Battleships- a solution

[Blighter]

Y'know, I see the options there and now that I'm writing it there's 33 votes for that there:

Yes- Make battleships Factional, but also allow well RP'd and well known players to purchase and keep their battleships as independants

Pretty clear, innit?

Lemme bold 'n color the part I've got a problem with for ya:

Yes- Make battleships Factional, but also allow well RP'd and well known players to purchase and keep their battleships as independants

Get it? You don't have to well known to RP well.
You don't have to be well known to be constructive asset to this community and overall RolePlay.
You don't have to be well known to be some "respected member of the community" or whatever either.
You. Don't. Have. To. Be. Well. Known. To. Not. Be. A. Lolwutting. Lolcap.

Now, that aside, there's something else:
I'm all for rare, but damn beefy and "epic" Battleship encounters.
And I don't mind the control over Battleship distribution to be handed to factions, or heck, factions with adminstratorial supervision to ensure things go smooth.
It sure would be a bit of a popularity contest in one way or the other, to an extent, but what I'd not like to see is some approach to it like including fees to even have one's Battleship and RolePlay be put up for consideration in the first place.
Having what's essentially asking the question "Can I, with my RP that I'm showing to you here as a background and foundation, be given control over my own Battleship?" - having that cost money and thus time and effort?
No need to make it unnecessarily hard, complex, and prolong the time until someone gets his/her YES or NO.

Moving on. The "problem" has rarely surfaced in the form of a Battleship or Dreadnought or whatever.
- Exception being, and I'll make a wild guess here, in Omicron Alpha and Gamma, so solving that with this thing is fine and dandy. -
Anyway, I'm saying rarely compared to how often it was present in the form of a Battlecruiser, Cruiser or Destroyer.
Now while that whole Battleship thingy touches on the whole "Lolcap" issue or whatever, it doesn't solve it.
Not at all.

Now what I'm seeing here is people trying to find some kind of rule approach to this problem which sooner or later would propably expand to cover Battlecruisers, Cruisers and Destroyers.
Not going to solve it that way, really.
Atleast not completely, and even if it'd make things better in terms of "LolBCs, LolCruisers, LolDessies", other problems would arise. For that matter, chances're it'd not get through to cover anything below a Dread in the first place.

Instead it'd be better if, and that's a big IF because it'll most likely not happen anyway, there was some way to smack around the "Lolcaps" left after the Battleships're covered with this thing here, and then tell 'em what they did wrong after they've messed up.
Show 'em the consequences of their actions, teach 'em how to avoid being a dreaded "Lolcap", that kind of thing.

Well, actually, as players we've got a way to do that.
Blow up the "Lolcaps" without mercy, then talk to them. Try to explain to them what's good and what's bad, how they could improve and all.

Two problems with that one, though.
First, it costs time. Time each and everyone of us could spend doing something else we like to do more.
Second, you can't cover all the "Lolcaps" that way, and there will always be some who will -not- want to change the way do things.
Well or simply some who just aren't that good with the English language.

So what with those?
Sometimes having the smacking delivered via a .beam or .kill would propably reach places in the depths of people's brains a couple Supernova Cannons can't reach, I'm sure.
And if it worked with some kind of "Complaint System", something like that what Joe said in his post, it'd be fine, no?
Would be just like filing a sanction report, in essence.
Write a bit, throw in your "proof", submit. Ta-da!
No more work for me, let the Admins solve the problem!
Oh yeah, wait, that -would- be a problem, people picking the easy way out.
Well, the sanction system seems to work, so whatever, eh?

Positive side of it is that for those "Lolcaps" who do not read the forums and were subject to such smacking it might end up purely beneficial in the long run.
How? By getting them to the Forums, where they can see threads like this here, and benefit from all that knowledge around here - even if they'd just come here out of anger over what happened.

And if that don't work? <strike>Use more gun.</strike> Bastille for the ship. No refunds, no remorse.
'Cept if they, and I think that's a fun idea, trade up themselves another capital ship, since they'd be free to do so, and actually show that they learned while playing with that one.

As it is right now however, if any Administrator was to do one such .kill or .beam, that'd fall under the Admin Power Abuse category, if I remember right.

Hypothetically speaking, if such a system was implemented, and that's a big IF again, there's one thing to bear in mind:
Everyone flying a capital ship could end up being the recipient of such a treatment, in theory.
Even you and me.
Tough luck.

If you want an easy and workable solution for the "Lolcap" problem that doesn't even require communicating with them beyond the bare minimum of an engagement notice, and, more importantly, does NOT involve having any additional power being handed to anyone?

Get some friends with you, grab half a dozen or more Bombers, and blast whatever "Lolcaps" are in your way to bits.
Once Battleships were covered by this thing here, you'd just face relatively easy-to-pop BCs, Cruisers, Dessies.
Question is though whether everyone around them, and that's players of all kinds, not just "Lolwuts", will let you, or whether they'll take part in blasting you alongside the "Lolcaps".

What can I say, people hate to lose.

Back on topic, Ima vote 2. The "well known" part irks me a bit, and I'd rather see the decisions being not just based on some written Wall o' Text only, but epic-style Battleships would be mega awesome.
(I'm thinking Freespace 2 here, for anyone who's played that. Wham bam, Colossus or Shivan Juggernaut in your face.)
I'd just not like the thing to be extended to the lower capital ship classes in the same way, hence that wall above.

That said: