The New Beginning of the BPA

[Incindre]

Not too long ago the Bretonia Police Authority was left, by Jovial, in my hands. I’ve tried my hardest since I joined the faction a year or two ago to make it prosper but I have found it very difficult to maintain the values that the faction was founded on and still get a large enough player base to keep the faction alive.

Now for most factions people only need put in an hour or two each week and there are enough members for there to be an almost constant presence in space. E.g. it’s very rare not to see a BAF or LPI player in space because there are so many of them.

This is a problem for smaller factions however who must make much more regular appearances and for longer periods of time to retain the standard of “active”. We in the BPA have reached an all-time low of active players. I was the most active in my time prior to my role as faction nanny; there were still about four other players that popped on from time to time but only for short pieces. (Yes Dii I do know what it feels like, but I persevered).

Now due to constraints in real life and the acquisition of several new games that I have been playing it is difficult for me to retain the activity of days past. This is where I hoped I could pass the mantle on but the BPA is facing several severe problems which have made that very hard.

Firstly: Most of the original members have moved on.
The original creators have gone, so have Sleipnir, Baconsoda, Pieguy, Jovial, Or Shevach and a number of others who were old hands in the BPA. A greater number remain in the BPA Skype channel but have not deemed to tell us of their inactivity.
The rest have either gone missing or are finding RL too restrictive to do the work of an entire faction.

Secondly: Our new recruits.
Having been threatened with removal from official faction status and the coincidental departure of a few long term leader type persons a recruitment drive was organized.
We got about 15 applications; 5 are missing having made only a few appearances, two have left and one hasn’t been seen at all. We only had one active recruit and he left due to having no one to fly with.

Thirdly: Discovery and Police factions in general:
The BPA was set up on a series of guiding principles, one of them was to keep a more peaceful force designed to steer situations to a non-eventful conclusion where, hopefully, Mr Pirate went on his way knowing that if he ever came through Bretonia with a hold load of slaves again his cargo would be confiscated and his ship possibly destroyed. Missiles were not to be equipped as somehow it was decided that they were too OORP for a peacekeeping police faction (ignoring the fact that Bretonia Police NPC’s have missiles) and the only ships allowed were Hussars, Clydesdale’s (if you were in the Commerce Control Division) and a Challenger should you enter the Special Response Division.

Now Discovery is a good mod but there are severe faction balance problems. Bretonia is apparently the best place to Role Play within Sirius but all we get over there are PvP whoring idiots who spend all their time camping Dublin and lapsing into OORP. I have a theory that people only come to Bretonia to hassle miners in Dublin or to join the BAF and fight the Kusari.

People are now obviously only interested in as many blue messages as possible and flying the most powerful ship possible.
As far as a job is concerned, there is no reason for any member or future member of the BPA to be inactive considering the vast numbers of smugglers, pirates and illegal miners that flood Bretonia daily (and this isn’t mentioning the swarm of Corsairs that plague us from the Omega’s).
However, Bretonia is stagnating, the same thing happens again and again and again. Pirates come and gank Dublin while absolutely nothing (that we can handle effectively) happens in the rest of Bretonia. The BPA cannot really do much against the lol-hordes of the Molly’s system until we get member levels up or make some changes. The BAF have also taken control over the two systems where something actually happens (although this something is the dreary repetition of Kusari destroyers sitting at Leeds and Indians shooting anything that moves in the gold filled Dublin system). When something does happen outside of the BAF’s marshal law operated systems the BPA cannot do much and there are thousands of Armed Forces people rushing to the scene anyway making our job slightly pointless and boring.

There is no place for the BPA’s original principles any longer if we wish to survive as a faction. People are attracted to either Military factions or strong pirate factions, to contend with both, in game and in numbers, requires one to become more like them.
This is a disgusting concept for a self-confessed RP addict, I am obsessed with a deep and detailed Role Play and enjoyed the original BPA system. I dearly wish that following the route of the other Police factions and becoming a slightly nerfed military wasn't necessary... but it is, both to maintain a handle on the criminals running rampant in Bretonia and to draw more people to the faction.

I would like to apologize to any ex-members of the BPA who are convinced I am murdering the faction but to be honest you didn’t seem to care to much about keeping it alive when you were actually supposed to be active.

Now that Sprolf is gone I do not think that I’ll have to apologize to the Pirate factions of Bretonia. Don’t have a whine in any case; simply think of this as a challenge.

Unfortunately this is necessary to save the faction that I love.

As of now any members of the BPA will be able to pick between a Hussar or a fully kitted out Paladin Heavy fighter. Seven Templars have been purchased for the express use of preventing Corsair raids and will be made available on shared accounts to the BPA members. There will be a bolstered force of SRD bombers as well.

With the ability to use more powerful weaponry and ships I hope that this will bring new members which can push into Omega 3 to create a stronger buffer zone and spend time mopping up the dirt in Dublin.

Any post in the Message dump, showing proof of a criminals destruction, arrest or crime prevention of any sort, will be reviewed and a monetary sum or “Commission” as we are calling it will be paid out to the Officer in question (does not apply to uneventful patrols).
This value will range from 250,000 credits to 2,000,000 credits depending on the case.

So yes, basically we will be acting as a meaner police force bent on protecting the other side of Bretonia and halting the flow of contraband through our borders while the BAF deal with the Kusari front.

I know a number of you will not like this, but if your faction was dying, wouldn’t you try everything to save it? I’m not happy with what has to be done, but it has to be done none-the-less.

But don’t think that we are becoming PvP whores; the history of RP within the BPA is too long ingrained. I love role play more than flying these days and I intend to maintain the highest level of RP possible within the faction.

Any ideas to make this ailing police faction more appealing would be greatly appreciated. If we can’t make this work soon I’ll have to pull the plug on something that has taken up vast amounts of time and dedication from a variety of people.

The BPA has so much potential; it just needs good people to help it on its way.

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Currently Retired

Signs and Portents