Should official factions have more power?

[Baltar]

Heh I knew you were going to vote "No" mate:D

This is why I disliked the term "power", official factions don't need more power, what they need is "respect". Like it or not the official factions are trying to role play the NPC faction they represent. Anyone who dislikes this arrangement and is incapable of following a very simple hierarchy should look to a faction that does not have an "official" player faction and join them.

Official factions are not ruled by despots, they are run by players with support and concensus from the highest ranked players in that faction. Sometimes the RP takes you too places that we would rather not go, for example the merc ban or the current Liberty trade embargo. The Merc ban was a pain to enforce and the embargo is just as bad, trying to enforce a trade embargo while avoiding 3 lolboats out to spam your lone fighter to death gets boring pretty fast.

Still I'd like to see official factions achieve the respect they should hold and in the future any major policy made by an official faction that may be considered controversial is reviewed bt the admins and either approved or denied.

Spear ... you might wanna sit down for this ... I actually agree with you ...:)

I've got no problem with official factions like house lawfuls having more control of their houses. I fully support them having the authority to role play as their lawful NPC's do. For example ... Liberty Navy, LPI, LSF, etc should have authority to uphold the laws of Liberty.

My objection comes when these official factions stray from their role play as the official faction and start adding new laws that really do not exist in traditional freelancer. Merc bans are crap ... embargo's might work ... ship bans are crap too. I've got a Civilian ID on a vessel that you purchase in Rheinland ... but the infocard of the ship states it is of "unknown" origin. Banning me from Liberty because I fly a ship you think is a Rheinland vessel is crap. So ... to gain my full support on this issue ... guidelines need to be established that the official factions only have the authority that the NPC's they role play have. In other words ... no flipping merc bans. Making me into an unlawful simply because I have a Merc ID is total crap. Go after the guys that violate Liberty laws (or whatever house you are) ... but don't freaking ban an ID because a few guys and gals are being jerks.

EDIT: With great power comes great responsibility.