The JUNKER CONGRESS

[Karamon]

Not for me to say really, but as a new player I found it odd in the extreme that when I wanted to join the Junker "Clan" ... there wasn't one ... so grats to Tink on all the work he's doing ... as to what the members of such a "Guild", as I prefer to call it, wish to call their leaders, I guess that would be up to the members and could be decided at the first Junker "Congress" ... I like the idea of having regional administrators as it provides a good way to limit the use of, dare I say the "C" word, Capital Ships ... ask your self this ... who is going to invade Puerto Rico outside a properly constituted "Clan War"? ... noone ... so having a Battleship there for system defence hurts absolutely noone ... I DO, however take exception to the 2km limit on the deployment of Cruisers ... Tink is proposing ONE cruiser in each of 6 systems ... surely if the Governor got a distress call from a Congress member, he or she should be permitted to assist ... ("This is the QE2 to USS Nemitz, we are under heavy fire from enemy gunboats, please assist" ... "This is the Captain of the Nemitz, sorry QE2 but you are outside our engagement zone ... good luck") ... I think not ... so they wouldnt send the Nemitz, but they'd surely send a frigate or destroyer to help ... Now to the sticky issue of ships and weaponry ... here we have to ask ourselves "what do most junkers like to do?" ... and I gotta tell you ... it ain't tractoring in scrap metal ... Junker bases have always been the dropping off points for the Cardimine Trade in the 3 western houses, from way way back when "Vanilla" was still an Ice Cream flavouring ... so any organised Junker military force would surely be defensive ... Our neutrality in the New Hispanic Civil War dictates that we not enter into that particular conflict, and lets face it, marching into 'Hatten and blowing our valued customers to space dust would just be bad business ... what we need is the ability to organise and defend our members from attacks by Pirates and Terrorists ... and by Pirates I DO mean of either persuation, Lawful or Unlawful ... to the Junker mentality, a Pirate is ANYONE who tries to stop, hinder or tax our hard-working members ... so back to the point at hand ... the modding geniuses who created this magnificent sequal to Freelancer-Vanilla and continued its development, have given us the perfect answer ... with the exception of ONE battleship and Civilian technology available to EVERYONE, the only ships, weapons and equipment which a member of the Junker Congress should be using are those available for sale at our bases ... in conclusion ask your-selves this: would you rather have a well-organised group of true role-players forwarding the aims of the Junker nation, or a swarm of unruly Pirates wreaking havoc on the major Lawful and Unlawful shipping lanes of Sirius? ... cause I had a close look at my Junker ID badge the other day and exactly where all the Junker bases are ... and mmm ... gunboat is lookin' mighty tempting 'bout now ;) ... Peace.