Player Classes

Hey folks, another idea; In a lot of MMORPG's, you don't just choose a race, but also a class. This would increase the diversity among players and maybe encourage the implementation of some more different tactics in the game.

Some ideas to illustrate:

Soldier: Bonus on offensive things, like training attack troops or the turn cost of attacking others, but a penalty to income, e.g the cost of miners/farmers etc?

Pirate: Bonus on stealing money and UU, penalty on upgrade prices?

Trader: Bonus revenue on trading, penalty on attack strength?

Politician: Ability to join two-three alliances? (I think this would make ingame politics a lot more interesting, you could have ambassadors, or alliances that form councils with representatives from different member-alliances)

Well there's lots of options in this, I wouldn't neccesarily want the classes mentioned above, they're just there to illustrate the possibilities. I don't know much about coding but I guess it wouldn't be much more work than it took to create the different races, right?

if anyone feels the urge to do the balancing, although if the idea develops properly i might help out.

and most important of all, make sure that whatever bonuses you can get, cannot get abused easily by someone having 2-3 accounts

Or you could do the GURPS thing and just distribute the points (that are already part of the system) over things like advantages (like the diplomat advantage you described) as well.

I'm not opposed to the point system but I think it's a bit limited to number values, while for example the Politician suggests a really different focus, for people that aren't into the ''optimal mathematical development'' as much as into other parts of the RPG experience, like diplomacy, conspiracies and other stuff that is hard to turn into percentages.

I think the inclusion of this kind of thing would make the game more immersive -and- more alluring to new players.

I agree with you. What I meant was that you can spend the points either on bonuses or on "advantages" like "trading ability" or "diplomacy (can join multiple alliances" or "piracy talent (+10% attack strength for attack(Kuwal))".
That way if you spend, say 5 points on piracy talent, you will not be able to spend them on 5% attack or defence, covert or assasination or diplomacy.
That way it balances automatically. GURPS, World of Darkness and I think even AD&D 4th edition use this kind of system.
Maybe we could even provide templates containing a fixed set of advantages / disadvantages to make it easier for starting players to get up and running. For example: Pirate (containing piracy talent (10% on attack for Kuwal), research inproficiency (-10% research) and superior trader (5% better rates at galactic exchange). The package would cost 5 (piracy) - 5 (research inproficiency) + 7 (superior trader) = 7 points.
These are just examples. Th point is, such a system would be self-balancing and also allows for character growth, using the existing system.

A good solution, let's go with that.

Also, (and I don't know how realistic this option would be, but I've seen it in other similar games), how about granting new bonus points to players after reaching a certain amount of experience or make some other accomplishment?

I think this, too, would make the game more interesting on the long run.

right now the idea is on the level of a 5 minute brainstorming session

once it's on the level of releasable suggestion, i'll start coding it.

I too like this idea!

I am willing to draft a screen and advantages / disadvantages with points etc. Does anyone have suggestions for advantages like Vance did?

stream of consciousness:
Building on Vance's ideas above, maybe make the advantages/disadvanges subject to overall game activity by all players, such as:

Soldier: Bonus on offensive things, like training attack troops or the turn cost of attacking others, but a penalty to income, e.g the cost of miners/farmers etc?
> Maybe the Soldier has additional options under Motivation and can mobilize a percentage of Farmers as military units temporarily (which exposes them to the possibility of being killed). Obviously the switch removes the income -- and maybe it takes several turns to get the income back once the mode is changed again (similar to getting back motivation).

Pirate: Bonus on stealing money and UU, penalty on upgrade prices?
> Maybe the Pirate loses the ability to trade (or do certain kinds of trade) -- or at least has a penalty. This reinforces the pirate-y method of getting stuff.

Trader: Bonus revenue on trading, penalty on attack strength?
> the more active trading has been overall during the last 24 hours, the bigger the bonus on trading for the Trader (Merchant?). Maybe have private transactions count as penalties versus the galactic market (to boost the more transparent market) -- or vice versa.

Politician: Ability to join two-three alliances? (I think this would make ingame politics a lot more interesting, you could have ambassadors, or alliances that form councils with representatives from different member-alliances)
> the more peace:peace matches for players in the alliances that the Politician is part of, the Politician gets an income bonus. Whenever there is violence between the alliances that a Politician is part of, income generating units are lost (his realm is blamed for the cross-alliance hostility?). I would make these bonuses slope-based instead of raw metric-based -- so political changes have a bigger immediate impact, but taper off quickly when stabilized.

I played many rpgs and in oblivion you pick a race class and birth sign . having a class in this game might be a good idea . here my birth sign idea sorta like a class system but you select your sign when you choose your PBPs. ( use different name s than the ones below. )

fire signs
1. Aries + 12% on strike action - 2% on defense action
2. Leo + 5% on strike action Leos troops always fight at 100% power
3. Sagitarius + 3% on Strike action weapons damage reduced by 3% , loose 5% less troops on strike missions

Water Signs .

1. Scorpio + 7% on covert & Assassin action death rate of Spies and Assassins is 5% less
2. Pisces + 2% on all Military stats
3. Cancer + 5 % on Defense Action and income ( income bonus is calculated before AE )

Earth Signs

1. Taurus + 4% on Defense & income ( income bonus is calculated after AE )
2. Capricorn + 2% on defense action , Overtime produces 10% more income
3. Virgo + 3% on all civilian units income production .

Air Signs

Aquarius . UP costs 30% less
Gemini . construction facilities cost 50% less . UUs produce same income as workers
Libra. Relax produces 1 extra ST and is same income as Normal

That would add a mystic element to the game. I don't believe it's appropriate for a science fiction setting such as this.