4.1 Improved telephone conversations -- ideas

[grävling]

First of all, thank you very much for the improved telephone interface, with the 'group by functionality' interface. Now I would like a further improvement. Shrink the screen and provide 'ambient information' on the left hand side. So when you are offered a job in 'region A' you are shown a grid that shows where that is, and also shown what your reputation and heat is in that area. This is what you need to know when deciding to take a job. Also at this point you should be able to call a taxi without having to first go outside to find out where the job location neighbourhood is. I understand that the connectors might be cagey about exactly which neighbourhood holds the job until after you have accepted it, (so then the map should list all the potential neighbourhoods) but after you have accepted it, you should know where you are going without having to step into the streets.

Taxi drivers should care about the heat where you are going as well as the heat where you want to be picked up. So when you phone them, you should let them know where you want to go before they arrive, and they should refuse to take you certain places. (Nope, not taking you into Ox territory. The closest I can get you is North End.)

Taxi drivers should also have different rates, possibly based on the risks they are willing to take. Or charge a 'heat surtax' or something, thus charging different rates for different trips.

Taxi drivers themselves need to get permission to operate in the various neighbourhoods. Thus it is conceivable that you could hire one that simply cannot get you into Mars land because it doesn't have the appropriate permissions. You could get missions from taxi companies (or individual drivers) to do things for certain factions to obtain such permissions. Chummers who have been so helpful would then get reduced rates in the future, and would be given priority over others when its a busy day at the Elite Taxi co, etc.

Just ideas I have ...

Grävling

[fallen]

grävling - taxi drivers will eventually become very restricted in the areas to which they can take passengers. We have left it in due to BETA flag for the time being, but the days of "all city" taxi drivers is coming to a close. The lines are likely to be drawn mostly around Slums, Inner City, and City Core, with some territories like the Blue Ox being completely No Taxi zones.

The next release will change taxi's cost to pay attention to the # of people in your team. As taxi drivers start delivering only to certain areas, their prices will change (a Slums taxi will stay cheap, while an Inner City taxi will cost more).

On the job-giving side, the job offer definitely needs to contain more information in the long-run, so that you really know what you are getting yourself into... "into Bravestar Territory" is a pretty wide set of options! Including your Rep with the target faction and the Security Rating of the area into which you are heading would all also help you make smarter decisions.

[taatuu25]

Maybe have it like in st (kinda)(actually not at all like it) so that you could get to choose to just save everyrhing to your computer and read throught it in the taxi or inspect closer to get a wall of text and possibly a map picture too.

[Cory Trese]

Yeah, just like Star Traders, Cyber Knights will eventually provide full summaries of the reputation your character has before each job, conflict or contract.

[nyktos]

*drool*

[grävling]

I'm drooling too.

[blackgauntlet]

Hopefully, like ST, we're gonna get Awards/ Achievements soon.

Can't wait to brag around that I popped 100 Hedlozzes and still be alive to tell the tale or escaped more than 1,000 times from combat. ;D

Instead of Ships, we will unlock special Cyberwares, weapons, armors, computers and even allies... please?

Back to conversations... As an RPG, there seems to be a rather acute lack of dialogue branches. It's a little hard to define our characters when, regardless if we are playing as a cool male sniper or a brash female brawler, we all say the same thing in every conversation.

[LordofSyn]

Damn drool. [wipes foot off]
...Can someone get a mop in here?

[LordofSyn]

Oct 17, 2011 10:00:19 GMT -5 blackgauntlet said:

Hopefully, like ST, we're gonna get Awards/ Achievements soon.

Can't wait to brag around that I popped 100 Hedlozzes and still be alive to tell the tale or escaped more than 1,000 times from combat. ;D

Instead of Ships, we will unlock special Cyberwares, weapons, armors, computers and even allies... please?

Back to conversations... As an RPG, there seems to be a rather acute lack of dialogue branches. It's a little hard to define our characters when, regardless if we are playing as a cool male sniper or a brash female brawler, we all say the same thing in every conversation.

As for the former: Yes +1 to Awards/Achievements
as for the latter: its not the same conversation, exactly...its a different reality, that um, co-exists in the same Space/Time Frame...only a frequency apart.
ok, I thought I would go deeper into this, but I'm tired. lol.

[blackgauntlet]

Oct 17, 2011 21:24:26 GMT -5 LordofSyn said:

As for the former: Yes +1 to Awards/Achievements
as for the latter: its not the same conversation, exactly...its a different reality, that um, co-exists in the same Space/Time Frame...only a frequency apart.
ok, I thought I would go deeper into this, but I'm tired. lol.

Not the "Parallel Universe" thing again... Implants already fixed that!

[LordofSyn]

Not Parallel Universises. M Brane Mechanics.
Infinite possibilities, therefore nigh-infinite realities.
All layered, stacked on top of each other ...merely separated by vibrational frequency.

[blackgauntlet]

Implants can solve that too.