To: Karst (2)

[Sombs]

Why being on good terms with Core
was/is good for Zoners
an essay by
Sombra H.

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Some people may remember the dark but entertaining times of Freeport 11 being in the center of attention for a lot of factions. It was the best time for Omicron Delta, as it was visually fitting into the Omicrons: It had a regular space background with the Edge Nebula, there was only one nebula in Omicron Delta and it was green - like the EDGE NEBULA is - and Freeport 11 offered a beautiful panorama of Delta's orange sun with a horizontal ring around it, which was not only visually pleasing but also invited people to "surf" the ring when they got bored. The nebula still has giant rocks in them, which is the one way giant rocks, due to their low-poly-models, work best, and the Order-held Dabadoru was not right between the home system of the Core and the main planet (moon) held by the Core. But let me not digress into how unfathomably hilarious and brutally free of concept the current instance of Omicron Delta is. This is about Zoners and Core.

Back in those days, Freeport 11 was the center of attention. Core wanted to siege the station twice, then later, under new lead, erected Port Carthage within the No-Fire-Zone, however, with a non-Core-tag, without contacting the Freeport 11 administration. This forced the active Zoner players at that time to make a decision on how to deal with this: Either let the Core do what they wanted, knowing they would just once more try to attack Freeport 11 if they didn't play along - which back at the time was canonized by Alley, who placed debris all over Freeport 11 - or reject the Core and deal with the consequences. Back at that time, the relations between Zoners and Core were just back out of an indie-induced FR5, which also affected TAZ, IRG and OSI, despite none of them having been part of anything related to Omicron Delta.

Eventually, this entire situation lead to the climactic Battle of Carthage, which was a not just one battle but a series of battles with the goal of Order and Corsairs destroying Port Carthage, while Zoners, Core and hirelings would defend Freeport 11 and Port Carthage. The final Battle of Carthage was longer than two hours and took place on the entire path from Freeport 11 to the Omicron Kappa jump hole, and partially even in Omicron Kappa. NEMPs got fired by a Forlorn Hope pilot as an opening act, who managed to take down four ships of Order and Corsairs, and a very messy bloodbath ensued. The result was the destruction of Port Carthage and the Freeport 11 administrator was forced to be exiled by the Order. A new administrator took care of Freeport 11 and relations slowly turned neutral again, both between Core and Zoners as well as between Order and Zoners.

Today, Karst made a bold statement, claiming that a friendship between Zoners and Core was "absolutely disgusting", "contradicting Zoner lore" and the indies causing the conflict between Core and Zoners, causing FR5s to be forced on uninvolved factions, "were justified".

Now that the context is explained, allow me to elaborate on why Zoners and Core may go along with each other in a mutual friendship just as well as Zoners and Order or any other faction that is not a house would go along well.

1. What Zoners are in Freelancer and in Discovery
   
2. Zoners profit from not being in the center of attention
   
3. Zoners delay
   
4. Zoners know there is no "neutral space"
   
5. Zoners just want to be left alone
   
6. Zoners are not civilians per se

What Zoners are in Freelancer and in Discovery

"Zoners are civilians who have rejected house rule. They are usually isolationists, and prefer to live outside of house borders, unburdened by house laws. They generally welcome both lawful and unlawful factions, trading freely between them. Zoners avoid conflict when possible, however this does not exempt Zoners from piracy by many unlawful factions."

That is the curent infocard of Zoners in Discovery. Zoners weren't that different in vanilla Freelancer, however, they didn't offer missions at all, you could only bribe them to get back on good terms with them, and their bases were open to anyone. They don't like living in House space for various, individual reasons, and Zoners are individuals in general. That doesn't mean that they are in any way without power, as already in vanilla they had a lot of bases, somehow managed to cater every faction enough to be cool with them. Not only that, but without the support of the Houses, they managed to erect Freeports in otherwise rather hostile environments - be it the asteroid-rich Taus, the contested Borderworlds and of course, the radiation-intensive, unlawful Omegas and Omicrons. Not even aggressive bacteria managed to keep the Zoners away, and they have one of the four Very Heavy Fighters vanilla offered (I'm excluding the Order VHF here because it's underperforming in comparison).

