The ruling, if you read what Cannon wrote at the end, was more complicated than a simple "No you don't" though.
Quote:Mercenary ID
Pilot carrying this ID is a Mercenary, who :
Can trade and escort traders
Can fulfill lawful and unlawful bounty contracts
Cannot pirate, but can provide security services for pirates who are pirating if paid to do so. Mercenaries can only fire on traders or smugglers in self-defense or if the trader or smuggler fires on or is bountied by the mercenary's employer.
Cannot demand contraband unless specified in employer's bounty
Cannot use any transports with more than 3,800 cargo
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats
Carrying unmounted IDs in your ship, as well as not equipping an ID, is a serious crime.
My own personal take on it is that the prohibition is to prevent a bored mercenary ID'd player from sitting on a lane and extorting folk without cause as opposed to extortion with cause.
The wording could be clearer to reflect that distinction. The wording now means no piracy, which we can take to be requesting or asking for credits or cargo. Which makes no sense if you are a hired gun who wants as much money as one of those spoiled teens on My Super Sweet Sixteen, but plenty of sense if you are the type who might conceivably never get a job again as you are too unreliable to get the job done. (a career hired soldier).
I'm sure it makes sense to let mercs steal your shoes rather than kill you, but our rules lack that sophistication, primarily because the lowest common denominator ends up ruining everyone's day.
So should we add a line saying "Can extort credits from potential targets". What's stopping them from killing someone after taking the money? Pirates have to let someone go after they meet a demand. I wonder if the ID needs that freedom, considering the freedom it has now? Or is it currently unduly restricted? People who fly mercs could be more forthcoming with thoughts on that. It's a shame they have to spend their time posting kills when they could be writing other roleplay stuff - I think that adds to the perception of mercenaries as two-dimensional.
But from this thread, the kind of mercenaries who would even contemplate an interaction involving a discussion with a target don't appear to be the problem.
