Zoner Sub Factions.

[Alvin]

This conundrum has been going on since the dawn on Disco. I was objectively surprised when OW becoming a thing in the first place, since other topics like Zoner shiplines, POB discussions have died a silent withdrawal until someone drops another discussion bomb. Sarcasm not intended.


Anyway, there are both pros and cons to having 1 ID / IFF for simplicity, to devolving IFFs for a more complex interaction and consequences. You can argue on the same coin that because Zoner factions have their own difference in opinion, that new IFFs are needed to reflect the stance on each groups instead of mending them together in one blob. Certain Zoner groups may view one action much negatively than the other, and and vice versa an external faction may have beef with a specific group of Zoner / station but not others.

The one Zoner fits all also lead to oddities because we have multiple Zoner OFs; a unanimous decision need to be made to successfully FR5 a player or group. If one Zoner faction objects then the group in question also stays neutral, and lead to a situation where the other group can still dock on a Zoner station, and at the same time attack Zoner players. The last example of this where Hessians sieged a Zoner POB, and docked in the freeport next to it. Admittedly OSI was ok? with this but you could see where it could blend out if the situation was more greyer.

One thing I would certainly not advocate is adding IFF to individual bases. I think that is going overboard in spamming more unnecessary Reps / IFF with a limited player base, and there are some stations that sees much less action than others. Regional IFF could be fine here because a regional set of Zoner station would see a specific faction as a threat, due to an action on a base or player nearby, however the threat limited to that regional only because of ZOI limits where the faction can project their power sucessfully.


As for the odd OW IFF, if it still becomes a thing in the future.... I don't mind this becoming a feature where you start off with -0.3 to -0.55 and you can pay a bribe or "aka costco membership" to get access to specific items like Iridium, or scanner batteries for locality stuff etc.

Anyway that's my 2 cents gone -