ID formatting

[jammi]

Preface: I'm making this thread to personally gauge interest, not as a staff consultation or as any formal commitment to making these changes.

Currently, a lot of our IDs are inconsistent and have been updated piecemeal over the years. This has resulted in tons of superseded lines, redundant clauses, ambiguities in interpretation and generally outdated gameplay options. I'd like to start reviewing IDs in batches, but before I get started (with assistance from @SnakThree and anyone else who wants to pitch in) there's a matter I'd like to resolve.

Currently, ID clauses may apply:

1) Within ZOI - the clause only applies inside the ZOI defined on the ID.
2) Anywhere - the clause applies inside or outside the ZOI.
3) Outside ZOI - the clause applies outside the ZOI, but not inside it.

Adequately explaining which of these applies to each clause has been... messy, and inconsistent to boot. There are three ways we could resolve this, and I'd like to get the community's view on which style they prefer:

Option 1: Square brackets are used to describe the limitation applying to the clause at the beginning of the line. This looks... strange, at least at first. It has the advantages of being crystal clear, and also allows for sentence structures to be massively simplified to avoid confusion. Example:

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, who specialise in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

The pilot carrying this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID is a member of the [Example], who:

[Within ZOI] Can enforce the laws of [House].
[Anywhere] Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House].
[Anywhere] Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship.
[Anywhere] Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups.
[Outside ZOI] Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers.
[General] Can ally with unlawful factions.
[General] Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.

Zone of Influence: Systems
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers

Option 2: Subsections are added to each ID with clauses grouped by limitation. This makes the IDs look longer, so there is more scrolling involved. As with option 1, it also has the advantage of making each clause explicitly clear, and enables us to simplify sentence structure.

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, who specialise in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

The pilot carrying this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID is a member of the [Example], who:

Within ZOI:
- Can enforce the laws of [House].

Anywhere:
- Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House], anywhere.
- Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship.
- Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups.

Outside ZOI:
- Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers.

General:
- Can ally with unlawful factions.
- Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.

Zone of Influence: Systems
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers

Option 3: Limitations are added to the end of every clause. This is more or less the system we currently have, and is therefore most familiar to all of us. It does have problems with occasionally causing horribly complex and messy run-on-sentences. This can lead to ambiguous interpretations of what a clause is intended to say.

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, who specialise in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

The pilot carrying this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID is a member of [Example], who:

- Can enforce the laws of Bretonia within ZOI.
- Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House], anywhere.
- Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship, anywhere.
- Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups, anywhere
- Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers outside their ZOI.
- Can ally with unlawful factions.
- Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.

Zone of Influence: Systems
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers

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