In conclusion, vanilla portrayed Zoners as tough people with various kind of power - be it money, resources, skill or technology - and they were able to survive the harshest environments, both environmental and political.

It is only natural that in Discovery, the Zoners grew to be able to get their hands on capital ships. In fact, those would be the optimal Freeports, and in my personal opinion, would have been the better ways of portraying Zoners - with Nephilims and Aquilons and mobile fleets instead of static Freeports in the middle of contested areas.

Anyway, with the Houses going at each others throats, the Zoners needed to step up their game: Not only did the wars in House space make those regions even less attractive to anyone rich enough to afford space vessels, but also made all Houses look even harder for new areas to exploit for resources. In order to maintain their neutral stance with everyone, the Zoners needed to upgrade, too, because every possible threat around them would do so as well. Cruisers and Battleships became a thing not only for House militaries, but also to Nomads, Corsairs, Outcasts, Order and even BHG, specifically later separated as Core, got capitals.

Long story short, even the Zoners ended up not just being Zoners, but formed factions with specific goals, in specific regions with specific relations. These can be separated into the five following categories:

• Militant Zoners
  
• Scientist Zoners
  
• Money Zoners
  
• Weird Zoners
  
• Freelancer Zoners
  

Militant Zoners

In lore, those aren't anything new. They are the ones that made, in vanilla, think other factions twice about challenging Zoners. They are daredevils, well equipped with skill and technology, able to withstand the toughest conditions. They are survivors and most likely inherited their skills from whatever faction or company they used for work for before becoming a Zoner.

In Discovery, it's a fucking meme and nobody, rightfully, takes them seriously. There are two kinds of people who play militant Zoners: People who want to stir shit up, and people who are horrible at PvP but love to have a big mouth on the forum in comms. Both don't last long in Discovery and they quickly give up, leaving the Zoner reputation in shambles while not bothering with the clean-up. They don't care about consequences and leave consequences to other Zoner categories, much to their dismay.

One may need to add that there are two types of Militant Zoners: The ones who don't go for any efforts, and those who try to justify their doing inRP. The latter usually ends up portraying themselves hilariously powerful and edgy as hell. Yes, Zoners have security and powerful assets. No, they don't have thousands of trained mercs. Zoners are not a PMC.

Scientist Zoners

Space offers lots of cool things to explore. Baxter anomalies, various nebulae and asteroid fields, new ores like Narcrahtite, isotopes, bacteria and of course both the AI of Gammu and the Nomads - and the creators of both of those. Zoners in vanilla endorsed the trading of anything the areas outside House space had to offer, as it was a good way to get the much needed resources from House space, be it spare parts or food not grown in biodomes or medical supplies, specifically against radiation sickness.

Discovery's by far most known Science Zoners were the Ingenuus Research Group. An official faction dedicated to R&D roleplay. When James McCool faded into the background and a new manager took over, IRG took a drastically more militant approach on things and fucked up their diplomacy with multiple factions. Their major advantage was the management of the Livadia Shipyards in Omicron Kappa, scientific progress made on Corinth Research Station and a steady attraction to people who couldn't ask science divisions in House space for assistance in morally questionable and law-breaking endeavours. Eventually, they faded away from constant pressure and neglection, and what they used to do is now a bit more of what Auxo is interested in: Technology and Progression.

Zoners being played as Scientists has usually resulted in quality RP in Discovery, but that, of course, is my personal perception.

Money Zoners

As mentioned before, Zoners endorsed trading on their Freeports. They offered a home to anyone, and that required getting stuff for everyone. The most obvious thing to do is to exploit the dangerous areas outside House space for resources, and that needed to be done in way that would not piss off the locals. One can imagine that they did both direct trades between House space and the Outer Regions, but also organized trading between Outer Region Unlawfuls like Hessians, Corsairs and Outcasts, and most likely for the Order, too.

In Discovery, people would see Omicron Supply Industries as the "corporate Zoners" or "House Zoners", which is both a dumbed-down way of explaining OSI to newcomers, but also a fair way. What made OSI attractive are both excellent repsheets and player faction relations as well as a very easy to handle 5000-Cargo transport without guns but with a cloaking device slot that helped me survive many, many encounters.

