill could be something along the lines of reduced FSD charge while under attack or something. Or maybe "He Who Dares Wins. As you traverse large distances you gain a multiplier that increases the payout for mission completion, or commodities sold to market.

There could be a very deep skill tree that would allow CMDRs to focus on whatever they enjoy doing. I would even go so far as to make a basic CG for people who haven't decided on a career choice, and have a specific CG for players who have chosen a choice. It would act as an extra incentive to get involved with the galaxy at large and resemble less of a job and more of progress or reward.

Examples of caeers would be bounty hunter, miner, merchant, pathfinder (exploration), Pirate, or even Enlisted (a path favored by people who wish to advance in rank for the Federation, or Empire. The Enlisted career could accept special mission times that have to do with that military life. War games, practice maneuvers, patrols. Maybe even a Rookie mission that sees you hunting down scumbags with a rookie AI pilot following you around.

Its very cookie cutter and not very groundbreaking but many games excell with a skill tree in place.

This would help to fight the "work" vs "play" stigma that is following this game around. Same with the CG.

A reoccurring theme I see and hear about is how the CG feels pointless to many people so they simply dont take part. Which is totally fine and acceptable IMO. But if they could make those people who sit out more inclined to help I think it could go a long way longevity wise.

Sorry for the TL;DR

o7

 

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

I find 'skill points' and other RPG elements to belong strictly in that category.

Not that I dislike them, but Elite is less a game about narrative-enforced 'special skills', and more about the player's ability to balance a ship configuration, make sound judgment calls, and fly smoothly while turning a profit.

Introducing a 'skill tree', or a set of arbitrary stat-alterations based solely on narrative, and not clever player manipulation of their ship loadouts, takes away from the creativity of the players themselves.

Yeah, you can go down a career path that gives you a +5 to fleeing from enemies. But, WHY? When I can arrange a ship kit that gives met he same thing through engineering instead of narrative.


If you introduce career paths, they should operate more logically to what they are.

To begin with, a lot of the game's options would have to default to be more restrictive to non-career pilots, and then pursuing a career path should enhance the opportunities in that path more rapidly.

For example, a career freight transporter gets more and better paying transport missions.

An S.A.R. specialist is more solidly rewarded for escape pod rescues, and might be granted access to specialized search gear. (SAR Scarab?)

Police not only get kill warrant scanner access, but access to a police wanted network and list of tipoffs.

Bounty hunters get similar, but no network while rewards are higher.

A navy combat pilot, meanwhile, is the only player type allowed to enter combat zones. Being a civilian ship in a combat zone would see you chased off, and or yelled at while one side tries to protect you from your own stupidity, while the other capitalizes on your mistake and tries to kill you. (Depends on your stats between the two). And military ships get access to military grade equipment. But the caveat is that you only get rewarded for following your selected faction's politics. Not to mention mechanics that kind of force you to do your duty. (IE: You join, you can't quit without penalty for a fixed amount of time. 'Following Orders' in the form of having to fill a combat quota or some such thing.)

Long and short, don't make a career out of narrative cookie-cutter pushbutton skills. Make each career a narrative of opportunities for the specialist in each player. Give incentives and penalties that encourage a player to stick to a career for a while.


As a disclaimer, my rebuttle is not very deeply thought out. It is only used as an example of ideas.

 

[xtLanc3r]

Hey fair enough.

You have a ton of great ideas. I feel like you have to really love jumping around and running cargo to put up with the level of repetition, and stagnation that ED can fall into. I've found myself running commodities around strictly to get a better ship. As much as I hate it thats the only way to progress.

The passenger transport sounds decent enough but it seems so boring. I just want a little more reason to work harder at something besides simple wealth acquisition.

 

[Daish]

interesting idea I posted something similar with regards working for a employer ingamethis could be like a 9-5 type role play within a role play even to a point of piloting a company ship for X amount something to think about it's about bringing immersion back to the game and taking away grind insteead of adding to it. Lets saty you look at a whole new in station board employment board lets say, multi drop pilots wanted or long distance haulers wanted, to specilist loads all it what you will, but the added possible bonus is here is the ship type you'd be flying? as all your looking for is credits maybe some risk if the ship gets damaged not unlike in the real world you get fine or lose credits for damage or lost cargo bring the ship back or even one way drop off where ever pick up a new job and off you go again this could be a chained company work event so start off at one location one way trip get to the other side you have option to return back with another delivery job, something worth thinking about could be fun plus would give Elite a new bounce of life, but it must payout good (Frontier) as we know you always give out bad payouts latey !

 

[MBaldelli]

I like the thought that this is a toy; not a game. The RPG elements allow me to write elsewhere (Inara) and develop some of my writing skills; I don't want the toy to turn into a game where roles are doled out to you like in DCUO or WOW. Because I've often found that adding career paths tends to pigeonhole you into that career and it's not something that can be gotten out of unless you re-role or create a new character.

I like my commander and name -- even from an RPG standpoint it's breaking the fourth wall -- and don't want to have excessive grind as I try out other career paths. This toy makes if flexible to do any and all of them, without having a new character or reroll the current.