ok dudes and dudettes, i seem to have caught the debate already at full speed,:).
Just a resume of my 2 cents:
-Too many "zoner" cloaked traders around, if you talk to them ooc, you can find they have an "immunized" zoner ID'ed transport to make money and fund whatever battleship his/her's heart desires, or even worst to fund an uber pirate character who would take ages to amass the same money by pirating.
-Yes Zoners are "piratable" and yes the factions who do that on a regular basis should get red with Zoners and be denied the dock at freeports and Zoner bases.
-ZR does not issue or claim bounties it's part of of our RP, the RP states most citizens as having obscure pasts, so they don't even want to hear about bounties, they maybe be full of righteousness, but they have bad roots, all of them. They can of course threaten pirates not to to that again but they wont put bounties. I already posted this on the Zoners council, so everyone get your facts straigh, we don't put bounties on anyone, in case of doubt we have all the screenshots to prove it.
-My vision of the Zoners, contrary to the official vision, is more tending to the outlaw without being hostile to the law, meaning some may trade artifacts and cardamine, but they are not exactly hostile to lawfuls. The Houses should mistrust them as outsiders, scan their cargo holds but not attack them outright and pirates should see them as a necessary evil, because since most pirates don't have a large merchant fleet how can they support themselves without supplies? thats where the Zoners, Hogosha and Junkers come in.
That is my vision, it's not "right" or "wrong" version.
-No, Zoners wouldn't start a war, Zoners are reactive not proactive, even pompous asses like the ZR wouldn't start a full scale war (well only if the enemy was very, very weak).
-Yes, Zoner can maintain neutral status, the Swiss have done it why can't Zoners do it, just follow the same directions: close our eyes once in awhile, do favors to one side and then to another, not big enough (military) to cause a threat but not weak enough to be taken without serious losses, and keep crucial trade/passing routes open to all...and give us your money too, we'll take good care of him!
![[Image: zonerepublic.png]](http://justarea.com/zonerepublic.png)