A Dev Proposal for Making SWG the Best Sci-Fi MMO

I am in no way endorsing soe for this, or the nge. But if Smedley were taken out of office for idiot crimes ans swg could go roll back or improve then here is a post I found most interesting.

http://http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/board/message?board.id=swggpdiscussion&message.id=588322

I have been in two minds over whether to post this or not, as there are some elements which may be found as controversial, however perhaps this will spark some intelligent and thought provoking debate among the community as well as interest the Devs as well.  So with no further adieu, my vision of a better SWG:

Bringing the GCW to life

I. Battlefield Planets

While I realise you can never create the perfect system that everyone will love 100% of the time, it should be possible to implement changes that will appeal to the majority.  I think the first thing one must look at is Star Wars Battlefront 1 & 2.  They are, without a doubt, the most successful Star Wars games ever, and the combat concept for both is what SWG should be aiming for in future development.  While that may seem a daunting task, it may be simpler than imagined.  Let’s look at battlefields in the first instance.  They were an original and innovative idea in the first instance which largely never came into fruition, be it for technical or game-play reasons.  However that doesn’t mean that they were an outright failure. 

Using a battlefield for our base model, it should be possible to create instanced planets based purely around a battlefield concept.  Many players have said this before, and they all suggest Hoth as the setting, and though I agree I’d love to see Hoth fully realised, it isn’t practical in a timeline or development sense.  I think Hoth would become more of an attraction rather than a solid place for combat.  Sure it would be used heavily in the first week, but gradually the numbers visiting Hoth would rapidly dwindle.  If, however, you were to implement battlefield planets that didn’t have such Cannon specific importance, you would effectively have a fresh pallet to work from.  Additionally, you could set them to have a conservative limit of players per instance of each planet.  For example, you could set the instance to only allow 120 players of each faction per instance.  Once that number was reached, a new instance started in order to cut down the lag.  Furthermore, you could look at implementing combat vehicles that could only be used in these battlefields, or that were only combat enabled on these battlefield planets.  There are a wealth of combat vehicles too chose from purely from the Battlefront series alone, which I think would make many people happy. 

For a further model in an MMO environment, one only has to go as far as your very own Planetside.  It is based around this combat planet model using combat vehicles and squad based combat.  It is reasonable to assume a special raid system could be implemented on these battlefield planets so that a large number of groups could network together and play as a small army or platoon.  Additionally I think there should be NPCs enabled on either side for combat, also using combat vehicles where appropriate.  If you wanted to limit combat vehicles purely to battlefield planets, perhaps it would be possible to code the vehicles to be able to be captured.  This brings us back to Battlefront.  When you entered one of the many theatres of war, there were a series of vehicles available that the player could drive and attack with, furthermore it was possible to capture enemy vehicles and use them against the enemy.  Ultimately, you could devise a point or flag system, whereby the dominant faction that day is in control of the planet and has bonuses in the way of equipment, offensive and defensive modifiers etc.  This would add a new dynamic to SWG and effectively be a first in MMOs.

Funcom currently has an expansion in development for Anarchy Online called Lost Eden.  It will be supporting this idea of using battle vehicles that a player doesn’t own for the duration of time on the battlefield.  Additionally it is set to allow for orbital bombardment from player controlled space stations.  This is another area that SWG could dominate.  How cool would it be to be an Officer leading a raid against a Rebel or Imperial target, and be able to not only call down the bombing run, but an actual orbital hit from either a factional space station, or better still, a cruiser in orbit?  These are the things that dreams are made of, but are also Star Wars combat models at their best.  One thing I really liked about the concept of the player owned faction space stations is that opposing faction players could storm the station and attempt to take it by force.  This could open the door to space raids using fighter craft, landing teams using multi-person ships and so forth.  This leads me nicely into my next section.

II. JTL and the GCW

This, like the concept of the battlefield planet, it to me an untapped resource which I think is in need of a major shaking up.  While the current system works, it is not very dynamic and exciting.  What I am proposing here is to completely change the face of space combat forever.  Currently we have the three distinct factions of space being rebel, imperial and neutral, but in this form it is very restrictive.  What if the freelance ships were made available to everyone and a space faction system similar to the ground was introduced?  What this means is if you are a factional player and you are on leave on the ground, you are on leave in space, and can only have access to flying freelance ships.  If however you are combatant, you can use your factional ship, and engage in combat against your opposing faction NPC vessels.  Furthermore, if you are special-forces, the moment you enter space you are PvP enabled and again, have access to your factional ships.  If you were combatant of special-forces, you would not be able to use the freelance ships for combat.  While some players may react negatively to this at first, I think given time, they will see the advantages to this system, and the immersion it can create for them.

