Tag/ID: Freelancer Base of Operations: No base. Bases can be destroyed. Faction Tag: -[Cartel]- Tag Form: Fighter/Bombers will have last name of character. Transports/Freighters will be name of vessel. Example: -[Cartel]-Masuyo (Fighter/Bomber) / -[Cartel]-Nightmares.Reach (Freighter/Transport)
The Cartel began when smugglers realized they needed to stick together. The House police and military factions were picking them off one by one with ease. They were too spread apart, too vulnerable. Because of this, they were losing profit margins. They were losing money at an alarming rate. Plus, pirate factions had no way to "fence" their stolen goods. They were forced to take them to their home station, often times losing credits because of it. They needed a middle man, someone to take the stolen cargo to a base in House space to sell. So when a smuggler by the name of Kasumi Masuyo stepped to the stage and made the suggestion for all smugglers to form under one banner, many answered her call...and so The Cartel was born.
The symbol of The Cartel was created to represent the different sides of Sirius and the advent of "chaos". Chaos being the ability to cause massive confusion for smugglers to slip by undetected. The symbol represents Sirius in the following order.
The top arrow represents the unknown systems.
The arrow to the right represents the distant Omicron systems.
The far right arrow represents Liberty.
The one below that represents Rheinland.
The bottom arrow the represents the Corsairs and the Omega systems.
To the left of that represents Bretonia.
The far left arrow represents the Tau's and Gallia.
Finally, the arrow just above the left arrow represents the Outcasts.
While The Cartel is known to fly under the tag "-[C]-", they keep up appearances with the House Military's and Police by obeying all laws if at all possible. They will try to avoid police/military at any cost, only sacrificing their cargo when they absolutely must to live to smuggle another day. They will obey all laws posted by the Lawfuls and will only disobey when in direct conflict of a contract. It is their goal to stay on the House factions good side, even though it goes against everything they are...for if they are backlisted, they will not be able to fence the goods of the criminal element that allows them to thrive.
While The Cartel was formed by Kasumi Masuyo, the faction itself has no real leader to speak of. However, while there is no leader, there is a single point of contact for negotiations for contracts. This allows a free flow of contracts with no rank structure, allowing the members to function separately without giving their "leader" away. (//OOC Now, of course a leader will have to be designated by the admins for control and what not. That will obviously be me, but inRP, there will be no leader to speak of).
Contracts are run by The Cartel on a regular basis for the criminal element of Sirius. If that be running cargo picked up from pirating, fencing stolen goods for a cut of the pay, or simply smuggling contraband into house space, The Cartel does it all. It is important to know, however, that they do not take sides in any criminal element conflict. They will not be hired to steal cargo, equipment, or any other good from another unlawful faction. Any attempts to forge a contract of such a sort will be ignored.
There are two groups of people within The Cartel: Initiates and Members. Initiates have to prove to the rest of the members that they can smuggle any kind of contraband through house space without being caught...and if they are caught, they must talk, bribe, cheat, or run in order to get their cargo to it's destination. Failing to do so will probably result in the initiates death...if not, The Cartel will claim no affiliation with said member.
Each smuggler under the banner of The Cartel lives by the "Smugglers Code". This is a loose fitting code of ethics required by each member to follow to be a perfect smuggler. This code is:
-Only sacrifice your cargo if you have to survive. Otherwise, cheat, lie, beg, steal, bribe, or run to get your cargo to it's final destination. Remember, cargo isn't worth your life.
-If a contract tells you to drink, you drink. If it tells you to jump, you jump. If it tells you to fly into a sun at max cruise speed, slay your client. Have your wits about you and follow your own code of ethics if all else fails.
-Know your path. If a system ahead has a known Bounty Hunter or Lawful, know your way around that system quickly and without too much thought. Think on your feet.
-Know your ship. If you don't know your ship, you're going to be dead faster than you can shake a stick at. Know it's limits, know it's speed and agility. This will save you one day.
-Always aid your allies. The people in The Cartel are your family. If they are in need of aid, help them even if it is at great risk to your own life. Saving them might just save yourself.
The Cartel are gaining momentum in Sirius quickly. Pirate factions have already taken note and of their intentions. Are you ready for them? Are you ready to be all that you can be?
Fighters/Bombers: Civilian/Borderworlds fighters/bombers. Weapons to be used are Civilian or any code weapons looted off wrecks and/or purchased from a gun dealer.
