Different FL for different nations

[Eskay]

Premise: Multiple starting Nations, as elsewhere agreed-upon.
Premise: We utilize the Flight License mechanic in approximately SR's form. AFAIK this has not been settled at all.

Each nation will require its own version of Flight License. At low levels this just makes sure you see the islands in your core, not somebody else's. So far so boring.

It gets interesting when the bubbles meet. Some islands will be felt safer for ##, others for %% or &&. Different groups of pilots could be selling to the same trading hub, but each buying from islands the others can't reach yet -- unless they level their alternate Flight Licenses.

This FL skill could intersect with the factional mission-chain. It could even _be_ the factional mission-chain: rank up each time you clear a factional mission. For quicker access to off-faction islands, attempt off-faction missions.

This is not yet a complete idea. Help me make it better.

[Eskay]

Sluor suggests the FLs could be set top-down by the national leadership, as part of their tools to direct the factional rank-and-file. (This holds whether the leadership are PC or NPC.) We can invent some magic to make sure queues don't get broken.

Suppose % Nation wants to make a big inf push against # Nation. Maybe they boost a bunch of #-held islands from %FL4 and 5 and 6 up to %FL7, so that their lower-tier traders won't give # Nation so much tax income. But they pull some #-held targets down from %FL9 and 8 to %FL7, too, so that the lower-FL of the inf runners can join in the party.

[Marcus Cunningham]

The ability to alter the flight license needed to reach a location at any time could be dangerous. Depending on the speed of the update, someone could do some cargo research on a location they can currently reach, buy cargo, then when they go to make their queue, the location is now out of their license range.

This also doesn't rule out if the chosen leader is a jerk and just sets every location to License Nine, and laughs his head off at all the people trapped at their current port.

Even if it takes a full 24 hours for Flight License modifications to take effect, they're eventually going to cut someone off while they're making their queue. Protecting planes already in flight is one thing, but what about the people on the ground (as it were)? The possibility exists for a License update to strand pilots in a sea of locations where they cannot land due to insufficient flight license.

[Eskay]

A very good point. Are there any problems if each nation has a static FL?

[kalin]

Mar 1, 2012 16:20:08 GMT -5 Eskay said:

Are there any problems if each nation has a static FL?

You'll end up with a map like 2.4, but with three clusters of islands instead of just two.

Have I mentioned lately how much I hated the 2.4 map?

[Marcus Cunningham]

Unless we're going to have folks start off in different nations based on starting allegiances, though at that point it may be better to split the factions from the nations, and have folks have a Homeland, and a Factional Alliance.