Since you and I have a completely different opinion on factions and what they are, I don't see the point in continuing to argue about semantics. You seem to believe there is absolutely no such thing as an independent, and that by some extension of your weird logic all Freelancers belong to a faction (oxymoron) or that Mercenaries are part of the Mercenaries faction. Man, I'd like to meet the poor bastard in charge of that faction. Oh wait there isn't one, because there is no mercenary faction. There's the Mandalorians, but you can't just pop a mercenary ID and be one. Why? Because theyare a faction.
Sharing ideals doesn't make you a faction. In that regard Corsairs and Outcasts should be best of friends since they both pirate and smuggle.
Actually I'll bite. I'm bored.
Quote:These limitations, though looser than many, tell you about the beliefs of the faction. Mercenaries, as a whole, don't care who paid for the hit. Mercenaries disdain pirating, but they have no compunction about protecting pirates. Mercenaries aren't lawmen, so they don't care if somebody else is carrying contraband. I could go on, but I'm sure everybody gets the picture. A generic faction is still a faction, with it's own specific characteristics
Look above. Never mind I'll repost it.
Sharing ideals doesn't make you a faction. In that regard Corsairs and Outcasts should be best of friends since they both pirate and smuggle.
Quote:Now lets talk about the rules. If you find a player violating role play, you can snap a screen shot and send it to the Administration. First, the administrators are busy people. They have plenty to do, and that means that there is going to be, either a considerable time lag, or they will have to take time off from other important tasks. Second, there are hundreds of us, and only a handful of them. Keeping track of repeat offenders is going to be difficult enough because of sheer numbers, let alone name changes. In the mean time the violator is still busy violating and disrupting the play of the players who are following the rules. In the offical factions, this kind of problem is often resolved in a day, sometimes even a matter of hours. With Independants I have seen the process drawn out to a week and the average is a few days. A lot of damage is done in that time that could be prevented.
Actually it's very easy for admins to keep track of things like this, including name changes. Hence you see repeat offenders mentioned in sanction reports.
Quote:As for the power official factions have over independants, the leaders can give independants minor orders. If the independant declines the order, the faction leaders may role play thier unhappiness, and a court-martial. If the independant still declines the order the leaders of the official faction can order the independants death. If the Independant continues to decline the order then they can request that the Independant be changed to hostile with thier faction. The only one of these that puts any real pressure on the Independant is changing it to hostile, and once again we have the process to go through while he/she continues violating.
Independents are under no obligation to follow orders from someone else if they don't want to. Being official doesn't give you the right to boss others around.
Quote:You ask what kind of situations the official factions can't handle with thier current power. They cannot deal with players who don't care if they anger the factions. The punishments, excepting the last, are so light as to be rediculous. So, those who are breaking cannon, and know it, do so with the full knowledge and acceptance of what the consequences are. If this happens, then the consequences are not astringent enough.
Sure they can. Use your imagination instead of going for the ban stick. You sound like a six year old.
Quote:he traders who dock nine or ten times on restricted bases because they can make three times as much as at the accepted bases. The pirates who pirate a dozen traders in restricted areas because there is more traffic there. The player that spends most of thier time in restricted space. These players are violating thier roles and know that, generally speaking, they are only going to get told to stop. A few hours, a day maybe, and they are back at it again. This is the kind of thing the factions can't handle, because they don't have the power to put a real stop to it. This is the kind of widespread ooc violations that official factions can efficiently police amongst thier own players, because of thier power to levy stricter rules and punishments, but cannot among independant players.
Of course they can police their own members, they are in the same faction, and it ends there as it rightfully should. If someone is breaking the rules, that's what sanctions are for. You want official factions to have admin-like powers.
