Bounty Hunters Gone Wild

[Baltar]

Hyung Soong:

I'm not being personal in my posts. At least I'm not intending it to be. Thanks for the complements ... I'm not sure who your characters are ... hard to keep track but I'm sure they've been good encounters.

For the discussion at hand:

#1 ... Mercs are actually neutral and can take either lawful or unlawful. My only point is that BH are lawful and thus should not "act" unlawfully.

#2 ... This is what causes frustration ... if some BH hate Junkers and some BH like Junkers then Junkers cannot trust BH and Junkers will be hostile to ALL BH. Just take a look at what the SA did when Mercs were taking bounties on lawfuls in NY. They placed a ban on ALL Mercs. This is what will happen when "some" BH go hostile to the Junkers ... the ENTIRE Junker community will no longer trust ANY BH and thus ban ALL BH. Think about it ... would you trust a group that is unpredictable?

#3 ... Black Pearl is an independent pirate (not a Junker) ... he was the one attacked ... and his role play is that he LIVES on Yanagi and is closely aligned with the Junkers while not quite a full Junker. Black Pearl despises traders passing through the New Berlin and Chugoku jump holes as well as traders carrying military equipment and prisoners. The Black Pearl spends about 90% of the time in Sigma 13 and wants Sigma 13 to remain an independent system. 95% of all piracy done by Black Pearl is inside Sigma 13 itself and the other 5% is in neighboring systems (when the target runs outside Sigma 13).

#4 ... Yes yes ... I have met a few BH who've done a good job role playing BH ... BUT ... those BH that enter Sigma 13 are not these good role playing hunters. DW has proven over time to be good hunters as have a couple others. I've run into a few BH who are in gunships, fighters and bombers ... all good role play. But those that get the battle cruisers (not just the BH battle cruiser either) are the one's I've had the most trouble with. Sorry about the blanket stereotype ... but these bad apples are spoiling the whole BH community.

#5 ... Its not just Yanagi. Although this is my primary complaint ... they also hang around Rochester and other bases. I've even seen them at Alcatraz (Rogue) and Arranmore (Molly). Heck I even saw one undocking from Kyoto Base (Blood Dragon).

Hypocrisy: This was not directed at you. Note the word I used was "lets" which is a contraction combining "let" and "us" or "let us". This comment was directed at Disco as an entire community. And what I'm referring to is NOT role play limitations. I'm talking about the artificial limitations or restrictions placed on certain character types by the server rules. Pirates and Mercenaries are limited to gunboats and smaller while Bounty Hunters can have pretty much any ship they have the money to buy. And the hypocrisy I speak of is that lawfuls get breaks that unlawfuls do not. You've read Del's comment above. He pretty much dismissed my complaint without consideration. Have you ever participated in intramural sports where the referee called penalties for one side more harshly than the other? I'm not saying Del is an unfair ref. But I do wish people would take this a bit more seriously. There are bounty hunters (and others) out there that are stretching (loopholing) the rules to their favor.

My argument is not and never was about Junker role play. The issue at hand has to do with Bounty Hunters getting away with murder and everyone ignoring it. Had this discussion been about an Outcast, Corsair or Order battleship (or whatever capship you like) sitting less than 1k from the Manhattan docking ring and farming Liberty Police NPCs I'm sure there would be an outrage. Heck ... it doesn't even have to be at Manhattan. Imagine this at Riverside Police Station in California. I HAVE heard that complaint before.

Now then ... you mention Junkers are neutral and should be open for both Bounty Hunters and unlawfuls. This is the same as any Freeport (Zoners). I completely stopped pirating with any of my characters near Freeports for this reason. Reason is a few Zoners mentioned its bad for business and I like keeping good relations with Zoners (since they are neutral). That being said ... shouldn't the same respect be given at Junker bases? If we expect Freeports to be a safe haven for all vessels ... a sort of no fire zone ... then the same should be expected from Bounty Hunters near a Junker base. Otherwise ... Freeports can no longer be expected to be free from my activities.

As for pirates and criminals killing Junkers? Never heard of that happening. But rest assured they would become enemies of me very soon. And I would consider a pirate a bit OORP for doing so. Junkers are the only one's I know that sell the Smuggler ID. And smugglers support pirates and other criminals. Mercs would be hired ... not bounty hunters. Yes ... I hire mercs. Hunters ... even if I tried ... would not likely accept my jobs. Considering I would hire a bounty hunter to take out a house military vessel in Sigma 13 that shouldn't be there (*cough* Kusari *cough*). RM has adopted a policy within their faction to NOT enter Sigma 13 ... I thank them for that. The KNF have not adopted such a policy ... even though I've made several pleas with them to do so.

I think its time that Pirates AND Bounty Hunters learned to take Junkers seriously. You tell me.
Why would a CRIMINAL pirate a Junker, when we are their backbone of movement?
When they need us for their equipment, and safe houses?

I have a couple Junkers. And Black Pearl is closer to Junkers than any other faction. I've got a Merc who's fairly neutral (with exception to Mandalorian declared hostiles). Trust me ... Junkers are probably my characters best friends. Junkers, Zoners, Smugglers and other unlawfuls are not pirated by me. There are pirates that do ... and I do not hang out with them. BTW ... you mentioned not stereotyping BH ... how bout lets not do that to Pirates (which is what happens constantly).

Why are people trying to keep the RP static? Why can't there be Bounty Hunters that are on good terms
with Junkers? Why can't there be innocent Junkers? Why can't there be Bounty Hunters that take bounties
from a Junker, against another Criminal who has done the Junker wrong?

Because it gets abused and leads to loopholing. Creative role play is good role play ... but there must be some line that cannot be crossed. For example ... a bounty hunter flying a Lane Hacker gunship is too much. People are ALWAYS giving pirates a hard time about their guns. Here's something about gunboat turrets ... there are NO pirate gunboat turrets ... there are NO Rogue gunboat turrets ... I do hope in the upcoming mod that they create more gunboat turrets cause you can pretty much buy any gunboat turret on just about any base.

I'll tell you why. Because you are looking at the LETTER of the ID / faction law, rather than at the RP Spirit.
THAT is what upsets me, when people focus only on their own narrow view of how their and everyone else's
RP should be.

Yeah ... heard that ... tried that argument. Now explain why a Liberty Rogue ID is pinned down in and around Liberty? If you see a Liberty Rogue ID'd vessel pirating in Rheinland you'll get OOC screams in system chat and likely get a violation report. But ... see a house cruiser outside their house and nobody says a word. I hate double standards.

Why should we limit the RolePlay potential, by making MORE server rules and Bans, just so you can stop
OoRP Bounty Hunters who don't know how to RP a BH Properly? Why don't you move away from Sig 13?
You KNOW it's OoRP haven at the mo, so why go there?
This is what it boils down to. But I strongly disagree that ALL BH should suffer because of some twits in Sig 13.

I'm not saying make new rules ... I'm saying enforce those that we already have. AND ... don't apply constricting rules on one group while letting another run free of any restrictions.