New Mandates!

[Malok]

M A N D A T E S​

I adore the Mandate system. So for the past couple weeks I've been bouncing around a few ideas about expanding & updating the feature. Below are the suggestions that I'd love to see implemented. Some are for balancing, others are for loving on the Lore. If you like a particular Mandate(s) please post below stating which ones so staff can know!

Updates:

Relentless Horde

Weakness: When defending, this major faction can call no allies.

Defensive Stronghold

Weaknesses: When attacking, this major faction cannot call any allies. Nor can they accept any defectors during battle.

New Mandates:

Fortress Worlds

Strength: When defending a Fortress World, this major faction can call ten allies.

• A Major Faction can designate one planet as a Fortress world, per seven hexes within their Influence Cloud.
• Fortress Worlds can be described as secondary, capital planets. And therefore cannot be invaded without occupying an adjacent hex.
• Hexes containing Fortress Worlds cannot touch on the Map.
• A Major Faction can only designate a maximum of ten Fortress Worlds. These must be listed in the Mandate thread upon requesting this Mandate - including Hex Coordinates. Updating/Changing Fortress worlds can only occur during a faction's monthly, Mandate update.
• Fortress Worlds will not be added to the SWRP: Chaos map.

Weakness: When attacking an enemy fortress world, this Faction cannot call allies.

Army of Light | Brotherhood of Darkness

Strength: When attacking, Light Side Masters / Dark Side Masters do not count towards ally total.

Weaknesses: When defending, Light Side Masters / Dark Side Masters count as double towards ally total.

Resource War

Strength: Once a month, a major faction may submit a Limited Production technology or Semi-Unique starship by "depleting" a Restricted Material source located in their influence cloud. This Mandate counts as their restricted mission.

Weaknesses: Once used, a "depleted" source cannot be used with this Mandate again for a period of three months. All submissions using this mandate must be marked appropriately.

Hyper Expansion

Strengths: Once a month, a major faction may claim two hexes with a single Dominion, so long as one hex is located along a Hyperlane.

Weakness: When launched, the Dominion must have "HE" in the thread title - this Dominion is vulnerable to rebellions. Once claimed, the major faction cannot launch any further dominions for the month. And cannot have more than two dominions claimed for the month at the time of using this Mandate.

 

[Aryn Teth]

I like all the new mandate suggestions, but especially the fortress worlds ones. I feel like Fortress Worlds could easily serve as a fair and reasonable in-between instead of the entirely offensive or defensive mandates which currently exist. Fortress Worlds also especially makes tactics like cloud-breaking a lot harder, which would likely limit the amount that this tactic is used, and the salt that it usually generates. If anything, Fortress worlds would probably lead to more necessary invasion campaigns, instead of just picking the systems which would cause the biggest enemy cloud-break.

 

[Gilamar Skirata]

I love it

 

[Srina Talon]

Nice suggestions for the most part. I like the two I liked most were Hyper Expansion and Resource War. Fortress Worlds is also interesting but I think it needs a little tweaking. There's just something about it that bugs me, but, I can't put my finger on it. I think it's because Fortress Worlds can be built by someone who isn't part of a faction. Does the Fortress World then fall under this rule if the cloud it is located in belongs to a faction that has taken this mandate?

I initially liked the idea of updating Defensive Stronghold, for obvious reasons, but I have to raise a red flag. War/Invasions IMO are messy, bloody, complicated things that don't always go according to plan. The option to 'defect' shouldn't be removed entirely because it infringes heavily on the IC actions of a character/faction. In wars, people switch sides. I'm just afraid of sacrificing story in an effort to remove the potential for abuse. Perhaps this mandate could be tweaked in some other way? Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding anything. I'm not 100% on all the rules/mandates but Defensive Stronghold really seems, currently, to be the BEST mandate to have. In that respect, it is a little out of balance.

Spoiler

Destiny Terms: Defensive Stronghold = MIDA Multi-Tool/Prometheus Lens [Pre-Nerf]

 

[Malok]

[member="Srina Talon"]

Under this Mandate, the Major faction would apply the label "Fortress World" to whichever planets they choose. If it just so happens to be one that has been developed beforehand, awesome. However, heavily fortified planets developed by other players are not automatically given this label, even if they are inside the influence cloud.

As far as Vex Mythoclast the Mandate goes, the intent of Defensive Stronghold (as far as I can tell) was to provide a significant buff to when facing an invasion. It doesn't make any sense from an OOC perspective to then allow the faction with unlimited allies to accept additional allies when going on the offense. If that's the case, everyone should take Defensive Stronghold and make backdoor deals to circumvent the "no allies" rule in effect now.

My suggestion isn't to stop defections from happening, it's to halt future abuse of the mandate. If the story drives a defection, what I'd rather see is an IC departure from the thread and acceptance of the consequences post-invasion rather than calling the local RPJ.

Picking up what I'm putting down?

 

[Srina Talon]

Okay, so, the phrase "Like" being a Fortress World and actually 'being' considered a Fortress World are two different things. That makes more sense to me now. I'm still thinking about that one, though. I see the benefit. Out of all the new mandates, this one is probably the most interesting, so please don't think I don't like it haha--I'm just still mulling it over.

