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**Antonio** · 01-14-2025, 01:58 PM,

In light of recent discussions, I'm creating this thread to clarify certain roleplay concepts that might be unknown to some. The purpose is to differentiate what kind of roleplay belongs or doesn't belong to the canonically defined lore of the game.

Basic Terms:

Canon - the realm of work within a fictional series/franchise that is said to have "actually happened". It provides the groundwork and basis for all non-canon material to be based off of, as well as future canon material. (Source)
Roleplay - the act of pretending to be a person or character; getting in that person's head, practicing the thought patterns of that person, feeling what they're feeling, dealing with what they're dealing with, and making decisions based on that. (Source)

1. Canon vs Non-Canon Assets

Canon lore/assets are those you see in the game in singleplayer, with one exception listed in the next paragraph.

Vogtland Base exists in singleplayer and belongs to the Red Hessians, it is a canon asset that has "actually happened". Vogtland's additional lore states that it is hidden and serves as the main base of the Hessians.
Canonically, the allies and enemies of X faction are those defined in the faction's IFF description.
Bases, battleships, infocards, rumors, systems, and wrecks are canon. They establish what has "actually happened" in the Freelancer universe and help players build their roleplay using the canon world as a source.
No one can change canon lore except developers. Players can ignore or break it, but they cannot change canon lore unless the developers approve it.

Non-canon assets/roleplay are what you see outside of singleplayer (except one exception listed below), such as multiplayer, forums, Discord RP.

In-game NPC spawns are not canon. Killing an encounter or farming a battlezone to blow up 100 Liberty Dreadnoughts with your ship does not mean Liberty owned/lost100 Dreadnoughts in canon lore. NPCs spawning infinitely is a gameplay concession to provide an interaction loop.
Player ships are not canon assets. Hessian players owning 20 Jormungandrs doesn't mean the Hessians have 20 battleships in lore.
Player-owned bases are not canon assets. Building five Hessian POBs in New Berlin will not affect the lore of Hessian advances in New Berlin.
Player roleplay in-game and on forums is, in 99.9% of cases, not canon unless it specifically makes it into the singleplayer portion of the game - such as when we canonized a player-owned ship, the Nergal, in honor of a passed-away community member.
Player diplomacy is not canon. For instance, a Red Hessian player faction declaring the Coalition hostile does not mean the Hessians did the same in canon.

The main takeaway from these differences is the gameplay restrictions imposed to maintain roleplay freedom and choice. We can't allow unlimited access to battleships while making player ships part of canon lore. If players could use those battleships to push lore however they wanted, it would create total anarchy. We make many gameplay concessions that don't make sense in canon lore. Example: Usage of cloaks and jump drives - rare and highly restrictive assets, the latter only used by Kusari in experimental stages - is allowed in gameplay because player ships are not canon assets. A Red Hessian player ship with a jump drive is acceptable, but a canon Red Hessian cruiser near Vogtland with a jump drive would pose a major story problem.

Is breaking canon roleplay inherently against the rules? No. As long as it doesn't come at the expense of other players' roleplay, players are free to roleplay whatever they want. Roleplay, like life, is shades of gray. Even canonical allies experience tensions, and player roleplay can explore those tensions. We’ve seen plenty of examples where canon-breaking player roleplay occurred, and all players involved adapted to it.

2. Cloak Roleplay Restrictions

Cloaks are powerful tools in some applications and weak in others. While cloaks can be used for PvP, piracy, trading, and general concealed movement from point A to point B, this thread primarily focuses on the espionage roleplay potential of cloaks. Espionage roleplay is on paper cool, and it makes sense. Using cloak to hide and eavesdrop on enemy activities? Great. However, it highly depends on the way you utilize the gathered information, such as to enforce roleplay consequences, and it's a thin line between powergaming or not.

Realism

While realism-wise espionage roleplay sounds valid, it is not good enough. It makes sense that you'd use cloak to spy on people. Of course, why not? How else would you do it? It makes sense you'd follow a faction that you ooRP know is infected, in order to get inRP proof to expose them, right? Unfortunately not.

"Making sense" is only the first step. Why? Because many things that "make sense" are already forbidden:

If I kill you in PvP, it makes sense I'd kill your character permanently in RP. Yet I don't do it, because it's powergaming and would harm roleplay foundations.
If there's a 15v2 in-game, it "makes sense" that the 15 would just pile on the 2 with no restraint. Yet in order to preserve any kind of PvP etiquette, as well as respect the anti-gank rule, the players have to balance it out.
It "makes sense" for me to kill any transport I want as a pirate in RP, yet I have to pretend that I cannot because rules say so.

"Making sense" is not enough. Thus, the problem with cloaks and espionage roleplay is not whether it "makes sense" but whether it is harmful.

Harm and intent

All the above examples are forbidden because they promote harmful behavior. Even if your intent behind using cloaks for espionage is good - such as exposing a Wild faction which is enemy of yours - it can still be harmful due to a lack of counterplay. The Wild player doesn’t know if they should behave carefully. The cloak's beeping sound range is too short, and the player list hides the cloaker's location.

As a result, the Wild player is punished for "playing the game." The cloaker indirectly discourages participation and encourages illogical behavior (e.g., sundiving instead of flying to base, fearing exposure) on the off chance that someone might be stalking them with a cloak and exposing their entire roleplay. If, for example, cloaks had a 15k beeping sound, then the Wild player could suspect something's up and act accordingly. That is currently not the case.

This game is based on player interaction. Features offering zero interaction while enforcing consequences are detrimental. Past incidents involving perma-cloakers punished shady corporate roleplay, making corporate player factions stop playing altogether until staff intervened. The recent warning issued stems from pragmatism - it was already tried and tested that perma cloak consequence enforcing is harmful, on multiple previous examples, as it punishes the players for playing the game, and encourages bottom of the barrel behavior from all sides. People in the past have been sanctioned, quite harshly, so when the staff only issued a warning for the most recent example, they did so because they acknowledged that while outcome was harmful, the intent wasn't.

Where can you use cloaks for your roleplay? Generally, perma-cloak usage is acceptable in any roleplay that doesn’t permanently harm someone else's roleplay. While I suggest you de-cloak and offer the other side a chance to roleplay back with you, ensuring that everything from the point you uncloaked and they acknowledged your presence can be used for enforcing consequences, it is not mandatory. Example: Eavesdropping on two Freelancers chatting about their favorite food near Freeport 11 is harmless and wouldn’t lead to harmful consequences if exposed. You can also stalk someone talking about picking up a shipment of valuable cargo, then pirate them at the next jumphole. However, due to the 0-counterplay nature of perma-cloaks, I don't see many more "serious", lasting applicable scenarios where it is healthy.

This thread can be edited upon further community feedback, to make it as accurate and objective source of information as possible for people to use as a baseline.

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