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[Hatter]

The whole point of the update is to "Uniquify the factions" but the only unique thing the update introduces for the diktat is a set of D-skins, and two weapons you have to ruin your relations with said faction to acquire. People are complaining so much because all of the additions regarding the diktat only serve to negatively characterize a sub faction of the diktat as incompetent yes-men. Ultimately the LG ships being D-mod skins isn't even that big of a deal, but it's still a boring decision that seems like wasted effort. 

Assuming that the weapons can't be found by arms dealers, they're not on the black market, you can't jump one of the fleets with your transponder off, and that you can't take a rep hit raiding to get blueprints, there's still hanging around scavenging after fights in system.

From "A True and Accurate History of the Persean Sector," (circa 2017) it's noted that Andria declared himself the Supreme Executor for life and started purging dissent. I think a fair degree of negative 'yes-man' characterization was there, just not in focus.

I'm not a fan of LG skins getting solar shielding at cost, compared to XIV skins being mostly a straight buff, Pather skin giving SO, and pirate skins changing systems and mount types. I think that difference compared to the other skins is causing several people to post strongly about it, aggravated by the fact that combat and fitting loadouts is the primary means of interacting with ships in this game. Still, they look great and Solar Shielding isn't that terrible to be stuck with and will have an impact on how the Sindrian are fought, making them universally more resistant to energy weapons and visually distinct.

[Voyager I]

Assuming that the weapons can't be found by arms dealers, they're not on the black market, you can't jump one of the fleets with your transponder off, and that you can't take a rep hit raiding to get blueprints, there's still hanging around scavenging after fights in system.

The Lion's Guard is a special sub-faction separate from the ordinary Diktat military that doesn't have blueprints to raid for or markets to raid them from, and Alex has stated that the weapons as currently implemented are not available through any means other than battlefield salvage, and even then they're only ever fielded by Lion's Guard Executors. You can try some ~shenanigans~ to get your hands on them without going openly hostile to the Diktat, but it's going to make it even harder to get weapons that will be quite rare to begin with.

To be honest, this is the part that concerns me the most - players are receiving a strong mechanical incentive to treat the Diktat like a loot pinata faction and a strong disincentive to make any kind of sincere friendship with them, since they're the faction whose unique equipment can only be acquired through violence towards them. Maybe this is itself a commentary on the perverse incentives established by Andrada's egocentric decision making, though in-fiction I can't imagine that factions are setting their policies based on the existence of an independent captain capable of toppling polities and who would be willing to do so for a technological curiosity.

[Big Bee]

Yea not being able to get the weapons through any means other than salvaging Executors is pretty dumb. Surely, the black market, or a contact could get their hands on them at least sometimes.

It kinda feels like an overly gameplay-related decision, which is weird given how a lot of the issues with the new Diktat stuff seem to come from focusing too much on lore and not enough on player experience.

[Oni]

Personally I'd have just given the Diktat a "Lion's Guard" mod that's a straight benefit to represent the money and resources poured into the fleet (including Solar Shielding), but slapped on the 'ill-advised modifications' D-Mod like Pather ships to represent the bad suggestions from the Boss.

I mean "ill-advised modifications" is an existing D-Mod specifically for this sort of thing, no need to re-invent the wheel and force the players to use sub-par specs if they want the fancy paint job.

[illusion_xxx]

Made an account just to make this post and have my voice heard.

Having read the changes to the Diktat, I disagree with the design philosophy with it being a "parade-ground military".

They're already the smallest and weakest faction. They are a military dictatorship that's declared independence from the Hegemony with only a single star system. They cannot achieve and maintain that situation without some serious military capabilities. The designer seems to want to make it into some stereotypical tinpot dictatorship, which cannot exist without >extensive< foreign backing, which the Diktat clearly lacks.

Their capital ship, while it could be quirky due to the Admiral's interference, should not be a design disaster. Instead it should be different, but effective and suitable to the Diktat's needs. Like a post said before me, I think the D-Mod "ill-advised modifications" is a very elegant solution, instead of a similar but different hullmod which just adds things unnecessarily. Also, I think the Diktat variant of ships should be comparable, if not superior, versions of the vanilla ships that's more suitable to their needs. Their paintjob is one of the coolest looking ones, and therefore, from an aesthetic point of view, their ships need to the capabilities to match their paintjob. Again, "somewhat quirky but effective and suitable for their needs", should be the core philosophy of the Diktat, imo.

You don't get to survive as a single system faction in the middle of the known space without the military prowess to back it up.
I think there are many players, like I, that want to see the Diktat as a strong ally/formidable opponent despite their size, instead of a joke faction full of gimped ships.

[Grievous69]

As much as I agree with you guys, Ill-advised modifications is much worse than the hullmod Lion Guard ships will get.

