Persistent World Contract

[DeputyDirector]

I just had an odd thought regarding Single Player Units; effectively their establishment turns each player controlled unit into the equivalent of an MMORPG character which drew me to some parallelisms with Ultima Online and Everquest.

At present we are using the contracting system where units, whether as singletons or groups of players, undertake missions similar to an instanced event in Everquest (which is actually the game that innovated the concept), pursuing it in isolation without having to compete with other groups or players. While this gives the unit control over the storyline it also ensures that there is nearly no interaction between the unit and other members of the community. In the past joint contracting offered some opportunities for interaction but the terms provided by the current rules essentially put one unit in the position of sub-contractor. Totally at the mercy of the primary unit with regard to payment and salvage which is not a desirable position for anyone.

Now, just to throw the idea out there, what if we went in the opposite direction; instead of instanced contracts we have a persistent world contract in the vein of the old Ultima Online? Units can sign up for this grand contract, which would likely be part of a major storyline that the staff would be pushing, and all of them are sent to one communal setting (be it a world, a system or a theater of operations). Players would monitor their own word counts and submit individual transcripts with cover letter summaries to the staff and be rewarded on an individual basis at the end of their involvement with the contract, whether at the end of the period or their unit's departure from the theater.

While this would not guarantee constant collaboration between units, the communal setting at least injects some level of organic randomness in shared setting as units play off one another's' actions. At the very least it feels less like writing alone in an empty room.

Now to maintain some semblance of consistency, a staff member, whether participating in the contract as a unit or just monitoring it from outside, functions as the editor. Player actions that would impact major canon characters or units should be cleared with them, or alternatively they could suggest or nudge players in certain directions as well.

I know this is a somewhat radical proposal and hardly completely fleshed out but I felt the idea merited being thrown out there for discussion.

Snipped from post by Dulio

[DeputyDirector]

Please correct me if I am wrong but what you seem to be talking about is a joint contract.

The only real problem with this sort of contracting is coordination between the units. What happens when Unit A goes off and does X, which seriously messes up the post that Unit B had ready to go.

Please don't get me wrong, these can work and have in the past. Units that I have been a part of in a previous life have indeed pulled off joint contracts with varying degrees of success so I am open to them, but I'd like to make sure that we are on the same page here before assuming that's exactly what you meant.

Would you care to expand further on what you are suggesting?

[Dulio12385]

Well in broad strokes, the Persistent World Contract is akin to a Joint Contract but would differ in certain ways;

1. The contract is not tailored for one unit in particular unit, with others piggybacking on the former's rep, but for the community at large, covering a part of major storyline event that the Staff would like to emphasize or have players playout, such as the fall of the Clermont Gap or the Starbridge Campaign. The scale can be anywhere from a battle for a city to a star system spanning campaign.

2. The contract would last at least 6 RL months and as long as necessary to conclude the event.

3. Any unit in the community can opt in at any time regardless of reputation as long as they can deploy and keep a minimum number (to be determined by the Staff) of troops at the designated theater and they can opt out early by withdrawing their forces. Participating units can swap out forces if they wish but they must always maintain the minimum force allocation and inform the staff when they do so. Obviously contract generated for this world contract can't be reused for another contract and vice-versa.

4. The contract would have no minimum word count, though it may have a minimum for salvage. Participating units or players would get paid individually at the end of the contract period by submitting an individual transcript with a cover letter summary and would be paid based on it. If they should opt out early they still would be paid by the end of the contract period and not before.

5. Editorial control would rest with a designated member of the staff, be he involved in the contract personally or not, especially for canon-sensitive subjects and also to resolve disputes like you mentioned. That said I would hope that players would be professional enough to coordinate with one another, and the staff in this case, regarding posts they would send up especially if it would impact each other or some story sensitive topic.

Ideally this would cut down on the number of individual contracts staff have to draft and curate, get everyone acting on the same timeline, and foster communal play.

