Proposal: Remove Battleships from the Zoner ID.

[Joggin]

* Kazinsal dons a flame-retardant suit

Your average Zoner does not need a capital warship. They're in tight with the Order in case something goes horribly wrong in the Omicrons. They can go hide in Baffin if things get pants-soilingly bad in the Taus. The Sigmas are pretty close to the Omicrons. Same with the Omegas.

Now, add in the question of "who really wants to kill Zoners?" and you've led to the question, "do random Zoners really need battleships?"

No. They don't.

Of course, there are a couple official Zoner factions that could use one or two -- Phoenix and TAZ for example. Thankfully, TAZ already has an ID of their own. Phoenix doesn't, but they could get a SRP one if they wanted to.

"But what about the mobile Freeports, Kaz?"

The Jinkusu Juggernaut was designed as one. The Nephilim Dreadnought is not. Check the infocards. I think I remember one usage, maybe two, of the Jinkusu as a "mobile freeport". That's it. Everyone else used them for waving around like male-exclusive extremities or pewing nomads in the Omicrons even though they're not supposed to according to the ID.

Just remove them from the ID. A destroyer is plenty for your average Zoner.

Discuss.

Well... As TAZ Ambassador, I feel that I have the right to comment in this thread.

I know this is quite a tired old debate which has a tendency to resurface every so often but certainly we should keep open minds about capital ship capabilities. With regard to this, TAZ are keenly aware about the need to avoid showboating around in others jurisdictions (not just House Space) in cap ships... and on the whole we don't do it unless in clearly developed RP situations.

I have a Nephy and and an Aquilon - great ships but not seen racing around the place because it's not necessary.

However it is necessary to defend Baffin and occasionally help out othe Zoner enclaves and that can't be done with a Border World Transport and a couple of bombers, folks. Also the TAZ have a whole System to administrate and to try and do that without capital ships would be nonsense when looking at potential invaders capabilities. And no, we can't rely on other Factions like the Order, they are either too far away or have other issues to deal with. Not a valid point at all. Try telling the Order they have a duty of care to us.... I'll give you their phone number if ya like.

Furthermore, I look at O49 and see a wonderful lush planet like Gran Canaria. The poor souls there keep taking a battering and I'm sure that the starving Corsairs would like nothing more than to move in their cap heavy fleet and take over the planet should Zoners ever lose their means of defense.

This is just one example of course and I don't mean to single out the Corsairs in particular.... There are many more instances of argument.

Anyway, should Developers feel the need to start a discussion about Zoner Caps, I'll happily take part. In that respect there will obviously need to be a system wide review of all Capital ships to make sure a balance is maintained and it will be a good opportunity for each faction and owner (including Independents) to justify their Cap Ship raison d'etre.

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