http://forums.faceofmankind.com/showthread.php?26917-2-7-2015-Face-of-Mankind-Roleplay-Changes&p=378943

Hello Community & Beyond,

This game has gone through many transitions in what type of game it will be, and during that time frame it lost what its core aspect was; role play.

Many of the features you currently see in the game were dreamed by some of the oldest veterans - content was delivered to accommodate those nostalgic requests and due to the game losing its role play light, has not been utilized to its full potential yet.

In an effort to promote these new features to the fullest extent, we will be putting all staff focus on role play. Lots of time has been spent in combat and how to better accommodate combat & battles; we have not put much emphasis in promoting the best aspects of this game. Moving forward, we will be making the following changes;

Mechanic Changes
In-game voice communication
Necars Field or DMC will be a high-yielding Penalty Point prison (whichever is harder to get out of)
Arresting will be limited to the LED, with some minor abilities to FDC (to be decided)
Interface bug fixes
Drop the requirement of creating a custom faction to 5 players
Caveat: There will be strict activity requirements for these factions to be maintained.
Methods for factions to advertise globally in-game (to be decided)
Disable global chat
Alternatively only have a colony chat
Resolve patcher slowness (to be decided)
Strict requirement of role play names (first/last)


Website/Forum Changes
Remove 99% of the forums, leave only a general discussion, roleplay and bug/patch-related forums.
We will have a ZERO TOLERANCE rule on anyone who flames and does not have constructive posts.
This will help encourage factions to create their own sites/forums.
Put a strong emphasis to the role play features we provide on the front website.


Furthermore, both the LED and FDC will be staff-controlled at the highest level, with players as the high command of each. This will help ensure the non-existence of corruption and promote positive role play. We will iron what the plans are with both of these factions in a different thread; however, we are looking to restore some of the old school departments such as DPI for training. We'd ultimately /like/ new players to join LED or FDC first to get their initial training into the game, then decide how they want to proceed after this.

We will be putting some effort into marketing the game to various role play communities in other games, and help get the word spread outside of steam and normal means of MMO advertising. In reality, most role play players are looking for one of a few things:

Cops
Military
Drug Dealers
Weapons Dealers


We cater to all of these in various methods and so much more. There are thousands of communities out there in other games that are imitating a fraction of the features we offer in Face of Mankind - we plan to tap into those communities.

I will further note, that role play will be something the staff is going to help enforce, without abuse. We will not tolerate people purposely or deliberately trying to destroy a players role play attempt for self gratification. This is NOT an FPS.

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To touch a little bit on some of the role play ideas we have, I will detail some below - please keep in mind these are quick notes straight from a document I created with everything.


Senate ideas:
The goal of this would be to establish a colonial senate, consisting of the default 8 faction leaders. The faction leaders should be encouraged to help maintain the integrity of roleplay and continuance of making the game fun for everyone. Factions outside of these do not have to adhere to any ruling the senate makes, however, are punishable by dominion law for not doing so. This includes any faction that does not adhere to something that was agreed on by majority.

Various laws can be negotiated by the senate and then ratified into dominion law through the president. (we should have some default laws that can never be altered, however, to maintain integrity of a police force, i.e.: weapons on earth, drugs, etc)

Senate meetings to be done via in-game voice only? (this would require options to mute everyone but senators)
- Having this would allow us to twitch.tv or stream it for people who can't be in-game (good for marketing too)
- This would require all senators have microphones and willing to communicate that way


LED DPI Training Ideas:
DPI 101:
Should be the entry course into the game and LED, explanation of all the default factions and how to perform various things within the game.
Should only contain minor information leading them to stay with the LED. We should maintain this training course to ensure the player knows how to play the game so they do not get lost or frustrated on not knowing what to do.


DPI 102:
Should be the secondary course given after 101, however, this is more catered to the LED. Full explanation of what the LED is/does, how laws are maintained and the various departments within the LED.