As it stands, Defensive Stronghold already feels Vexy, despite that caveat. I understand the logic OOC but the IC story progression is where my concerns are. So, in this instance, defections can happen, the party involved just has to 'defect' and then immediately bail from the thread? It's a little choppy...But I suppose it could work. It also makes me wonder how posts would be scored/counted by the RPJ. That's still a mystery to me. But, that part isn't my job to figure out lol.

So. Yes. I am picking up what you're putting down

 

[Rusty]

The Defensive Stronghold thing should probably have its own thread, to be honest. It's in need of some serious tweaking. Maybe not Prometheus Lens level nerfing, but there are some balance issues there.

I'm fond of Fortress Worlds and Hyper Expansion. I think there's a lot of potential there to shake up the map game. Fortress Worlds in particular has the chance to throw out the existing cloudbreak strategies, which are a bit too meta for my tastes. Call me old fashioned, but something that devastating should take a little more work.

Not really sold on the Army of Light/Brotherhood of Darkness thing. It's a neat concept, but I can't shake the feeling that it's one that comes with a whole host of complications that'll lead to headaches in the long run.

 

[Varik Ice]

I'm a fan of Fortress Worlds and Hyper Expansion; it makes cloudbreaking less of a fix-it-all strategy in war, especially since, let's be honest, it does have the potential to create battles that make little sense IC when you think about it for more than a few seconds. As for Hyper Expansion, I'm a fan of giving faction more tools to use for something other than invasions or allies, and it encourages strategic placement.

I'm not so good with Army of Light | Brotherhood of Darkness - my issue stems from the fact that anyone can make themself Master at any time. This mandate may have been a good one back when you were restricted from doing so (even if I feel taking away that restriction was a good move) but as it stands, I think it's a bad idea. Anyone can, at any time, change themselves to a Master rank for invasion sign-ups, then switch back once the invasion's over and it's a bunch of free allies. Also see neutral/rogue masters changing alignment on the fly, for instance.

I would also say that defectors, no matter what they do, should count towards the faction that they chose to ally to during the sign-up thread. Story-wise, they may be on the side of the faction they defect to, but in terms of judgement and 'meta' they still are working for their original allies that they signed up for. This prevents defection involving so much OOC deception, and keeps the possibility of defection as a story.

 

[Rusty]

I'm not so good with Army of Light | Brotherhood of Darkness - my issue stems from the fact that anyone can make themself Master at any time. This mandate may have been a good one back when you were restricted from doing so (even if I feel taking away that restriction was a good move) but as it stands, I think it's a bad idea. Anyone can, at any time, change themselves to a Master rank for invasion sign-ups, then switch back once the invasion's over and it's a bunch of free allies. Also see neutral/rogue masters changing alignment on the fly, for instance.

Right? Great for the site, but not necessarily something that works for this particular mandate. I'm also concerned that this would create an increased emphasis on PVP. As much as I love a good duel, duels in invasions have a nasty habit of turning into salt mines. While I'm sure the vast majority of folks on here are capable of behaving like adults the vast majority of the time, tempers seem to flare as soon as the lightsabers come out.

 

[Malok]

I'm loving the feedback everyone! Thank you for taking the time out to critique these suggestions thus far!

On Defensive Stronghold: I think Rusty said it best when he suggested this one may end up needing its own thread. Given the current festivities, it's a current events issue that warrants its own separate brainstorming session. I'll post that one up on Lunch break!

On Army of Light: In the factions directory, you can see that there are classifications based on alignment. Light Side, Dark Side, etc. What I really wanted to do with this Mandate was to provide an incentive for going hardcore Light or Hardcore dark. Given the feedback, a PvP buff might not be the place to go - so I'll appeal to you guys, what sort of perk/bonus can we provide our Dark and Light factions that is worthwhile, but balanced?

On Fortress Worlds: I really really like where this is going. Out of all the Mandates I've posed this is my favorite and I'd love to see it implemented. If there's any way you guys can see to better word it or improve it, please let me know

[member="Rusty"], [member="Varik Ice"], [member="Gilamar Skirata"], [member="Srina Talon"], @Those Who Liked

 

[Ignatius]

I'm not so good with Army of Light | Brotherhood of Darkness - my issue stems from the fact that anyone can make themself Master at any time. This mandate may have been a good one back when you were restricted from doing so (even if I feel taking away that restriction was a good move) but as it stands, I think it's a bad idea. Anyone can, at any time, change themselves to a Master rank for invasion sign-ups, then switch back once the invasion's over and it's a bunch of free allies. Also see neutral/rogue masters changing alignment on the fly, for instance.

Right? Great for the site, but not necessarily something that works for this particular mandate. I'm also concerned that this would create an increased emphasis on PVP. As much as I love a good duel, duels in invasions have a nasty habit of turning into salt mines. While I'm sure the vast majority of folks on here are capable of behaving like adults the vast majority of the time, tempers seem to flare as soon as the lightsabers come out.

It can still be the same with Masters not counting towards that. However, have a small requirement of the masters having to hold the Master tag for a set amount of time before the invasion? However, that adds another thing that needs to be looked up, so that may or may not help.