OSI however was not about trading in House space, and members, at least during my time, got sorted out for low quality behavior. Instead, OSI's main game consisted of two things: the export of Iridium and Deuterium from Zoner bases into House space, and the return of required resources from House space to Zoner bases. Nothing displayed this more than Nichols Trading Center, the OSI shopping mall PoB that used to be in Omega-49 in the orbit of Planet Gran Canaria. Open to everyone, providing top-notch technology like cloaks and jump drives as well as Iridium from Omicron Delta (while Gran Canaria offered the Deuterium), Nichols Trading Center basically embodied the idea of Zoners organizing the essentials of all Freeports and their inhabitants, including the Freeport that was Planet Gran Canaria.

Of all Zoner factions, OSI was, in my opinion, the most Zoner one, as they tried as hard as possible to remain neutral or better with all factions. There were only few factions that openly opposed that, like the Lane Hackers, with the reasoning that they simply despise organized Corporates because of Ageira. OSI did try to avoid all hostilities at all times, but also tried to be there when Zoners needed humanitarian aid, be it on Freeport 11 or on Gran Canaria. Of course, trying not to miss out on making profits, because who likes to work for free.

Weird Zoners

Kallisti!

Weird Zoners are a product of not only the brightest minds leaving House space, as well as the Outer Regions leaving an impact on people. Especially the Edge Nebula was known for spitting out weird people, already in vanilla Freelancer. Strange things are going on there, and many of these strange things are not explained even today.

The inhabitants of Baffin, the Temporally Anonymous Zoners, represented Zoners who were weird for the sake of being weird. They hated specific numbers, got insulted by cabbage, had strange things happening on their occult stations and somehow, for some reason, ended up with a Persephone-class Flying Fortress. The zenith of the TAZ was before my time in Discovery, back in the days when Freeport 6 was administrated by a Klingon. When I joined, people didn't need to be TAZ to have the concept of characters being weird for the sake of being weird. Today we have Auxo.

One good thing remains, however: Scrubbys! If you don't know about Scrubbys, you should definitely visit a Scrubby Farm in Baffin and check the rumors and infocards about them. Funny little laughing gas bacteria.

Freelancer Zoners

The kind of Zoners who are behaving like Freelancers but use the Zoner ID because it's better for people who don't primarily pew. Freelancer Zoners are likely what people who don't understand the full context of what a Zoner is imagine Zoners to be like: Individuals, unorganized, generally minding their own business, somehow having managed to get their hands on a capital ship.

Freelancer Zoners can be both great and horrible - obviously, as everything in Discovery - but it is definitely always worth checking out what they are up to, either to point a finger and do drama or to enjoy what niche RP they are going for.

Zoner profit from not being in the center of attention

Zoners, in a way, are humans as described by philosoph Friedrich Nietzsche. They are survivors and their primary goal is their own survival. There can be goals on a similar level as that, but a Zoner never values something else more than their own life. They want to be in control of their own life. That's why many of them reject living in House space - they get the feeling of not being in control over their own life. Politics, corporate slavery, wars and obligations? No, thank you.

As such, Zoners will do anything they need to survive. They poker cleverly and hide their trump cards. The biggest strength of a Zoner is what their opponents don't know about them. That's why they are isolationist in many cases, with their own communities on each station and smaller extremist societies living in secluded areas. In Discovery, both Baffin and Livadia are good examples. Zoners try to be as uninteresting or weird enough to make investigations sound like a waste of time and resources. They are like the ugly woman in the bar you don't bother paying attention to.

By avoiding to draw attention, they make sure people pay attention to other things and factions. The Core and the Order pay more attention to each other than bothering with Freeport 11 in most cases. The Corsairs don't mind the Zoners as they are more beneficial than annoying to them, same goes for how Outcasts see Zoners in the Taus, and the Hessians make frequent use of their Freeports in the Omegas. Each of those factions enjoy the benefits they reap from the Zoners just that little tad more than the annoyance they get from knowing that everyone else is enjoying these benefits as well, and these factions know the Zoners will always provide a secure place for conversations if a face-to-face is unavoidably necessary. That's one of their strengths and factions respect that, as angering Zoners would bring them closer to the other factions, meaning they would in the short term maybe profit, but in the long run, everyone else profits with the Zoners.

