Igiss, yes they are in between those routes.
Gaians are between Bretonia and Taus, but heck, so is Leeds. Which is a trader going to choose? The one where NPCs can slaughter him, or the relatively safe one? People aren't going to go through those systems without a real reason. It will get VERY boring to sit in a guard system just watching NPCs. Its other players that make it interesting and give the ownership a purpose.
Out of all the guard systems, I've only heard of two that are actual shortcuts. All I see are LONGER ways to get somewhere and more dangerous too.
I always figured the guards systems were there to give you some NPC backup when your all alone or out-numbered.
Who cares if you have to leave the guard system to go hunting, pirating, trading etc?
If anyone tries to tax a trade route they get moaned at until they stop, or people ignore it, gather a fleet to fight them, or just switch trade routes. Which is why no-ones tried it since that 'new order' faction flopped.
So unless theres two factions using the same ID I don't see what the problem is.
If its that people want to setup their own rules for systems, well, how many people have ignored/broken the AW's rules about theta?
Alot more then the AW know about.
All the RM do is act exactly like the rhienland military NPCs, though the RM players give you alot longer to drop the cargo before trying to blow you up. So far they deal with the ones they catch, which isn't very many (if at all).
The reason I mentioned the RM here is because the zoners don't give a damn what happens as long as they're left alone, which is not how the AW are operating.
I like the idea of allowing a faction that has taken the time to buy one of these systems to invent their own commodity that they would be the sole suppliers of. If you look at the major houses, they are all known for a certain commodity: Liberty is luxury consumer goods, Bretonia is Luxury food, Corsairs is artifacts, Oucasts is Cardamine, Kusari is....a few things like H-fuel, Niobium and stuff(don't really now.) Reinland is Diamonds. Even the pirates have some market share like the Mollys and Gold. There of course have been new things introduced which I won't spoil here.
So as another way of making system owning a 'cool' thing, let the ELF have Discordian bibles to sell, the Phantoms can sell slaves maybe, SF can sell something like vaccines, LDinc. already have their 'product,' but if they choose to buy a system, make up a new narcotic for them. Helghast and SCRA? Nothing comes to mind but those guys are pretty creative. This, along with cool custom designed systems with planets and stations would make a guard system, or any system pretty desirable I think.
That would be cool. I would enjoy designing my own commodity.
I would probably make something like a illegal version of "Light Arms" or something like that for the Helghast.
Marauder, last time I'm going to say this. I'll do it in bold so you can see it. AW are not Zoners. We are ALLIES of Zoners and protectors. NOT Zoners themselves. Stop thinking of us like you would RM and SF. We are like Bs|. They aren't Order, but work with them. We aren't Zoners, but we work with with them, and protect them. But we still have our own business, our own goals, that are seperate from them.
Oh, and the reason I tell people to PM me when attacked in Theta, is so we CAN catch more people who break the rules in Theta. No police force catches anything either. RM has missed quite a bit as well. We can't be omnipresent to catch over person, but we do attempt to catch as many as possible.
Back on-topic. AW would definitely sell something weird.. Miralukan crystals? That wuld be funny, but not likely.. Hmm, maybe even sell ships, since we make alot of them.. Not ships as in Eagles, but packaged ships.
LD.Inc would definetly approve of some different drugs, running synth and carda get REAL boring after 2 hours or so. Maybe MJ thats NOT synth, like we have a grow op somewhere or something. Or another, different kind of drug.
as for the SCRA, we could sell revolutionaries... in bucketloads... you throw them at you enemies planets untill they pop, its a perfect system. Sleep now...
Just to point you in a direction of a server that allows buying "vanilla systems" -
24/7 Freelancer Universe
They're not running the Discovery MOD but still. I've been taxed several times passing through New Berlin and New London for example.
As for factions owning bases, wouldn't that be sweet? That'd enable factions to have their HQ in almost any system.
Great server btw... ;)
Heres an Idea. Instead of owning a sytem why cant a faction dominate it. make it known it their turf (like a street gang). I know in the vanilla (as you call it) version each faction has a region to roam. ie Liberty Rouges in Liberty etc. If you are a Zoner or Junker for example you have a numerous outposts bases and planet you could call home.
Then that would solve the problem with traders avoiding trade routes. A perfect example would be the kepler and galieo systems. whoever dominates there will control a criticle route from Liberty to Kusari, And traders who want to run vips from manhatten to planet Tokyo would have to take that route or be forced to go through Britonia then the Tau systems.
If this sounds crazy let me know.
Nuclear Nightmare
aka Dormat1
There was the Though of being able to buy stations instead of whole systems. I allways liked that Idea, for the factions who were not willing to pay alot of money for a whole system, or for those who didn't want a system, but something a bit smaller.
Verginix Out
I think if Factions are treated like Street Gangs the RP would be alot better for turf wars.