Zoner RP Solutions

[Derkylos]

Leaving the insanity that is Omega-49 aside, this is a prime example of how the "integration" and "expansion of RP" creates unforeseeable complications in faction diplomacy. Factions that, in vanilla, have never had the slightest reason to encounter each other are now mingling freely and having tea together.

In the original game, Zoners would only interact with a relatively small number of factions (Outcasts, Corsairs, Hunters, houses, corporations, Hessians, Xenos, Rogues, Hackers and Unioners. Due to Discovery's tendency to "shrink" the Freelancer universe, however, they end up in contact with several other entities, whose outlook remains undefined. Hence, one cannot simply refer to "vanilla relationships", but must make up something entirely new.

Comparisons to real-world politics also fall down when one considers the vastness of space, the impracticality of any organisation patrolling all of it's "claimed" territory at all times (then again, claiming open space is as laughable as claiming vast swathes of desert. You cannot do anything with it. And there is nothing there. One only needs to look at the African campaign in the 1940s to see how much of a liability such territory is), and the sheer distances over which information has to travel (Texas contains communications relays, running alongside trade lanes, implying that even communication funneled through the lanes is inefficient).

It is quite conceivable that a ship could dock on a base completely unnoticed by any faction save for the base's owner. This is especially true with regards to a Freeport, considering their locations in areas that are not claimed by any faction, due either to their distance from that faction's bases of operations, or the lack of anything worth patrolling in the immediate vicinity.

Perhaps the Zoner relations need a cleanup, either via infocard editing, or by inserting more rumors into bases of both them and factions that are not covered by the original game. Saying "they're neutral" is simply too vague to roll with. There needs to be a reason for it, and it needs to be a reason that everyone can adapt into their "story", not just a "we're neutral 'coz we're Zoners", or a "they're hostile 'coz we dun' like 'em".

Since this thread is about solutions, what are your thought's on this?

Great theory, shame that, in practice, people, with no idea what "RP" is, and a big ship will dock and log, anyway.

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