Transports/Frieghters: No transports/freighters over 3600 cargo. Civilian/Borderworlds class vessels allowed only. Weapons to be used are the highest you can get for transport vessels and civilian or Code weapons from wrecks or dealers or freighters.
Basic Transport Information
-500 Ton Civilian/Borderworlds Freighters are for new smugglers starting out (if said new member does not already have a transport within the requirements of the faction). If the member does not have enough credits to pay for the transport, the faction will pay for it. (This is done after the initiate phase)
-No Faction Tied Transport Vessels such as the Corsair or Outcast freighters. The reasons behind this is to not show favoritisms towards any of the pirate factions, which could lead to a hostile status. A simple rule of thumb, if the name of the ship and or discription has any faction name in it, don't use it. If a joining member has a faction transport, we will pay for the difference to get into a new one. (This is done after the initiate phase) (Borderworlds vessels are okay.)
-Slave Liners and Prision Liners are not to be used. Only one Slave Liner will be used under the flag of -[C]- and that is for base operations ONLY.
-You will be IC at all times in system chat and on occasion group chat. At least try to participate in fourm roleplay stories.
Respect others as you would want to be treated. Ensure that any RP you do that could take control of another person's ship in anyway is okay-ed by them before hand in whispers. ("//" OOC chat is allowed in this circumstance ONLY.)
-If you break any rules and have a character imprisioned or banned. Consider your self warned. Any further mistakes will result in immediate removal from the faction roster.
Under Contract - These factions are currently under contract. The details of the contract will be explained in the description under the faction name.
Allied - The Cartel treats these members as their own. They respect them and give them protection if they need it.
Friendly - The Cartel will aid these people in need if they request it. We supply them often with goods from the House systems or vice versa.
Neutral - The Cartel treats these people with respect and dignity, as most of them are the people we trade with. However, if attacked by a Neutral party, they will quickly switch to Hostile.
Cautious - The Cartel keeps their distance if they can from these factions. They have been known to hunt Smugglers and have been known to request we drop our cargo if it is contraband, which most of the time, it is. There are other factors that count into this such as strong military presence that could threaten our quotas.
Hostile - These targets are hostile to every member of The Cartel and will be shot on sight.
War - Even smuggling factions can war over smuggling rights in Sirius. We will go out of our way to attack these people. If they are smuggling on our routes, we will seek them out, and destroy them.
Under Contract /CS/ Consortium - Contract Classified
Allied None at this time
Friendly None at this time
Neutral Ile-de-France Shipping
Gallic Metal Service
101st Outcast Guard
Ghosts of Razgriz
The Brotherhood
The Benitez Family
The Black Sails
[TAZ] Temporary Autonomous Zoners
.:j:. The Junkers' Congress
IMG| The Independent Miners' Guild
OSI- Omicron Supply Industries
Cryer Pharmaceuticals
[IND] Independent Neuralnet Division
GMG| The Gas Miners' Guild
Reaver Mercenary Company
Bowex) Border World Exports
BMM- Bretonia Mining and Manufacturing
Gaian Underloch
Gateway Interstellar
The Mollys
[RHA] Red Hessian Army
RepEx Republican Express
ALG Waste Disposal
BDM| Buro Der Marineintelligenz
Daumann Heavy Construction
Kishiro Technologies
[AFA] The Artisan Farmers' Alliance
[|] The Black Dragon Society
]bd[ The Blood Dragons (The Rising Sons of Kusari)
Samura Heavy Industries
[GC] The Golden Chrysanthemums
Kiretsu Sentai Dageki
LH~ The Lane Hackers
[*USI*] Universal Shipping Inc.
Ageira Technologies
IC| Interspace Commerce
The Angels
[KoF] King of Freight
DSE) Deep Space Engineering
LR- The Liberty Rogues
Cautious Gallic Royal Navy
Legion des Damnes
The Council
Gallic Royal Police
Reapers of Sirius
BHG| Bounty Hunters' Guild & Guild Core
[SCRA] The Sirius Coalition Revolutionary Army
The Order
MM~ Mandalorian Mercenaries
VE| The Virulian Enclave
BAF| Bretonian Armed Forces
BPA) Bretonia Police Authority
[RM] Rheinland Military
RFP| Rheinland Federal Police
AGS- Rheinland Arbeitergewerkschaft
[KNF] Kusari Naval Forces
[LN]-Liberty Navy
LPI- Liberty Police Inc
=LSF= The Liberty Security Force
[HF] The Hellfire Legion
XA The Xeno Alliance
I know there are a lot of neutral factions, I'm hoping this will balance out once we establish a foothold in game as far as smuggling/fencing goes. The rest I typed out while half asleep. Please let me know if I missed any grammar or spelling errors of if anything doesn't make sense in the biography of the faction. I'm going to go to bed now, hope to see some critiques and comments when I wake up!
