Teerin covered the tricky fighting against a common enemy without "allying" situation very well. There have been many cases where surviving factions "choose" inRP to run for it - the difference is in blatantly using local/system/PMs to coordinate and agree not shoot at each other. In Derkylos' example, the Junker and Kishiro would not be allied unless they /grouped up or outright said they were allying. The RP element can be key to avoiding rule violations.
Also, sometimes the unlawfuls can join up with an invading military because of ships using the MND ID (like BDM). All intelligence faction IDs (LSF/BIS/BDM/Kempeitai) state "Can ally with unlawful factions." to represent their role as saboteurs in enemy houses, arming/supporting local criminals and terrorists. Whether this should extend to any lawful military ships the intelligence players are grouped with in a big fleet battle is definitely a gray area though - I personally try to avoid it altogether when fighting.
Hessians also have a line that states:
"Cannot ally with any lawfuls except with Interspace, or Rheinland lawfuls against Liberty lawfuls."
I'm not overly familiar with RHA lore or the reason for this - I just know that Vidars occasionally pop up in Texas raids on the Rheinland side.
(09-15-2014, 04:29 PM)Derkylos Wrote: Kishiro transport and Junker bomber team up to take down a Xeno fighter or 2, and afterwards, the Kishiro decides he ain't gonna hang around to fight a bomber alone...has the Kishiro just allied with the Junker?...
Yeah, those situations can get a bit tricky. A smart Kishiro transport captain probably would've booked it sooner to let the Xenos and Junkers kill each other off. In this scenario however, the Kishiro guy is probably okay; I think that it would be expected of the Junker bomber to harass him though
Maybe the Junker feels generous and lets the Kishiro go. That might be considered a violation, from what I've seen, but I'd guess that it's up to Admin interpretation on a case-by-case basis. The Junker could be tired, bored, low on regens, etc. and not interested in picking on the transport after fighting those Xenos.
I suppose that sanctions resulting from this sort of thing would be from a much more severe case than that. As I said earlier though, these situations are tricky
EDIT: Ninja'd by Zed, sort of
"You see what your knowledge tells you you're seeing. ... how, what you think the universe is, and how you react to that in everything you do, depends on what you know. And when that knowledge changes, for you, the universe changes. And that is as true for the whole of society as that is for the individual. We all are what we know, today. What we knew yesterday, was different; and so were we."
- James Burke, The Day the Universe Changed (1985)
(09-15-2014, 04:38 PM)Zed26 Wrote: In Derkylos' example, the Junker and Kishiro would not be allied unless they /grouped up or outright said they were allying. The RP element can be key to avoiding rule violations.
Grouping I can see. Maybe. Tho it is kinda an OoRP thing (even if you do roleplay it as a comms channel or w/e, it's just more convenient than PMs), but why would 2 otherwise opposed people not decide to gang up on the bigger threat then go each others' separate ways if they are in bad shape afterwards?
While I could see the Junker taking advantage if the Kishiro was badly hurt and trying to limp home, if they were both equally in a bad way, or even if the Junker was leaking atmosphere and the transport was unscratched (tradeships don't really go looking to kill pirates, after all), why shouldn't they come to a mutual agreement, with appropriate RP, that eliminating the external threat is in everyone's best interests?
Grouping using the command (and appearing on the player list) is actually one of the easiest ways for people to report ID-violating alliances between players and has been a big no-no. So is PMing things like "//Let's team up, k?". It's the OORP aspects of allying that are the big issue.
You're right that it's absolutely fine to RP agreeing to scrap the redneck for the betterment of Sirius right here and now, then get roughed up and limp home to (begrudgingly) lick your wounds. The more plausible RP you build (and keep in RP), the better protected you are.