10-14-2023, 03:30 PM
Hello, it's me again. The previous thread I made on the topic was a veritable trash fire as far as conveying the idea is concerned, so I have decided to redo it, hopefully providing a more clear and understandable explanation of the suggestions. I have also decoupled the unlawful part as, while related to the overall intentions behind this suggestion, is a wholly separate thing that probably deserves its own discussion.
The problem
The corporations in Freelancer are pretty ruthless bastards, and one of the major elements of them being such is corporate warfare. The corporations frequently hire mercenaries or terrorists to strike at their competition, sometimes even going as far as to assault them directly. Examples of that include BMM and Daumann taking potshots at one another in Omega-3, or Samura diverting government subisdies for Tsushima to raise a mercenary force to harass and disrupt Kishiro at Nago.
Needless to say, the corporate warfare aspect of the Sirius Sector has been grossly neglected for pretty much as long as I can remember. Corporate IDs are constrained by strict engagement lines and suffocatingly small ZoIs, leaving them borderline useless for anyone who's not in it for the 5k transports. Years of that have left corporate NPC factions as a shadow of what they could be, pretty much reduced to a selection of colorful stickers to put in your Mastodon's internal equipment tab. The fact that, as far as I can recall, there has been one (1) non powertrading corporate faction that had any success in the last ten years is testament to the sorry state corporates are in.
The goal
The goal of this massive text dump really boils down to two things:
The proposed solution
With the overly verbose introduction behind us, I'd like to propose a twofold solution to enable Corporate IDs to play their respective roles in full. The rationale behind them will follow. The two parts of the solution are:
Extended Zones of Influence
This one is very straightforward. As it stands right now, all House Corporations are constrained to a ZoI of their respective House and surrounding systems, in some cases receiving individual systems on top of it to account for far flung outposts, see Cryer or Planetform. I think that this is a very restrictive approach. Corporations operate much further into the Border Worlds than police or military, and usually are at the forefront of taming new systems. Border Worlds are also where the majority of corporate warfare is taking place. However, with how small the corporate reach into the Border Worlds is, there is hardly any room for them to be criminals or frontiersmen in. The extended ZoIs would allow that.
Expanded engagement rights
This is the big one that uses expanded ZoIs as a foundation. As it stands right now, the combat aspect of Corporate IDs is... Well, lackluster, to put it very mildly. Let's have a look at the Gateway ID. I will insert my remarks in red:
As can be seen above, the combat potential of the Gateway ID, and any other Corporate ID, is pretty much limited to shooting unlawfuls in House Space. Their ability to engage in sabotage and corporate conflict is limited to just 20k or die. Want to contest a mining location? Oh, the competition paid the fine? Oh, well, I guess we'll go twiddle our thumbs elsewhere. And don't even think about meeting a pirate, unless you enjoy the good old staring contest. That's just silly all around.
The point I am trying to make is that coporations should be allowed to conduct corporate warfare in its fullest. Kurger and GMG should fight over the H-3 fields. Samura and Kishiro should fight over the Hydrocarbon fields. Bowex and Gateway should skirmish out on a remote supply contract. BMM security should be allowed to go search and destroy on Outcast raiders in Tau-37. All of these are obviously the most to-the-letter interpretations of what I am suggesting, but they illustrate many different fundamental activities that corporations would now be able to engage it. And these fundamental activities are something players could build upon and finally play the evil side of their chosen corporations, which would, at long last, hopefully result in a diversification of the type of corporate player groups we see around.
These abilities would of course come with limitations. As mentioned well above, Corporate IDs would not be able to just go pick fights with foreign law enforcement or their domestic partners. They would also be prevented from wanton piracy against every freelancer or Zoner they come across, as they are on the prowl for their competition, not robbing people to survive. Of course, there would be some flexibility here. Domestic competitors, like Samura and Kishiro, would be able to engage each other. Similarly, foreign partners, like the IMG/Gateway/ALG trinity, would not.
That's pretty much it
He writes at the end of a Tolkien trilogy's worth of text. I hope it was readable, at least. Please leave a vote in the poll above, even if it's just for Indifferent. And, of course, the discussion below. I genuinely do believe the changes I presented here would be a massive boon, not only for Corporate IDs (which I am pretty sure are the most numerous subset of IDs in the game), but for Discovery as a whole.
Some notes
A collection of thoughts that came to me while writing this out, in no particular order.
The problem
The corporations in Freelancer are pretty ruthless bastards, and one of the major elements of them being such is corporate warfare. The corporations frequently hire mercenaries or terrorists to strike at their competition, sometimes even going as far as to assault them directly. Examples of that include BMM and Daumann taking potshots at one another in Omega-3, or Samura diverting government subisdies for Tsushima to raise a mercenary force to harass and disrupt Kishiro at Nago.
Needless to say, the corporate warfare aspect of the Sirius Sector has been grossly neglected for pretty much as long as I can remember. Corporate IDs are constrained by strict engagement lines and suffocatingly small ZoIs, leaving them borderline useless for anyone who's not in it for the 5k transports. Years of that have left corporate NPC factions as a shadow of what they could be, pretty much reduced to a selection of colorful stickers to put in your Mastodon's internal equipment tab. The fact that, as far as I can recall, there has been one (1) non powertrading corporate faction that had any success in the last ten years is testament to the sorry state corporates are in.