III. Guilds and the GCW

As you know, Everquest 2 uses a system where the quests you do can actually alter how the citizens of your respective city respond to you.  The more quests you do the more "fame" or "prestige" you gain in that city/district/zone etc.  When this is tied into a guild, it allows for larger guild houses located within the cities, including static ones that aren't instanced, which albeit do require an obscene amount of coin each week to maintain, but the fact you have it says you are the shiznitz guild of Qeynos or Freeport.  The same could be used in a Star Wars environment. 

Let's use Bestine as an example.  There are various guild halls located through Bestine.  Let's say X number of them are instanced.  Once your guild reaches a certain status in the city you can apply for a guild hall through some AI system say at the capital building.  Once you are approved you are assigned an instanced guild hall, that you could actually end up sharing the front door to with about a dozen+ other guilds so don't expect to be hanging a sign on the door outside.  However over time, as you continue to do quests from the city, and your prominence increases, you'll see Stormtrooper squads stopping and saluting you, or Imperial officers doing the same.  Citizens will react to you with awe or deep respect.  The price of goods for you to purchase in that city goes down, and you even see a reduction in the maintenance cost on your guild hall.  Located within the guild hall would be pre-fab rooms like meeting and recreation areas, bedrooms for guild members etc.  The ones in AO are absolutely amazing, and would be a good reference point. 

After you've basically established yourself as the premier guild within the city of Bestine, this will eventually throw a flag to cause the Governor or Mayor to approach the guild leader and offer the one static guild hall.  For this I would say the bunker on the hill overlooking the city.  Only difference would be instead of it being just one floor like that, it have an elevator inside that opens into a huge complex in the hill itself, full of all the tech and kit to make everyone drool over.  However, it doesn't end there.  You have to maintain your prestige to keep the hall, and that would require more and difficult tasks, perhaps assigned by the sector Moffs or imperial command etc.  You can then choose to just maintain your prestige and keep what you have, or continue to increase it for further perks, like perhaps a landing pad, more defences, etc.

IV. Player Cities and the GCW

If a player city chooses to use the Stronghold feature, and is ringed by or has faction bases near to or part of the city, let them be attackable and potentially able to be captured by the opposing faction.  This could allow for new city defences to be made available, as well as the hiring or purchasing of factional NPCs to guard the city when you are not there.  The level of these NPCs would be determined by their cost, either through maintenance of they were hired, or though faction points if they were purchased.  A highly organised and defended city could foreseeably have CL90+ NPCs guarding it, where a poorly organised and defended city may only have NPCs equivalent to cl30 and above.  Perhaps a way to combat potential griefing through this system would be to enable vulnerable times for the entire city; similar to what is used for bases, or to allow the mayor to set the city to a battlefield status.  In this scenario, buildings could take damage, but only factional bases and defences could be destroyed.  Players would have to pay in money to their structures to repair them, much like their building taking damage due to insufficient funds to pay maintenance.

V. Rank Systems

Currently the only rank system we have is for ground combat.  Allow for a player to set whether they are navy or army, and allow for a ranking system based on their chosen department.

 Commodities Brokerage

I. Interstellar Trade

While there is already a basic system in place, via the Bazaar system, what I propose here is something a bit more dynamic, especially for Traders.  There are various systems that could be implemented here, but what I envisage is allowing for Trader missions that may involve land or space and the import and export of goods.  Whether they be on land or space they could come under attack by smugglers, pirates, Hutts and other nasty NPCs.  While these may be looked at as glorified delivery missions, they’ll be much more than that.  If they are ground based, they will require a co-operative action of a group in order to reach a destination in safety, and in space they’ll be putting their space combat skills to the test as they make their way to their coordinates.  This could also open a new line of ships based around freight-running.  Additionally these missions would differ because the Trader would be purchasing goods on one planet that may or may not be valuable on another, in the hopes of trading or selling them for an overall profit.  This could allow for a dynamic trade system that only Traders have access to and view sort of like an interstellar stock market. 

II. Smuggling

Smuggling could work much like the system above, however, they would have access to a black market of goods to buy, sell and trade.  Not only would smugglers be open to the same attacks as Traders, they would have the additional risks of local systems law enforcement, factional forces and bounty hunters out to make a fast buck at their expense.  Additionally, smugglers could have the option of attacking traders in space, disabling or destroying their ship, and taking their cargo.

