what hes trying to say is that there is nothing for veterans of the game if you don't play in a faction and do TC... which is mostly true. after you've got your main, your crafter, and your powerbuild of choice, the game gets a lot more stale. what we need is some seriously strict faction rules, so that you CANNOT be a prof3 crafter in a player faction.
we need to encourage the NPC factions to be a major part of the game. if you join the BOS, you should have to go on BOS patrols with them and help them collect technology, weapons, and ammo, so they can one day revitalize the wasteland. If you join NCR, you should have to go out with the army and hunt mutants and clear out hostile areas of raiders/slavers/etc so that NCR can continue to expand... otherwise these factions should not let you in. How many secret organizations teach their secrets to willing applicants, and then let them leave? None. (lol you know any secret organizations?) This game would benefit highly from a heavy faction-based reputation grind. If anything, reputation for a place you join should go DOWN as you're in it, unless you do something to make it go up.
It only makes sense. Back to the BOS. If you were a 'knight' in the BOS, and you just joined and never showed up at base, never reported to your superiors... they'd eventually grow distant, and you will no longer be considered a member of their faction. To stay in a faction, you should have to earn it. Further, the lvl 3 professions should be difficult to obtain, and one should be forced to remain in the NPC faction, so as to avoid crafter alts. This way, only people dedicated to crafting, and the people dedicated to helping those crafters so they can get crafted equipment, will join the NPC factions. This will force PC factions to heavily specialize, or with proper leadership, the PC faction can still function the same as it does today, although with increased organizational cost.
There are many things needed to fully realize the faction aspect of the game. For example, if you're a non-crafter in a NPC faction, they should "sell" you the prof-1-2-3 equipment of the faction for "reputation points", so that the factions are not entirely consisting of crafters.
If this were implemented in any fashion, most player factions would simply crumble under the new rules, because they are random PK factions with a few guys making alt after alt to support an infinite crafting-pk-crafting cycle.
However, the few player factions able to withstand the increased pressure would benefit highly from it- and become more powerful than before, due to increased control of rare resources.
