Explanation: Canon vs Non-Canon Roleplay; Cloak Roleplay Etiquette

[Slimalou]

Canon lore/assets are those you see in the game in singleplayer.

• 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, such as multiplayer, forums, Discord RP.

• 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.
  

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It's unfortunate that this even needs spelled out. I've noticed that too many players think they are the main character when we're not. We are only a piece part of a bigger universe. The best roleplayers understand this concept.

I want to focus on this specific piece here. I remember years ago that some players in governments or who roleplayed as government agents were lead to believe they can influence story by roleplaying certain scenarios. I haven't seen a government related post or at least any serious roleplay regarding government in quite some time. There's also been contradictory RP by official factions that correspond with story developments. There has been a big turnover in the development team during this time as well.

So my question to you is this - official factions or those wanting to roleplay governments, with rational and logical role play and transparency/communication with appropriate devs, can player roleplay get to a point where it CAN influence story? Understandably, extraordinary story events should require extraordinary role play and time taboot. A Liberty invasion of Bretonia or Coalition systems is simply too extraordinary to happen but in your example of Red Hessians having a falling out with Coalition, if the reasoning is correct and both sides agree to it (if there are a both sides), can we see player interaction and involvement influence story events, infocards, factions relations etc?

As of now (at least within my circles), players don't feel like we are in control of our own destiny even as official factions. If this has always been the case (but jenky devs behaved differently), that would be nice to know. If this isn't the case or once was the case but is no longer, what can be done so that players CAN feel like we have some control of our own destiny?

(I know this may derail from the specific issue of cloaking so if anybody wants to discuss via PM, than I understand). Thanks!

Lane Hackers have a CIS Recusant Light Destroyer from Star Wars.

Shut up or Mickey Mouse will come after us!!!

Only if it does not run counter to that the story devs want to happen