All very good points. It's really a matter of taste. If you are going for RP purposes, it is much easier to ally yourself with an established faction, as you get the benefits of such an alliance. Running a 'vanilla' id is much more difficult because it really does limit your choices... each time you engage, your reputation will flutter and you run the risk of flashing a faction. It happens. Then you have to work twice as hard to clean that up. My character is a Blood Dragon and while pirating is a viable possibility, as mentioned before, his motivation is political... not just for the loot. Yes, it limits my ship usage, but I decided all of that when I signed up. If you want to go indi pirate... that is fine. But keep in mind your choice of ships, weapons, docking ports... all of this must be correct for your RP to be spot on. And absolutely, avail yourself of the numerous resources available to you both on this forum, in game, data cards, and others who might be in a position to give you their unbiased advice.
![[Image: dingsigcopy.jpg]](http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll219/Kyte_/dingsigcopy.jpg)