Quote:In 1989, at the height of his empire's power, Forbes magazine estimated Escobar to be the seventh-richest man in the world; the Medell?n cartel was taking in up to $30 billion annually and controlled 80 percent of the global cocaine market.
Thats by 20 year ago standard. Battleships cost 5 billion each.
He had his own prison custom made.
He did control/own colombias military for 4 years, however it was a land war, whch is why no battleships were involved. He could have had several.
Pirates are ships to GB size that can request for cargo, or compensation for cargo in credits. (With later being more popular due to simplicity, while actually, prior is more roleplay thing to do, and its what factionized pirates should do) They can ask for any cargo imaginable.
Military are ships to GB size that can scan for contraband and ask for it to be jettisoned. (while ID does say scan for contraband, it does not state you can actually tax smuggler for it) After cargo is jettisned, military can tractor in as much as posible as evidence, and destroy the rest. Military here can only ask for specific cargo.
This is part of roleplay mechanics comunity is living on. They are here to standardize roleplay parameters. Reason for this is to keep Disco in definite bounds of acceptable and nonacceptable, eg it states community norms and ethics.
Now lets take more factionized approach:
Here are mechanics:
Liberty rogues: Ships up to whatever, can ask for any cargo.
Liberty police: Ships up to whatever, can ask for contraband.
Rule: Act of piracy cannot be performed in any ship class bigger than gunboat.
Fact: Representatives of the law asking for contraband are not performing act of piracy, but enforcing laws of given area as they are supposed to.
Explanations:
LR are rather large, but badly organized band of criminals. Their resources are low, and depend on raids to trade ships. In this case looting cargo over credits is in bigger demand. You cannot really spend credits as criminal. Using $ to buy ship components from other criminals(junkers for instance) is more expensive than raiding few convoys for cargo and selling surplus goods.
Capital class sips are here for war, not for getting supplies. This is sole reason why most pirate groups do not own their capital ships. Some do like OC, Hessians, Corsairs, Dragons. Those groups are pirates on side, but their real focus is war with someone, and all capital ships are in war effort. Possible gain they would gain as pirates oposed to cost to mantain ship for time needed to pirate is negative. And would put them out of buisness rather fast.
LN is huge, finely organized military organization. They have lots of resources and depend on trade and salary. They actual job is to take out enemy ships, patrol house space, go to war if need arises, reduce rate of criminal activity and alike. While navy fighters might get scan duty, using capital ships for it produces negative effect. It is expensive, and surely, there is better reason for capital to be in space than to stop lone smuggler.
Now seen from RP(nonplayer):
Pirates do not have caps. Simple as that. Ones that do have them, use them as they are supposed to be used.
Law does have caps. They patrol and shoot enemy ships. Thats all they do.
RP(player):
Pirates get allied caps and use them to attack targets that are not possible in reality, and generaly mistreat their purpose and use.(I do not generalize here, we all know there are some pirate caps doing job as they should). To reduce this, rule about piracy in small ships was introduced. So that capital ships if any are used as they should have been used.
Lawfulls get caps and simply use them for all tasks avalible. This is also mistreatment of caps purpose and use.(again, not generalizing). There is no measure taken here, but most lawfull factions are trying to control this on their own.
Why does all this happen:
Problem here is tier. Hopping from tier to tier on disco for new player is too easy. Tiers 1-7 are here only to be hopped over to 8-10. You can get from staflier to BS in week or two of intense or month of casual play(Not talking about those people who trade 28/9) Also, your impact on game untill you get to tier 8 is nonexistant, other players see you less than dirt on the floor. Maybe incoorporating those lower level players from start would do something against the idea "Im weak and everyone can kill me so I will get biggest ship there is and get them for it" this being reason for new players to get caps.
Capital ships are imposing figures. They also seem to represent ultimate power one can get. And this is somewhat true (if you do not count in skill and all that stuff) Not taking roleplay consequensces of getting a capital ship, it is a thing new player wants to reach.
Price is not issue here, because first thing newbie gets is guide to quickest money ingame, so balancing capital ships by price is not balance as such.
Next to it, having them restricted by ID is effective and simple, but only once that player is explained value and role of ID, roleplay, factions, and many other things ingame.
Congratulations if you read trough all this rant.