Making Player Cities Better

I. Cityscapes

One thing that has always bothered me about SWG is how an amazing looking player city can still look like a frontier town due to its lack of walkways.  When you look at Anarchy Online as a comparison, the player cities are quite crisp, have roads and sidewalks and are quite well laid out and proportioned.  I don’t know what the ideal solution would be to realise a proper city model, be it force all cities to adopt a set of pre-defined structure patterns so that they might fit onto a pre-made paved area, or to simply have a paved area that expands with the city as it grows through it’s various stages, just to give it that finished look and feel.  Perhaps at Metropolis, it would be possible to add walls and gates to the city at an additional rate of maintenance.  While I realise not every patch of land that a city is built upon is level, and some are even near or surrounded by water, perhaps a limited number of terraforming options could be introduced to make such a placement possible.

II. Player Businesses

Currently we have cantinas, theatres, garages etc, but instead of the current model which a player uses a house or guildhall for their vendors, I propose the development of player owned shops.  There could be various styles linked to the existing architecture, but they could have pre-fab display structures within them that give it a more retail feel, while reducing the overall item count requirement of the structure.

III. NPCs

Yes NPCs.  Allow for a system that as a city grows, it encourages more NPCs to come to the city to give it a more live feel.  These NPCs could in turn give random mini-quests or be hired as city security etc.

IV. Guild Structures

Allow for new guild halls that contain instanced rooms for guild housing.  Each room would require maintenance paid upon them which would go towards the overall maintenance of the guild hall.

Diplomacy

Life as a Politician

This is a profession that could be used for so much more than simple city building.  There are a wealth of possibilities out there for people to take up politician and use it even within the GCW itself.  SWG is effectively about the politics of two warring factions, so how better to make your mark within it than by your own brand of diplomacy.  Quests and systems could be developed where by you had to use some form of diplomacy to either gather information, change minds, or even bluff you way into a place you shouldn’t be. 

This could create an alternate levelling system for Politician, where you use a set of skills made available in the form of specials as well as dialogue choices to control the flow of a conversation.  In one mission you could be sent in to deal with a group of delegates who can’t even agree on what chair they’ll set in, let alone actually sitting down and discussing whatever the matter is at hand, and it will be your job to convince them.  Using the skills available to you, you will attempt to sway each to the required thinking, gaining experience for each success and having to wait out a timer before attempting to try again on a failure.  Another mission could see you going behind enemy lines or infiltrating a criminal organisation, having to use your skills to talk you way in and through your mission to achieve whatever your goal is.  These scenarios could tie into combat just as easily.  It wouldn’t be hard to see a spy in the aforementioned scenario, having to worm their way into the hard of an organisation to assassinate the leader, or poison their mind in some way.  And further still, when attacking a dungeon such as the DWB or Corellian corvette, your skill at diplomacy might get you into areas that previously you wouldn’t be able to.  Either through quick wit or manipulation, you’d be an asset to the group you were in.

Crafting

Make it Matter

Currently there is quite a void within crafting, that reinstating item decay simply wont be enough to fill.  There need to be more new and exciting items available through crafters, and perhaps to add a new element to it, create a series of items that can only be available from certain planets.  These would be specialised items that traders could only make and sell on those worlds.  Obviously in the second – hand market it would be possible for them to be sold anywhere.  In the terms of item decay, to allow for its return, while not penalising players who have grown accustom to not having, allow for traders to repair the items to mint condition unless they have been destroyed in combat.  If they have been destroyed, then allow the object to be broken down into a specialised schematic and resources that can be used to reproduce a copy of the original item.  This would effectively allow a player to continue to use a prized piece of armour or weaponry even after it was destroyed, and also allows the trader to earn a living off this new repair trade.

Secondary Skill Advancement

How to Bring Back the Old, While Staying True to the New

There were many professions lost when the NGE went live that caused quite a stir throughout the community.  Most notably Creature Handler.  While I sympathise that CH does not fit well into the mould of the NGE profession set, there are still many elements of it that would still be useful.  What I propose would be for the essential skills such as taming and training, as well as control be attainable through a secondary skill set.  For example, some skills such as taming and training could be available to anyone, however, the ability to control 2 or more creatures or faction pets could be trainable only by officer.  Of all the professions, Officer would be the one, in my opinion, that should be able to command faction pets, and do so en masse.  Once they trained the skill to its highest level, they could control up to X number of faction or creature pets.

