Confused about the title of this thread? Don't worry, it's really simple.
Factions like the NCR, Vault City, Raiders, Reno families, BoS and Enclave are missing from the 2238 world. I mean yeah, there's this dude with a minigun and a power armor standing in front of the bunker, but we all know that he's just a decoration. What I offer is an elegant solution that doesn't mess with the balance of this game and doesn't really require much work aside from hiring additional, specialised GMs.
Each of these factions is basically a way of obtaining a profession or two, nothing more. Let's give them some meaning (I'll be using Enclave as an example, cause those black power armors look badass and I'm in love with them since I saw F2's box cover):
- each faction gets a carefully selected GM-leader (a Commanding Officer - in this case a military nut and a bit of an abusive prick would be the best person for the job);
- the leader (marked as, you guessed it, leader at the terminal) can give the status of a trusted member to a limited number of people (let's say 10, depends on the population of the server);
- trusted members receive free standard issue equipment to do what their factions does (avenger/plasma rifle/gauss pistol and an APA mk1);
- trusted members are supposed to follow the code of conduct of a given faction (SERIOUS roleplaying, to be enforced by the CO) and the orders of their leader; failure to comply results in a ban from entering a given faction; prolonged abscence results in degradation to "new member" status;
- the factions act and behave like their F2 counterparts - they don't mess with the gang wars, don't do TC, don't troll (or in the case of the Enclave, even show) in the normal cities; they get a huge Karma boost (+2000) to ensure that NPCs are on their side;
- if a member looses his equipment, it remains in the game - tough luck; if he hands it out, he gets banned from the faction for life; if these rules get abused despite the pain-in-the-ass recruitation, well - too bad, GM deletes the items to save the balance;
- the factions fight their natural oponent in weekly events organised by leader-GMs (accordingly to F2 lore of course) - the Enclave would for example fight BoS (yeah, yeah, that's a bit thin but they'd get bored just patrolling the perimeter); the safetown based factions are allowed to act as the supplement of NPC guards (someone camping the grid or a workbench in the NCR? Don't worry, deputy Boat is on his way to enforce the law!);
- abuse can be reported by any player with a screenshot; guilty will get banned from the faction and from the system if they did something really bad.
Why would you want to do that and who fights whom?
The answer would be "because it's fun and offers roleplaying opportunities while removing the imperfect way some features work caused by the AI being dumb".
As to the bloodshed, I suggest the following:
- NCR fights the Raiders - obvious;
- VC fights Gecko - no need to explain (Gecko militia forbidden to enter their town during TC hours or interfere in any other way);
- New Reno families just duke it out in the street, no real need to do any event here; could even have a town control mechanic that's restricted to the families only (ie. noone aside from Mordinos, Salvatores etc. can capture Reno);
- The Enclave fights BoS - not really faithful to the canon, but offers some PA on PA action for those who miss it.
Of course special events like the NCR taking on VC in a black op of sorts would be welcome too, but wouldn't be your bread and butter stuff.
Pros:
- little effort to implement;
- doesn't mess with the rest of the game and impact the balance in any way;
- more roleplay opportunities;
- improves the way towns work, makes them feel alive;
- more PvP action, this time in a different sauce;
- no real constraints - it goes as far as your imagination allows, as it's going to be almost entirely player-driven.
Cons:
- I'd say none, but it's going to be a bit demanding on the leaderm-GMs and devs might be a bit wary of recruiting such a number.
So, what do you say guys? Do you like it? If you do, any other suggestions that wouldn't require a lot of scripting and encumber the devs?
Poll