Conclusion for those lazy to read:
New players are intimidated. They see capital ships as possible advantage. While in truth, most players use caps in wrong way, even if they usually know they are doing it wrong. Piracy in caps is restricted, yes. What lawfulls do is not piracy, but law enforcement. The mistake law does here is tax. There is actually no word about taxing in ID and that is something that should be looked at.
Oh, also to note, I tried all sides and used both ship types, caps and fighters.(for those who want to flame about being biased and alike)
I am doing also some smuggling runs from malte throughout sirius,,, so far so good.
But when we come down into liberty space things start to get interesting.
Last days i saw many Hunters hanging around in texas or bering, also as more LN are there as the days before... it is sometimes really hard to pass by when not impossible.
But then i look at the ships they got. The LN is usually out with Fighters or Bombers, some LNS ships are usually also around in mostly Gunboats and then i saw the Hunters in their battlecruisers.
DW is also hang around in texas, most times with fighters also.
But as a example:
1. I come in from Bering, a DW catched me at texas-side of jg and i made it pass him directed to the planet. Good roleplay till there, he said more then just 'stop, drop carda' as the Hunters most times just do.
Then he informed in sys-chat the police authority at houston, so i was needed to travel to the junker base in texas to drop my stuff.
But then some Outcasts show up, annoying the DW's and all ended with the fact that the Hunters brought a battleship near the junker base and risked a heavy shootout there.
2. In Bering I was stopped by a Hunter battlecruiser and forced to drop my cargo cause it was contraband in liberty. But i was in 5k range of the freeport there and barely made it into the docks before getting destroyed after i denied dropping the cargo,,,, but, wasnt there a 5k cease-fire zone near every freeport runned by zoners? Is that not more for freeport 2 in bering?
3. It is not feeling 'real' when navy or military ships stop me for smuggling,, isnt that police work, in this case for the LPI? Okay, also navy vessels are allowed to stop smugglers, and Fighters or Gunboats should also do that, but larger ships, as cruisers, battlecruisers or battleships arent really supposed to fight the smugglers.
//Think of it, military in RL wouldnt send a tank to take down a little street-dealer.
Lawfull house military vessels of all class should be allowed to engage a smuggler who refuses to drop his contraband.
(But instead of that, they maybe just overlook it and inform others from navy in fighters to handle the smuggler when he comes the next time,,, -> lrs work wonders)
Pirates on the other side should also be allowed to destroy trader vessels also in their cap-ships if they haul through a guarded-system or try to bring forbidden goods (like people to crete).
Also,,, i saw many capship-captain running after little fighters and then enjoying the kill they got. That is not good roleplayed,,, a capship-captain (cruiser-class and higher) should not care about a little fighter or just two, he should inform them to leave, inform other smaller military vessels to engage them,,, if no others are there, then ignore the little fighter,,,
,,,but then, this most times dont work, cause most little fighter pilots see a battleship, call for friends and then try to rape the cap with them bombers,,,
,,,instead of real roleplaying it and disengage from battleship-weapons-range,,, and try not to make the capship-commander to move for an attack.
So here is the problem on both sides: capship-commanders want their kills, fighter and bomber pilots want their destroyed capship and the poor traders and smugglers in between,,,
I find it simple. Have a fighter near your cap ship. If your cap see's a smuggler/trader switch over to your fighter,and go after it. I have a trader/smuggler, as well as a few cap's and fighter's. I never send my cap's to hunt trader's/smuggler's(except O-100 i just kill you) I just RP i am under repair, and switch to a smaller ship. If none in the area? i radio the trader/smuggler's position, and direction he is heading.
See how simple this is? Just because a BS can kill a smuggler, does not make it fun,or fair. All it show's is that you can powergame and kill a bug with a sledge hammer.
' Wrote:I find it simple. Have a fighter near your cap ship. If your cap see's a smuggler/trader switch over to your fighter,and go after it. I have a trader/smuggler, as well as a few cap's and fighter's. I never send my cap's to hunt trader's/smuggler's(except O-100 i just kill you) I just RP i am under repair, and switch to a smaller ship. If none in the area? i radio the trader/smuggler's position, and direction he is heading.
See how simple this is? Just because a BS can kill a smuggler, does not make it fun,or fair. All it show's is that you can powergame and kill a bug with a sledge hammer.
/signed, that is one of the main points i talked about. I wish to see this happen just one time, i would mark the day with three x in my freelancer-event-calendar,,,
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