disclaimer: I do post this as a player on leave without observable return date and not as a developer of Discovery Freelancer mod
LAWFUL'S GAMEPLAY REWORK PROPOSAL
With the current ID system in place, Police IDs are severely underrated as with the exception of the /net command, all its functions can and are conducted by both Navy and Intel IDs. The latter as they exist at the moment embody a Navy lite with no Zone of Influence limitations but still ample rights at respective House space.
The following ideas might help us address this issue and create a more diversified law enforcement ID nature and game environment.
POLICE ID
First of all, it's illogical that Navy and Intel have law enforcing lines - this is not their role and only Police should be able to enforce the laws (POBs are separate matter and should be defined as such), however lack of Police official factions in all houses except Liberty is making impossible to catch a smuggler in proximity to their destination which is usually a lawful base, such as a capital planet. Hence, /nodock is required to be available for all Police IDs, however to prevent trolls to spam this command, a cooldown of 180 seconds is required. I cannot imagine how to prevent a group of trolls from keeping a guy in /nodock for eternity, but this might be regulated by server rules and become sanctionable, if /nodock is being used with the sole purpose of trolling without valid RP happening.
Secondly, it's illogical that Police have large warships at their disposal: they should be limited to smaller ships up to gunboat size, making them a snub-focused ID with unique abilities, such as upholding laws and /nodock.
NAVY ID
Currently the most overpowered in Lawful IDs family: can do literally everything the same as other IDs while flying a battleship, and the /net is not that biggie to consider it a lifechanger and a reason to play a police ID unless you really want to RP a policeman - which is rare. After all, navy can uphold laws so why to bother?
Hence, Navy ID should lose their ability to uphold laws but might be worthy to consider a permission to assist Police uphold laws.
INTEL ID
A glorified Police ID without /net but with almost unlimited ZoI. Bored of upholding law in house space? Go bother someone on the other side of the map because you can! Shouldn't be a thing.
Intel ID should be able to attack combat ships, demand cargo (drop or confiscate) from transports and be able to destroy them if fail to comply but not to be a lawfulized pirate ID. They should not have access to caps but extended tech cells on snub and gunboat tech.
E.g. Intel ID would look like:
Code:
- Can attack combat ships considered hostile by house X
- Can demand cargo from ships considered hostile by X
- Can attack other Intelligence ID'd ships
- Cannot fly caps
- Cargo limit of 3.6k
Special perk for discussion: Extended tech cells? (Such as Generic Pirate or Local blackmarket (if present) (for disguise) etc.)
WHAT ABOUT POBS?
All said IDs should remain able to assault POBs, however it must be defined in server rules. What I want to offer is to consider adding admin approval for Core 2+ POBs assault in House space to reduce drama density related to this part of the mod. The non-house space, however, must remain wild and unregulated, because it is what it is - wild and unregulated.
Personally, I'd argue Police and Intel IDs be limited to Cruisers, with a specific exemption towards Battlecruisers as they shouldn't have those (outside of maybe SRPs and Official Faction perks).
The way I'd always viewed Police in Freelancer as per Vanilla is that they actually make up the bulk of the Security of a House. The Navy on the other hand, they're the heavy lifters, applied by the state to put what limited heavy firepower the House has on hand in specific locations and designed to bolster Security forces, reinforcing positions against militant groups where necessary. They exist to fight the enemies of the state.
In Discovery however, we have this problem of all Navies being excessively bloated since Vanilla coupled with both the fact that many unlawful factions now also have hefty Military might and that it's a space game, our head canon says Military ship should be able to stop lawbreaker, especially when there's no police around to do so (player pop issue).
My personal take on it, would be that Military IDs have the ability to enforce laws at the edges of House Space or in specific flashpoint locations where their presence is specifically allocated by the state, while Police should be able to enforce them throughout the entire House and have dope perks to enable it.
Intel IDs shouldn't be general law enforcement, this I agree. However, it could be argued that they should still have some ability to enforce the law when required (FBI case in point). It would strictly all depend on the House to be honest and how their Intelligence Agency theoretically operates.
When contending with a monster, you'd be wise to give the devil his due.
All good ideas, barring the POB siege approval, which is just not necessary with the latest changes - I don't think there has been a single siege since the last changes were introduced.
May I suggest you also think about an unlawful ID rework? E.g. Lane Hackers not having /net access and such.
What would outside house lawful IDs that act as both military and police? Such as Crayter Republic and The Core.
Would you put them in or the other. Or would they just get no change? Another is to slit the IDs to 2 each military and police(but why would we do that)?
I also feel lied to cause I was told the fate of the forums depended on it. LIES
Liberty
- Does not make sense as the police is a private corporation. This is why law enforcement is shared between LSF and Navy too Gallia
We devised a solution—dual ID under the same tag on Combined Fleet.
Gendarmerie we brought back singlehandedly on [GN]G- (by definition a military enlisted agency) - snubs, gb only, /net, subtag. Main Fleet - no restriction but no /net. Denied by staff, now there is an entirely new Gendarmerie ID adding bloat nobody ever uses.
Besides Gallia that now makes no sense the obvious solution isn't another gutting of Lawfuls, but buffing police. There was talk of police-only transports, equipment, etc. to make them enticing, but it never got anywhere.
And if you think about it, removing laws from Navy is completely ridiculous - you'd be creating a nomad ID with fewer targets and more docks and create completely absurd situations like a Xeno Relics full Barge waving at a Navy fleet as they just can wave back as it slowly moves to a Capital Planet
Also, important news, this just in: I just realized I am the 1 or 2iC of the top 3 most active house Navy/Military factions across all houses over the last 3 months on the entire server in terms of log time I feel like I should feel personally attacked here lol.
(06-01-2023, 06:05 PM)LuckyOne Wrote: May I suggest you also think about an unlawful ID rework? E.g. Lane Hackers not having /net access and such.
this
it would be cool if they did since in canon they can already scan the lanes
I guess you meant that they /should/ have it, not that it should be taken away, etc.
That was bizarre. When I played my first month, I tried lane hackers...I spend half my entire net worth on the spyglass scanner thing and was extremely surprised I haven't gained /net.
The obvious voting thing will be "Oh, but OTHERS UNLAWFUL AND HOUSES DON'T HAVE THIS!" So what - we don't need symmetry and perfect balance. Dual ID Gallic navy where police were deleted with /net on no cap ID and hackers with /net would be just good for the game and activity and in line with lore.
(06-01-2023, 11:30 PM)Czechmate Wrote: The obvious voting thing will be "Oh, but OTHERS UNLAWFUL AND HOUSES DON'T HAVE THIS!" So what - we don't need symmetry and perfect balance.