DPI 103:
Should consist of doing actual patrols, minor combat training, and performing basic functions of various departments so they can decide what path they wantnto take.


DPI IC:
"Intermediate Combat" - this should be exclusively for combat training, showing how to use various weapons and tools when in combat. We should also dive into performance boosters and various other things to make someone better at combat and arresting.


DPI EC:
"Expert Combat" - this will also be exclusive for combat training, however, it will include information and training down to the very smallest details on how to perform well in combat. (Requirement of an elite department in the future?)
Each department that is joinable by anyone should have their own additional course that is required (but not guaranteed) for entry into that given department.
This will help ensure they know the ins and outs before becoming apart of it.



President ideas:
This position will forever be the same name, however, can be maintained by multiple people. Should be visible at every senate meeting, as well as the single point of pushing new laws into affect. This should not be a character that is seen just walking around, and should only be visible if serving a purpose to roleplay. Should always be heavily guarded by the FDC.


Short-Long term ideas:

Phone app that shows (because it would help people stay connected to the game!):
Character stats
Colony overview (ownership, contest, etc)
Faction chat!!
In-game mails


Facebook/steam integration (not sure if this is ever possible)
This is to make complete registration easier, people also like to use same login for everything


API
Allow factions to build their own sites and include information about their faction on their page through an API
Create a website/page that allows people to search characters(?)

+ In an effort to better acclimate players to Face of Mankind’s unique interfaces, we have separated the various interface buttons from the character sheet and hidden it by default. As part of this as well, we have added a DEV button which will open the section of the forums where community-driven development will take place.
+ All existing lootboxes have been made “rare,” and all future lootboxes will be rare upon creation.
As part of the transition to Buy-To-Play, we have removed some premium perks. These will be given to anyone who purchases the game, though existing free players will have to upgrade to gain these perks.

• Ability to create a faction
  
• Ability to select entry nodes
  
• Apartments higher than class 1
  
• Access to premium clothing
  
• View neighbors on the minimap
  
• Access to the third weapon slot
  
• Access to the fourth quickslot.

- Fixed a bug that was causing prisoners to remain in prison after being released or bailed out.
- Fixed a bug that caused vortex tickets to remain in the player’s inventory after being arrested.
- Fixed a bug that caused the PP-X to appear as a lethal weapon.
- Removed the pointless “Primary/Secondary” sliders from standard armor sets.
- Fixed a bug that would cause players to be stuck in limbo when logging into an apartment that did not - exist.
- Fixed a bug that required players to refresh the transport storage before the contents would become - visible.
- Reversed the ordering of entries in the hunter log for apartment safes.
- Fixed a bug that caused some players to have more than one default apartment.

Community-Driven Development

Starting today, all future patches will be entirely in the hands of the players. Through the new project trackers, players will be free to design and vote on game ideas. Figuring out how to go about this process in full will most likely be an evolving thing, but here is what it looks like right now:

• Players post ideas to the brainstorming tracker here[forums.faceofmankind.com]
  
• Players review these suggestions and ideas, voting on the ones they like, and contributing to discussions on the ideas themselves. Developers will respond if an idea is entirely impossible, and help the idea become more game-ready.
  
• Developers will move the highest rated ideas to the secondary tracker here[forums.faceofmankind.com]
  
• Players and developers will work together to more effectively flesh out the ideas, keeping them within the constraints of developer time and engine capabilities.
  
• Players will vote on the ideas in the secondary tracker, with the highest rated ideas being added to the game.

It is worth noting that virtually all suggestions are on the table, short of “revert.” If you’d like to suggest mechanics identical to previous ones, that is fine, but simply reverting the entire game isn’t an attainable goal. The manpower required to revert the entire game is not there, and the required wipe would most likely destroy the entire game.

Buy-To-Play

Existing free players will be able to continue playing the game exactly as they are now, with the same restrictions, at no cost. If you would like to remove the account restrictions, you may purchase the game from our website or Steam for $14.99.

