Nomads...

[Walker]

It struck me that no-one after Single player besides certain Government Officials and the Order & Co. knows the Nomads existed...

Yet if anyone even has a Nomadic Gun or anything - People will go "OMG NOMAD!"

Would that be powergaming?

Who should and who shouldn't know what a Nomad is? Or atleast have heard some rumor that there are aliens in the Omicrons... Or some type of rumor of some kind but never enough to go up to a vessel packing Nomads and go "INFESTED!" as some Civillian Ship...

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Tiberius Walker, putting flames out and being awesome since Apr 13 2008 ™
[8/17/2008 5:56:46 PM] Aaron (Boss/Jurgen) says: Can't bring myself to say it... Looks like you get the LABC, I've seen what you can do in one
Walker (Albert Wint): I can has win? --- Epyon the Bored: You can haz win. --- [1:18:00 PM] Chris (Niezck) says: I love you <3
[5:55:53 PM] Raisu says: Walker pwned both Battleships(LNS-Texas LNS-Arizona) - [5:55:57 PM] Raisu says: in a cruiser
Tiberius Walker, spreading mayhem, destruction, and Spamming Flood since Oct 22 2008 ™
[9:08:25 AM] Gurjiv (Frozen) says: I hope someone gives you AIDs.
[7:15:17 PM] Dylan (Ximen) says: Walker... you have no idea how much fail you bring into this world...
[8:05:08 AM] Ross (SevereTrinity) says: Screw you for making me install FL again
[10:51IE AM] Epyon the Bored says: My god if I ever meet you I am going to strangle you.
Tiberius Walker, being better then you since April 30, 2009 ™
We will remember - We do not Forget - We do not Forgive

[Drake]

As often as indie nomads seem to visit New York, and as often as everyone else visits the Omicrons, it seems that everyone knows.

Whether or not they should know is entirely different. As you said, after the SP campaign the vast majority of people still didn't know about them, at least not in Liberty.

Edit: However, since everyone acts like they know, and nomads regularly visit NY, and the Wilde regularly visits New Berlin/Sigma-13, and lots of characters end up in the Omicrons at some point, and everyone talks to Zoners all the time... I don't think you can consider it powergaming or OORP for people to know about them.

[Ark]

My characters are generally ignorant of Nomads... Ark had a single Keeper encounter, but didn't actually learn anything from that.

[Rashnok]

Factions that I think would know about the Nomads.


Order
Outcasts
Corsairs
Bounty Hunters
LSF
LN
BAF
KNF
RM

Those are the easy and obvious ones. The first five or six have obviously had extensive dealings with them. All the militaries have also had to deal with nomads, after the big infiltration and nearly coming to war. I would expect, however, the knowledge to be relegated to simply the higher-ups.

The following factions may also know of the nomads.

Pretty much everything in Rheinland, especially the Red Hessians.
GMG - For some reason, I figure that they wouldn't exactly be strangers to strange things in space.
Zoners - Same reason as the GMG, plus their close relations to the Order, Outcasts, Corsairs, and GMG.
Blood Dragons - As seen in single player.
Lane Hackers - As seen in single player.
Bundschuh - As seen in single player.
Junkers - Because, of course, they know everything.

I suppose we could also lump in the Phantoms and such too, since they are pretty much nomads in and of themselves.

[Derkylos]

Well, The Order, the Corsairs, the Outcasts and the Zoners are probably the four main groups that would know about the Nomads in depth. Top tier officials in the houses would also probably know.

However, the common beat-cop would probably just be told that "if you see something looking like x, detain it's owner". After all, as Hakkera said, what should you be told?

If the government let slip that there was an alien race that far exceeded humans in power, there would be a mass panic. Sure, some freelancers/Zoners etc etc may know something about them, but most of the knowledge that a generic civilian has will probably be hearsay, along the lines of "blue aliens sometimes take over people", "mermaids live in the Omicrons", "cardamine is good for your soul" etc, etc.

People generally make snap decisions about things based on what they've heard, so one citizen of Liberty may believe that Nomads look like giant, green pac-men, another may not believe they exist at all, and a third may believe the other two are Nomads.

On the other hand, people that live and work in the edge world know that Nomads are blue, fly ships with curly spikes, have purple guns, and are dangerous beings that wantonly destroy everything they encounter.

It entirely depends on how frequently said person encounters Nomads...but I suppose the same could be said of Outcasts, Corsairs, and even other houses...

Edit: I forgot why the BH were fighting the Order (duh), so add them to the list of people that know about them (core only, of course). Junkers, Hessians, etc mostly know of the Wilde, the infested humans, and these are quite different to actual Nomads.

@ Rashnok: Hackers didn't encounter Nomads, they just help you escape Liberty. Dragons, I can accept, and the Bundschuh, felt more like they thought they were attacking a new Rheinland battleship, rather than a Nomad battleship...

