In depth "Respect" system - and "Power"

[Napstar 35]

The new "Power" system

In this post ill talk about some improvements to the Respect system and introduce you to a new system i call Power. There is alot of post on the forum about respect that needs adressing. In this post ill come with some improvements we'll like to see in the future. Also i'll like to introduce the Power system i came up with about a week ago. This idea came from @Timberwolf and @Caderius in this post http://exile.majormittens.co.uk/topic/1036-a-thought-about-respect/ Well more about that later.

So there has been a lot of talking about Respect and the lack of it features. Some of them include:

• Not tradeable
• You recieve the same amount of Respect when killing a bambi or a high geared player
• Not shared with the clan or friends - making it difficult to work together upgrading the plot pole
• After the "No limit" on how high you can build your base. The build radius is completly useless. People just build up instead of out - No need to upgrade the Plot Pole. 

So the conclusion made on the forum is. When we get the "Clan" option avalible we need a shared "Clan Pool". Meaning all players within a clan can either give Respect to the Clan Pool or maybe a % of what the player gains goes to the Clan Pool. 

Now to the whole building mechanics with Respect. As stated above: People build up instead of out. I know the Dev's wanted Sky Bases! BUT now you dont need to upgrade your Plot Pole anymore. Making Respect useless because it is the only thing you can use it for! My suggestion is keep the Radius system - Also with a hight limit or / and put a limit of objects your allowed to build. Matching the level of your Plot Pole. This will again force players to gain Respect - Upping the amout of PvP! 

The "Power" System

Timberwolf got the idea with killing a more established player would give you a higher amount of Respect. Which made me think about the Power system. Power should be a dynamic thing. It could rise or lower all the time. Some of the basic things Power should be calculatet around is:

• Your gear, do you have nothing? or do you have it all? All your items has a value if you would sell it. This value would be converted into your Power. 
• Vehicles. Your cars and helis also contribute to your power
• Your base / territory. The higher level plot pole and the more objects you have also contribute to your power
• If your in a Clan and the Respect Pool in the clan is high. This would give you even more Power. Making it usefull to be part of a Clan to help eachother getting even more power. 
• Your Pop Tabs

If you get killed and maybe lost a Strider too then youll loose some of your power. On the other hand. The guy who killed you would get maybe 500 respect instead of only a 100. Killing a bambi should maybe only give you 10 respect at the lowest (If he is completly new on the server and not established) Making it more worth to kill a high geared clan player instead of a guy in an orange jump suit. Note that Respect is shared with the clan but Power is only something you have. Though being in a clan would make your power level bigger. In the traders there should be a board where you can see the most powerfull player on the server and maybe how much Respect youll get for killing him.

Now to the dream part. Power should have perks. Again making it worth aiming for. Some of them could be: 

• High Levels give you a discount in the trader
• Instead of only adding a bounty on another player you could send a car with the Mafia to kill the player
• Buy exclusive gear and vehicles ( Explosives, snipers, NVG's Armored and armed cars) Depending on your Power levels. A little bit like Bandit and Hero trader from Arma 2 Epoch. 

Some of all this maybe sound like nonsense to some of you but its all about pushing the "End Game" of Exile as far away as possible. Making the game worth playing even for a looong time because you really want to get the highest amount of Power so you can "unlock" the last perks. 

Fell free to post your thoughs and ideas. Also good ideas and improvements to this ill add to this post! 

Happy Hunting - Napstar

[Z80CPU 527]

all sounds nice.  also, thank you for your effort in composing the article!

 

 

[Boose 44]

my players get 10% of there victims respect and the victim loses it. Not the same but a start 
+1 for power

[READTHESCROLL 203]

+1 Yea there DEF needs to be a object limit for building. Right now I have a guy building a huge ass tower right outside the central trader that goes up like 20 stories.. I think its silly that something like that isn't already implemented. Also respect cost at traders would be awesome. Extra rep costs for more desired items like snipers, thermals and armed vehicles..

[Boose 44]

+1 Yea there DEF needs to be a object limit for building. Right now I have a guy building a huge ass tower right outside the central trader that goes up like 20 stories.. I think its silly that something like that isn't already implemented. Also respect cost at traders would be awesome. Extra rep costs for more desired items like snipers, thermals and armed vehicles..

Yea agree- personally i have removed high end snipers from traders in a bid to make people hold on to them as there rare.

But a respect system to buy them would fit nicely with what im after 

[3sec 2]

So a guy who has 5 bases and just respawned and lost his bambie state (no weapon) gives tons of power but a normal guy with no base who also just spawned w/o bambie state gives less?

There are things that should not be in the calculation about how good someone is equipped. And real power is a value you gain in a community without having a number for it. Not really necessary in my opinion.

[Napstar 35]

So a guy who has 5 bases and just respawned and lost his bambie state (no weapon) gives tons of power but a normal guy with no base who also just spawned w/o bambie state gives less?

no - He dosent give power. He just gives more Respect when you kill him. But then again its not much because he has no weapons or gear. He just give a little bit more Respect when you kill him vs. you kill a bambi who has nothing or high power levels. The reason why: The guy with high power level and 5 bases probably just runs to a safezone then buys all his gear and a new strider and then he is ready to fight again. The other low level power bambi guy dont give as much respect when you kill him. Its also harder for him to get back in the fight when he dont have no moneys or a base with ekstra weapons in it. 

