I've decided to rename it to "The Syndicate", which is defined as "A group of business individuals." I believe this describes the group well.
Also, I was considering making an arm of the group somewhat militarized (read: bombers/fighters) to escort the freighters/transports but also to scout ahead for any police that may be in the system ahead of the transport captains. This prevents us from having to use mercenaries or even pirates to help us out with moving the cargo. I considered having in the contracts with other factions that they would be required to escort us from time to time, but that would mean we would be associated with the less than...respected side of Sirius.
What do you all think?
~Leo
P.S. Tragic just send me a PM if you're interested.
EDIT: Updated the faction symbol and made an explination for it. Also, added the first member to the roster besides myself.
Anyone have any further critiques that I can improve upon in the document? Anyone else wish to join? Send me a PM if you wish to join, otherwise, please let me know what else I can improve upon!
But there may be a slight problem. The currently dominant(?) smuggling faction out there is the 81st Syndicate. I don't think naming another smuggling faction almost the same is a good idea.
Also, imo the idea with the paramilitary/escort division isn't so good. When you first brought up the idea of this faction, I was most intrigued by it basically being a very loose group of smugglers. Adding divisions would kinda ruin that, for me at least.
But there may be a slight problem. The currently dominant(?) smuggling faction out there is the 81st Syndicate. I don't think naming another smuggling faction almost the same is a good idea.
Also, imo the idea with the paramilitary/escort division isn't so good. When you first brought up the idea of this faction, I was most intrigued by it basically being a very loose group of smugglers. Adding divisions would kinda ruin that, for me at least.
Hey, thanks for the reply, Toaster.
The name isn't changing. I redid almost everything I had setup for it before, not changing it again for a third time, certainly not after changing everything around again. That and changing it again will only confuse more people to the faction document. I spoke to the leader of the other faction, our tags are different and no where near the same, so in game it won't be a problem. Too many posts were done by me over the past few days for me to go back through ALL of them and change them around.
As for the escorts...I would like to have a small escorting wing because let's face it, if you're flying with a wing of smugglers, say, three or more, metagamers are going to swoop in and try to blow you up. We all know they're on this server and we all know most of them read the forums. They'll see this document (official or unofficial) and will intercept us to try to kill us just because they see this document. I'll keep it as a loose group of smugglers for now, but I fear that in time I'll HAVE to start a wing of escorts, regardless of if I want to keep it a loose wing of smuggler ships or not...I'd LIKE to keep it that way, you're right, but I'm worried that in time I won't have a choice.
~Leo
P.S. Sorry if that sounds harsh or difficult to follow, I just woke up, so my writing is all jumbled.
Now with player bases, the smaller unlawful factions would also want to have their own bases. That is where The Syndicate can invest in and build contracts and contacts. For that reason I applaud your neutral/business-style approach on the unlawful blogs of Sirius however you should realize that this also limits your cargo of your ships to 3.5k and puts you into a serious disadvantage against the 5k cargo supply traders.
' Wrote:Now with player bases, the smaller unlawful factions would also want to have their own bases. That is where The Syndicate can invest in and build contracts and contacts. For that reason I applaud your neutral/business-style approach on the unlawful blogs of Sirius however you should realize that this also limits your cargo of your ships to 3.5k and puts you into a serious disadvantage against the 5k cargo supply traders.
We all gotta play the "game" somehow. I'm willing to suffer any disadvantage that I have to in order to have more fun. Being tied to any faction is a loss but so is remaining a Freelancer. For the most part, I only use 500 unit freighters anyway, only when I'm really hurting for credits will I use anything over 1000 units.
I'm not a fan of the player bases. They seem like more of a money and time sync than anything. We will, of course, move cargo for player factions who wish to re-supply their bases, but in building our own, that probably won't happen. We will just remain a "loose" faction based unofficially out of Barrier Gate in Coronado.
' Wrote:About metagamers:
You can make it a bit more difficult for them by putting the tag at the end of the member's ingame name. Also, is the tag gonna stay -[SC]-?
Tag will remain -[SC]- Syndicate is how I explained it. Changing the tag on all my freighters would probably cost me 10 million credits (yes I have that many freighters/transports so I can easily relocate to another trader if another route gets too "hot"...different RP characters, of course). I could put it at the end, but I'm a fan of saying who we are, and THEN our name. Just looks better IMHO. Possibly because that's what I've been used to over the years. I suppose we all have to deal with metagamers every once and a while, just the nature of the beast.
Also, AFAIK, there is no "dominant" smuggling faction. I intend to play that role.;)
Thanks, Toaster, for all the questions and critiques. Don't mistake my words as dismissing your suggestions, just trying to explain my thought processes.
Name change, too many people were becoming confused with the 81st and us.
Any further questions? Please, feel free to comment and critique. Many of the suggestions I have taken and used in further fleshing out a good document to use. All the suggestions ARE helpful.
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