' Wrote:Perhaps there is something you don't understand about digital currency: it is tracked. The governments and the banks know where the money is going, and are able to controlled where the money gets transferred to. Those entities also have the capability to figure which accounts are being using to collect money from illegal activity. If the system was competent (which it isn't since this is a player mod) credit would not likely happen due to piracy, because said accounts would likely become closed.
Poppycock.
If you dont have the imagination to come up with some hacker countermeasures to that, you dont deserve anything.
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Okay, I'm just coming off an absence that was rather unexpected thanks to a terrible fight with my I/P to get the internet working. Obviously, the direction the QCP chooses to take is an internal thing and we can chat that part of it over in Skype.
My impressions of the Privateer ID are more along these lines:
The ID is made unique by the lawful sanction. If the privateers were to become criminal again, they essentially would play the same as any pirate group. I was always drawn to the faction to be "legal" pirates, who can cooperate with the army when needed and assist with the spooks over in the BIS. Any pirate ID can go cargo hunting (and some are even better at it than the privateer ID, which is fine). What makes a privateer unique is they get to do it and still have a core system home to go back to.
Of course, this limits privateers. Wantonly pirating all non-Bretonian cargo is a pretty good way to get disowned, since understandably the Crown would be wanting to avoid incidents with Kusari, Liberty and Rheinland.
As for Gallia:
Yeah, Gallia is broken for pirating. It's pretty much impossible without a large group and even then the traffic level is far too low for it to be worthwhile. However, adding greater ZOI for the Privateer ID won't give us anymore to do in regards to fighting Gallics and their sympathizers. There are simply not enough players playing in these factions, and most trade to Gallia has to go through Orkney or Tau - 23 anyway. Open space piracy is hard as well, but achievable with the use of LFs or freighters.
What would be very helpful is access to the second entry point for Gallia (e.g. Omicrons, or at least some of them). In RP, this would be ideal as it means no traffic could get in and out of Gallia with out the privateers noticing. As it stands, we crowd around the front door and are banned from even looking to see if the back door is open.
How get activity:
Gallia is broken and unless faction populations change, will remain that way. The re-do of the system layouts will help tremendously and hopefully even bring more people over to playing in the area.
So, what can factions like the privateers do? Realistically, we should have a campaign to deal with the Corsairs as well. The whole .86 thing focused in on Gallia, but we privateers have the advantage of two fronts and we can play both of them.
I understand, fighting corsairs seems kind of PvP centric without much pirating. I agree, but there is nothing saying we can't pirate the pirates (this is also in the QCPs typical realm of tomfoolery that works too). In RP, the Corsairs have supply lines and must ship goods to support their bases. These are just as valid of targets as Gallic shipments.
And here is another reason why Omicron access might work. It would allow the privateers to fight the corsairs the same way we fight Houses, from within their own territory. I'm not suggesting a privateer should EVER be seen in Gamma. However, access to the Omicrons would give us access to the Gallia back door, and a path to fully circle the Sirius sector and hit the corsairs in the rear end.
Wall of text, apologies. While I sat with no internet, I gave this a lot of thought and these are my impressions on the way to go forward while keeping the Privateer ID unique and interesting.
For other factions with that same reliance on Gallic activity to generate their own, I suggest much the same approach. Keep the Gallic stuff as part of the core faction activity, but add some focus on the other elements of it as well.
One addition:
Something that does need changing is the no allying clause. QCP has a lot of potential partners to work with, the GC now being the least of which just due to geography. Can we just have the thing removed? Listing sensible allies would be cumbersome (GC, OC, Junkers, Council, possibly some others). And allying with one person one minute and another the next for their own ends is completely in character for the privateers.
I dont think there's much point pirating Corsairs, they dont have much money.
I also am in favour of staying legal with Bretonia. Which is why i only pirate Gallic sympathisers outside of Gallia - anyone inside Gallia is obviously a sympathiser already, unless they are fighting Gallia.
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' Wrote:I dont think there's much point pirating Corsairs, they dont have much money.
I also am in favour of staying legal with Bretonia. Which is why i only pirate Gallic sympathisers outside of Gallia - anyone inside Gallia is obviously a sympathiser already, unless they are fighting Gallia.
It's not about making credits, it never has been. It's about doing something that makes huge sense from an RP perspective. You've got an enemy that has supplies it has to bring in or ship out. If you hit those supplies, you hurt the enemy. Privateers should be hitting the corsairs artifact trade and they should be hitting any transport shipping any kind of goods to corsair bases. It hurts the corsairs from an RP perspective.
RL privateers were very much about the loot. That was their (the crews on privateer ships, as well as the investors funding the operations) wage, the main reason for attacking shipping. The term 'privateer' gives some pretty strong clues to this: It was a private enterprise, funded by private investors with the purpose of profit - the "cause" was secondary to this.
Mimir, while you are correct to a certain degree, privateers were specifically targetted at enemy shipping. Their actions were authorised by either the government or crown through a letter of marque. So while the actual privateers may or may not have had any belief in the cause they were fighting for, other than the money they could make, they were very much fighting for a cause.
True, I was also generalizing a fair bit. Also there's no reason why privateers in FL should be a 1:1 replica of their 16th century counterparts.
Off-topic:
What would be cool though is if all houses issued "letters of marque" to certain indie pirates (with specifics as to where they can pirate, and who they should target), leaving them alone in their house of origin as long as they abide by the laws there. Afterall indie pirates are in a priviledged position to put some force behind their demands, be it cargo or demands for intel.
I wanted to clarify here too, that re-reading Dart's original post, I have nothing against any of his suggestions. In fact, they would all be incredibly nice to have (hunting in the Sigmas and access to Liberty w/out the ability to attack). I don't think these things are necessary, but could definitely add possibilities we don't have now.
Omicrons and Sigmas would give us the ability to get in the Corsairs rear, and create the kind of havoc we are know for. And yeah, an individual Corsair might not be rich but the artifact smugglers will be. That and the Corsairs are a big deal enemy wise for Bretonia. The privateers have as much reason to be fighting them as the Gallics, even if the Gallic front would be priority one.
Liberty gives us a sell point, which is not a big deal to me. But what it does do is allow us to RP closer cooperation with groups like the LAF (unofficial I know) and potentially LSF if an even more formal alliance against Gallia occurs. With the complete ban, a privateer can't even jaunt over to California for a joint defense conference or some such. Include the defense clause in the ID, so no pirating in Liberty.
For this discussion I also think it is really important to remember that the privateers are a collection of individuals (and crews). One might be an honourable ex-BAFer, the next might be a bloodthirsty, greedy pirate intelligent enough to get sanction before raiding traders. And the great part is, all these characters work together for a common cause. The only RP requirement to be a privateer is absolute loyalty to Bretonia and good flying skills. Whatever changes are made, let's not favour one personality over the other because both are valid and potentially excellent privateers.
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