I hope it made a little sense - English isnt my language  

[Boxman80 352]

Hi,  good post, well made and well thought out. I like some of the principals and like the way you are trying to tackle some things that could be improved in the mod to add more depth to group play.  What you're suggesting essential, if I follow it, is having a dynamic "power" rating respect rating instead of respect yes? And having that a bit more MMO in unlocking various experience perks the more it grows?

In principal I think that's a very good idea but I can see a few issues with it the way you proposed it. 

First of all I personally I don't like the name "power system"  I think the "Respect" name is much more suitable currently as that's what it is - the respect of your fellow criminals and outlaws based on not just you or your groups power, but also your actions, conduct and reliability. The only other thing I could suggest as a different name would be "notoriety", even then I don't think you need to reinvent the wheel and it's not needed. I appreciate power should come into it in regard to perhaps your clans combined wealth, bases and equipment but I think clan respect should be an entity of it's own (which I will go onto further in this post).

 

I completely agree though that "respect" needs to be dynamic, something that could go up or down and not just constantly accrued. Sure, it is more likely to go up the more you play, but there should be ways of it declining too. 

For instance, you could slowly bleed respect while you're offline. This would be a server admin defined period, I'd suggest 1 point per 24 hours of inactivity. Not much to sacrifice if you cant get online,  but another reason to log in and play if you can. 

Also some activities in game could lead to having negative respect, such as:

 

•  Killing members of your own group or clan
•  Firing a weapon within a server defined circumference of the trader zone (or within the trader zone!), encouraging players to holster weapons in safe zones and reduce trader camping.
• Skinning/cannibalising bodies (see my stickied thread about burying/hiding bodies for "respect")
• Killing bambis

I absolutely agree it also SHOULD be gained in different amounts based on multiple in-game variables, as it is at the moment. Gaining respect and additional amounts of it based on different factors (such as bonuses for head shots, distances, multi-kills) should all continue to give you respect in variables as it is now.  

Totally agree that it's not a completely effective way in managing bases at the moment as I suspect it was devised. You're right as people are just building up rather than  out. I think this needs to be managed better but respect could be tweaked to make the first tier of building fairly basic, for example only allowing players to buy basic building materials and not allowing them to get access to ladders / stairs at traders for instance, or limiting the amount of build-able materials.  

I think your idea works best as an extended CLAN RESPECT system. There should be a combined CLAN respect level too based on all members' respect within the clan on the server. Pretty much as you said in your original post about it being based on a  percentage of each members' personal respect levels. BUT also various bonus triggers could be activated similar to what you're suggesting that various clan resources help consolidate your groups power, for example having a Hunter would give an additional 25 clan respect, each safe within the clan base would trigger additional points, choppers would add further points - yet if they're destroyed or stolen those points are then deducted from the clan respect.

This would work particularly well with the suggestion I made for incorporating the virtual garages into the mod as this could be a way of recording and monitoring what vehicles a clan actually owns - basically the clan being awarded points for each vehicle they have saved in the garage.

 

[Napstar 35]

Hi @Boxman80 

Sorry for the late reply! First of all i agree with your answers. I think that a combination of my idea and your idea would work very well together.

I dont want to remove the respect system i just want to add a new system called power or notoriety as you stated. The name doesnt really matter for me Its the power system i want to be dynamic. Based on the actions you do in game. Like you said killing own members, shooting in safezone and so on. By doing this you will loose respect. but also power. Let me try to make an example:

killing a fresh spawn - not in bambi state - with low power level = you get 50 Respect and 5 Power (This would be the minimum for a kill)

killing a fresh spawn - not in bambi state - With high power level = you get 100 Respect and 10 power

Killing a geared player that is fully equiped - With low power level = you get 200 respect and 20 power

Killing a geared player that is fully equiped - With High power level = you get 300 respect and 30 power (This would be the highest for a kill)

Note this is just an example! and the numbers can be changed. Its just to show how this system would work. The Respect you gain will be used to upgrade your base and maintaining it. The Power would be used to unlock perks in the game. And rank you on the leaderboard. By adding a system like this it puts the player in a new situation: Is it worth killing that freshspawn for only 50 res and blow my cover? Or is it worth engageing the Strider with two geared players inside it (They have a high power level = more respect and power to you if you kill them) killing them and get 600 respect and 60 power points. 

Its pretty much a Risk Vs Reward kinda thing. Maybe like you said it should be an extended version of the current respect system or something like this  

[Boxman80 352]

In principal I agree that a more dynamic rating system for measuring a players power/respect/whatever could be very successful if introduced (or made to modify the current respect level). Even more so if incorporated or working with the clan system. I'll add this thread to the stickied thread I have of cool ideas to improve Exile, if you don't mind. Hopefully it will draw the devs attentions to this and encourage more feedback and discussion on your idea!