Weekend Getaway Gallia & Rheinland Trade & RP Event OS&C, Imperial Shipping,Ile-de-France Shipping, and Unione Corse.
Brigands v Gendarmerie, LWB v RFP, and MORE.
DATE & TIME
Apr 19 - Apr 25
(RP threads active until May 5)
OVERVIEW
Late last year, Ile-de-France Shipping announced the sale of Versailles Station in orbit of New Paris. This had followed months of negotiations and bidding rounds, with Imperial Shipping eventually taking ownership, backed by the Rheinland government. This came after a potential domestic buyer - the Gonzaga Society representing the wealthy aristocratic estates of Nevers - balked at the price and withdrew. While OS&C were also unsuccessful in their bid to acquire the station, IDFS was impressed by their proposed business model and has agreed to lease the operator license for Cannes Resort to the Sirian tour firm.
Owing to travel restrictions and economic embargoes, OS&C is primarily focusing on cultivating tourism links between Rheinland and Gallia, hoping to open new revenue streams in Provence, while bolstering its flagging Baden Baden resorts. Imperial Shipping is also now prepared to launch its first major initiative at Versailles, introducing a temporarily subsidized shuttle between Ile-de-France and New Berlin in an attempt to encourage business leaders, trend-setters and thought-leaders to visit the so-called "Sirian diplomatic enclave". Rheinland officials have the perhaps naïve hope that they will be the ones to integrate Gallia into the Sirian market, profiting immensely in the process.
Of course, the entry of Imperial and OS&C into the Gallic tourism trade has ruffled feathers. While IDFS appears to be slowly shuttering Bouvet Space Entertainment and transitioning away from the market, the Unione Corse are considerably less sanguine. While the Corsican gangsters are careful to keep their own hands scrupulously clean in this affair, the Brigands they have hired to interrupt their competitors have no such concerns. Similarly in Rheinland, the LWB intend to target passenger liners in an attempt to take hostages that can be used in their battle against the two Houses' trade treaty.
Both Rheinland and Gallia are conscious of the diplomatic and economic benefits that could arise from a thriving tourism trade, and have ordered their police units to high alert to ensure the liners' security. RFP and Gendarmerie patrols have accordingly been stepped up across the region.
DETAILS
Inter-house Tourism:
Passengers (Gallia) will have their profits boosted by 25% at Planet Baden Baden, Planet New Berlin, and Wildau Station.
Passengers (Rheinland) will have their profits boosted by 25% at Cannes Resort Station, Planet Marseille, and Versailles Station.
Please note that not all stations that sell passengers are included in the config, though most are. Watch for the "registered into the event" message when buying to make sure.
Descriptions of cultural landmarks and other shenanigans which may occur during the meticulously engineered state tours are encouraged in a new event story thread. The best submissions will earn rewards and potentially a place in future lore about each House.
Reminder: Passenger Cabins take up 1000 cargo space, reduced to 500 for liner type vessels.
Hostages and hellraising:
Beaumont and Darmstadt Depots will serve as drop-off points for Passengers whose tour package has been forcefully amended to an exciting, unscheduled alternative.
Brigands and LWB can claim additional rewards by documenting the piracy of Passengers and their sale to Beaumont or Darmstadt (respectively). Roleplay from successful hostage-taking may be used for future events, or incorporated into lore.
Brigands and LWB do not receive bounties or points for killing players - their interest is specifically in abducting Passengers.
RFP, Gendarmerie, and other approved House lawfuls are incentivized to keep the peace via established bounty boards. We will sponsor any rewards handed out for event-related claims (at the current reward levels).
Rule changes:
The Trade Ship exemption in rule 2.2 does not apply to ships carrying Passengers in Gallia, Rheinland, and bordering systems for the duration of the event. Docking during a hostile encounter with one of these ships counts as a PvP death.
Event rewards:
All prizes require relevant roleplay about the event. This can be submitted as a report within a relevant faction channel, as part of a comm / story thread, or in an appropriate event thread.
Custom title: A user title of your choice applied to your forum account.
Engine effects: Liners with event IDs scoring at least 160 points can request an appropriate replacement engine effect.
Misc: Additional rewards are available for participating factions on a case by case basis. The more effort you put into your roleplay, the greater the potential reward.
RESULTS
After the latest annual Travel Industry Conference hosted by OS&C on Baden-Baden, representatives of both Gallic and Rheinland departments of state can report a qualified success to their superiors. The provided incentives brought a much sought-after increase in travel between the Houses, with even additional entities registering their vessels to help meet the increased demand. While the keynote speaker glossed over the challenges associated with the program, these remain to be solved by the respective governments of each House.
In Gallia, the growing unrest and the increased boldness of Brigand raids resulted in minor losses of crews and even tourists, somewhat souring the appeal of the trip for many others. But with OS&C rumored to formally take over Cannes in the coming months, government oversight over certain routes can be offloaded onto corporate security, resulting in significant savings to the local policing budgets.
On the other hand, the firmly secured Rheinland destinations have seen little interference from criminal elements. In those quarters, the problem is more of information control. The newly reforged state apparatus is sensitive to the recently healed wounds of the civil war, and telling apart a bumbling tourist from a deliberate agitator is an exercise in futility. Government commissions have already began surveying focus groups about the need for increased surveillance of not only the various touring groups, but the organizations currently registered to provide them. Only time will tell whether OS&C investors will appreciate the increased scrutiny, as a parallel situation with Synth Foods has developed negatively.
Grants for the analysis of the massive amounts of observational and survey data are already being developed to induce research into the impacts of such a large-scale sponsored cultural exchange program. While the conclusions of partisan outlets such as JNBU will likely closely mirror the governments' terse statements, the social scientific community is eager to discover whether interhouse population dynamics can be improved by similar programs. Cambridge University is expected to both produce and publish the flagship work on the topic in the coming years.
The above numbers may increase if additional RP posts are made in the dedicated threads.
Finally, the Orbital Spa&Cruise official faction (OS&C|) will be receiving a currently unspecified reward for their participation and RP around the event. I will update this once we finalize the details.
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