revision of the ZONERS faction - to avoid yearly discussions

[Jinx]

a currently reasonable compromise is the following

- turn the juggernaut into a super-transport/liner type craft [example: unique, large, high HP, plenty of transport weapons, very large cargo, prohibited from going into house space as it is now]
- turn the fearless into a Q-ship/medium sized AT [example: maybe something like a junker salvager or based on that idea (lots of hitpoints, good cargo capacity, limited self defense capabilities, good survivability)]
- turn the corvo into a small liner type or leave it as it is [example: maybe raba like or based on that (sturdy, fast, well armed for a transport of the size, lower/medium cargohold, good scanners)]
- turn the aquillon into a BT [example: normal BT - or like the old 4.83 lux liner ( which had 2 GB turrets among its transport turrets)]


it was said multiple times by players ( discussion about zoners last year ) that zoners do not really require their own fully fletched defense force - but should instead call in allies.

zoners would keep combat ships of equal value up to the cruiser class and swap their battleships for transport types as it seems that it is more the really big ships that cause some disharmony.

alernativly - we could apply option 2 to the cruises and option 3 to the battleship classes.

zoners also have access to a good selection of snubs. among them one of the best bombers ( gmg bomber - yea, personal taste - but i think it is one of the best - most well rounded bombers ), a SHF with tremendous firepower (osprey), a wide variety of VHF and depending on their allies, some of the best HF ( karasu or marauder ) as well as a tiny LF ( onuris if thats available ) the gunboat remains slightly below average but good enough to fend off occasional NPCs or the more random pirate encounter.

* now why make a change?

simply - cause it was asked for year after year after year - and it is time to actually put it to action

* why not make the big ships SRP?

SRPs are affected by double standards and also do not really improve the actual RP ( ingame ) by a significant margin. ( that is not meant to offend SRPed stuff atm. but SRPs are - for the casual encounter - not much more beneficial for the most part - even worse - they often stretch the boundaries of the core RP of a faction a little, hence SRP ) - they just make an item rarer; which admittedly is satisfactory for most ppl. - but by turning ships into something more fitting we can go beyond that.

we do not really want less ships - we want ships that have a good lore and are RPed according to the lore. if the result is less ships - thats fine, if the result is even more ships - thats fine, too.

it also begs the question about ships that already exist. - precidents suggest we could ask players to get rid of them during a period of grace ( like 3 months ) - and afterwards the remaining ships without SRP would simply get deleted.

or players would need to re-apply for the ship vis SRP - which would cause a huge workload to process those requests.

or of course every existing ship could be auto-approved. but that doesn t fix much.


* what about removing the sale point?

yes, the idea of so called "legacy ships" - doesn t really remove the number of ships we have, nor does it affect the roleplay much other than making the ships that are there even more precious and valuable because they cannot be obtained the normal way anymore. - while basically not a bad idea, it is also not too helpful for the problems that were pointed out in the last years zoner drama.


* what about official-faction-only?

aside from being a poor precidence it further creates a community of equal players and more equal players ( aka animal farm ). we d also run into the same problems that we get with changing to SRPs. - what to do with the indie capital ships - force them to remove them? force only them to file a SRP - while automatically approving the faction ones, no matter what background story they have?

*why do you refer to LAST years discussion or earlier?

well, cause the zoner debatte has gone on for - i think at least 5 years - and whenever it broke out to a fully fletched drama - we wondered "yea, its time to do something" - then it died down ... and we forgot about it, just to have it smashed into our faces the next year.
also - those suggestions were worked out after the last zoner debatte in early summer last year ( i think it was summer? )


after all that it also comes down to what most zoner players actually do.

- they do forum RP
- they trade
- they do ingame chatting/diplomacy

come to think of it....

when they start to assemble their juggernauts/aquilons to defend or attack ... it is usually not regarded as "the smart move" ( as pointed out in the last years and before discussions )

as a matter of fact, players from various factions usually point out that zoners - in desperate need of defense - should rather call for their more militant allies.

so what would those changes do?

- they strengthen what zoners actually do by:

- elaborating on the lore of the ships based on the actual needs of the zoner faction ( which if simplified comes down to : independence, self sufficiency, economical and diplomatical prowess and profit )
- giving them ships with more "character" that fulfil the needs more without being cut-out replicas of other warships.
- strengthen their actual needs ( moving cargo through sometimes hostile terrain ) by giving them top-of-the-line transport vessels
- allowing them moderate, yet non threatening escort vessels ( like Q-ships etc. )


to sum it up....


zoners are for the very most part moving stuff around. opposed to core traders - they move most stuff around for themselves to survive - and use excess goods as leverage for diplomatic causes. in some cases this leverage becomes greater than the self sufficiency ( probably fp10 and fp9 ) to maintain local non-aggression.

the current capline does not reflect those needs well - and the general consensus has been that it should.

but thats why it is a poll - in the end - it comes down to the numbers - and it is also non zoner players voting, because there are more than just zoners involved that care for their immersion.


ps.: lets not get into "vanilla zoners" - i had a correspondence with one of the leaad designers of the freelancer factions - and he replied with a rather unsatisfactory reason about "what zoners are" - which doesn t need to be posted here - cause it is not helpful.

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