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[Ironwatsas]

Well, most of the Governments and organised criminal and paramilitary groups would know. The Nomad war wasn't completely fought in the dark, and the governments would probably not be able to cover up easily. In any case, they would probably want to keep people informed that there IS an aggressive alien race about.

On the other hand, if most people in Sirius knew about Nomads and their capabilities, they would likely become scared and paranoid and begin anti-nomad witch hunts or become completely insane (See: LWB|Udo.Ackermann for example) out of fear of them. So, the governments likely wouldn't explain in detail to maintain civil order.

Even if everyone knows about the Nomads, only some would know them in depth for that reason. People who have studied, fought, interacted with the Nomads. Obviously factions like the Order, Core, Hessian Tears, LSF, Consortium, etc who deal with the Nomads on a regular basis would know more then those like the LWB, GC, Junkers, etc who have encountered them, but not been able to study them in detail.

The average joe on the street or your regular military grunt may not know, even if his peers do.

As for my characters, a lot of them have RP reasons for knowing about the Nomads.

Ironwatsas: Knows them inside and out. Has encountered, dissected, fought, manipulated, and communicated with Nomads regularly on Behalf of the Consortium.

CobaltWatsas: Dosen't really know a lot about the Nomads. He has encountered a few indirectly, but was too drunk on said occasions to remember.

Iazyne_Aezali: Knows the most about Nomads because she is a Nomad. She is actually one of Ironwatsas' experaments in Nomad-psychology and has been released into the public and monitored as an ongoing science experament. She has all the knowlage of the Mindshare and uses it to the ends of gettinf revenge on Watsas

Crew of the Athanauthe: Are aware of the Nomads but not in the know about them and have only encountered them once.

LWB|Udo.Ackermann: Knows little indepth but has encountered the Wilde repeatedly. Specifically, his former friend Josef.Bauer, who has repeatedly returned to wreak havoc upon the LWB. Udo is terrified and paranoid about the Wilde and Nomads (Among other things).

[GC]-Naomi.Ichiyusai: Knows about the Nomads from Watsas and has some information about them, but hasn't encountered them often. She would typically identify any Nomad controlled ships and inform the GC and Consortium, but keep her distance.

Juan.Maldonato: Knows nothing about the Nomads.

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All that begins must end.

[Monk]

I feel that once Zoners and BHG know about them knowledge of their existence would spread fairly quickly. Imagine hunters and zoner trade ships sharing stories at various bars around the sector.

EDIT: The Nomad attacks on FP 11, for example, would have been witnessed by all the common transients at the station. Surely they would have told others.

[farmerman]

I think at least the leadership structure of a lot of factions would know about them. Certainly all of the Rheinland unlawfuls have enough contact with the Wild that they should have some clue what's going on. I can't imagine the Hessians being in the position they are not knowing what's going on. That combined with the Bundschuh would probably put all of the influential types in Rheinland in the know.

That said, the average members of the factions probably wouldn't know, or at least I can see how they might not.

But so many years after all that SP chaos, I would think all those who would need to know, would know.

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Faction info links: Samura Heavy Industries : LWB : Watchers

[sovereign]

The Rheinland Military talked about the existence of the Nomads when the human forces fought against the Wilde returning from the battle of Sigma-13, or at least by the time the Wilde started attacking convoys in New Berlin. Once the media hears, everyone knows. Barring that, the Freeport 11 attacks left no one in the dark; the Nomads are very real.

By this point, through one way or another, everyone knows that the Nomads exist and probably has heard a fair number of stories about them; even if most are basically Sirius-day bogeyman stories. The Rheinland Military no doubt receive some sort of educational course on the Wilde, and the BAF might get it too. The Liberty Navy may have some training on what to do in case of a Nomad invasion, and the LSF (possibly the BDM as well) undoubtedly are thoroughly trained in the subject.


As far as the average character, unless they've had direct (or possibly indirect) experience with the Nomads, they probably know superstitious fairy-tale type information; not by any means necessarily right, but they think they know something. Beliefs akin to 'fairies can't stand iron' are likely not uncommon, and possibly have a semi-legitimate reason they started up, even if it was pure coincidence.

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[Jinx]

the last keeper that i saw in new york was within a brawl with Xenos and Hackers in Manhattan orbit.... everyone could see the ship - it was in scanner range of the planet, newark station, trenton, at least 6 battleship patrols and dozens of NPC and player tranports that docked at manhattan. they were dogfighting with the LPI, the Navy and a few hunters.

from that point of view - i d say.... nomads are no rumor anymore, but terrorists that are very real from the point of view of the normal sirius citizen.

their origin and agenda might be unknown - but for the common people, they are just another danger that fires on them .. with the intention to kill.

but unknown? ... not at all anymore, then they should have hidden much better or should have used the Wild who can use deception much better.

in single SP they used the Wild to execute public raids - and stayed hidden almost all the time. on our server they fly openly. - so nothing secret about them at all.

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