Embargoes

[Xoria]

What is the point of an embargo? In real life the point is to cause damage to your opponent. Since Freelancer's game mechanics are unaffected by who is transporting x cargo to y location, this is less relevant to us. The main point of an embargo in Freelancer must then be the creation of additional roleplaying opportunities. Depending on the way they are constructed, embargoes may enhance roleplaying, or it may eliminate it entirely.

Consider this scenario : Gateway trader purchases military vehicles in Rheinland with the intent to sell them in Colorado. He first must get past the Rheinland pirates, then must get past the Rheinland police and military who have banned all exports to Liberty. He then must get through Hudson or Bering without being pirated, followed by getting past any of the 3 Liberty lawful factions in Texas who for some wierd reason want to keep useful war materials in Rheinland instead of allowing them into Liberty. Then he has to get past pirates in Liberty. The return trip is the same. So any trader attempting this transaction has no less than the members of a dozen factions on both sides of the law trying to stop him.

Now consider this scenario : Gateway trader purchases military vehicles in Rheinland with the intent to sell them in Colorado. He first must get past the Rheinland pirates, then must get past the Rheinland police and military who have banned all exports to Liberty. He then must get through Hudson or Bering without being pirated, but is able to contact the LSF, LN, or LPI to assist him because he has managed to smuggle vital war materials out of Rheinland to provide to Liberty to aid in the war against Rheinland. He may even get some help from those Liberty groups in Hamburg, Bering, or Hudson. After he offloads the vital war materials in Liberty, he is sent on his merry way back to Bretonia by a thankful Liberty government.

Similarly, a Kusari trader comes into Liberty and is assisted by Rheinland forces in getting past the Liberty embargo to smuggle war materials into Rheinland, and a Rheinland trader is assisted by Kusari forces in smuggling materials from Bretonia to Kusari, and a Liberty trader is assisted by Bretonian forces in smuggling materials from Kusari to Bretonia.

The first scenario provides every possible discouragement, while the second scenario encourages the allies and friends of Liberty to assist Liberty by redirecting Rheinland's resources to the aid of Liberty against Rheinland. It also creates opportunities for Liberty and Rheinland to infiltrate each other to assist those smugglers (shouldn't be any further than Hamburg & Texas, but it's a better reason than "Lets go blast them").

When scenario 2 is applied to every House, then a series of 3-House routes are enabled and encouraged :
Liberty corporations trading from Liberty to Kusari, smuggling from Kusari to Bretonia, trading from Bretonia to Liberty.
Bretonian corporations trading from Bretonia to Rheinland, smuggling from Rheinland to Liberty, trading from Liberty to Bretonia.
Rheinland corporations trading from Rheinland to Bretonia, smuggling from Bretonia to Kusari, trading from Kusari to Rheinland.

When scenario 1 is applied routes are limited to the following:
Between Liberty and Bretonia
Between Liberty and Kusari
Between Bretonia and Rheinland
Between Rheinland and Kusari
In other words, Hudson, Bering, and Tau 31 become barren wastelands where no pirate dares go except to die from boredom, while traders confine themselves to going back and forth between only two Houses.

Additionally, specific commodities and corporations should be exempt from embargoes. Namely :
OSC carrying people or luxury items
Synth Foods carrying foodstuffs or agricultural materials
Planetform carrying commodities related to terraforming (even in Kusari, since a terraforming operation is going on in Okinawa)
Cryer carrying humanitarian supplies or research items
Ageira or DSE carrying gate lane parts to Bonn Station should be stopped by Liberty, welcomed by Rheinland, and then sent on to Kusari or Bretonia without picking up war materials.
Anyone carrying humanitarian aid anywhere should not be stopped : food, water, oxygen, pharmaceuticals, synth food. On Earth, only the truly wicked stop the Red Cross.
Any of the above should get in trouble if attempting to carry war materials to a House's enemy, but otherwise should be treated according to their specific purpose at the time of interdiction, i.e. Ageira carrying gate/lane parts to Bonn would be stopped by Liberty but welcomed by Rheinland despite being a Liberty company.

Following the above creates additional roleplaying opportunities, while blanket bans on all trade simply eliminates them by discouraging them from ever taking place to begin with.

Also, traders who are interdicted should not go onto some "watch list". Especially with the FLHook name changer, this is much less effective, and besides which it just discourages people from trying to smuggle, and that is contrary to the point : without smuggling there is no one to interdict, and if there is no one to interdict, the lawfuls haven't won, they've caused everyone to lose, because the point is creating additional roleplaying opportunities, which requires the "illegal" activities to continue, not that they be punished into nonexistance.

To put it in simpler terms, imports brought to your House by neutral or friendly traders from your enemy House should be welcomed, while exports from your House to your enemy House should be interdicted (unless the cargo is people or humanitarian supplies). Blanket bans on trade discourage the creation of roleplaying opportunities, and are ultimately destructive to server gameplay.

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