Those who backed $30 or more during the Kickstarter campaign will receive a full copy of the game for free. If you purchased the game through Steam (Early Access, Deluxe Edition, Starter Edition, Ultimate Edition) or purchased a lifetime premium account, you will also get the full game free of charge.

Premium remains, with the exception of the perks that have been removed and added to the standard account. For the full list of remaining perks, visit this[www.faceofmankind.com] link.

Discuss this update here![forums.faceofmankind.com]

Dear community,

We have posted a summary of the recent community/dev meeting here:

http://steamproxy.com/app/299700/discussions/0/613941122554868379/

Thanks for your support!

Dear Community,

On Thursday, 10/30/14, at 5 PM EST (9 PM GMT), there will be a round table discussion with the Developers and Staff.

In this meeting, we will discuss a multitude of things, such as the future of Face of Mankind and the community's involvement in future development.

All players are welcome, and the location and details will be announced in-game before it kicks off.

We hope to see you there! :)

+ Implemented Turrets

• Turrets come in two flavors, personal and territorial.
  
• Territory Turrets are deployed in owned territory and are counted as a territory object. They require electricity to power them, and will be de-activated if they do not receive it.
  
• Personal Turrets are purchased from the marketplace, and can be placed anywhere. They do not require electricity to run. There is however a maximum of 3 per person per world.
  
• All turrets have a handful of customization options, allowing them to define exactly under what circumstances a player should be targeted by a turret.
  
• Turrets cannot be hacked, but they can be destroyed!

+ Implemented Customized Schematic

• Every item in the game now has a "rarity" value. This value will help players differentiate between items of different benefits, and keep the market from becoming too cluttered by new items.
  
• Every schematic market now has another set of schematics for all Weapons, Armor, Medical Items, and Mechanical Augmentations. These special schematics allow players to customize the item's attributes, add mods, and further enhance either the process or the item itself.
  
• Production Mods can be found as loot from killing aliens. Mods include reductions to durability loss, bonuses to damage/protection/healing/effectiveness/ammo, and decreases to the amount of time the process takes.
  
  • 5-50% Production Speed Increase
    
  • 5-40% Durability Loss Reduction
    
  • 3-10% Damage/Protection/Healing/Effectiveness/Ammunition Buff
• With the ability to have multiple schematics for the same item, we have now added two additional carbon schematics. One that makes use of Anthracite, and another that makes use of Oil. These will yield more Carbon per resource than the normal schematic.

+ Based on player feedback, the following changes have been made to the bounty system

• The Hunter Augmentation can no longer lock onto offline targets.
  
• Bounty Creators will now receive a mail when someone has applied for the bounty.
  
• Bounties are now auto-deleted after a week if not completed.
  
• Dramatically increased the number of bounties that each player may apply for.
  
• Increased the maximum bounties an individual player may create.
  
• Arrests will now process as bounty kills.

+ A series of small changes have been made to increase the quality of life.

• Alien Loot now stacks similarly to minerals and production components.
  
• Backpacks are now automatically deleted after 8 hours.
  
• Added the current online status to the Department manager.
  
• Mission log entries older than a week will now be removed from the history correctly.
  
• Added pages to the mission log.
  
• Added inactivity search filters to the faction member list.
  
• Decreased the durability loss of armor.
  
• Decreased the destruction and xeno damage of all weapons.
  
• Removed the armor durability loss from death.
  
• Players will now see an icon above deployables that they own.
  
• When your trade opponent changes their credits or items, your trade will be automatically un-accepted.
  
• Explosive charges are now taken into consideration when detecting if a player is unarmed.
  
• Decreased the amount of time it takes for the slot machine to complete a spin.

+ Many new marketplace features have been added. These include new features in-game and additions to the marketplace.[/url]

• Aliens will now drop special Lock Boxes. These boxes can be unlocked using keys from the marketplace and will yield items not found in-game.
  
  • Blue: Contains every type of marketplace clothing and hat.
    