I think its great and really thoroughly thought through and presented. A few things in my view though:
' Wrote:While the SC was formed by Kasumi Masuyo, the faction itself has no real leader to speak of. However, while there is no leader, there is a single point of contact for negotiations for contracts. This allows a free flow of contracts with no rank structure, allowing the members to function separately without giving their "leader" away. (//OOC Now, of course a leader will have to be designated by the admins for control and what not. That will obviously be me, but inRP, there will be no leader to speak of).
I think it's a good idea that you are the "spokesperson", especially in the startup phase. But knowing disco and the way factions put their foot down at times, you might have to make some hard decisions at some point, involving helping one faction over other factions. You might find that you will come to need some form of governing body to make these decisions. Facions are often geared in such a way that they will push and play hard-ball to make others "show their colours", and I think tough decisions following such pressure will be inevitable.
' Wrote:-If a contract tells you to pirate, you pirate.
IMO piracy should be left out - it endangers [SC] smuggler's free right to dock at lucrative sell-points, and thus the faction's purpose as a whole.
' Wrote:I know there are a lot of neutral factions, I'm hoping this will balance out once we establish a foothold in game as far as smuggling/fencing goes.
Well smugglers - like Zoners - stand to gain a lot from maintaining neutrality. I think it's a good aim to try and be neutral with as many as possible, and I don't see it as a negative that smuggling factions only lists other factions as neutral as a starting point. I don't see it as a "Mary Sue" kinda thing.
So yeah, great idea and keep up the good work. The starting draft is solid in my view.
Hey MÃmir, thanks for the great informative feedback. Much appreciated.
' Wrote:I think it's a good idea that you are the "spokesperson", especially in the startup phase. But knowing disco and the way factions put their foot down at times, you might have to make some hard decisions at some point, involving helping one faction over other factions. You might find that you will come to need some form of governing body to make these decisions. Facions are often geared in such a way that they will push and play hard-ball to make others "show their colours", and I think tough decisions following such pressure will be inevitable.
Yeah, I'm a little worried about that and I considered it when writing the post. However, the story of Kasumi Masyuo and how she gained her smuggler skill was that she did it all by herself without anyone lending her aid or having any form of leadership to guide and teach her. When she formed the SC, she wanted to maintain that vision. I can see what you mean, that eventually I'll probably have to switch it over to having to be the leader inRP, but for now, and for a long time in the future, I'm going to remain as the spokesperson until something is needed to be done that could adversely effect the goals and/or survival of the faction as a whole.
' Wrote:IMO piracy should be left out - it endangers [SC] smuggler's free right to dock at lucrative sell-points, and thus the faction's purpose as a whole.
Good point. I'll remove that from the list. I placed it on there so that we would have a potential contract for those pirating ore haulers. However, being fences would essentially do the same thing if we're hired under contract.
' Wrote:Well smugglers - like Zoners - stand to gain a lot from maintaining neutrality. I think it's a good aim to try and be neutral with as many as possible, and I don't see it as a negative that smuggling factions only lists other factions as neutral as a starting point. I don't see it as a "Mary Sue" kinda thing.
Yeah, however, unlike the Zoners, I'm sure our ways of gaining capital are going to make factions who hate one another not like us. For example: If we get a contract with, let's say...the Outcasts, to haul some pirated Neon down to Pennsylvania. If the Corsairs get wind of that, they might get a little more than pissed off at us for fencing goods for the Outcasts. So that would require us to double back and help the Corsairs to prevent them from falling down into the red. So, the Zoners have that neutral stance and for the most part can hold it. However, as we help the enemies of factions, I think I'm going to see if's similar to the Children of Conviction faction that I ran for a while, and have a difficult time maintaining neutrality.