The goal
The goal of this massive text dump really boils down to two things:
- Enabling actual corporate warfare to exist. PvP between security forces, widespread piracy or combat over mining locations.
- Enabling corporations to enter and contest frontier systems against unlawful forces. Corporate raids, if you will.
The proposed solution
With the overly verbose introduction behind us, I'd like to propose a twofold solution to enable Corporate IDs to play their respective roles in full. The rationale behind them will follow. The two parts of the solution are:
- Extending Corporate Zones of Influence into the Border Worlds that connect to their respective House. Bretonians would receive Tau and Omega, Rheinlanders would receive Omega and Sigma, and so on.
- Enabling Corporate IDs to attack combat ships and pirate trade ships belonging to foreign corporations and unlawful IDs outside House space.
Extended Zones of Influence
This one is very straightforward. As it stands right now, all House Corporations are constrained to a ZoI of their respective House and surrounding systems, in some cases receiving individual systems on top of it to account for far flung outposts, see Cryer or Planetform. I think that this is a very restrictive approach. Corporations operate much further into the Border Worlds than police or military, and usually are at the forefront of taming new systems. Border Worlds are also where the majority of corporate warfare is taking place. However, with how small the corporate reach into the Border Worlds is, there is hardly any room for them to be criminals or frontiersmen in. The extended ZoIs would allow that.
Expanded engagement rights
This is the big one that uses expanded ZoIs as a foundation. As it stands right now, the combat aspect of Corporate IDs is... Well, lackluster, to put it very mildly. Let's have a look at the Gateway ID. I will insert my remarks in red:
Gateway ID Wrote:This Bretonian Corporate ID is used by members of Gateway Shipping, who:
- Can attack any ship to protect allies.
- Can engage in piracy against Bowex outside of House Space. That's good, but why only piracy?
- Can engage in piracy against Corporate ships considered hostile by Bretonia. Literally nobody.
- Can engage in piracy against ships belonging to Kusari and Gallia corporations within Taus. This one is nice, but again, for some reason limited to piracy. Where are the security skirmishes? Mining sabotage?
- Cannot use Cruisers or Battleships.
Within Zone of Influence (Bretonia, systems directly bordering Bretonia):
- Can attack ships belonging to factions considered hostile by Bretonia. Why only in House space? Why can Gateway pirate Kishiro in Tau-37, but god forbid they gun down a Brigand in Tau-29?
As can be seen above, the combat potential of the Gateway ID, and any other Corporate ID, is pretty much limited to shooting unlawfuls in House Space. Their ability to engage in sabotage and corporate conflict is limited to just 20k or die. Want to contest a mining location? Oh, the competition paid the fine? Oh, well, I guess we'll go twiddle our thumbs elsewhere. And don't even think about meeting a pirate, unless you enjoy the good old staring contest. That's just silly all around.
The point I am trying to make is that coporations should be allowed to conduct corporate warfare in its fullest. Kurger and GMG should fight over the H-3 fields. Samura and Kishiro should fight over the Hydrocarbon fields. Bowex and Gateway should skirmish out on a remote supply contract. BMM security should be allowed to go search and destroy on Outcast raiders in Tau-37. All of these are obviously the most to-the-letter interpretations of what I am suggesting, but they illustrate many different fundamental activities that corporations would now be able to engage it. And these fundamental activities are something players could build upon and finally play the evil side of their chosen corporations, which would, at long last, hopefully result in a diversification of the type of corporate player groups we see around.
These abilities would of course come with limitations. As mentioned well above, Corporate IDs would not be able to just go pick fights with foreign law enforcement or their domestic partners. They would also be prevented from wanton piracy against every freelancer or Zoner they come across, as they are on the prowl for their competition, not robbing people to survive. Of course, there would be some flexibility here. Domestic competitors, like Samura and Kishiro, would be able to engage each other. Similarly, foreign partners, like the IMG/Gateway/ALG trinity, would not.
That's pretty much it
He writes at the end of a Tolkien trilogy's worth of text. I hope it was readable, at least. Please leave a vote in the poll above, even if it's just for Indifferent. And, of course, the discussion below. I genuinely do believe the changes I presented here would be a massive boon, not only for Corporate IDs (which I am pretty sure are the most numerous subset of IDs in the game), but for Discovery as a whole.
Some notes
A collection of thoughts that came to me while writing this out, in no particular order.
- What about Liberty? Honestly, no idea. Besides Cryer maybe getting to operate in Sigmas and/or Omicrons, Liberty corporations would only really have the surrounding Independent Worlds to play with. I genuinely don't know what they could receive to achieve parity with other Houses.
- The neighbouring Border Worlds are basically just a baseline. Some corporations could no doubt recieve more unusual areas of interest, like Cryer mentioned above. Planetform has great interest in Alien Organisms, too. Omicron ZoI for Planetform when?
- IMG, GMG and Bristol are outliers that do not fit into the House dynamics, so they'd probably have to be approached on a case-by-case basis. Mining corps going for IMG, Rheinlanders and Samura going for GMG? And vice versa, of course.