' Wrote:It's all down to how visible the actions of a certain group are. I believe in action -> reaction, hence why Hessian diplomacy against Phantoms is placed squarely in "unfriendly", as they are naturally wary of outside groups they know nothing about. And when I mean "know nothing about" I literally mean I haven't seen Phantoms ingame on my RHA character like ever, and I do play a fair bit. The only one report I have of one of my members communicating with the Phantoms involved the mentioned Phantom sitting in Omega-5 on Cadiz side, slandering the Hessian for "inferiority" from across the barricade. Considering the Hessians dropped their alliance with the Outcasts over a suspicion of cooperation with Nomads, well...:P
Fair enough. Unfriendly is just another form of neutrality, except more guarded and scrutinising.
' Wrote:In case you are wondering what the point to this post is, this is it: you can't just assume that people will put you on friendly because you're too small and they can't be bothered to be concerned. The Phantoms may be small, but they are quite visible if you take happenings such as the bombing of Cambridge or the invasion of Aomori as game canon. And with visibility comes a certain sense of importance, which requires the Phantoms (like everyone else big enough to be known publically) to work for their diplomatic status around certain (if not most) groups. If they see themselves as above consorting with lowly humans, then they have to contend with whatever those groups see them as, and the ensuing diplomatic status as well.
Quote:In my mind, the Phantoms have always been small enough to be 'ignored' if you can call neutrality that, but organised enough to initiate some very damaging attacks.
Additionally, visiblity in action but invisibility in presence, as you said. If a group is not present but can conduct devastating attacks on short notice, returning to being dormant until the next big one, would it be wise to make yourself a potential target or focus on more pressing and visible objectives?
' Wrote:When it comes to manipulation, I am sure you would be able to somehow pull off a neutrality status with Corsairs, Outcasts and maybe even the Hessians, but when stuff like that is expected to happen without any background, I am sorry but the answer is traditionally: lolwut.
Then why has it not changed if it is considered by so many as 'lolwut'? The RHA have the power to change their diplomacy (and that of their NPC faction in some cases), as do other official factions. The fear here is that everyone will go "ok, Phantoms are now hostile.". These inRP attacks require the consent of both sides, and who consents to a retaliatory action such as that? I wouldn't, for example, and such action can be easily cast away as powerplaying if its not 'to the liking' of the faction that the reprisals are aimed at.
EDIT: Er, that last paragraph wasn't quite clear. What I meant was, if everybody declares the Phantoms as hostile off the bat, it severely hinders our ability to conduct ourselves in the way that we would. Basing for attacks across Sirius is pretty hard from only the Eidolon and the Revenant. Retaliatory action for factions declaring us hostile would also be hard to play out if they were to have meaningful and negative consequences on those factions. I don't like it when people harm my major faction (used to be the Corsairs, now LN) for changing something to the way it should have been (in my opinion) in the first place, so I can't imagine that anyone else would.
Note, the last sentance was not an admission, it was an example of the way that I think in certain circumstances. Wording has been slightly altered to show this.