Another example would be Ranger and most of Scout, which are other professions whose elements could greatly benefit all combat classes.  While not everyone would want access to them, it would allow for people to train up terrain negotiation and creature knowledge.  The survival skills that allowed for tents and field camps to be erected could be made available to Officers, tracking and stealth modifying abilities could go to bounty hunter and spy.  The options are limitless from the pre-existing classes in how you implement them and make them available.  This would go along way of making people currently disgruntled with the existing system happy, as well as allowing for a more enriched experience for those still learning the game.

Secondary Professions

Trader & Entertainer for the Masses

This would no doubt be a very controversial idea, and yet one which given the current climate of the game, as well as the MMO market as a whole is necessary.  Make Trader and Entertainer akin to Politician and Pilot; available for all alongside their existing combat professions.  For existing veteran players, give them a tool that would allow them to become a CL80 combat profession were they to choose to use it to allow for some reward to them for being put through this dramatic change.  There would be no change to the progression or specialisation system for either profession, but it would then open the door for all content to be made available to those players, and also for veteran and new combat based players to dabble in crafting.  I’m sure many would argue this would affect the economy in a bad way, but the simple truth of the matter is, only people who would craft or entertain any way, are going to be the ones to truly take advantage of this.  The combat die hard isn’t going to have much interest in crafting or entertaining and will no doubt continue as they were.  However as new players are introduced into the game, they will find they have a wealth of options to explore as they develop their character.

New Professions

Brawler Archetype

Create a new brawler class that incorporates all the melee and unarmed professions that once existed in the game.  Furthermore, implement the more popular titles as you level up such as Teras Kasi Artist, etc.  This would greatly please many players, and while I realise anyone can use melee weapons or unarmed combat, these players would be the masters of it.  Not everyone wants to be the ranged combat virtuoso, so doing this will give players another option.

Soldier – Marksman Archetype

Create a new ranged combat class that incorporates elements from all the ranged classes.  They’ll be a sort of jack of all trades, front-line combat class.  There shouldn’t be anything fancy about them, just the boots on the floor, tough as nails ranged combatant.  This would give players who simply want to play the role of a Stormtrooper, mercenary or Rebel trooper the class they need to realise their goal.

New Factions

Diversity is Good

I propose opening up the game to further factions to allow for a more personalised gaming experience.  This would allow for further quests and themeparks that could be tailored to the specific factions.  Additionally as some of these factions already exist in space, some of the development is already there.  I think we would see a dramatic shift in the GCW if players had more options, then the true die hard Rebels and Imperials would be left to battle it out, while the other factions got into their own battles.  It would make for a more colourful and compelling undercurrent to the GCW and be more akin to what the Star Wars universe was like during this time of galactic upheaval.

My propose factions are as follows:

• Smuggler’s Alliance
  
• RSF
  
• Corsec
  
• Hutt
  
• Jabba
  
• Valarian

Breathing Life Back into NPC Cities

Variety is the Spice of Life

Allow new players coming into the game, as well as existing players, rent instanced housing within the NPC cities.  There is a similar system employed in EQ2, and for people who don’t like the idea of a player city but want a home, it could give another option for their gaming experience.  You could offer a range of apartments in varying sizes up to palatial penthouses, with the maintenance fees to come with them, as well as town houses and city manors for the more elite player with money to burn.

Expanding on this idea, allow for players to rent out shop space in some of the buildings, and supply them with pre-fab store environments they could use for displaying their wares and setting up their vendors.  This could be accomplished once again through instancing or these could be premium places that are theirs alone at a high rate of maintenance.

Tying this back into my original comments about guilds and the GCW, allow for guilds to have instanced structures within the cities, and obviously leave the one or two static ones in the cities for the ones who have the highest prestige within that city.

Space, the Final Frontier

Live and Work in Space

There are many space stations throughout the galaxy, and virtually every planet has one in their orbit.  Why not flesh them out using the interior from the tutorial and making them living and breathing cities in space.  Players could get missions and quests from NPCs onboard the station, and you could perhaps open up instanced housing and player shops similar to what I have proposed in the previous section.  This would deepen immersion within the game even further and give yet more options to what would hopefully be a new and expanding player base.  Another option would be to either allow guilds to take up residence in these stations, or to allow for guild controlled space stations.  Personally while I’m a fan of guilds having their own station, I only see them as viable options in the GCW Battlefield planet model I described earlier.

