ID formatting

[jammi]

Preface: I'm making this thread to personally gauge interest, not as a staff consultation or as any formal commitment to making these changes.

Currently, a lot of our IDs are inconsistent and have been updated piecemeal over the years. This has resulted in tons of superseded lines, redundant clauses, ambiguities in interpretation and generally outdated gameplay options. I'd like to start reviewing IDs in batches, but before I get started (with assistance from @SnakThree and anyone else who wants to pitch in) there's a matter I'd like to resolve.

Currently, ID clauses may apply:

1) Within ZOI - the clause only applies inside the ZOI defined on the ID.
2) Anywhere - the clause applies inside or outside the ZOI.
3) Outside ZOI - the clause applies outside the ZOI, but not inside it.

Adequately explaining which of these applies to each clause has been... messy, and inconsistent to boot. There are three ways we could resolve this, and I'd like to get the community's view on which style they prefer:

Option 1: Square brackets are used to describe the limitation applying to the clause at the beginning of the line. This looks... strange, at least at first. It has the advantages of being crystal clear, and also allows for sentence structures to be massively simplified to avoid confusion. Example:

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, who specialise in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

The pilot carrying this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID is a member of the [Example], who:

[Within ZOI] Can enforce the laws of [House].
[Anywhere] Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House].
[Anywhere] Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship.
[Anywhere] Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups.
[Outside ZOI] Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers.
[General] Can ally with unlawful factions.
[General] Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.

Zone of Influence: Systems
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers

Option 2: Subsections are added to each ID with clauses grouped by limitation. This makes the IDs look longer, so there is more scrolling involved. As with option 1, it also has the advantage of making each clause explicitly clear, and enables us to simplify sentence structure.

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, who specialise in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

The pilot carrying this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID is a member of the [Example], who:

Within ZOI:
- Can enforce the laws of [House].

Anywhere:
- Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House], anywhere.
- Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship.
- Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups.

Outside ZOI:
- Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers.

General:
- Can ally with unlawful factions.
- Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.

Zone of Influence: Systems
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers

Option 3: Limitations are added to the end of every clause. This is more or less the system we currently have, and is therefore most familiar to all of us. It does have problems with occasionally causing horribly complex and messy run-on-sentences. This can lead to ambiguous interpretations of what a clause is intended to say.

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, who specialise in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

The pilot carrying this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID is a member of [Example], who:

- Can enforce the laws of Bretonia within ZOI.
- Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House], anywhere.
- Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship, anywhere.
- Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups, anywhere
- Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers outside their ZOI.
- Can ally with unlawful factions.
- Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.

Zone of Influence: Systems
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers

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[Mephistoles]

Third option. I reckon first and second would look really quite grim ingame, whereas option three is just straight to the point with no frills.

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[Alestone]

First option, but I would combine Anywhere with General. I understand why you have them separated, but I don't believe it is needed.

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[Shinju]

Check the old admin forum around 2015/2016 or post made by @Jansen . We had this overhaul of SECOND option in WIP

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[pillow]

Options 1 and 2 look too busy. They make me want to not read the ID. Option 3 has been used for so long for a reason.

[Karlotta]

I'd go with option 2 if you changed this

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, who specialise in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

The pilot carrying this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID is a member of the [Example], who:

Within ZOI:
- Can enforce the laws of [House].

Anywhere:
- Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House], anywhere.
- Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship.
- Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups.

Outside ZOI:
- Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers.

General:
- Can ally with unlawful factions.
- Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.

Zone of Influence: Systems
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers

to this:

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, which specializes in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

Player characters using this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID are members of the [Example], who can:

- use Fighters, Freighters, Gunboats, Cruisers, and Transports with up to 4300 cargo space
- attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House], anywhere
- attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups
- demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship
- ally with unlawful factions

WITHIN their ZOI (systems), they can:
- enforce the laws of [House].

OUTSIDE their ZOI:
- cruisers can only attack in self-defense.

- changed wordings/spellings in red
- re-ordered to anywhere, insidezoi ,outside
- merged "general" with "everywhere" and dropped the class name to save a line
- joined lines of zoi list with zoi mention
- joined transport cargo limitation with " allowed ships" line
- moved ship restrictions to the top because that's the first thing who get the ID needs to know
- replaced "Outside ZOI: - Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers" with
" Outside their ZOI: - Cruisers can only attack in self-defense" because the former could be understood to mean self defense isnt allowed unless you're flying a cruiser outside your zoi
- added words like "their" to make sentences more grammatically correct
- capitalized WITHIN and OUTSIDE for emphasis
- removed repetitions of "can" at the beginning of bulletpoints if it made things more clear

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[Traxit]

I like the second option due to the fact you can just focus on what the ID can exactly do in the region it is in. Although I would suggest the structure be rearranged to;

General
Anywhere
Within
Outside

Edit: Karlotta has made it better. Although Within/Outside should be the ones below.

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[Decktare]

I'd go with option 2 if you changed this

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, who specialise in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

The pilot carrying this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID is a member of the [Example], who:

Within ZOI:
- Can enforce the laws of [House].

Anywhere:
- Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House], anywhere.
- Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship.
- Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups.

Outside ZOI:
- Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers.

General:
- Can ally with unlawful factions.
- Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo.

Zone of Influence: Systems
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats, Cruisers

to this:

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, which specializes in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

Player characters using this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID are members of the [Example], who:

Within their ZOI (systems):
- Can enforce the laws of [House].

Outside their ZOI:
- Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers.

Anywhere:
- Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House], anywhere.
- Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship.
- Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups.
- Can ally with unlawful factions.
- Fly Fighters, Freighters, Gunboats, Cruisers, and Transports with 4300 cargo or less.

- changed wordings/spellings in red
- re-ordered to insidezoi ,outside, everywhere
- merged "general" with "everywhere"
- joined lines of zoi list with zoi mention
- joined transport cargo limitation with " allowed ships" line

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[jammi]

[Example] is the [House] covert operations service, which specializes in spying and sabotage outside of [House] space.

Player characters using this quasi-lawful Intelligence ID are members of the [Example], who:

Only within their ZOI (systems):
- Can enforce the laws of [House].

Outside their ZOI:
- Can only attack in self-defense when using cruisers.

Anywhere:
- Can attack combat ships and pirate trade ships which belong to organisations considered hostile by [House], anywhere.
- Can demand Azurite Gas and Nomad Remains from any ship.
- Can attack ships which belong to non-allied Intelligence groups.
- Can ally with unlawful factions.
- Can fly Fighters, Freighters, Gunboats, Cruisers, and Transports with 4300 cargo or less.

This is nice, I like it. Good job.

That said, bear in mind that the voting is for the basic structure of the IDs - not necessarily the specific contents.

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[Uknown]

Option 2 can really be useful especially for new players (there are some over it) ... but option 3 is the most clearer in text writting amount
I would say i'd prefer the Option 2 ... Esencially clear, and with real no way to commit mistakes

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