Saturday. It's been a tough week. I sit down to play Discovery. I've played other mods on other servers, but Discovery is by far the best. I enjoy RP. I enjoy the balance between flexibility and rigidity that the Discovery Rp 24/7 allows.
I'm a pirate in a Corsair class GB, carrying a pirate id, and my tag says The Order, through no fault of my own. The ship is kitted out with anything I could get my hands on - and is a good illustration of the varied career this character has had in the five months since I started playing. I have other characters on the server so I'm pretty sure that I can follow the rules regarding factions. BUT this character works independently, plying his illegal trade on the lanes thru Colorado. I'm at Pueblo. This is normally a pretty dangerous spot because of a battleship patrol, but the money is important.
A Bounty Hunter fighter announces his presence in the system, uses the lanes and arrives in front of me outside Pueblo. I knock his shields down, damage him some, and he runs off, complaining about my RP. What did he want? A formal notice of my intent to wipe BH scum out wherever I encounter them? His scanner not working?
A ship called Lane Security (Ageira - I know them already) enters the system. He gets the same treatment. He threatens me with reports for rule violations. Specifically 6.6. This is pure sour grapes. A guy F1'd on me earlier but I opted not to report it - his shame and cowardice will live in his memory.
It's clear from the dialogue with both these two characters that they didn't scan me or they would have seen the id.
What do they expect from a pirate? I ALWAYS scan ships before deciding on a course of action. I'm jumpy, I'm in a hostile system, the BH guild has ships surprising me at every turn.
The SA, LSF and some Bounty Hunters turn up to see me off. It's clear that they didn't scan me either (the cruiser taking me on didn't even realise that i was in a gunboat) or they would have seen, yes, the pirate id. What should be RP degenerates into people accusing me of all sorts of rules vioations - i'm in the wrong system, ship, I can't go here or there, do this, or do that. Someone says I shouldn't be in a CRUISER!! When I refused to budge they showed me the error of my ways. After a few shots at each other I opted to leave the area and they pursued. To keep the RP going I requested permission to dock at Ouray on the puiblic channel - they say I can't, I'll be fined - it's out of RP. Does this count as posing as an admin?
Remember : this is a pirate character, requesting to dock at the base of an outlaw faction I am on good terms with. But I give them the benefit of the doubt and make my stand. Their ships swarm me, I accidentally hit the cruiser and then I get accused of intentional ramming. I'm then told to go to Toledo and sort my rep.
Of course if i do that, i'll end up with a gaian or xeno tag (even though i chose a pirate id) and get accused if everything from bad Rp to being responsible for. I've never even docked at a gaian base!!
What do I do? I joined the server to play and enjoy this game, not get involved in legal wrangling with players who don't follow the rules themselves. It seems to me that people invoke rules when they can't take a beating (a beating in both cases mind, not a killing) or when it serves their purpose to intimidate other players.
If having Pirate and Merc id's is going to cause such problems for people too lazy or anxious to scan and see beyond the tag , why not get rid of these ids altogether? Or maybe these people should look up the word "freelancer" in a dictionary?
This is the problem with the generic tags in disco. they should be the exception rather then the rule. 95% of the traders out there have the generic trader ID, while I probably see the merc id more than anyother. The pirate ID is probably the least used generic ID, and there is really very little reason to have it in the game.
That's confusing the issue. Are you saying no corsair SHIPS in Colorado? What's an independent pirate to do? Change ships if he moves to a different zone? Is there no generic pirate gunboat?
Yes, i've encountered this problem aswell. If your in a Zoner ship your automatically branded a ZONER, if your in a corsair ship your automatically branded a corsair. Most don't even bother to think about your rp, they see a ship or a tag and assume thats what you are. Then they want to go off about how your in the wrong ship, the wrong place, or not rp'ing when they have only met you in space maybe ONCE. Then instead of trying to understand your RP they just spout off about how you need to do this or that or leave the system or be destroyed.
