Edit - To avoid any confusions: The following is no longer valid as the changes were reverted on 12-12-2013
"But aerelm! What about IDs no longer being part of the RP?"
The current situation is quite simple if you ask me, and I honestly can't understand all the confusion about it. Still, I'm gonna throw a wall-o-text in here to make sure it's explained as thoroughly as possible, so let's first assume:
Each Pilot also has an identification card. This, in roleplay, is the pilot's, and not the ships.
Each Ship has an IFF transponder. This, in roleplay, shows the alignment of the pilot.
Each Ship has an ID item equipped. This, which does not exist within roleplay, only defines the ingame allowances of the player based on the faction that ID item belongs to.
Now, let's talk on a Pilot's ID card. This has been part of the vanilla Freelancer, and naturally also exists within roleplay boundaries of Discovery. Even when you walk into a bar for the first time, the NPCs ask for your "card" before actually talking to you. This, however, doesn't mean the pilot slaps it against the windshield of the ship every time he goes for a fly, so cannot be seen when scanning the ship. It means characters can still ask for a stranger's "ID" before deciding which way to take the interaction, and "IDs not being part of the roleplay" simply refers to the ID item mounted on the ship which appears in the scan screen, and not the pilot's actual set of identification papers.
So to put it simple: Every pilot still has an ID, you just can't see it by scanning their ship, and would have to actually ask for it. Now if they send you a falsified identification? Well, tough luck. Who says that's not roleplay?
Then, let's apply the whole thing to bounty boards:
You do not hire people you do not completely trust, so you'd naturally want to check their ID before hiring them, and make sure they're actually part of the faction you're hiring, and are not just affiliated with the group. It'd make sense to request to see the pilot's identifications before clearing them to hunt for your board, so the registration process goes on the same as before regardless of the rules update, now it just has a bit more RP flavor.
When you put a bounty on a whole faction, means they've done you wrong, and you want them dead, so your bounty applies to everyone affiliated to that faction and carrying their transponders. If someone's close enough to the group you hate to actually have their transponder installed, then what's the difference between them and any pilot of that faction? You of course can tell your hunters to ask for the hostile pilot's identifications before actually lighting him up, but even if they did so, why would the target provide his ID to a random stranger or a good-for-nothing bunter?
The community has been asking for an explanation on this, and I was holding back for a while to see if anyone would actually figure it out on their own and in the process come up with fresh ideas on how to utilize this new flexibility in the server roleplay. Since not only did that not happen, but it even turned into a good bit of headache for nearly everyone, here's your monthly doze of green provided by your friendly neighborhood conspirator to put your minds to rest. Crap. That totally came out wrong, but oh well.
