(04-22-2016, 01:17 AM)Stefz Wrote: Every now and then people tend to forget that we are playing a game that is more than a decade old. If you have a suggestion on how to track faction activity without tags in character names, do tell, but I doubt it's possible. Personally, I use the IFF to identify other ships inRP.
@Laz - The sad truth is that at the current player count, people have to utilize player list in order to find an interaction more often than not. Back when there were 200 people on the server every evening, just flying around without ever looking at who's online and where would get you an interaction, but now, the chances of that are very slim.
Personally, I don't see a reason to have the activity-tracker anymore for factions anymore. To my personal experience the tracker has become a parasite for factions, forcing, instead of attracting members to log to serve the tracker, instead of serving the fun. "This is activity-tracking, no RP anymore".
We have the monthly FSR. I think this is the better way to "track" the activity of a faction instead of tracking players idling in space.
It's also quite unsure, what will happen activity-wise, when players seriously have to get close to another to identify. Propably see the other way around, a player sees a LR pirate at the playerlist and avoids the interaction.
(04-22-2016, 01:17 AM)Laz Wrote: Sometimes due to game limitations that is not really an option. Sometimes people have to use it.
In the past nobody's had any issue with using a detagged Freelancer ID/IFF ship with a different name for undercover work, or even a different faction tag and ID if they're undercover within that faction. An LN officer infiltrating the GRN isn't going to be flying a [LN] tagged Guardian
There is the issue of metagaming. People see a tag and think go kill. When perhaps that person in undercover or something.
Can totally ruin RP.
" Oh look, a Wilde!"
I'd be concerned about this if Wild RP/gameplay was ever any good.
It never is.
On the topic of tags themselves, I don't see the problem. It's a way to distinguish primary members of a faction with a higher level of responsibility than untagged ships. No big deal. Just think of them as higher ranked in the faction of their ID than untagged ships.
Tags are OK and can easily be explained inRP like special signs painted on your hull or transmission headers.
Examples like OP: you encounter ship named ABC|Leverage. ooRPly you know that he's from ABC faction because you can see his tag. inRPly you know it because he has giant colored letters A, B and C on his wings or because his first transmission "Hello" would inRPly look like
"Transmission established
company ID: ABC
individual ID: Leverage
Message: Hello"
Most major hauliers stick their logo on their fleet, Fedex, UPS etc. big corporates without tags are probably the ooRP angle.
Similarily most police cars and warships I see are quite clearly marked for the outside world to see. If you want immersion breaking pop to New York for the number of Navy and Police ships without LN and LPI "painted" on their hulls.
In my opinion, tags are sort of handled inRP but also ooRP
You see the guy, he has the Tag, you know the faction. OOrp.
InRP you see the guy and see his identification. Every ship - so would I think - has some sort of ID. And even a missing ID can serve sort of as an ID. This is all inRP tho. So a guy without a responding specific identification could be a pirate, a wilde or a nomad (though you would know that from the ship itself) or someone that doesn't want to be known.
It's difficult to explain, but tags are needed, really. But that's just my opinion. After all, seperation from certain groups to the main faction (e.g. Liberty: Navy, LSF, LPI, etc. or Zoner: IRG, Canaan etc.) is necessary to not screw up some other group's rep with another faction.
About the wild case: They should have Wild ID, but IFF of faction they're supposed to be in, would be also nice if they're friendly with this faction, to behave more like infected ppl not just infected ppl who come to kill anything anywhere etcetc.
Eg. D9 with Navy IFF