For instance, on the info of a "corsair" cruiser it says that corsairs would sometimes offer it to wealthy freelancers. Now, i have a couple problems with this. 1. How can a wealthy "Freelancer" have this cruiser when the freelancer id does not allow cruiser class ships. and 2. the entire servers population would assume you were a corsair or "unlawfull" JUST because of the ship, and understandably, it IS and "unlawfull" ship.
As i said, there are many different cases where things like this happen, and instead of trying to understand or even discuss it intelligently, most people would rather tell you what "they" think you should do, or risk being depressurized by them and or thier buddies.
I think I must say something for SA and LSF..
We did of course scanned you.. Pirate ID..
But few people reported that you are just sitting next
to Pueblo and shooting everything that moves..
That is the behavior of Order - class 0 terrorist organisation in SA point of
view.. You were told 4 times! Four times! - To leave the area..
You asked 'Why?' at which I replied that you are Pirate and I am
Military.. You said that military is just glorified police..
We gave you PLENTY of time to go away.. You had your chance..
(If we were to treat you like Order you would be dead on spot)
BTW. Xeno's are opposed to anything foreign.. Do you think that they
would let you land on Ouray with Corsair Gunboat and Nomad weapons?
The way I see it, the ID is your affiliation and the tag is what group you are hanging around the most. That's pretty in RP to me because the Order wouldn't like you for no reason, amirite?
So don't complain when people identify you as an Order pirate. Especially Liberty people who have the notion that the Order are pirates and terrorists anyhow.
Not to mention you wanted to dock at Ouray, unless you are a Xeno you won't be allowed to dock there. They hate everyone, even the pirates.
Blodo and Clayph are right, Xenos won't appreciate you trying to Dock on Ouray, i think the Xeno position can be summed as Anti-You. Secondly you are a pirate, if the Liberty lawfuls don't attempt to fill your ship full of holes then they ain't doing their job, and thirdly why did you have to cite something that happened today? This will turn into a trial by forum and nothing good will come of it. Which I don't think is what you wanted.
Saint Del is considered a holy healer of diseases of children, but also as a protector of cattle.
I'm citing something that happened today because it's fresh in my head and had happened a few times previously. I agree - i don't want a trial here. I need to clear up a few things....
Firstly I wasn't "shooting at anything that moves." I think that's a pretty unfair accusation. I had in fact engaged in a chat with a freelancer character and had told several traders to pass on the grounds that I didn't feel they were worth taxing. If people are going to gripe about the rules because they end up losing in combat they should stick to playing the sims. Come on - it's a game. Besides you lawfuls should investigate any allegation properly. This isn't Rheinland you know.
Secondly, I understood being told to leave, that's no problem. I chose to stay and fight once the BH cruiser turned up. No way am i running from those hired killers. If i choose to ignore lawful forces and treat the military as "glorified police" that's RP, not ignorance as to the actual distinction.
If I encounter someone seriously in violation of any rule i would privately notify them and then not play with them (i.e. engage in any sort of activity with them at all) And if I do something that YOU feel is breaking the rules, I'd hope you'd do the same. If i am doing something seriously wrong report me. The admins are the people to administer fines and sanctions, and they do give people a fair hearing.
I'm confused about the whole Ouray thing. Where does it say that no one is allowed to dock at ouray? This is a question of rule interpretations versus the descriptive passages found in the game. The xeno faction description clearly says that they are desperate to create alliances with other illegal factions within liberty space.
Don't get me wrong; i have no problem with losing a fight. That's piracy for you. I would hate to think that I was seriously in breach of the rules. The whole debate over the tag and id is the real source of frustration for me here. We, collectively, need to find a way to solve this. How about disposing of the generic tags completely? I can see the point Blodo makes about tag reflecting your associates but it is possible for a player with a generic id to end up with a tag for a faction that he or she has little or even no contact with. I'm still not clear about what ship i need to be in if i choose to move onto another system.
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