OK, what I meant to say was:
Leave a bit of yourself in your characters.
But use this carefully. I left my desire to do it with hot Japanese women with a girl. But don't overdo it either, as you may end up RP'ing yourself no matter what character you're on.
I'd like to add something else, too, I guess an expanded explanation for rule 8. There's so many conflicts in Disco that you really can't have a character on both sides all the time - it's just not practical. In cases such as this, communication is key. Talk to the folks on the other side. When RHA was struggling in its early days - besides low numbers, RM of the time (dunno how it is now) was composed of many of the best pilots on the server. However, they also happened to be generally great folks to know and talk to. I didn't talk with them a lot, but they joined sometimes in our Skype conversations, and while it may seem a little silly, having a good conversation about whatever with the very same people you fight all the time really brings home the fact that behind every ship on Disco is a person.
Not only that, but here's another example. For a short time, whenever an RHA would log in, any RM around would congregate near Vogtland. Or at least pass close by at regular intervals. Then one day, there was a pitched battle outside Vogtland with an indie RM capship and everything - or was it an RM gunboat? when we I think had just got a hacker GS as our only active non-fighter (flagship didn't do much anything and was horribly equipped at the time) and our only bombers were a Falcata or two on loan from the Outcasts, and I finally talked to somebody in the RM. I sadly don't remember who it was, but their reasoning was that the RM knew the Hessians had a base in the Giftnebel in Dresden, so they were just sticking to RP by trying to catch us in it. They hadn't realized the effect their actions were having on us - being unable to do much of anything without being constantly pounced on by the RM (before the dedicated Hessian fighters, btw - try fighting a well-piloted wrath in a Marauder.:() Besides which, in RP the Hessians controlled much of Dresden, particularly the nebula in which Vogtland sits.
And after we talked, they agreed to stay out of the Giftnebel unless they had reason to be there and generally not harass our ships when we were keeping to ourselves. I.E., rushing to Dresden to hunt whenever an RHA logged in. And in turn, we agreed to not take advantage of this by confining our pirating to Dresden. Unless we caught a trader trying to haul Daumann diamonds or Hessian pilots, of course. We preferred the Omegas anyway for pirating.
Anyway! Point being, there wasn't enough communication, and they didn't know how frustrating things were for us until we told them. When we did, we were able to arrive at an agreement that helped us all. Things were much better from there on out. And we arranged a couple of events and story thingies between the QCO and Benitez, which turned out to be great fun as well. So, talk to your faction enemies. Communicate, and cooperate. It's waaaay more fun than just launching and fighting each other.
+1 one post. Everyone with just a trace of brain knows this anyway. Yet for peole who have rage problems like ... (I won't point fingers) might be useful to see that someone cares about them.
Friends. Make them. Having people who think like you and enjoy talking to you is grand fun. If it's for cultivating gank squads or just shooting the breeze over Skype as you play, friends will keep you sane.
"THE HULL HAS BEEN BREACHED AND THESCIENCEIS LEAKING OUT!"