RE: The sanction of the Hess/Bret Combined Forces BattleGroup

[fencore]

Yesterday I was in favor of leaving this thread open, as it was geared more toward discussion of the rules in the context of the sanction and not as much about the sanction itself.

Over the course of the past several hours, this has changed.

Those of you pointing fingers at the Corsairs for filing the report in a fit of bad taste, we had many reports filed, and not all from Corsair players. The evidence was compiled and the sanction made. It was intended to be more than just a forum text warning, and it sure as hell had the intended effect - it got everyone's attention. The armors were removed not to incite the risk of loss, but to force players to take time to fly back and to contemplate why they were shoved out there.

Those of you accusing us of forcing the bottleneck and opening you up to Corsairs, I have to admit, we didn't consider the Corsairs who participated in that farming would decide to sink that low. While I'm an advocate for patience and thought, and applaud those who chose to wait to move their ships back to avoid the Corsair nonsense, we're all incredibly disappointed with the aftermath of that, and as such, if you lost your armor upgrade to Corsairs, send me a message and I'll restore it. And, to get the story straight, the only equipment that was removed was armor. Detached and placed in the cargo hold. No guns or anything else were stripped, and no credits were removed from bank accounts.

Additionally, I'll be moving the snubs back to Cambridge who haven't managed to make it back to home base themselves. The mix-up there was on my shoulders, and I apologize for that. Give me the next six hours to sort through that, and if you haven't had your snub returned to home by then, send me a PM.

The meaning behind the sanction is not so strictly "GROUP BAD! NO GROUP!", it's more that you lot chose to sit there and collaborate. The Hessians and the Bretonians worked together to take this base, and the grouping itself was the clearest indication of this. The aftermath of the attack showed no indication to rectify this situation, from what I can tell.

I'm entertained seeing wailing about how you're not going to be able to group up with their friend who's flying another faction's ship on the other side of Sirius because of this. That's not considered allying itself. You're not collaborating in that case. It's not so black and white as that, and most of our sanction investigations don't treat the rules as being that black and white.

When it comes down to it, there are things that we as the administration could have handled better, but the actual method of applying the warning is not something that we regret. I hope the message got across, because this stands for your warning. We will not be so kind in the future, and that doesn't just apply to Hessians and Bretonians. Be aware of not only what your ID says, but also what your opponent's IDs say, and how that plays into interactions.