How can we make the Factory more accessible?

[Dicer]

A mentorship system of some sort would be nice as well, for those of us with ideas but aren't technically minded. At all.

This is an excellent idea. Perhaps an official position of a "sponsor" which could even be a judge from another section. They're officially allowed to help on the submission thread and help the less experienced member make edits in response to questions from the judge.

 

[EmKay]

I will say that I've tinkered with the factory, and my first (and so far only) creation based simply on my thoughts, without using existing tech, went well. I was nervous, but apparently a pocket secretary with a dev thread isn't exactly something that'd get denied. Still, the factory as a whole can be intimidating.

Especially the starships. After seeing people like Ashe go nuts with calculations over the course of days and watching Ayden bonk people on the head with their excess of guns, I'm rather frightened to touch such things, even though I'd very much like to make at least two ship subs.

 

[Garza]

One thing that we could do, is show canon tech, and then give a real life version of it to show how they would be similar.

(I know that some items would not fit almost anywhere in here, but I am mostly thinking of stuff like guns and cars to blasters and ships.)

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Enigma"] [member="Ashin Varanin"]

As someone who wrote the current guidelines for starships, I feel I'm fairly qualified to field this concern. I'll break it down into three parts; concept, execution, and consequence.

So first up is concept. What sort of advancement are we talking about? As someone previously pointed out, Star Wars is a fairly stagnant place for technology. This isn't always because people don't have ideas for things (Though this is an issue compounded by the fact that a lot of canon material used as a base are several decades old). A lot of it comes from the fact that the counter-technology advances almost at the same speed. A missile comes out with an advanced ECM suite in the warhead to fool enemy defenses, and within a very short amount of time the counter is made and standardized. This is the primary reason why blasters and shield technology haven't radically changed in thousands of years.

With this in mind, you have to take your concept in a slightly different direction than Star Wars might have, without making it un-Star Wars. For example, the Republic has a weapon right now that is a cousin of the composite beam weapon. It has a set power, range, and defining characteristics. It's designed in such a way as to give it a niche that goes beyond a 'A is better than B. Now B is better than A. A and B are equal.' It's a concept that requires an entirely new concept to play against it than just making an old one slightly stronger.

Next up is execution. How is this idea going to be made into a reality? This is, in many ways, the easiest part of the three to handle. Thanks to the guide we have a very easy method of comparing wholly different technologies and concepts. If A is equal to 10 turbolasers and B is equal to 15, we can objectively say that B is stronger than A. This prevents the issue of one person saying it's stronger or weaker than it really is. It also lets us control relative power. A problem that we're currently tackling is weapon consolidation. When a very large ship has its full capital gun pool condensed into a dozen guns, it creates this mindset of 'I can destroy other ships in a single blast'. In a perfect roleplaying world, this would be countered by things like firing arcs, reload times, and weapons emplacements being destroyed. But not everyone has a firm grasp on these sorts of things, so we have to find a balance to strike between the know-hows and the know-nots.

And this leads me into the third, and most prominent issue, which is consequence. How does this affect the board? As folks begin to push boundaries and new ideas get accepted, the scene of things will naturally change. X makes a new cannon that punches through shields. What do the other folks do about this? The common reaction will be to start using those same guns. The problem with a common arms race is that it actually stifles creativity and diversity in the long run. It becomes a search for who can make and use the biggest, stronger weapon in the most numbers possible, and every other weapon gets put to the side. And that's not something we want to have happen.

Another problem of consequence would be simple nullification. You come up with this amazing new idea, you put a lot of work into it, and then someone comes along and makes a tiny, basic tech submission and now your idea has been made completely void. This is also something that disrupts creativity and diversity. Why bother making new tech is someone is just going to immediately counter it completely? This is especially problematic when tech subs are made with no IC basis. We saw a -lot- of this happening months ago before we started implementing standards and is something that could very easily start happening again if we're not careful.

So there are a lot of reasons why we want to discourage arms races. It makes for a poor roleplaying environment when not done just right, and the last thing we want to do is add more problems to roleplaying than will naturally occur here. When ideas are made and executed carefully and with a lot of work, we can help make them a reality, but this is always something that will be closely monitored and controlled by Factory and Roleplay Judges.

 

[Ayden Cater]

[member="Atretes Rhoujen"]

Something I constantly tell people is that I have an open door policy with this stuff. Folks come and ask questions on how to make things work and I'll answer them right out. But the problem comes from that fear. If I don't hear the question, I can't help.

And this really goes for all FJs and RPJs. We all love it when folks come to us before they make a sub. We can spot problems first and correct them before a sub is ever made, and helps reduce turnaround time in the Factory.

 

[Kaiden Rohn]

Weapons typically don't have weaknesses, they just have limitations. I don't like making weapons because of that.

 

[Darth Armyss]

[member="Kaiden 'Papa' Rohn"]

They don't unless they're poorly made, at which point said weaknesses are referred to as design flaws or manufacturing defects.


