Traders, opinions from a pirate

[Rocket.Mouse]

ok, so this went from opinions to help traders screw me out of their money and cargo to bash the guy with an opinion and the more valid-

Are crew needed for RP?

as many of you know now, I am all for Crew, been buying crew since I first saw them. Only people I think that do not need crew are those talking toasters (harvesters). That is my opinion (not onion, opinion). So like an onion it has layers, reasons, all the way down to the idiotic core of my brain stem.

I like that Janus said "know your enemy," this rings true for all who care to pay attention and don't "kill me, I re-spawn anyways." Makes alot of sense, and yes, if you do travel through our spaces best to get a lot of cargo to make the hessains happy, corsairs happy, outcasts happy, zoners, lions, tigers, bears, but why? right? Well, you missed the point, I am helping with one pirate faction, not em all. And hey if you don't mind giving up your cargo and credits then this thread was not for you.

Mwerte, I don't know if your being sarcastic about being the leader of RepEx and 'my only goal is to "make money for a battleship lulz"' when later you say "I'm not going to spend my free time doing something that I'm not too fond of unless it's wanted by me. (Faction home system, shiny new cruiser, ect)" but for some reason I just knew you'd be in this thread when I wrote up the first draft. Again, you roleplay the traders, so this thread should not really do anything for you except give you a place to speak out.

On to the topics, I hope that I start to see more Crewman employed, more food from the traders and maybe a little less insta-attacks on the OPG for being what they are supposed to be. If not, then well I'm sure I won't see anymore roleplay other than the ones I already see it from.

There goes my trial of adding to the community, sometimes I think we were better off with the "2millRdai" scheme, at least that was expected, and to a point, it was accepted. Suppose I should erase all my /setmsg and get one quick liner, sell my p-trans and buy back a funboat.

[Agmen of Eladesor]

I also head a trading company - and have lots of big, shiny warships, too.

My trading ships - they HAVE crew, food, oxygen, and assorted RP device items onboard. (Hell, my passenger ship carries luxury items, too, and a fairly large crew for no larger a ship than it is.) What am I losing - 15 cargo hold worth of space to have stuff in there to represent a living, breathing ship? (Or 70, for my passenger ship - but that's part of being a passenger ship.)

My warships? Yeah, well, they tend to go boom fairly frequently, and so on them, while I'd like to have crew, it's a rare time that I actually have crew or supplies on them. My battleship - yeah, it's primarily there as a role-play ship, and I'm gathering the appropriate crew and others. Battlecruiser, destroyer, and other combat vessels? No - on this, Mwerte is right as far as the hassle upon destruction.

And THANK YOU for pointing out exactly the issue with flying toasters.

Harvester ships MAY have some biological components on board - but we're mostly electronics. Those ships do NOT have ANY kind of cabin space for crew - period. So every Tom, Dick, and Harry that wants one because they're cool - they need to be AI only, and with an AI ID. Which means that if you aren't a member of the Harvesters, you ought to have some special RP posted to get said AI ID. Those really should be a restricted ship.

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

[Jimothy]

In my defence, I didn't say crew are required, and after buying crew I was actually pirated, the guy (can't remember name) asked for 1mil between myself and a friend. 1 million for two ships. Afterwards PMed me and said it was because of the crew...
So traders, It pays to have crew
And pirates, please don't be extra nice to Crewed traders, or non-crewed-but-good-RPing-Traders, just be less nice to those who blatantly aren't RPing.
Lets put it this way, as a trader, I like to be pirated, purely for the RP value it has. The whole thing of power-trader untill proven otherwise IS a bit of a problem for me. If the pirate asks me to stop I do, if he just asks me to pay before telling me to stop, well, he has to make me. Little things like that.
^ Now don't take that as Spirit saying "Pirates should get you to stop before demanding payment" or anyhting, that's just MY personal view on it...

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I was formerly know as Spiritar.

It's been a while.

[Bear]

1. Do they have crew? Does your ship have a single life-form on it? Who manages the helm, who is the cargo master?
People are driving around in 3k+ cargo ships and have little room for a couple of space ship crew...sad when there are thousands of young "Mr. Crushers" on planets all across Sirius.

