So...

[Doc Holliday]

Zoners are supposed to be bullied. That's what they run from, after all. And the least reasonable thing of all i've seen in disco is zoner juggies twice the size of freeport shooting at militaries and navys because they don't follow the NFZ.

Well, you do know what happens when you force someone into a corner for too long, right? They come out swinging. Just because we choose to avoid conflict FIRST doesn't mean we won't fight back if we need to.

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[MFE]Med Force One | Tales of Recovery|Med Force Enterprises

[Agmen of Eladesor]

I'm quietly confident that the entire concept of Zoners will change once everybody's military gears start turning against the Zoners.

Not that you care, as you've said so many times. Which is good, because not caring is exactly what you'll need to do in order to stomach the change in diplomacy that the Zoners may experience.

Then again, I wonder why that didn't happen before... probably because the bases themselves are invincible, and thus other factions have something to gain from cuddling up to the Zoners and using their stations as a place to base from. This is taking sides but... it's something that you'll need to do.

As long as we keep ForumLancer out of it, followed by Adminlancer, things should work out dynamically fine. But once you invoke both of those variants, then whoever is going after the Zoners is just screwed.

Based upon the precedent that has already been set in this game, there should be no <strike>house</strike> military force ever firing upon any Zoner whatsoever because it's against their ID. Zoners are sacrosant and only those truly evil people like terrorists or Nomads are allowed to shoot at them.

Note: Gallia being Gallia, they can probably shoot Zoners without too much issue. But heaven help you if you're someone else that's not Terrorist ID'd or Nomad ID'd and you run into an RP conflict with Zoners.

(Yeah, there are STILL a few hard feelings regarding FP11 and the Order as Zoner allies.)

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.

[AndrzejB]

Zoners in FL play the role of an innkeeper in fantasy setting. You don't shoot them. Unless you are Pro Evil [TM].
Except in FL nobody really needs innkeepers, only warriors and weapon dealers.

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Feel free to PM me regarding any grammar/spelling/other language mistakes I have made in my posts.

[...] Outcasts get sniffy [...]

Bloody foreigners.

[Jinx]

lorewise reasons why you do NOT shoot zoners in freelancer :

- almost every faction is locked in a stalemate with enemies
- these stalemates include re-supply of new ships and pilots. - meaning, when you do not re-supply.... your frontline breaks.
- since factions are in a stabilized stalemate - things appear immobile - even if they put in 100% efford in keeping that state.


that means:

- every single ship that you decide NOT to put at your stalemate frontline is a ship that can tip the balance against your favour! - EVERY ship that you free of its "duty", no matter if its only one small ship or one large ship or a fleet.

- it doesn t matter how large your fleet is! - it is LOCKED


conclusion:

- in freelancer - factions with a small but MOBILE force can be strong.
- in freelancer - only few factions possess a fleet that they can freely move around

- houses don t conquest for space ( in freelancer vanilla ) much - cause its as unthinkable as any civilized nation ambushing its neighbour. - which might be a political desaster. ( think of USA invading Canada ... the political consequences outweigh the benefits by far )
- that also explains buffersystems between the houses. - bufferstates ARE important - and usually both "strong" neighbours wish to keep them and not to be in direct contact with their strong neighbour.




other aspects why zoners are usually left alone:

- running a station is not a net-win
- it costs money - a lot of money.... so taking over a station might well cost you more than you get from it ( you may take the station - but you don t take the business contacts )

- think of a beautiful castle. - its fabulous and you re totally jealous about it. - but would you want to own and run it? ... it ll ruin you...and without the contacts to maintain it - to fill up its winecellars etc. - you might end up with a black hole that just sucks up your money without giving anything back to you. - a warrior is not automaticly an accountant.

- stations in RP are a lot tougher. - they have powerful armour, powerful reactors and weapons that are larger versions of battleship turrets. - capturing a station is also not easy - - its like storming the fortress with archers and horsemen .... in medieval times. ( meaning, you need a LOT more men to take a castle than to defend it )




also:

think of your net-gain.... what do you gain from destroying a freeport, what do you gain from taking a freeport - what do you loose.

- most of the times - you gain a lot less than you loose.




the above is freelancer vanilla

disco is different - not always for a better.

Virus once said : "zoners work best when they are completely left alone and treated like generic traders" ( well i don t know if he said it - but i heard that he said it )

and that is kind of right. - zoners co-exist.... ( literally ) - get them involved too much and things get messy much.


the zoner concept is about NOT getting involved. - that includes zoners not to involve themselves - as much as others not involving zoners. - restraint can be beneficial for everyone here. ( but often self restraint it hard to come by )

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Azan27]

On the topic of FP1, perhaps moving FP1 out of the trade lane would be a good idea if you want to RP it as a rebel freeport.

But yeh, a lot of the problem is that its not exactly isolated, so you keep on bumping into people.

Your actually doing a fairly good job as Administrator. May I suggest starting a synth-marajuana farm in one of the biodomes?

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Let it burn.

[Dane Summers]

Well

Ive decided that the label "zoner" as its current meaning on this server no longer applies to me.

Ill follow the ID and IFF, but ill forge my RP as i see fit, and run my Freeport as i wish.

Besides, FP1 is more then just a zoner base, as its citizenry encompasses many different people.

I may be doing a terrible job as a zoner, but i think ill just happily go on doing the job as i see it.

I will be the last, true, NFZ Freeport.

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