Quote:* If the infocard states that the ship/weapon is not sold outside the faction, then no one without that faction ID may use it.
General Guidelines
Quote:*
Player factions may conduct diplomacy with other player factions to open up technology sharing in red cells of the chart. These must be approved as Special Requests prior to implementation. If the player faction represents the entire npc faction, then the technology sharing applies to anyone with the npc faction affiliation, otherwise it only applies to the player faction.
I think that these two pieces of information are unclear. They are taken from separate sections of the guidelines. In fact, just by changing the order that you list them completely reverses the ruling. That would be like saying that a Mercenary can't use a Manta because it's a Bounty Hunters ship. Further, all of this seems to lean heavily on pirates trading technology, who given their circumstances would probably be more willing to trade technology than house factions. If, for example, the OC's can't use the Liberty region pirate vessels, then what is the point of them being allies in the first place? Of course, there should be exceptions, such as there is only 1 spyglass in existence. Of course they're not going to share that tech.
I say, any equipment that does not have (restricted) on the "Owning Factions ID" should be readily available to their allies, because not only do their allies help them, the owning faction stands to make money by selling them to their allies. (by restricted, I am referring to pirate factions that have Cruisers (restricted), Battleships (restricted) in the available ships section of their ID and have their own flavor of those vessels.) In a war, you want your allies to be as strong as possible. Much of our aviation and naval equipment in WW2 was based off of british equipment. It had a few modifications, and was manufactured in the US, but it was still based off of the same thing. Or even better, the AK-47, manufactured by russians, probably the greatest assault rifle of all time, sold around the world, even modified and replicated. Lastly, the legend at the top of the technology use chart:
Green: May be used Freely (most of the ship/faction combinations in this thread fall here.) Pink: May use guns but not ships (Which is why OC use Bhargest)
<strike>Red: Prohibited without special request</strike> (We all know this is wrong and correct it quickly.) White: May be used only with posted bio/story (which is what many are suggesting is needed to use things like the bhargest and LH Gunship and such, even though for many, these factions are green)
I've not heard of any sanctions against any pirates using ships from friendly factions, most specifically the Bhargest. Therefore, I implore all pirates to keep using the technology as you see fit, until an official admin ruling is given. The Bhargest is the only bomber with 2 Torp slots AND a CD, and you want the only people who have the most powerful and broken ship in the entire game to be one of the only two pirate factions with any significant presence in the starting area of sirus? Psh! Whatever!
@sindroms: I personally think the Sammaels are the best weapon in the game, and intend to use them on my HF and VHF fighters that can fit them.
@Benjamin: How is the Bhargest not quite a bomber?
