Splinter factions: A thing of the past?

[Drake]

Once upon a time, we had a fair number of player factions that, while strongly aligned with a particular NPC faction, differed in certain (often major) ways, both in primary goals/ideology and even in faction allies/enemies. AW was one such example, and they got much grief for it from 'true' Zoners, but that's to be expected from a parent faction towards its more radical/different splinters. HF could be considered one as well, with origins and a command structure different than the rest of the Hackers, and with slightly different goals.

We don't really see these kind of factions anymore, save for the few stragglers still remaining. While most factions have some 'thing' to make them slightly unique (at least they do if they aren't trying to represent the parent NPC faction as a whole, such as the BAF/KNF/LN/RM/etc.), the vast majority of them are still primarily canon. They might be defensive-oriented, or offensive-oriented, or whatever, but they're not really different from the canon faction in any noticeable way.

Why do you think this is? Is the community just not that accepting of any divergence from canon NPC factions anymore? I'm not saying that closely following an NPC faction is a bad thing, and most factions probably should, but I think there's a lot of room in Discovery for unique splinter groups that, while they might be Outcasts (just as an example), have somewhat different goals and methods than the rest of the Outcasts. Maybe the other Outcasts don't like them very much, but they are Outcasts, even if they're crazy/deluded/weird/heretical.

Thoughts?

[Saigo.Watanabe]

Yes i see what you mean.
I don't see it as a bad or good thing however but i think having less around is probably because of rp being more strict...

I would like to see more, but is it still possible?

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"Time is too precious to be idle." - Saigo Watanabe
"Death is something that is inevitable, Something you cannot run away from." - Katharina Hildegard
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[Jinx]

mostly cause you would not get the approval for such a faction anymore...

if now someone payed 500 million ( which is still a lot of cash ) - and made a proposition like that:
- zoner affiliated
- allowed ships : outcast dreadnought, any zoner cap, any freely available fighter
- ZoI: theta and practicly anywhere else
- diplomatic status: neutral to anyone

( no, thats not the AW ) - they would never get any approval. - they would get a lot of funny responses and their 500 million would be gone for good.

many of the old factions would NEVER get an approval today. - today - ppl are more looking for the most authentic NPC copies - and try to bid themselves down to use a most restriced ZoI ( the smaller the better the RP ) and the most restricted shipuse ( the smaller the better )

the last custom faction that put a lot of work into the RP were the harvesters - and they received a whole lot of critizism, too.

so i think the reason is simply that "we" as a community make it really hard for such factions.

edit: one problem is that custom factions have custom RP canons. - and even established factions have problems with the RP canon. - how hard is it for custom factions then to have an approved canon that everyone agrees on.

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[swift]

Yes i see what you mean.
I don't see it as a bad or good thing however but i think having less around is probably because of rp being more strict...

I would like to see more, but is it still possible?

I agree. But there should be fights like that, otherwise where's the fun? There might be a coincidental clash here and there, and those mostly end up with whining on the loser's end.
And of course it is possible. It only takes some thinking, a little bit of effort to reach out to your "enemies", set it up, and have fun together. Possibly comment later on it, see how the experience can be improved..
I, for one, am a little tired of mindless fighting, but organised fighting wouldn't mind me a bit.

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<span style="color:#000000">All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

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<span style="color:#33FFFF">The CFF</span>

<span style="color:#33FF33">CFF Communication Channel and RP Collection</span>

[Lt.Cmdr.Olsav]

I think there is a definite burn the witch attitude developed on disco in the past year where if it aint written by igiss or one of the vanilla faction heads it wont fly.

part of the fun of factions is that you dont have to be exactly like an npc, the fun is making your own space in the world, look at the SCRA, we arent a vanilla faction at all, well maybe starlancer, but if we were proposed now we wouldnt have a hope in hell of getting accepted.

just because someones rp doesn't sit well within your headspace there is no need to condemn it. A more vibrant server is created once players take control over diplomacy and are allowed to explore outside the box for what role they want to create (thats right create, rather than fill).

It used to be that most factions just chose a tag and id since they liked that part of space or some part of what they wanted to do was tied to it.

Today it has to be letter of the law.



PS is it just me or has the main storyline degenerated into pirate=bad, house=good

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RAHF.Lt.Karol.Olsav
fmr Lord Solar Admiral of the Helghast, fmr.RAHF-Olsav-[Cpt], fmr. {Helghast}(LSA-vhf)~Olsav, fmr.{Helghast}(LSA)~Olsav, aboard HCS. Kesselring

[Magoo!]

IMG beat me to it, but I'm planning something special for them, which I guess could be construed as a splinter faction.

Doesn't mean I'll ever get around to it though.

[swift]

I think there is a definite burn the witch attitude developed on disco in the past year where if it aint written by igiss or one of the vanilla faction heads it wont fly.

part of the fun of factions is that you dont have to be exactly like an npc, the fun is making your own space in the world, look at the SCRA, we arent a vanilla faction at all, well maybe starlancer, but if we were proposed now we wouldnt have a hope in hell of getting accepted.

just because someones rp doesn't sit well within your headspace there is no need to condemn it. A more vibrant server is created once players take control over diplomacy and are allowed to explore outside the box for what role they want to create (thats right create, rather than fill).

It used to be that most factions just chose a tag and id since they liked that part of space or some part of what they wanted to do was tied to it.

Today it has to be letter of the law.
PS is it just me or has the main storyline degenerated into pirate=bad, house=good

I agree, I also think there's some "invisible" rule that originality is forbidden here. At least lately. The fun of an RP server is actions having consequences, and players weaving their own fate. By blindly following NPC canon, instead of it being a guidance, we condemn ourselves to unoriginality and uniformism.
There should be space left for factions with a strange, but unbelieavably awesome -RP-

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<span style="font-familyalatino Linotype">

<span style="color:#000000">All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

</span></span>

<span style="color:#33FFFF">The CFF</span>

<span style="color:#33FF33">CFF Communication Channel and RP Collection</span>

[GhostFace]

I actually do agree with you, you don't see those kind of factions anymore, for multiple possible reasons, 1) it makes it harder to get a faction post approved, 2) and pretty much everyone is now going for parenting factions possibly for easier approval. But yes those kinds of factions have gotten smaller lately.

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[Kambei]

Im lucky because Im in 2 official factions, which are known as player-part of NPC faction.

KNF and RHA, both have same goals, ship restrictions, ZOI and RP as NPC originals.

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[Blodo]

What I think is that people are missing up the crucial element upon which new factions are judged: the trust to a particular member of the community. It has been mentioned above that a faction like the SCRA would have no chance to start up today, well I believe that is only partially true. You see, if you had for example one of the admins or the older, more prominent members of the community try and do it - sure it would get criticism, and the thread would no doubt exceed 20 pages in length, but if the RP made sense there is a chance the faction would take off the ground - as long as it survives the long and stringent period on the road to being official.

So in addition to the "burn the witch" attitude, we have elitism and possibly even xenophobia developing on forums, especially from some members.