Official Factions

[Dieter Schprokets]

Weighing in a bit.

Battlelines are being drawn here, and I'd rather they weren't. I actually agree with points on both sides, by Dab, Del, Drake, etc..

And Dab has brought up a good point. The amount of power an official faction actually has in practice seems light, recently. There are some grumblings, and these shouldn't be ignored.

So to summarise, the two positions are (Way I see it, anyway)

ONE : "As an official faction, the RM (BAF, 101st, KNF... etc) we should be able to dictate capship assignments, alter the diplomacy status with other factions (ie, BAF/Molly Ceasefire, etc) as well as having all the logical privileges of the Rheinland government (Crown, Council of Dons..) itself. I mean, are we the Rheinland Military (BAF, 101st, KNF.. etc) or not?"

TWO : "I'm an independent player, who has no interest in playing in a faction, not because I hate them, but because that's my thing. If I want to get a large capital ship, obey the rules, and co-operate with the faction (who are, in-RP, my allies), while not kowtowing to them, why can't I? If I want to follow canon RP, why not? Why do I have an obligation to keep track of the subtle intricacies of faction politics and agreements? I got an infocard, and knowledge of the canon RP, and that is what I am going to use."

The problem, ladies and gents, is that both of these positions ARE PERFECTLY VALID, and they are contradictory. They lead to situations like the Bs members getting sanctioned for following internal policies which are not consistent with canon RP. (Maybe that's a simplification)

In theory, BAF could have had a similar situation develop. For instance, if were we still peaceful with Mollys, pursuing a ceasefire, an Indy BAF Battleship going into Dublin and blasting UOG or MR players, would have posed a serious challenge for us. I mean, how is one supposed to respond to a rogue battleship blowing up people you are trying to make peace with? Hunt for Red October anyone? But to kill the guy would be against the rules, right? Not to kill him, or to ignore him, makes no RP sense. (And would lead to a zillion PM's to me, asking me to control my indies.. Which I can't do.)

Don't get me wrong. Official factions do have advantages over unofficial ones, including respect/recognition, a post on the Factions Status thread, right to recruit on recruitment forums, system ownership, being the go-to guy for diplomacy for the NPC faction....

But a way should be found to resolve the abovementioned contradictions. (Quite a magic bullet, that, and I have been wracking my brain trying to think of a magic bullet or 2, but the ones I think of, I shoot down in my own mind..)

Failing that, finding a way to provide greater mitigating privileges to official factions, without adversely affecting indies, would be a step in the right direction.

The "In event of player wipe only official factions get $$" thing is a hell of a privilege in that situation, granted.

Also, I'd like to add, I have personally had very little dissatisfaction, in the big picture, with BAF Indies, with a couple of notable exceptions. I don't feel strongly about this. Just trying to help.

"Thanks for clarifying the situation, Dieter, but we were after solutions here.." <---------Beat you to it...

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