This, obviously, goes for the Core, too. To the Core, the Zoners are less problematic than something they just have to accept for the sake of the long run. The Core dreams - vividly - about Empire Omicronis, and while the Core has military power, they are shotguns, blowing their loads in one quick rush. That's not enough in the long run, and even the Core knows that. They try to be resourceful and part of that is to accept that the Zoners are more reliable as neutrals or friends than enemies providing area of denial with their Freeports. Keep in mind, we are not talking about Zoner players, but Zoners in lore. Freeports are defensive fortresses, able to withstand a lot of pressure. They are literally meant to endure for the sake of endurance and passive relentlessness in hostile environments.

What do the Zoners gain from that? Being friends with the Core is a risky move, but a necessary one in certain situations. After Core's two direct assaults on Freeport 11, the affected Zoners, with few very stubborn militant Zoners excluded, tried their best to end the conflict as soon as possible. Having their Whales hunted down for something they weren't directly involved with was horrible, but the Core did not care, and most factions in the affected regions could only do so much to show support. Some did, both logistical and military, but still: Uninvolved people got hunted. To be fair, this roots in Discovery treating all Zoners as Zoners, regardless of where they come from and what they do. If it would have been different, maybe Core and Zoners would still be allies against the Order in Omicron Delta specifically? Who knows.

Another factor that played into the friendship between Core and Zoners back then, apart from OORP drama, obviously, was the fact that while both Core and Order frequently broke the No-Fire-Zone (usually on indies that didn't care for FR5s), the Core usually came to assist the Zoners in situations where Order players were the perpetrators. The mutual thankfulness of these situations peaked when Port Carthage appeared in the No-Fire-Zone, which lead to a new problem.

This problem needed to be tackled in a very Zoner way, which is why the Zoner Consensus argued that it was better to let Core pass and see where this would go for as long as possible, while knowing Order would not like it.

Zoners delay

Delaying peace conferences is a common theme in real life, sadly, to make sure the opponent is in a worse state for negotiations the moment the conferences happen. Zoners do the exact same, but with war. We all know how hard and punishing bureaucracy is, and Zoners know why they left House space. Going against Core's Port Carthage (yes, it was not a Core-IFF station, but we all know Vasko did it for Core for the fun of it) the moment it showed up would have been bad for the Zoners. The Core was always ready to strike in Delta, while rallying allies for the sake of defense - which was proven during the two direct attacks of Core on Freeport 11 - takes time and negotiation expertise. A direct reaction was out of question, it is the opposite of time and delay. As such, the Zoners went for delay, and it payed off at that moment. Order and Corsairs got angry at Freeport 11 and IRG, but they were only after Port Carthage for valid reasons. The delay caused by Freeport 11 back then allowed both Zoners and Core to rally a fleet on par with the Order-Corsair-Battlegroup that ultimately defeated Port Carthage in long battles.

After the Battle of Carthage, all fleets were hurting. Everything cooled down, Freeport 11 drew a lot less attention, Core didn't try anything funny on Freeport 11 any time soon and the Order focused on more important things again, like the sudden arrival of the Vagrants, the expansion of Auxesia and the Cult of Technology. Delaying paid off for the Zoners in the long run.

Something similar happened in the drama about Planet Gran Canaria. For a short time, Bretonia had it. Did it pay off? No. That's why they gave it up again, because keeping a planet in a highly hostile location like Omega-49/48 is a catastrophe. Zoners are masters of attrition. They are the little retarded brother of a Guerrilla Fighter - absolutely not impressive, but effective at being a horrible nuisance, like Wales to the UK or story devs to the community. Annoying, they do stupid stuff for the sake of their own personal agendas but eventually you can't get rid of them.

Zoners know there is no "neutral space"

While it was not necessarily a thing described in vanilla, it absolutely is in Discovery: Every faction makes claims. Most of those claims are hilarious in their own ways, but these claims are the base for conflict, and what is Discovery if not conflict. To have a spot just for yourself, you'd need to do it like the Apahanta and just leave Sirius, put as much distance between yourself and the nearest human being or even nomad, and then, eventually, settle down. And even that might not last for long, since in the past 30 years, sirian factions went a long way to explore and expand further and further, nowadays basically being just a few jumps away from the local neighbourhood Dyson Sphere. (It's five jumps from New Tokyo to Omicron Major. Five.)

