Harvester

[worldstrider]

My point in "why not now?" wasn't an endorsement of the specifics of how the Harvesters will or should be played but was meant to address that if a player can find an undeveloped aspect of the game--like the monkeys or robots--why not play them as part of RP?

It's not more risky to be a machine faction than a Zoner or Junker one. It all still boils down to whether or not it is balanced RP.

If we "perfectly" play our factions, we will behave perfectly as an npc--that isn't what RP is about. If that is the goal, we simply match up equipment to npc ships and form on an npc flight and wait for npc chatter to tell us what to do.

The designer won't be available--ever--to resolve this yet we are still stuck with a planet of monkeys and another of robots.

There is never going to be a perfect consensus either and there are no players appointed as final arbiters so players have to suggest general things and then try them out after some consideration I think.

In my mind, any faction idea is viable and doesn't really need "developer approval" if it doesn't:

--contradict the stock game faction (as in Hogosha that ally with Junkers or Outcasts with Corsairs)
--use implausible equipment or faction mixes (Liberty Police with Corsair and Outcast weapons)
--introduce non-standard game elements that force others to incorporate them into them into their play (for example, a magic commodity to make your ship undetectable and force all others pretend it is too)
--redefines an existing stock faction in a way that forces other players to play that faction differently with their own characters so for example, I can't "create" a race of genetically superior Junkers who have overthrown Junker society and
formed it in a new direction that makes all Junkers play that way)
--create ridiculous story lines that are alien in their entirety with FL and can't be intuitively responded to by other players without coaching or instruction.

For the most part, if a faction doesn't do these things, there aren't many other reasons to try to forbid its existence.

The Harvesters "create" an "Alpha Code"--but it is ambiguous and intangible. They state they have defined areas of conflict with Zoners--why not? The Zoners are free to remain disinterested pacifists and simply run from Harvesters. Other players can create machine RP as constructs from Gammu that have differing programming imperatives and therefore have nothing in common with Harvesters so the machine Alliance doesn't define how other players have to play inhabitants of Gammu.

To me it seems a viable idea. I understand the consideration of ships and weapons--but the fear of an "unbalanced agenda" in RP itself seems weak. I could eye any faction I disliked that way and never want to allow them to do anything.

The police in Rheinland can "ban freelancers" as part of their faction etiquette but then they can't force freelancer characters to comply--they can only try. It's only if they get it made a server rule that "freelancers cannot go to Rheinland" that it becomes imbalanced.

Just some thoughts.

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