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How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 3:37 pm
by auridas330
So i got an idea, a new separate slave ship! You get a big ship with a slave room, where you keep the slaves it could also have a mini teleporter to send the slaves to their cells, this room also would need to be manned. The only way to get slaves would be to board the enemy ship get them to low health and use some special ability(like the crystal guys) to put some kind of a tracker and then they would be teleported to the cell room where the guy who is manning it could take them to the cell. There you could you them or just sell them or use them for your ship management.
This is a great idea in my head but i guess this needs a sandbox mode to be practical.

Re: How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 3:47 pm
by Guswut
I don't think allowing the end user to become a slaver makes sense in the current game design (you're on a vital mission) so yeah, sandbox would likely be best for this. Besides that, though, I'm sure it'd also have a bit of PR (public relations) sting to it, as slavery is normally considered a "no-no" topic, so that would have to be taken into account.

Re: How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:00 pm
by auridas330
Yah so that why I said, it would be in a sandbox :)
Anyway i would love this

Re: How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:05 pm
by Vigilant
Since when is slavery i good idea? Even in a game? :roll:

Re: How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:17 pm
by Guswut
Vigilant wrote:Since when is slavery i good idea? Even in a game? :roll:


Slavery already exists in FTL (you can fight slavers, purchase slaves from them, and can get attacked by slavers) so your argument is not valid from that standpoint. Now, allowing the player to become a slaver, and use slaves as cannon fodder is where problems start to become more likely, I'd say.

Re: How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:21 pm
by Vigilant
Yep. That´s the point.

Re: How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:40 pm
by Eyjio
I was thinking you'd be a pirate/"free trader", so you could hold hostages as an event at the end of battles - maybe if you boarded and they surrendered, you could force them to join your crew, or impress them enough. I think actually selling slaves is a little bit too grim for such a light hearted game, especially when slavers are in at the moment basically to function as a free crew member battle.

Re: How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:44 pm
by Guswut
Vigilant wrote:Yep. That´s the point.


So, to clarify, your point is that you think slavery should be removed from the game entirely? If that is, in fact, your point, I disagree entirely. Slavers add an extremely good way to obtain crew (and cheap so long as you are able to harm their ship quickly enough, which has never been a problem for me). They are also logical attributes of the universe, especially considering the fall of the Federation power structure and rise of the Rebels, which appear to be much less organized.

Regarding the morality of it, well, it is a game, and you aren't dealing with it directly. The worst thing you can do as the player is either sacrifice one of your crew to a slaver ship to protect yourself against destruction (which may be a safer place to be, if you are so weak as to be unable to defend yourself against a slaver), or purchase a slave from a slaver for an outrageous price. You can also directly fight against slavers, which gives the moral high ground (until you then go and accept a slave as a bribe to keep from killing the slaver, but eh, you'd kill off all of the slaves then, as well).

Although if you still feel a need to be against slavery in this game, why aren't you against the murder of hundreds of living sentient beings that occur throughout a single play (if you are lucky, or unlucky depending on how your combat and random events go, respectfully)? I would consider murder worse than slavery, and as such it should be something you should more vigilant about being rolling-eye upset over, no?

And, finally, it is just a game, which would be why I'd like to see slavery further detailed (slaver groups, markets, anti-slavery groups, constant conflicts over it, slave crew members, etc) being added into a sandbox game if that ever happens.

Re: How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2019 7:06 pm
by Fins
I would say this idea should not be implemented in any game as long as slavery in real world exists. And yes, it does exist even today. Google "modern slavery" and see yourself.

Why? Because games are known to have a degree of psychological effect which at times affects actions of people in real life. Obviously normal person would never allow it to happen, but we have no control about who plays what. Cases when, say, some weirdos who played GTA too much comitted actual real-life crimes in the "GTA style" - are well known. This is why it's best not to anyhow make people do crime-like actions in games. I mean, even if a single person would ever end up suffering for this kind of idea being implemented into FTL and some madman doing some real-life slavery just because he had the idea in his subconsiousness for years after playing this kind of game? Not worth it, right?

I'd say, it's perfectly sane and correct about slavery as it exists in FTL right now. The game does good job of indicating the thing is one bad, bad thing, see. Freeing slaves comes with good rewards, etc. Freedom to participate in slavery is given in as abstract form as possible, merely indicating that such a choice could exist in this kind of virtual universe, but never "elaborating" on the slavery process itself. Best to keep it that way, i think.

Re: How awesome is this idea?

Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2020 7:19 am
by isitshaloyo
Fins wrote:I would say this idea should not be implemented in any game as long as slavery in real world exists. And yes, it does exist even today. Google "modern slavery" and see yourself.

Why? Because games are known to have a degree of psychological effect which at times affects actions of people in real life. Obviously normal person would never allow it to happen, but we have no control about who plays what. Cases when, say, some weirdos who played GTA too much comitted actual real-life crimes in the "GTA style" - are well known. This is why it's best not to anyhow make people do crime-like actions in games. I mean, even if a single person would ever end up suffering for this kind of idea being implemented into FTL and some madman doing some real-life slavery just because he had the idea in his subconsiousness for years after playing this kind of game? Not worth it, right?

I'd say, it's perfectly sane and correct about slavery as it exists in FTL right now. The game does good job of indicating the thing is one bad, bad thing, see. Freeing slaves comes with good rewards, etc. Freedom to participate in slavery is given in as abstract form as possible, merely indicating that such a choice could exist in this kind of virtual universe, but never "elaborating" on the slavery process itself. Best to keep it that way, i think.


Slavery already exists in FTL (you can fight slavers, purchase slaves from them, and can get attacked by slavers) so your argument is not valid from that standpoint. Now, allowing the player to become a slaver, and use slaves as cannon fodder is where problems start to become more likely, I'd say.