[DeputyDirector]

I have no initial objections to this sort of thing but I would like to hear from other members of the community to see how much interest there is in this sort of thing.

Anyone that would like to ask a question or make an observation on this idea is more than welcome to.

[Vampire]

To me, this would feel like a couple of the staff act like the MUCO, lay out the story and plan, everyone else becomes members. Each member would put up plans and what they intend to do in a n OOC thread, and the staff member(s) would advice accordingly. The members can also give ideas in story development, etc.

This in fact feels very much like how the Black Stars work, just that it would encompass everyone and anyone who is interested to participate.

I'm not sure if any of the staff would be able to take up such a time and effort consuming role, but if this flies, I'm willing to give it a go.

[Storywriter J. Allen]

The one discernible "no go" I see has to do with Reputation. We can't alter units reputation scores in the system. The Director has "gotten under the hood" on several other aspects of our contract system but not that (to my knowledge).

Also we (or at least I) refuse to go "do the math by hand" and break from the reputation system that does it for us. That's taking something that works and breaking it so it doesn't work anymore. Even if we went "by hand" for things like MHB purchases, our inability to alter rep in the system means that a unit's ability to bid on a contract (e.g. taking on a Diversionary Raid when you don't have the positive Faction rep for it) just isn't something we can alter.

Beyond that issue. Everything else described is at least feasible.

Vampire is right about it needing a strong guiding hand. We've had staffers orchestrate joint contracts before. I remember Xan doing it during the 5th Succession War or the Capellan/WoB conflict for example. It's doable. This is just a variation of that to my mind.

The biggest difference between this and that, is this wouldn't be 1 joint contract. Each participating unit would get their own contract. If it's a 6 month campaign, and a unit joins at start, then they get a 6 month contract. If another unit jumps in and starts playing several weeks in, then that unit would pick up a roughly 4 month contract, reflecting where the story is now and where its end-point is on the horizon. Just to use the 6-month duration example.

So as long as its happening, a made-to-order contract could be written and implemented to "write in" each unit as they decide to participate. That isn't quite so hard.


Biggest challenges are:

1. Staffer really has to be on the ball, and units in turn would need to play ball. Two way communication would need to be excellent. Arguably 3-way communication. The rest of the staff would need to have access to the story and resources necessary to step in if that staffer disappears or something.

2. Incoming units, especially if its already underway would need to conform to some degree to what is already happening/has happened. Like I said a good inter-unit communication system would be mandatory. Not just with units that are participating but possibly even units that are thinking about participating. So that means public OOC access to discussion related to this.

3. If a unit doesn't hold up their end (fail the contract, unit goes inactive etc), it could affect the story for others. A staffer would need to have contingency plans. The easiest thing to do is have some NPC faction or canon merc units on standby to jump in and prop up that end so the story can continue. Or of course, if that loss could be a creative opportunity, the staffer could just let it fail and sorta let the other units feel the impact. It just depends on how critical to the campaign's overall success the failed objective(s) really are.

4. Units would have to really be willing to work with each other. I'd like to think anyone taking up this kind of situation would understand that. But I can see situations pop up where personalities rub each other the wrong way. A cooperative spirit is a must-have.

5. Positioning...a unit on the other side of the Inner Sphere may just not be able to transit to the location in time to participate IC. So units involve would need some forewarning that this is gonna happen and where so they can preposition themselves. Otherwise months of participation time could be lost. So sorta like what I did with the Star Bridge War it would have to be planned out in ahead.

I don't see any of those challenges as insurmountable. I think the biggest challenge is really just the most obvious one. Not many units wanting/able to do the same thing at the same time at the same place, for that particular story or employer. You do all the work to set it up and get a "meh..." response from the community and low interest. So it would need to be really compelling upfront. A campaign or storyline that lots of units get excited about. As a longtime staffer I can attest that's harder to achieve than it sounds.