Guard Systems - A flawed concept?

[Sprolf]

Guard systems are horrid grounds for the origination of faction powergaming.

I'll used the Molly guard system - Londonderry - as an example.
It gives them hundreds of thousands of members, it gives them a planet nuked by Corsairs (which was NEVER discussed with Corsairs), it gives them a shipyard filled with defectors from the highest ranks of Bretonia, it gives them the biggest mining facility and refinery in "the galaxy" that produces millions of gold bars per hour. Oh, and it also gives them a station wreck where they killed multiple groups of royal marines by pulling a rather easy to spot move.

If Mollies actually had a system that good, they wouldn't be fighting for Dublin, y'know? Londonderry even has a planet and a moon, no matter how irradiated the former is - Dublin has no terrain like that.


In my opinion, it's the worst one out there, and just an example of what factions can do. Guard systems now are just "epeens," in that they have a lot of bases and beef the faction up for little to no reason - and often mess up the faction's roleplay chronically. The very concept of your "owning a slice of space" is so... PvP-server... it's so 4.83. It accomplishes nothing for roleplay, and it only really detracts from it. There's nothing wrong with having to fly across several bases to pick up equipment, and that even makes sense in roleplay - one base probably wouldn't have everything on it.

Oh, and guard systems also give us basically fifty percent more reps on our sheets (headache!) and add a massive number of useless, vestigial systems to the game. If we actually got rid of them... well, things would be incredibly more simple. And simplicity, as I like to say, makes things run more smoothly and more efficiently. It's easier to understand, it's easier to roleplay in. Less systems for people to be in, more traffic between bases - that's more roleplay, more interactions. We're way too far spread.


The cons to me far outweigh the pros of having guard systems.


And yes, this is the leader of an official faction with a guard system speaking.
I do not want it. I do not want them in general. They are vestigial, medieval, and complicate the mod inordinately. Having them gone would be like taking a weight off our chests.



(And yes, Londonderry is being changed... I couldn't live with myself if it wasn't... but I'd really like it gone. Completely.)

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