  • Green: Contains augmentations with a 5-20% buff to their effect, along with the Personal Turret.
    
  • Red: Contains guns with a 5-15% damage buff, with the Golden Zanathid (only available in this box)
    
  • Gray: Contains medical items with a 10-20% buff to their healing values.
    
  • Teal: Contains all production mods, along with a few special rare mods not available elsewhere.
    
  • Yellow: Contains armor with a 10-20% protection buff, and Exile Armor.
• Skill Time Respec
  
• Large Alien Eggs
  
• Alternative Armor Colors (Marketplace armor loses durability at half speed)
  
• Coin Vouchers
  
• Personal Turret

- Fixed a bug that would cause mechanical augmentations to never lose durability.
- Fixed a bug that would cause faction and player name changes to not appear in the department list.
- Fixed a bug that would occasionally cause production processes to break, costing the owner the items.
- Fixed a bug with merging armor when stacked together.
- Fixed a bug that prevented schematics from being split.
- Fixed a bug with the display of coin repair prices.
- Fixed a bug with the display of the energy pistol production skill.
- Fixed a bug that would cause players to drop their confiscated items if they died in prison after being released.
- Fixed a bug that would allow prisoners to vort to non-prison worlds.
- Fixed a bug that would cause casino funds to be lost entirely if the user was not on the world.
- Fixed a bug that was causing territory income to be logged as world service income.
- Fixed a bug that would incorrectly set the transfer target of slot machine withdrawals.

+ Added a new world to the vortex network: Pegasi 51: "51 Pegasi B is a massive planet orbiting at a distance of only 0.05 Aus from its sun. Although it is very tectonically active, the CMG established a colony here on a rock plateau where it is safe from the volcanic oceans." This world features the following services:

• Titanium + Uraninite Mining
  
• Schematic Market
  
• Item Storage
  
• Vortex Network
  
• Medical Station
  
• Item Recycler
  
• Apartment Complex

+ The faction rank colors will now be visible in Department chat.

- Fixed a bug that would occasionally cause knives and tazers to do no damage.
- Fixed a bug that would cause market items removed through the territory deployable to remain until the player left the world.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the hunter scanner from targeting players through normal scans.

+ Players outside of the owning faction and those without appropriate rank permission will no longer be able to release prisoners through the world service interface.
+ Upon escaping from prison, players will now lose only 10% of their penalty points, rather than 100%.
+ Murder ID Cards will now only be given to the initial attacker. If you are attacked by another player and kill them defensively, you will not receive penalty points.
+ Instead of the single cloning facility for everyone, players will now be organized into instances based on their faction, separating players of different factions from each other in cloning.
+ Every schematic item in the game is now flagged as a "secured," preventing them from being dropped on death.
+ Increased the falloff starting value for alien credits to 35,000 UC and increased the falloff scaling to reach its peak of a 90% reduction at 70,000 UC.
+ Reduced the durability loss per rock of the mining tool by 25%.
+ Increased the fire rate of all mining tools by 20%.
+ Increased the speed of mining rigs by 20%.
+ Decreased the completion time of chemical lab processes by 30%.
+ Implemented a rank permission that will allow faction leaders to define the color of a players messages in faction chat.
+ The emergency shield will now go on cooldown after a player begins hacking an object.
+ For their first 24 hours, the emergency shield of new players will not go on cooldown when attacked by other players. It will however still be subject to all other restrictions, and will go on cooldown when they fire their weapon or hack begin hacking an object.

+ Increased the faction membership bonus to 2,000 UC per member.
+ Added a world market to Terra Venture I.
+ Removed the item class restrictions of World Markets.
+ Increased the amount of time it takes to work off more than 100,000 PP.
+ Decreased the maximum agility of prisoners to 70%.
+ Decreased the time it takes to find people using the Hunter augmentation.

- Fixed a bug that caused every member in a faction to be counted for the membership bonus.
- Fixed a bug with the login UC message for free players.