Indies as part of the official factions in some way

[koske]

I was thinking about something...
Primary and secondary fleets, officials and indie pilots. We all belong to the faction that we play for and we must act by it's ID. I think it would be vise that all official factions reserve last rank, or the first by starting for all indie pilots that can't be promoted to the next one without being part of official faction. So, for example, all navy pilots are cadets, even when they join the navy, but then they can be promoted to higher ranks.

I think that this will connect people, factions and indie pilots together, more then it was now.

I would like to hear opinion from others on this community. Why would or would't be vise to approach this change.

[Demonic]

Well, a lot of indies are indies because they don't want to be part of a faction, so...

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[Burning]

One thing that would be problematic is, that Cadets are less likely to command warships.

On the other hand, yes, I think reserving a low rank for indie players makes sense. But what do we do about unofficial factions, who are technically indies too?

[Demonic]

Well, not really no. While they certainly are not Official, they are not Indies. Why? Because by being in faction (even unofficial one) you giva up the laxk of accountability for your actions, that is the reason indies are what they are.

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Links
Characters and feedback | Freelancer's Woes | MacRory's Irregulars

[koske]

One thing that would be problematic is, that Cadets are less likely to command warships.

On the other hand, yes, I think reserving a low rank for indie players makes sense. But what do we do about unofficial factions, who are technically indies too?

Same thing could be done for players with capital ships, but that rank would be more of a RP rank that will not effect the official factions.

Well, a lot of indies are indies because they don't want to be part of a faction, so...

Yes, they don't need to take any responsibility as officials do. I don't see the point of being alone in multiplayer game?

[Arbs]

Well, there are some reasons. First many official factions have rank restrictions as in caps and so on. Another thing is that it would create for a relatively complex system for people who just want to go in-game get a ship they like and fly, as not everyone is much interested in that kind of RP. We could introduce a new rank or just use one of the current ranks, but under the secondary fleet you have a bit more freedom in terms of picking your rank and ship, which would give people not much of a reason to go for what you're proposing.

Either way, there has been ways in the past where we have connected more with the indies, as in the Liberty Navy Capital Ships Registry where people could fill in information about their ships/chars and be added to a chat where they were in touch with official faction people as well as other indies. Kinda similar to the what factions nowadays call "general chats or emergency chats" where they also allow indie players. So connecting indies with official factions can be done through rather simpler means.

[ProwlerPC]

For years this has come up. Factions want control over indies. I hope that day never comes. My counter proposal is to delete the FR''s. That set of rule rights respon....blablabla is the cause of the largest divide in disco. Deleting them was the only thing on my to-do list that I never got to do during my time as admin. It's too bad I could've left disco a bit better of a place. Anyways I wholeheartedly disagree with any attempt to put indies under player faction umbrellas without their own INDIVIDUAL consent.

[Shiki]

I mean no one is really limiting indies from RP activity. No one is blocking indies from RP and collaboration with official factions that will probably help to make a legit RP. In the same time I see how official factions are organazing a groupfights and mainly providing RP backgroud for it, generally being drivers of the activity.

On the other side of the coin, factions are becoming main generators of drama, because many people are using them to grow their ego. There is nothing to do about FRs I guess.

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[Skorak]

I was always a big defender of indies being important and getting the same treatment as factions.

And then I see most indies always backing out at the slightest clue that things aren't going as planned. This annoyed people so much that I once had to beg for some consequences to be played out as I did criminal stuff on an indie.

That's why a faction player gets taken more seriously than an indie. But on the same time I wouldn't want to control indies. Neither do I want to force them to do things like I want nor do I want them to hop in and out as they like.

I think by now I found some good balance on NC- as as an indie/even non OC you can register and get involved with the faction. Or you ignore it and do what you want yourself.

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[DelBoy]

And then I see most indies always backing out at the slightest clue that things aren't going as planned. This annoyed people so much that I once had to beg for some consequences to be played out as I did criminal stuff on an indie.

That's why a faction player gets taken more seriously than an indie.

Agree if you have a reasonable RP argument and not forcing the unreal demand on a friendly indie Freelancer in the middle of the NL system like " drop all the $36mil worth Platinum cargo and destroy it! NOW! " just because they were mad when some BMM guy didn't stop on their demand and managed to escape so they just needed to blow someone up.
Tbh some of the indies I've met have 10x better situational RP story then some of the faction players ....for example I have a terrible sense of situational RP story ....in some cases when I'm being pirated I just type /givecash <name> 5.000.000 and after that type //Del: "Say Hello to Pedro for me OK?" ...and after that I never get a different answer then "OK!"

Some people just love to go full "indie-lone wolf- Edison Trent-gona save you or kill you all-style" , and some goez indie because they are to shy to join any offi faction and you have people who just want to "spectate" the general RP of offi factions , something like watching the favorite space sci-fi series but passively participating instead. And ofc ....don't forget the non English speaking players that just wana play the game on most populated Freelancer server.

Some of the offi factions are small "closed" circles of people that have (or not) high requirements and expectations of new members and don't even want to bother to recruit or educate newcomers about RP and what is Disco all about . I know that it requires great patience to explain a newcomer how to RP or where to start , where to look for useful info on the server content like main RP Lore , where to find equipment ,ships , where and how to make cash for starters etc... so rejecting or ignoring them we directly participate in creating a new indie...
Patience requires time and time is money ! The number of newcomers is not that big and at least the half of indies we see in-game are alt's of some of the usual faction players wanting to change the scenery and don't get bored playing solo while the rest of their crew is offline.

PS: Before I started playing on Disco my definition of RP was acting as a Firefighter or Cop with fluffy pink handcuffs when I'm with some girl that is dressed as a Nurse or Wonder Woman ...
So thx to Freelancer,RP Disco and all my old factions, now I prefer my girls to go Jun'ko or Jacobi cosplay