2. So some crew, no food?
Goodness, we're HUNGRY! your crew is happy rich and loves their fish eggs? Give me some, I'll feel more obliged to take food from a trader than cargo, because I have a crew, they have family, we need to eat. (especially my woman, she can eat more than most, she's got a neck so thick she could eat a brick if it was made by frito-lay)

these two are easy to answer:

1. a fully automated ship

2. they eat at every stop.

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[Mickk]

@ Rocket.Mouse

Now correct me if I'm wrong, are you saying that we should carry some 'crew' and 'food', say 1 'crew' and 10 'food' as part of our cargo?

Thats doable, I guess for those that are right into the RP side of Disco (and some people are, it can be very strange in some systems), but I'd say there is a part of the community who RP when they have to (or don't RP at all) and they vary with how good they are at it.

I'm part of the 'when they have to' group and I'm pretty sure that I RP badly when I do RP, but I make an effort. :)

EDIT: Did I mention that although I'm not crazy about pirates (and there seem to be more every day) I know they are a neccessary evil?

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Mickk: One orginal, 4 clones. Telp..teleh....mind comu...comi..come...talking ability.
A possibly very ordinary signature coming soon.
Lost your FL ID? Have NOT reinstalled your OS? Click here!

[Doc Holliday]

Well, my trade ship generally doesn't carry crew although from time to time it will. It has a built in galley for those long trips so I don't generally include provisions in cargo.

Now, my diplomatic ship, Ambassador's.Ark, is a whole different story. I set it up for diplomacy, as ship I can fly to do diplomatic functions with all factions. It is stocked as such. It carries:

-VIPs: The dignataries themselves.
-Crew: These include the 4 members of the Command crew, an engineer and waitstaff.
-Food
-Tobacco: Many dignitaries do like a good cigar or some pipe tobacco.
-Wine: It goes well with talks.
-Luxury Consumer Goods: Got to keep the dignitaries comfy ya know.
-Hailo Containment Bands: when the talks are done and a days work complete, it's a nice way to relax if not in one of the ship's jacuzzis.

The ship itself has few credits nor is Ambassador Holliday always on board. Since many of the provisions are hard to acquire, the command crew is reluctant to give them up, that and they have been ordered not to. There is often a good deal of RP in this ship as it is in no way a freighter.

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[MFE]Med Force One | Tales of Recovery|Med Force Enterprises

[jammi]

Border World Exports ship stuff to the border worlds and back, what do the border worlds need, basic supplies. ALG - waste, GMG - gasses and such. See where I'm going. If a trader has a cargo/route that suits their character, great, if not, grr at them. Just as an example, Bowex shipping side arms to a freeport, Ok, that's fair, side arms are a relatively basic supply in the border worlds. However Bowex shipping say gold into Liberty, no, that's not Border world material, that's more gateway's department.

Bowex is very much inRP for hauling all manner of goods to Liberty, and less so for the Freeports. Bowex is a sprawling multi-billion corporation who snaps up the big contracts, while Gateway undercuts it with the smaller, riskier (and usually more profitable) contracts with the IMG and ALG (and so on).

Liberty is supposedly Bretonia's main trade partner, and Bowex represents Bretonia due to it being a nationalised corporation. Bowex also works in tandem with BMM (seeing as it is also a Nationalised Corporation) who produce the cheapest gold in the sector. Stands to reason one government branch is going to give the contract to another government branch, seeing as BMM doesn't have a trade wing.

Bowex is the primary Bretonian shipper, which means if Bretonia needs it, or if Bretonia produces, you can place a sound bet we're shipping it.

And the name Borderworld Exports originally derived from Pre-JG eras where ships had to fly between system to reach their destinations. Bowex was one of the pioneers that established trade routes to Liberty through the Barrier.

This is one of the perks of being a Buccaneer: we don't use Freeports. I've yet to catch any Zoners, though, so I haven't seen what excuse they'd try after that...

Oh trust me, the responses are hilarious. There's enough Zoners embargo breaching in Leeds that you're certain to see a fair few soon enough.

And to keep this on topic, I like your piracy methods Rocket Mouse - I've just finished setting up my Buccaneer Pirate Transport, so I'll be weighing in with some cargo piracy too. Some Transport duels with the Mentria would be interesting as well.

I also carry Crew on all my transports, regardless of the side of the law they're on. No food though. Even one unit is a tonne of goods, and that much doesn't get used on one trip. Any food there would be would probably be emergency rations that were present in such trace amounts that scanners wouldn't pick up on them.

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