Player Owned Capitol Ships

This is and has always been a hotly debated and requested feature for the game.  I myself have always been in two minds over it.  On one hand who wouldn’t love to own a corvette or star destroyer, on the other hand, how the hell do you run it?  Watching the development of Star Trek Online has given me some ideas in this area.  They are proposing a system where by you work you way up through the command ranks and eventually are assigned a ship.  You technically won’t own this ship, nor will any of the players who crew it.  When there wasn’t a player available for one of the many operational positions within the ship, an NPC would take over and run it off an AI.  Obviously that job wouldn’t be run as well as if a human player was there doing it, but it would allow for continued operation of the ship.

Eventually you might be granted your own ship which was yours to keep, but it would be after countless hours proving you were capable enough to command one.  This would provide both a decent time sink, but also a way to make getting the ability to captain a capitol ship more rewarding.  It also means that space wouldn’t be littered with player capitol ships because the majority of them would be generated on a temporary basis.  A further option would be to create new instances of space that were for the sole purpose of using the capitol ships, such as space based battlefields.  Not only would that reduce lag, but again, would reduce the risk of griefing and overkill of numerous player capitol ships in normal space. 

On a final note, I do not think players should have anything larger than an Interdictor Class Cruiser for the Imperials, and a Light Mon Calamari Cruiser for the Rebels.  Ideally though, when first introduced, they should be restricted to vessels equivalent to the Corellian Corvette. 

Dynamic Content

Quests

This is one area that SWG seems to lack as far as the amount and differences between them.  However, I do realise there is a hefty shift in changing that, and the Trials of Obi-wan were by far some of the best quests I’ve seen in SWG.  That level of immersion and scope are the things you should be aiming for.  As with my point about diplomacy, this is an area that it could be used heavily.  Additionally, this would be a fantastic system for making better use of instances to create a more personal and tailored feel of Star Wars for the player.

For example, let’s take space as en example initially.  The player would start off getting their mission either on the ground, or perhaps off a space station.  Be it from someone on the space station if it were fully fleshed out, or through the comms system if you were in space.  The mission type could vary from search and destroy through classic assassination.  However, these missions would be difficult and require a large group.  This is where the PoB group system of 30 could be combined with an introduced Raid system.  You fly your PoB to the coordinates and go to hyperspace, arriving at your destination which will either be a factional space station or capital ship.  You would have stolen landing codes that would allow you to dock with your target and board it.  Once aboard you will carry out your mission, in addition to any secondary objections which while not necessary, would add to the challenge level and overall immersion and fun of the mission.  These would effectively be mini-dungeons spawned in an instance that would purely be for that group.  While there would have to be a system in place to made random missions generate with primary and secondary objectives, it would ad yet another layer to the game.

As for general quest, the more the merrier I say.  Add them in everywhere possible, and where possible make them as layered and as compelling as the Trials of Ob-wan.  For some other examples of quests at their best, look at the Baldur’s Gate series, Knights of the Old Republic series and Vampire : Bloodlines.  Additionally for variety, while I’m not a fan of the overall style of WoW, you can easily level up your alt, the play-style is radically different from one class to another, and there are a large variety of quests per level.  Additionally, for the more hardcore elements, there’s Raid content, strong PvP in the form of battlegrounds, and there is sense of accomplishment that is currently lacking in SWG.  Once you hit 90 and have done all the quests, what else is there?  While I realise this is a problem all MMOs face, surely it’s obvious that there is a need for more “endgame” development.

Story Arcs

This is an area I know you have promised a much needed kiss of life for.  I very much love the idea of story arcs, and would like to see them have a stronger impact on the face of the game as a whole.  Story Arcs also need to be much more compelling than they have ever been, though the early ones in the game came close to capturing that, but failed to deliver. 

Legacy Quests

While currently the content of the low level player, I would like to see more legacy quests.  They could involve a set of 30 level quests, in a system where you have the initial which normally takes you from the tutorial to about level 30, which would then introduce you to the next phase which would take you from 30 to 60 and finally 60 to 90.  Additionally, legacy quests at high or “end-game” levels should span the whole scope of the game and give such a rich and multi-layered experience that it lasts with the player for the rest of their days.  The rewards for doing these also need to be as intense for their level as the quests themselves are. 

Another example of how this could really benefit the game can be found in EQ2’s Heritage Quests.  They were a fantastic piece of development and were one of the things I truly loved about the game.

