Faction jurisdiction

[Panzer]

(getting interesting)

IMG is in a quite examplary situation in this debate. We have 9 bases, of which almost all are in systems, where another faction has one or more bases.

In Magellan, there's our FP 4, during the SA/HF+AW crisis some time ago, we declared a battle-ban zone, a sphere with a radius of 10k around the Freeport. Since it was a FREE port, allships were allowed to dock. Not too far to the north, there's Mactan, a hacker base.

In Omega 7, we have Freistadt. I'd say it's the main base in there, sice it's between trade lanes leading in and out of the system. However, there are also Briesen and Elbich stations, belonging to Rheinland corprations. A situatio quite similar to the one from Magellan.

Dublin - We have BMM, BAF, Mollys' Arranmore and our (IMG) Hood. My recent lecture of the news on the two latter bases made it clear, that the IMG sympathyses with the Mollys. Thus, Dublin would be split in two. The West in IMG/Molly hands, the East with Bretonia. Drawing a line going from north to South, running through the central sun would make a quite reasonable borderline here.

Real fun starts in the Taus.

31 is almost entirely under Kusari control. Bretonia holds only the opening around Harris, IMG, the opening around Holman. Yet again, the central base of the sector, laying on the crossroads between jumpgates. The area between the Harris opening and the Tau-23gat/Holman lane is neutral ground, where noone has or seeks influence. No resources or jumpholes there.

23 is yet another zone-divided area. BMM has a sizeable mining operation to the South. gate construction site, storage tanks, mining ships, trade lane... The Outcasts control the Eastern side, There's a minefield, marking where the BMM/Outcast zones border. And the IMG... They controle the immediate surroundings of Java and the mineable zones not far from it. There's no clear border between them and Outcasts. Their stilettos raid Java very frequently, always with poor effect.

37 Is somewhat similar. Falkland is hidden in the Malvinas cloud and IMG patrols see to it, that Outcasts never get out of it alive. Zoners have the freeport and the Outcasts? They have their home just next door. Their ships guard the northern ice field and the jumphole there. However, they need to cross the whole system to reach their base in Tau-23. A territorial conflict against the IMG with the zoners looking at it and kindly hosting the bounty hunters.

Cambridge is a quite straight deal. Bretonia controls the system. However, since our Cardiff is there, we would have right to control its immediate surroundings. 10k around?

Quite the same is with Newcastle. Bretonian to the core, but has bases, belonging to Bretonia's enemies. Gaian Skye, Outcast Cape Wrath, Molly Belfast and Mull and IMG South Shields. The sheer distances between all these bases make zones of influence hard to maintain. The IMG and Outcasts perhaps could wage a turf war, but it would be quite frustrating to fly from South Shields to Cape Wrath all the time. Mollys could strike Bretonians from Belfast. The trade lane would stimulate such a conflict and would be a strategically important route. The Gaians are very far from anything. The closest asset of their enemies is the Leeds jumpgate. Still about 50k away.

As you can see, it would be very unfair to declare a paricular system a zone of influence entirely. Rather should the respective NPC faction-aligned player factions negotiate borders, where they either have bases or NPCs flying around. There could even be wars over borders. However only in areas, where the sides have bases of their own (not allied bases),imediate surroundings of such sites and core house systms cannot be subject to territorial claims. IMG cannot according to their RP and game situation attack and destroy/capture Cali base. Just ike the Outcasts cannot break the IMG resistance around Java or Falkland.

Turfwars would be imo excellent. Finally a more veritable reason to fight over than a diplomatic incident. The clans could even have the influence on the storyline. Hypothetically: the KNF won another battle against SF in Tau-31 and now there's nothing stopping them from blocking the Tau-23 gate. In Tau-23, the BMM site crew grew despeate due to the long period without supplies. KNF blocked the jumpgate. The BMM site decided to give up and join the IMG (most IMG are former BMM workers). That way, IMG gets another base, more resources, more strength and pushes the Outcasts to mid-way between Java and Cali. All dependent on SF-KNf/BSG and BSG-GOR/Outcast battles. Hard-organized RP events, influencing not only theterritorial division of the Sirius sector, but the game's story itself.

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