' Wrote:Very nice, i had an idea of forming something similar to this, but, ye, very nice... So, where's the >>>JOIN NOW<<< Button here? ^^
I'll be sure to add one.:P
' Wrote:I got a bit confused with the Basic Transport Information.
Does a new member always use a 500 unit freighter, or can he use any ship he can afford (within the limitations)?
Ah, I'll fix this to be easier to understand. About a quarter of this document was updated from a previous one I had posted about three years ago, so some of the things may be a little bit vague. The faction will provide a 500 ton transport if they do not currently have one. I'll update this now. Thanks for the critique.
FreelancerID does not allows the Pirate Train as the old Smuggler ID did.
Also you stated civilian tech usage. Why not allowing BW line as well? Even though the BW line is mostly used by criminals, i doubt its enough to accuse someone for criminal activity or for any conections towards criminal groups.
Other than that, it looks tasty or delicious even
Carnage itself flying within void... Proud cardihead ever since 2008...
You all gonna eat cardi!
' Wrote:FreelancerID does not allows the Pirate Train as the old Smuggler ID did.
Noted and fixed.
' Wrote:Also you stated civilian tech usage. Why not allowing BW line as well? Even though the BW line is mostly used by criminals, i doubt its enough to accuse someone for criminal activity or for any conections towards criminal groups.
I had considered this when I wrote up the document, however, because Outcasts primarily use Borderworlds ships and Corsairs use their own brand, I don't want to appear to show favoritism towards the Outcasts in any way...though a more detailed look may persuade me to change the document to reflect something different.
' Wrote:Other than that, it looks tasty or delicious even
Just gotta get some people interested in joining up.:P
I would say speak with DRV -OCs are needing activity- and as OC based smuggler faction you receive access to whole line of ships and P train- and you can smuggle for all with a bit RP except corsairs, gaians and hogosha. You could also combine OC IFFed ships with Smugglers ID to dock on Lawful bases- like LH and M do.
Other concept is to go with Junker ID/IFF- you can work for all except hogosha , pure generic faction have no flavor or tech to make people to join. Do pick a side- a fully neutral factions fail big time like Zoners- you would be shot upon by corsairs if you smuggle cardi for example- people tent to hunt the neutral factions- or go Junker then you have better chance doing this- there is no decent junker faction around and SW~ are not so acticve.
If you does not unite your efforts with some of the existing small groups you does not have a chance to make new smuggler faction- I know 4 factions that failed in that, I tried to do one as well 2 years back in time- your best call is to unite the 4-5 small smuggler groups actually. I wish you good luck and contact Mollys we could try to think of some RP/ Deliveries.
(10-09-2013, 10:51 AM)Knjaz Wrote: Official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)
' Wrote:I would say speak with DRV -OCs are needing activity- and as OC based smuggler faction you receive access to whole line of ships and P train- and you can smuggle for all with a bit RP except corsairs, gaians and hogosha. You could also combine OC IFFed ships with Smugglers ID to dock on Lawful bases- like LH and M do.
Other concept is to go with Junker ID/IFF- you can work for all except hogosha , pure generic faction have no flavor or tech to make people to join. Do pick a side- a fully neutral factions fail big time like Zoners- you would be shot upon by corsairs if you smuggle cardi for example- people tent to hunt the neutral factions- or go Junker then you have better chance doing this- there is no decent junker faction around and SW~ are not so acticve.
If you does not unite your efforts with some of the existing small groups you does not have a chance to make new smuggler faction- I know 4 factions that failed in that, I tried to do one as well 2 years back in time- your best call is to unite the 4-5 small smuggler groups actually. I wish you good luck and contact Mollys we could try to think of some RP/ Deliveries.
Hey Govedo, thanks for the feedback.
As it stands, joining with any faction already out there seriously hinders the ability to fence goods from all the criminal elements of Sirius. I have no problem with being shot up from time to time by an opposing faction, but I won't be taking sides in the conflicts of pirates/criminals/unlawfuls/whatever you want to call them. There's a reason I'm doing it this way, I don't want to be another generic smuggling faction that sides with the OC or Junkers, it's been overdone entirely too much.
The story for the SC, as it stands, is that they're job is to stick together and help the criminal element of Sirius fence their stolen goods on lawful planets without ever having to enter the system...the smugglers then take a cut, ect .ect.
Oh, and telling me I can't do something only makes me want to achieve it that much more and reach for the stars. Thanks again for the feedback though, it is appreciated.