[Thaago]

... You don't get to survive as a single system faction in the middle of the known space without the military prowess to back it up.

Well, it is one of the densest systems in terms of concentrated military force, with multiple large military markets, it spawns lots of fleets, the "regular" forces are all state of the art for the sector, and the "D" mod on the special forces is honestly pretty minor. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't they neutral during the last major conflict that happened after they became an independent entity?

So you have a high defensible system with a quite large 'regular' force operating at 100% and then another 'show' force on top of that, which has never really been tested so people don't know that its actually ever so slightly under performing (but it has the highest tech guns in the sector for propaganda purposes)... thats a pretty huge deterrent not even counting the economic position Sindria has by being in the center of the sector and a potentially key swing polity.

... instead of a joke faction full of gimped ships.

Its really not though. On top of 2 large fully functioning military markets producing high quality ships, they have some ships with a minor D mod, and a capital which is a skin of another capital with some questionable mounts... that is apparently still powerful enough to straight up punch out a Paragon. I can understand people being annoyed by the cool looking skins being not good for players outside of showpieces, but the 'the faction is gimped!!' cries seem really out of proportion to the actual effect described.

[illusion_xxx]

I can understand people being annoyed by the cool looking skins being not good for players outside of showpieces, but the 'the faction is gimped!!' cries seem really out of proportion to the actual effect described.

It is gimped considering other factions are getting positive upgrades or sidegrades, while they only get downgrades.

If the D-Mod and the badly designed capital ship is supposed to represent the guy's "narcissistic" side, then I'd like to remind people that he is also described as "intelligent" in the same sentence. Not to mention the fact that he managed to secede from the Hegemony, not an easy feat by any stretch.

Therefore, alongside any D-Mods, there should also be enough positive upgrades to go along with it, hence my term "quirky". Same goes with the capital ship, it should be "different" instead of "suboptimal at best".

[Amoebka]

The capital ship IS different. It has 2 of the 4 large missiles swapped for large energies. It's the rest of the skins that are a problem.

[Megas]

Ill-Advised Modifications is terrible.  Weapons will go offline permanently before the ship gets its first kill.  It is that bad.  Ships with it ought to be restored as soon as possible to remove that crippling d-mod.

LG skins being a net downgrade and nothing else unique about them (swapped mounts, different systems, and/or net better stats) makes them look worse than other factions' custom skins.  At least Executor will have energy mounts, but the rest get nothing else to make up for their "Special Modifications" downgrade mod.  Spec.Mods. ought to have some bonuses mixed in with their penalties, like High Scatter Amplifier adding damage and hard flux to beams while it cuts range and blocks Advanced Optics.

[Serenitis]

After taking some time to (finally) read though this thread, I can conclude that it's ride and a half.
I have only a single thing to add:

Spoiler

[close]

I like the idea as proposed. It's a neat intersection of lore, mechanics and political awareness.

[Alex]

Probably worth noting that I ended making a few changes to these, basically because the skins do look so cool Playing up the angle that Tri-Tachyon - they're always going to have an angle, whatever they're involved with - are using the dark Diktat contracts to do a bit of concept testing of their own, without having skin or money in the game.

The LG ships (minus the Executor, which is a separate case and not limited to the LG) are still ever so slightly worse than baseline on average (so the power level isn't really changed), but there's some niche potential. Also a few changes to the Executor, too; those are more along the lines of slight buffs with some, ah, thematic downsides, but net-positive overall. Definitely not getting into the details now though, sorry!

[Grievous69]

That's really nice to hear!

Definitely not getting into the details now though, sorry!

Probably smart seeing how almost the whole thread was just repeating the same things.

[Doctorhealsgood]

Probably worth noting that I ended making a few changes to these, basically because the skins do look so cool Playing up the angle that Tri-Tachyon - they're always going to have an angle, whatever they're involved with - are using the dark Diktat contracts to do a bit of concept testing of their own, without having skin or money in the game.

The LG ships (minus the Executor, which is a separate case and not limited to the LG) are still ever so slightly worse than baseline on average (so the power level isn't really changed), but there's some niche potential. Also a few changes to the Executor, too; those are more along the lines of slight buffs with some, ah, thematic downsides, but net-positive overall. Definitely not getting into the details now though, sorry!

!!!

[Twilight Sentinel]

It is really unfortunate just how much of the discussion was people blowing up over the LG ships being ever so slightly weaker than stock.  How this apparently ruined the entire Dictate's military, even though the LG is a minor part of their military which is added on top of the normal military, I have no idea.  Even if everything had been kept as originally proposed, Sindria would have still been the toughest system to crack in the game, with the largest and most numerous military patrols.

The only downside for the player was that some pretty ship skins you could only get from battlefield salvage would have been worth a tiny bit less.