Ranks in the colony

[pad69]

ranks...
Mission commander should be a combination of the most experienced player, the most active and maybe the one preferred for that slot.
the game has grown to a point where we need a bit more command authority and / or discussion around job allocation and also the finer details of the specialisted roles.
zaneo has done some fine work doing calulations but we need to have a better plan for such things as harvesting of food etc, what age, how many to plant..with a server holding upto 64 people and the test runs having at least 15-18 people now we need a bit more order therfore time for a mission commander and a few other specialist roles, not in aheavy handed way but to make sure thing work smoothly.
also having a crack at roles and ranks now we kinda testing out for hyper the social aspects of the game.
what is positive is that each member of the test team has contributed in a productive manner and basically helped out hyper find and test the glitches.
once again thanks to hyper for all the work in producing such a interesting game with so much potential.

Nice!

[Jeno]

In my opinion in this game ranks, leveling etc. don't have such importance like lets say in classic RPGs.

But if you add leveling as a feature, I agreed with Snowpig in that "doing everything to gain lvl/rank" (in this game) is not the best method.
Of course you can say: in a harsh environment like Mars EVERYBODY has to/can do everything for better chance of survival - and we have to admit this is a reasonable explanation...
On the other hands this is just a game which is not aiming full realism in all aspect (if I'm wrong please correct me).

I would do the following

As Hyper mentioned there will be 4 skills: Agriculture, Biology, Engineering, Geology -> these skills cover all aspect of the game and each represents a profession (agriculturist, biologist, engineer, geologist).

Every player can do everything, but only at basic level.
After a short time all players will choose a profession (NOT BECAUSE the game forces him/her to do, but because of appreciation of necessity (let's say out of 20 colonists 10 are geologist 10 are biologist, new players won't choose these two paths (at least if use their brains )

So after the decision has been made...(before it, the player rank can be: colonist)

[here two methods are possible:
1) the game not register the players profession, ask them if you interested, or
2) after the decision, the player must register his/her chosen profession at the base main computer, so everybody can check how many lets say geologist have been registered, what can make the profession decision easier for new players!]

...players start practice their chosen profession and after a previously set number of activities they gain level.
(example -> profession agriculturist: after planted 30 seeds, watered and harvested them reach the 1. level; plant and harvest 60 plants - available only for level 1 agriculturist -  for 2. level, etc.).

What is the benefits of gaining higher level?
- activity time is reduced (again agriculturist: faster planting, faster soil examination, faster plant processing etc.)
- certain activities require high(er) level (engineer: repair complex systems require, lets say, min. engineer level 2)
- certain tools/equipment can be used at high(er) level.
- materials effect last longer, creation success increase, etc.

Number of levels
How many level? -> It is up to Hyper (as everything else ) but I think 3 maximum 4.

Rank
The game can add a name to each level

For example: engineer
3 level version:
engineer level 1: engineer
engineer level 2: consulting engineer
engineer level 3: senior engineer

4 level version:
engineer level 1: engineer trainee
engineer level 2: engineer
engineer level 3: consulting engineer
engineer level 4: senior engineer

The other profession level name can be similar just replace the "engineer"...
As I mentioned before just because the player choose one profession doesn't mean he/she can't perform activities in the other 3 paths, but only at the lowest level (colonist = level 0).

And here comes the tricky part - each player can choose more than just one profession, but reaching the highest level in a profession not an easy task! It should require abundance of more and more complex activities and time.

I'm waiting for your opinions about this!

[Corentin196]

You should do medical skills too, we would maybe need a medic on Mars, we never know