Superior Phantom ships/weapons

[Rudo]

I will point out, as the only Phantom flying a Cat, and the only one that did for more than a week in 4.84, that we only have one. I went through the special rp request. I also had another special ship in 4.84. My Rogue did forum RP to get a Warren bomber. The only reason I didnt put a special rp for it was I was told by the admins it wasnt necessary. I fly the ship that my rp dictates, whether good or bad. The issue is that the Phantoms rp dictates top of the line ships and guns, so it is in fact about the roleplay.

I'm of the belief that if you want to fly a ship, fly it. If you can justify any ship or gun, good or bad, by all means swing it. Hell, the Congress once fielded a Rheinland Battleship that got approved despite raising a few hackles.

The one caveat is to consider the appearance any maneuver has to the general population, despite approval from a perceivedly insular few. Incidentally, this is why my faction no longer has a battleship and has seen capitals of any type reduced to almost zero.

Insular roleplay is one thing, which is where it would make perfect sense on paper that the Phantoms should have the best guns and ships. But public perceptions and play experience is another matter of possibly greater importance. Really, every faction wants their guns to be the best. Bretonia will say its Sunrails and Templars are the mightiest force in the colonies. Rheinland wouldn't tell you their Hornvipers used to be terrible guns. You can roleplay having incredible technology without actually having it.

Hell, on paper the Junkers should have big nasty reverse-engineered monstrosity ships with Transport shields and 3 torpedo slots and enough powercore to chainfire 3 SNs. Will they get that? Probably not.

I'll step right up and say outright that I'm not a big fan of the Phantoms, but trying to play a faction of chaos-bringing murderous cyborgs is an uphill battle at best when it comes to popularity contests and gaining respect. The fact that they're still given the benefit of the doubt and interacted with, is testament to how a good roleplayer can swing a role that would be one-dimensional in the hands of so many others. For that reason the players behind the faction have that respect from me.

Bottom line, you don't need the actual best guns to roleplay the most feared fighting force in the colonies. You just need to play it like you do.

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