The Levelling Game

No matter what you do, for many players it’s always going to come back to this.  Gaining levels should be fluid and challenging, but it should not be nigh on impossible.  Additionally, certain levels should bring more of a challenge than others, creating milestones for the player once they’ve achieved them.  And finally there’s the level cap.  I am both for and against raising the level cap.  Certainly by doing this more content can be opened up in the form of an endgame, but I can’t see much need for a player to be beyond 90.  However, that doesn’t mean players should stop advancing or gaining experience for what they do.  This is where secondary abilities or alternative advancement to give it another name would be crucial.  It gives veteran players another hook to keep playing their existing high level characters, but also gives them the tools to introduce more diversity back into their character.  SWG used to be fantastic for diversity and the character system was very challenging and thought provoking, and while I loved it, and still to this day prefer it to what we have now, I also realise it did more harm than good.  It was a balancing and developmental nightmare, which I know no one who truly understands that would want to see return, that said, there are elements that can still be used from those old systems.  As I said in the section of the proposal dealing with professions, this is where you can take those elements and re-introduce them without actually having to change the existing structure of the professions you currently have to work with.

SWG Guide Program - The Sector Rangers

In an effort to provide a stronger customer service experience for people playing SWG, I think the implementation of this sort of program used in EQ and EQ2 would be quite valuable indeed.

Criteria to join

First offers for Guides should go to veteran players, as no one will know the game as well short of the GMs and developers themselves. These could be the core guides, from which a *head* guide if you will can be chosen. These guides could then be used to train new ones after the program becomes established, and effectively become team leaders over various time zones and servers. However going forward, applicants should have to reach a milestone level, say between 30 - 50 to ensure they are familiar enough with the game and it's various places so that they can effectively answer questions and give support where needed.

Players should have to undergo a questionnaire to show their skills at problem solving, customer service, and understanding basic game mechanics. Also at this stage, they would be asked to list any prior experience they may have had in similar schemes.

Guides should be expected to maintain 8 - 10 hours a week within the role of a Guide in order to retain their status. If this cannot be sustained due to vacation time or illness, then a GM or who ever is in charge of the Guide program, should be notified as quickly as possible to keep the player from losing their Guide status. Once accepted to the program, guides should have a probationary period to go through where they undergo training, have limited powers, and have an experienced guide assigned to them to tutor them and get them familiar with the operation. After the trainee is accepted as a fully fledged guide, there should be some form of incentive program to reward the player for the time they volunteer each month.

Realm of responsibilities

Frontline Customer Support: No one understands the issues of players as intimately as the players themselves. Allow them to field in game issues, before escalating serious ones up the chain of command to GMs. Most issues can be resolved w/o GM intervention, and it will free them up to do other things.

Out of hours Customer Support: MMOs are 24 hour games, however, that doesn't mean that there will always be GM support 24 hours a day. Having guides that can cover those gaps in service can mean the difference between a player being so frustrated that they do something rash, and being calmed down to a state where they can wait till a GM can properly deal with them in their own time.

Event Support: Play the role of NPCs or other key roles in GM events to greater improve the immersion for the game players.

Promote the Community: Showing gamers that the company values their time and input enough to take them on, even in a voluntary basis, shows a faith and interest beyond the norm in their player base.

Powers

A guide's power should be limited. They are there to work the front lines. They should be able to port themselves where ever they need to go. They should be able to move players when it is absolutely necessary, and perform modest GM functions. If there is a tier system to the Guide program, then perhaps a senior and more experienced Guide, like a team leader can have more powers akin to a GM, but as these powers could be too easily abused, they need to be earned. A typical chain of command could work as follows:

Trainee Guide - Tier 1, no powers, can only be involved in limited CSR related issues, while they learn under and experienced Guide.
Guide - Tier 2, they have modest GM powers, and are the boots on the floor of frontline customer relations. They help when needed, and escalate when they can help no longer.

Guide Team Leader - Tier 3, primarily responsible for training up new guides, and assisting with customer relations as part of their normal duties. While they do not necessarily have more powers than a standard guide, it will be their reports that may determine who passes and fails guide probation.

Guide Captains - Tier 4, junior GM, has a wider range of GM abilities than thier counterparts, though not the full range. They help supervise the guides under them, ensure training programs are going as scheduled, also take part in customer relations and are the last port of call before escalating issues to a GM.

GM - Tier 5, no explanation needed.

Message Edited by DarthMercilous on 03-14-200603:00 PM

Message Edited by DarthMercilous on 03-14-200606:47 PM

Now I think alot of this would be good, some bad, but would bring me back.

Thank you for this darth mercilous.

What do all you forumites think about these ideas?