The OPFOR Initiative - Bad guys in a good way!

[Matt_Bradock]

Getting bored of nothing to do in the game?
Worried about the player count, and newbies dropping off after seeing the lack of content?
Want to teach people or learn yourself, about efficient building, combat tactics and piloting, and general PvP in Starmade, in a relatively fair and friendly way?
Want to shoot stuff, while you're also improving your community?

The OPFOR Initiative is looking for players who are experienced in Starmade, and are willing to play the opposing force - the good kind of bad guys.

I'm aiming to create a group of people, who, even as a side project, are willing to play the baddies and using that, teach willing participants - primarily newbies - how to PvP in Starmade, using player-driven events, such as battle royales, pirate raids, convoy ambushes, station sieges etc., if possible, coordinating with server admins.
This is not about winning; OPFOR is not about ruthlessly roflstomping your enemies into the ground until they leave the server and completely lose interest in the game, but to provide a fair fight they can win, if they try, and are rewarded for winning, both ingame and by gaining valuable experience.
That said, not only pilots are welcome - builders too, even primarily RP builders, as OPFOR will be using mostly off-meta, sometimes intentionally dumbed down designs, which look better than they perform, or have intentional design flaws, in order to give the newbies or less experienced players a chance to win, and to let them learn to look for, and take advantage of, weaknesses in ship-to-ship combat.

OPFOR will also offer new players a chance to join in order to bolster numbers, hold combat drills and make PvP fun again - preferably for both sides. The more the merrier - the more members we have, the bigger events we can host.

OPFOR - the good kind of bad guys! Enlist today!

Look for OPFOR_Drake on Freaks, or Matt_Bradock on Brierie, both ingame and on Discord, if you want to learn more. Also feel free to start a conversation here.

 

[aceface]

do you plan to expand to lvd? they have a lot more players usually

 

[Matt_Bradock]

do you plan to expand to lvd? they have a lot more players usually

I might have to, but my main problem with LvD is the few but significant bored bloodthirsty metaslaves who would drop by with a 100K+ mass metaboat to crash a corvette-scale pre-arranged consensual training battle just to increase their kill count.

 

[aceface]

I might have to, but my main problem with LvD is the few but significant bored bloodthirsty metaslaves who would drop by with a 100K+ mass metaboat to crash a corvette-scale pre-arranged consensual training battle just to increase their kill count.

hm ok makes sense.

 

[JinM]

I might have to, but my main problem with LvD is the few but significant bored bloodthirsty metaslaves who would drop by with a 100K+ mass metaboat to crash a corvette-scale pre-arranged consensual training battle just to increase their kill count.

Just just want to say that I didnt perceive it that bad.

There is like one out of five online players that actually play with metaboats. And it's even less likely that the pvper that's online is one of those anarchy ones that don't care at all.

But I agree that the concept of the server encourages this sort of anarchy behaviour and I am not a fan of it myself. Sadly I have to play there, because it's the only populated server right now. Don't get me wrong the admins there do a very nice job and the overall playerbase is really nice on LvD. I just don't like the core concept of meta pvp and any battle where the mass exceeds 20k mass.

 

[IKindaCrashAlot]

I might have to, but my main problem with LvD is the few but significant bored bloodthirsty metaslaves who would drop by with a 100K+ mass metaboat to crash a corvette-scale pre-arranged consensual training battle just to increase their kill count.

Please don't complain about 100k+'s when your previous faction (Arstotzkan Federation) brought 600k mass to try and beat a 12k mass.

 

[Reilly Reese]

Please don't complain about 100k+'s when your previous faction (Arstotzkan Federation) brought 600k mass to try and beat a 12k mass.

I can't even remember the last time Matt genuinely was involved in factions.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

I can't even remember the last time Matt genuinely was involved in factions.

Well, I only joined ARS because I was bored out of my mind and they were the ones when I first joined LvD willing to take me in (and I saw the most somewhat familiar names there)
I never took faction play too seriously, not even in the height of the I-Spy forum wars era. I was genuinely trying to have fun with people. The main reason I quit the Odium Pact and took a hiatus in the game is because it was not fun any more. OP quickly became a "No fun allowed" zone... I wanted to gain friends in this game, not enemies. And to treat it as a game, not an all-out war where everything is permitted to win. This whole idea about OPFOR was also rooted in that, to treat the game as a game, get to know people, encourage new players and have fun.

 

[aceface]

OP quickly became a "No fun allowed"

any specific event that caused this? didnt know you felt this way.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

any specific event that caused this? didnt know you felt this way.

If you remember, the main events that led to me and a few others quitting OP were 1. when Khaak got busted for exploiting on Shattered Skies, caught in the act by an admin who even recorded it, and 2. when Blackhawk called CR out for something said on the CR private conversation he wasn't even part of, proving that OP members spied on each other, and 3. the overwhelmingly bad reputation of OP and anything associated with it going to a level that any server I appeared on I had people starting to quell the mob for a public lynching.

 

[TheyHide]

You are not going to get much action as a bad guy faction or even as a PvP faction in general unless you go to LvD

 

[Matt_Bradock]

I think you misunderstand the purpose,TheyHide - this is not a PvP faction or a griefer faction. Primary goal is to assist and educate newbies to overcome the steep learning curve. OPFOR members aren't expected to randomly pick a newbie and raid them with ships designed for AI use. OPFOR members are expected to provide advice, and opportunity for learning and having fun without taking too much risk. Exactly so the new players can later to go LvD and not be absolutely clueless what nailed them.

 

[IKindaCrashAlot]

I think you misunderstand the purpose,TheyHide - this is not a PvP faction or a griefer faction. Primary goal is to assist and educate newbies to overcome the steep learning curve. OPFOR members aren't expected to randomly pick a newbie and raid them with ships designed for AI use. OPFOR members are expected to provide advice, and opportunity for learning and having fun without taking too much risk. Exactly so the new players can later to go LvD and not be absolutely clueless what nailed them.

But OPFOR means opposing force, you’re not opposing anybody like the name suggests. You’re more just a scrub training camp so they can come onto LVD and get nailed anyways since if you’re emphasizing off meta builds, then you better have some serious man power to back that up so that you can compete with the generally smaller factions that use meta builds.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

But OPFOR means opposing force, you’re not opposing anybody like the name suggests. You’re more just a scrub training camp so they can come onto LVD and get nailed anyways since if you’re emphasizing off meta builds, then you better have some serious man power to back that up so that you can compete with the generally smaller factions that use meta builds.

OPFOR means opposing force yes, ESPECIALLY DURING DRILLS. The only reason we are using off-meta builds (but do not encourage using them) is because we're dealing with newbies who'd die to metaships before they would realise what killed them. Emphasis is on doing proper scouting, communication and learning to use the basic ship functions and cooperation in combat (like the chambers, the scanners, targeted turrets) before getting to the overly specific meta-related stuff like how to bypass the power consumption penalty for multiple outputs by binding each output to a separate computer on an XBB array and how to bind that to a logic inner ship remote if you wanna use that setup on the main ship, or how it's not needed on AI because it can fire all weapons simultaneously on its own.