zoners - my suggestion

[Agmen of Eladesor]

I'm going to quote something from the wiki here, which I tend to not like to do, but at this point I don't have the original info card source available.

The Zoners are a diverse group of individuals who, for various reasons, have decided to live in the wild and unregulated systems outside colonial control. Over time, the Zoners have evolved into an influential and rich factions that invests a lot into deep space exploration, much like The Order. When The Order allied with the Corsairs, Zoner relations with the Outcasts became no less tense than with the Corsairs. However, the Zoners of Omicron Theta felt they were powerful enough to defend themselves from both factions, and to this day, skilfully use the antagonism between Outcasts and Corsairs for their own benefit.

The first Zoner bases did not even have local security personnel, so most Zoners learned quickly to balance opinions, and to abstain from political interference in order to diffuse conflicts at the initial source of the problem. This neutral attitude and indifferent behavior towards almost everyone founded their reputation as good diplomats.

This is from the NPC faction write-up on the Zoners. They are listed as allied with the GMG and the Order.

Rather than complain about things being unfair and unjust, how about we look at the root causes of what happened, and see why other people have reacted as they have.

First off, in things that have bearing on what happened, but are not directly related - the Order and the Corsair have had a falling out, and are no longer allied. This change in dynamic is probably one of the key bases behind what has transpired since. That has led to a non-agression pact between the BHG| and the Corsairs, and the Order is now allied with the Hessians and the SCRA. Okay, some political dynamics can change, and be dealt with.

Second, as the wiki notes, Zoners have been a diverse group of individuals that banded together. Having three different factions and groups that had different goals and plans and didn't work together very well fit in with Zoner RP. Creating the Zoner Alliance as a ruling entity - when that group by itself wasn't a faction per se, but a group of factions - probably wasn't the best idea. Especially as Zoners have always tended to be more independant minded. Then having the ZA start issuing decrees and issuing orders as if it were an official faction itself is really where I think things really went wrong.

The key thing to remember is that just because you consider yourself to be neutral with someone else, they are not required to consider themselves neutral with you. While we of the BHG|Core 'know' that Zoners are allied with the Order - and our ID's allow us to attack anyone actively assisting the Order - we've still stayed rather neutral to you because we prefer to keep docking privileges at your base.

But at some point, someone got a gut full of it and said enough is enough. We've gathered evidence from in-game RP that the Order allied with the SCRA. Then we've gathered evidence that Zoners were allied with the SCRA as well. Were ALL Zoners allied? As individuals, probably not. But the problem is - what was presenting itself as the governing body of the Zoners was acting VERY allied with them - and also acting very allied now with the Order.

So - now someone is shooting at you, and you don't like it. Rather than dealing with it as the neutral diplomats that you are famed to be, you're folding your tents and walking away - because you say you don't like PvP. Wait - you're the ones who started the vaunted Zoner Defense Force to defend your interests in space, and to enforce your neutrality, right? Doesn't that indicate at least some intent to shoot and engage in PvP with others? Or did you think that those shiny warships would never be used?

Okay, so there are shots being fired and you're getting shot up. No one is 'dictating' your RP - your RP is that you're diplomats and defuse tense situations, playing people off of each other. The traditional foil of the Corsairs is the Outcasts - so involve them. But don't expect that you will always be loved by everyone - you're not.

So what's the solution?

Of course, you can always just leave and say that you were run off the server. That way you're not taking responsibility for your own actions, and leaving it to someone else to fix the problem that, in the end, your own actions caused.

Or you could just knuckle down, start working on your diplomacy skills a bit more, and try to resolve this and get yourselves back into the play.

Your choice.

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.