Anyways, just my two cents on the topic, I agree that the various workshop and mentorship programs help. I basically hit the ground running with my first couple of submissions and happened to get lucky (with a little bit of advice, of course), although it helped that I compared it to what had already been done in order to prevent making something overpowered. Some people might require a bit more help than that.

 

[Jsc]

Get rid of the NPC Creation Forum

1. NPC's are not protected from death under the websites rules. This Forum seeks new jurisdiction contrary to the spirit of the law. This Forum is a breach by intent. If you want to protect NPC just as the PC's, change the rules. Do not create false courts using the Factory as a cover. This is not about education. It is a subtle attempt to use the Factory to circumvent the rules. This is about creating the power and the paperwork to sway Roleplay Judges decisions into the favor of the Factory Judges very own 'perspectives on quality, characterization, and death'.

2. Character Profiles do not require approval. This Forum seeks new jurisdiction contrary to the spirit of the law. This Forum is a breach by intent. If you want to create a website where Profiles, (PC or NPC,) require approvals, judges, courts, and mandates? Do it elsewhere or get Tef to change the rules. Again, you guys are seeking to create false courts to satisfy your own selfish demands and perspectives. This is not about education. It's about leveraging the gray area. This is about power.

You guys make me sick.

"If you want to be able to establish that you've worked on your NPCs, and that they're entitled to the same anti-autohit common courtesy as, say, your character's personal weapon or ship, this is one way to do it." - Admin Ashin, How to use the NPC Creation Forum

___

To clarify. The only reason this comes as a suggestion and not a report is that I completely understand that Roleplay Judges can create judgments and moderations without ever consulting the Factory or it's submissions. As in all things, The Factory is simply optional volunteer effort.

 

[Tefka]

It is a subtle attempt to use the Factory to circumvent the rules. This is about creating the power and the paperwork to sway Roleplay Judges decisions into the favor of the Factory Judges very own 'perspectives on quality, characterization, and death'.

That's a bit outrageous. The NPC Creation Forum exists because I wanted it, and I asked Ashin to get it for me. I thought it'd be neat.

NPC's are not protected from death under the websites rules.

An interesting debate that has come up before. As for now, they're protected by the writer's interest, and yes - I'm of a mind to say they can enjoy the same rules of protection as characters. Because play by post role-play is collaborative. Decisions should be made together, in a shared experience - not against. Go where the story is most exciting.

Character Profiles do not require approval.

And they never will.

This Forum is a breach by intent.

False. NPCs /= PCs. This forum isn't a "breach by intent", lol. This forum is just as harmless as the others, but people who focus too much on the small things get all paranoid and loopy about it.

 

[Domino]

This is an excellent idea. Perhaps an official position of a "sponsor" which could even be a judge from another section. They're officially allowed to help on the submission thread and help the less experienced member make edits in response to questions from the judge.

Doing this will just increase the workload on the judges and cause confusion as the helping judge may not be that knowledgeable in the new field. I know you wouldn't want my help to create a planet and if I did help someone and then the planet judge asked for edits we'd get a 'But Domino said....' situation which we try to avoid. Besides, the judges working on a submission should already be helping novices walk through the process and answer any questions. Pre-factory can also be done on the faction level with your friends and people you're comfortable with. [member="Dicer"]

I will say that I've tinkered with the factory, and my first (and so far only) creation based simply on my thoughts, without using existing tech, went well. I was nervous, but apparently a pocket secretary with a dev thread isn't exactly something that'd get denied. Still, the factory as a whole can be intimidating.

Especially the starships. After seeing people like Ashe go nuts with calculations over the course of days and watching Ayden bonk people on the head with their excess of guns, I'm rather frightened to touch such things, even though I'd very much like to make at least two ship subs.

Go for it. Like Ayden said, we love it when people come to us for help, I can't count how many times someone's come to me with a basic question or a whole sub. It's also entirely up to you on how complicated or simple you want to get, the only maze is one that you make. As for any hesitation you might feel, you really have to mess up big time and repeatedly (usually in the same way) to get us upset with you. We know there's a lot for first-timers to take in and try to act accordingly. [member="Atretes Rhoujen"]

One thing that we could do, is show canon tech, and then give a real life version of it to show how they would be similar.

(I know that some items would not fit almost anywhere in here, but I am mostly thinking of stuff like guns and cars to blasters and ships.)

That's actually the basis of a lot of stuff going through the factory. We have guns using 5.56 NATO, AK-47 style blasters, a spork, and a ton of other stuff. I know that when I need to fill in the weight/speed/size areas I'll run to the wookie for similar stuff or even wikipedia. This APC is lightly based off one the US Marine Corp uses with stats changed to fit the image and my vision for the sub, ditto this repeater and the WWII .30Cal used by the Americans. [member="CC-4277"]