When Zoners in vanilla took over an abandoned RGS Station in Bering, they know what they were up to. When they built a station next to the home of the Corsairs, they knew what they were up to. When they found Gran Canaria, they should have known what they were up to, but as we know, jump holes are not permanent and sometimes the James Greed is bigger and stronger than the ability to act reasonable.

It all boils down to Zoners knowing that they can't guarantee to live in a neutral area. There will always be claims and expansions and Zoners play their best cards to deal with that: Survival at any cost. Attrition, annoyance, diplomacy, hiding. Sometimes you need to befriend an enemy, sometimes you need to make a step back to make two steps forward in the long game.

Zoners just want to be left alone

Next to survival, Zoners just want to be left alone. They don't want to get dragged into drama and conflict, which is why the best way to solve a problem, to a Zoner, is a non-militant approach. Zoners are the one faction in vanilla that has mastered resourcefulness and in Discovery, they have Carriers and Colony Ships for a reason: They want to be able to go somewhere else if absolutely necessary. Nephilim-class Mobile Colony Ships are flying cities and fortresses, likely the one ship class of that size with the means to sustain itself. Basically the perfect Freeports in lore. Sadly, we do not have them as Freeports. It is good that we have them, even if their gameplay is used exactly for not what they are but as tanky heavy battleships. That pisses a lot of people off, but keep in mind, these ships have a reason to exist, and even though the reason why they exist in lore is different from what the reason for them to be accessible to indies is completely different, it's always better to have content and attract rare instances of surprisingly good interactions than not offering anything. Cutting content is always bad, and I hope that Markam gets it at some point, hopefully before he wants to cut even more systems and demystifies anything worth of exploration any further.

If it takes to be friends with the Core, or at least neutral, to be left alone by them, it's perfectly acceptable to live in the now and let Core deliriously dream about House Omicronis. All Zoners know: Omicronis won't happen any time soon. They don't have the resources, and they have too many opponents to brawl. Yes, Zoners hate the idea of Houses, but all means, Omicronis is nothing more than an idea. And as we all know: You can't kill an idea.

Zoners are not civilians per se

There are benefits that come from being friends with the Core. As I explained earlier in a way that even Unioner players could understand it, Zoners are not civilians per se. They are individuals with individual perspectives, intentions and they are tough survivors. And a good way to enhance your ways of survival in harsh environments and political challenge is to have good equipment. Sure, the Order hands out Kemwer to their friends, but with limitations. The Core, on the other hand, basically foams with their arms based on both Nomad and AI technology. APM Advanced Hardware is a lot more publicly accessible than Kemwer, and all you need is a contact with the Core or a friend with a contact with the Core to get your sweaty hands on it. Having contacts with the Order is a lot more tricky than with a reckless, governmentally supported PMC in an area of space that doesn't care for regular black markets and unlawful activities.

Zoners want that stuff. They are all over it. Everything that makes survival easier against maniacs, pirates, Nomads and harvesters. The Core, certainly, while being dubious, is more business-oriented than moody Corsairs and rather, in comparison, elitist Outcasts. It is the most approachable faction in the Omicrons and compared to the Order, a lot more chill. You can hate it, and hate Core, but that's a fact.

Conclusion

As you see, there are good reasons why Zoners benefit from being friends or neutral with the Core, once you understand the Zoner perspective. I am not weird for not having one. In fact, I may be weird for justifying to YOU WEIRDO that I think the Core is beneficial to the Zoner, while you are sitting naked at your PC, powertrading and desperately trying to hunt down Rheinland corporate transports while saying "This is ALG - Alpha - 1", trying to convince the local people why ALG is actually pretty awesome. Yes, Karst, you are the weirdo. Do you get that? I'm calling you a weirdo. A powerful, positive, happy weirdo, but a weirdo!

I like you but don't ever dare to point your finger at me again for defending Zoner-Core relations, because YOU are the weirdo here, and I made you read this slightly-less-mini essay on why I am superior to you because I don't blindly hate the Core WHILE I WEAR CLOTHES! Ha, think about that! This essay is my translation of T-Posing on you to assert my dominance. I bet you feel stupid now. Why don't you make an Unioner character, while you're at it, huh?

In fact, it is U who is the weird one here.

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