Summary: Loose pirate collective. Unique with a diplomacy on an individual basis (see examples in green). Possible lack of ranks.
With Malenka leaving and abandoning his project (The Romano Family), that gave me the final nudge I needed to decide to put time into starting a true independent pirate faction. I have no sort of write-up for it so far but I'll get one when all of the information is gathered, picked over and finalised.
The current idea for a sort of history and description is a loose collective of non-affiliated pirates who decided a union would be more profitable and safer in their business. The level of assistance they give each other varies on how much it will benefit them, so this reflects how weak the structure of this collective really is.
Now what I decided will make this collective unique (the word "faction" sounds too solid, when this is a very weak union of pirates for their individual benefits, so I will use the word "collective" or any better words) is the diplomacy, which will work on an individual basis. There is no set diplomacy for the collective, except for the obvious things (hostile to lawfuls, corporations, etc). I'm going to use my indie pirate, Roger Claymore, and an imaginary indie pirate, Hans Snooker, for an example of how this works.
Now Roger Claymore has currently annoyed the Red Hessians and Junkers, so they hate him (the Neo-Vikings, who are Hessians, he is quite good with). Let's say that Hans Snooker has annoyed the Corsairs and Blood Dragons, so they hate him.
So Hans gets into a fight with some Corsairs and asks Roger for help. Roger could help, but then how would it benefit him? Hans would like him better, but then the Corsairs would hate him, so deny him docking rights on their stations and attack him when they saw him. So he would decide to leave Hans to deal with it himself.
Could be the other way around. The Junkers want payback against Roger and send several ships after him. Hans could see helping Roger as a way of getting closer to him, but then the Junkers would deny him docking rights and hunt him down. So he could leave Roger.
I believe, as well as showing this collective as a unique group, would also offer a sense of realism. With a group with as weak connections as this, members aren't going to throw themselves out of their way very far to help possibly and probable competition.
This diplomacy could reflect in the ship line and weapon choices. Roger Claymore has a Barghest from the Liberty Rogues for example, because he was once a Rogue (although I never actually use it). And if he got friendly with any other pirate organizations he could request ships and equipment from them.
Hans could be on good terms with the, let's say Unioners. So he could request an Arbeiter with Unioner equipment to possibly give him an upper edge.
Currently undecided is the ranking structure. No ranks, two or three, or a boat-load? I would probably go with no ranks, seeing as it isn't really a faction.
If you read all of that, then I thank you. If you read the summary, which is very brief, and you want to post a comment then I would suggest you read the whole thing.
Comments and ideas are appreciated and encouraged. It doesn't matter if they're good or bad, if they're good then I'm going in the right direction with some things and if they're bad then suggestions can be given on what to be changed.
Thank you.
[17:45:39] Wolfs Ghost (Murphy): Tom, you have problems. Go kill yourself.
[19:25:12] Johnny (Jam): Tomtom, I will beat you with a spoon.
[14:22:56] Prarabdh Thakur: KILL HIM WITH A SHEEP.
[17:40:48] Eagle (Junes): Tom should be slapped with a spoon.
[11:32:18] Warspite: Thank you for being so awesome Tom. <3
[18:17:36] Metano: I love you tomtom
[20:06:24] Warspite: I will seriously give you epic head.
' Wrote:Edit: also, Tomtomrawr, fappin' like a boss.
