I offer cookies with chocolate chips and a hug!!!!! vote for an honest and heartless dark eldar only worried about your suffering!!!
The only reason im against any sort of 'voting' system is that it just takes power away from casual players and puts more in the hands of organised clans/ guild - In this way it is very similar to modern politics. E.g. in Planetside 2 there was an outfit called "the enclave", which was ran by a racist fool. The leader of this outfit seemed to always avoid bans - even though videos of him raging at other players found themselves on YouTube. The dev team couldn't afford to ban him because his outfit could all threaten to leave the game - and they take up half the of TR population on that server. So please, if you do intergrate a voting system, please don't give much control over the server's meta to the elected, it paves the way for over-sized clans to be elitist pricks who always get their way.
My hope is that there is a wide array of cosmetic customization and a narrower scope of customization related to optimizing for a specific role. For example, as a SM levels up he gains access to lots of cosmetic options for armor and a handful of purity seals that give bonuses like faster reloads, higher melee crit chance, and larger health pool. Maybe at certain levels you get new seals that provide 3-4 different bonuses depending on where you put it. Placing a seal on the chest maybe grants a toughness boost or putting it on the legs grants a slight speed boost. I also hope that the game is set up so that even the basic, iconic weapons are always good and not completely outclassed by other options. For example, I want there to be a good reason to use a chainsword instead of a power sword or a bolter instead of a plasma gun. I hope the more basic equipment can be customized and upgraded to remain viable so that it is fun to use a bolter at both min and max level.
A -lot- of visual customisation is needed. Things that everyone has access to like drops or whatever, then certain things in whatever in-game store there might be, as well as unique achievement items to really show off etc. Obviously limited at the start but as the character becomes more advanced the options for visual customisation should also become more advanced. An example from planetside 2, a rank 100 players compared to a rank 20 player. The only difference is likely to be the helmet and possibly a camo, but other than that the two are identical and that's really not good. A player that achieves certain feats should be able to show it off. For example if a group of players bring down a big nasty Tyranid they would get a cosmetic trophy item to put on their character to show it off, now everyone around them would know that they managed to kill that Tyranid. On the subject of trophies: Put trophies in the game. Trophies are cool. To me visual customisation is very important to really make a character get that perfect look and stand out rather than everyone around you looking like clones.
Progression of some sort is an absolute necessity. An enlarging pool of play stile options is a form of progression, and one that it looks like EC is going to use. I hope that there are no restrictions to progression placed on someone that plays solo. The fact that the solo player is already part of the faction should grant them access to anything they can afford with resources, and "renoun"(level/rank/experience/unlocks ect.) Having to be part of, (or worse in charge of) a "guild" in order to use a piece of wargear will drive players away. Unless "guilds" are going to be able to be created and maintained by one person, which is kind of silly.(but is something I have had to do in other games)
As far as i understand there are no such restrictions planned, the current idea is that an xp bonus will be awarded to groups following orders down the chain of command. So everyone gets the same access, just solo players will take a bit longer to accumulate xp for unlocks ect.
Ok, you are a Exarch, I am a Normal SM. You have access to, (lets just throw an arbitrary number out there) 10 weapons. I am on day one and I have access to My bolt pistol and a chain sword. I can, if I play well still kill you because the field is still even. If you however, have even a 5% buff, there is no way I am going to win against you. So, me and my brother new SM's see this, say to hell with it, and go somewhere else and fight because we don't have a Sergeant with the same buff that can match you. So you win the day because you were OP. Rinse repeat, swing the nerf bat, things go out of balance, everyone loses. My point is: Once you reach the level of sergeant, YOU should be good enough at employing your avatar, that a day one new player should not be able to beat you, although he/she could if they play well enough. This system relies on your skill, your ability to choose the right tool for the job. Not some buff that makes your life easier.
Luckily that racist idiot and his band of merry morons disbanded. He was about the worst thing to happen to that game.
I am hoping that being a guild leader does not automatically give you a 'seat at the table'. Great you are a guild leader, the rest of us have to much going on/no desire to baby sit all day. Being a guild leader does not make any better informed or more capable of any of your members outside your guild. How you do things internally is up to you, it should have no bearing on how Dev's interact with you. IMO.
