' Wrote:Whilst we're at it, IMG and Corsairs shouldn't be friends either. IMG and Mollys/Hessians should get on okay.
IMG are offering missions against the Corsairs, actually. Land on their base in Omega-7 to check. The empathy bug has been fixed in 4.85 - means doing those missions does not make you lose reputation with the IMG ("wait, it should go up, wtf?")
' Wrote:Ok then...getting on topic w/ my 2 shiny pennies:
Personally, I'm all for the Gaians going hostile w/ the Sairs. & not just for nuking Cork.
The bottom part of the faction card says:
Many of the modern Gaians are ordnary criminals & pirates who consider an alliance with the corsairs to be the best way to ensure their survival.
This has always been a problem, because alot of people read the word 'many' & think 'all'
In my mind, that one little word splinters the faction into 'Gaians' & 'Modern Gaians' & if it comes down to it, I'd absolutely love to <strike>see</strike> start a Gaian civil war over it.
Fact of the matter is, Gaians on the whole are not pirates...they are pissed off activists with a portion of their number that go off pirating people...& this is a very bad thing, cause it takes away from the potential of what the Gaians should be & makes them seen by the public as impotent thugs looking for a quick buck
My point exactly. I wouldn't join the Gaians in their current state, because they don't offer anything special.
A major theme in Freelancer is that every faction is corrupt (save maybe the Order), and every faction has a saving grace. Removing the base, greedy piracy from the illegal factions loses this.
The LPI maintain law and order, but are corrupt and use slave labour.
The Bretonians pay their workers well, but have very poor oppressive conditions for many workers.
Planetform may have the solution to hunger without resorting to Synth Paste, but alter the natural world. They may also be overestimating their capabilities.
The Corsairs are bloodthirsty pirates and smugglers, but this has been due to a history of hunger.
The Golden Chrysanthemums want freedom for women, but may want to oppress men.
The Gaians want to free the environment, but are brutal pirates, having lost much of their ideology, similar to the Bundschuh and other groups.
The Xenos fight for workers rights, but their xenophobia borders on fascism.
I don't know, you know? I think a lot of factions are pretty rosy. Out of the factions I'm in, the Hessians have a noble cause but a lot of them are just common pirates and thugs. LWB however, they're pretty much just straight activists. They tried allying with the corsairs but it didn't work out with their style. The BAF has no dark underbelly I don't think.
Marburg's point about the gaians is basically what I agree with. All these alliances just turn the gaians in to another cog in the corsair-kusari machine. They lose all their own identity for next to no gain.
I mean think about it, the xenos have no allies, and they are one of the most distinctive factions around.
' Wrote:I don't know, you know? I think a lot of factions are pretty rosy. Out of the factions I'm in, the Hessians have a noble cause but a lot of them are just common pirates and thugs. LWB however, they're pretty much just straight activists. They tried allying with the corsairs but it didn't work out with their style. The BAF has no dark underbelly I don't think.
Marburg's point about the gaians is basically what I agree with. All these alliances just turn the gaians in to another cog in the corsair-kusari machine. They lose all their own identity for next to no gain.
I mean think about it, the xenos have no allies, and they are one of the most distinctive factions around.
The Hessians are, for the most part, violent pirates.
The LWB are murdering terrorists, often targetting people simply due to their nationality. That isn't straight activism. That's like saying a modern terrorism is legit political activity.
The BAF are known for oppressing the likes of the Mollys, keeping BMM in a position of power. They're possibly one of the least corrupt, along with BPA, but it's still there. And it is the fault of the Bretonian government that Leeds as an average of lifespan of 57.
The Gaians should not be just another Corsair or Kusari satellite state (heheh, satellite states in space), but they should maintain their corrupt side, like every faction.
Ok, I was thinking of this a bit, and I made a complete list of how I thought Gaian diplomacy should go, if it were completely up to me, which it isn't. There is also one major caveat though: official factions may not be exactly how the "overall" version of the npc factions are. For instance with the Gaians here: Personally I think they'd be neutral with the Hogosha due to some overlaps and the potential that exists. The NLH, however, has previously had agreements with the Black Dragons and such.
Anyway, here are my thoughts with a slight explanation for most:
Allied:
Green Front activists
Friendly:
Junkers (supply Islay, clean up junk)
Farmers Alliance (anti-synth foods, large overlap of interests)
Neutral (don't care, usually for distance reasons)
Unioners (far away)
Dragons (far away, interests don't touch each other)
Liberty Rogues (foreign criminals)
Xenos (exploding people elsewhere)
LPI, LSF, LN, RM, RSP (in charge of places we generally don't go)
Neutral (like the idea but little, if any, contact)
LWB (Planet Stuttgart's environment was seriously hurt)
Red Hessians (Blast the corporate miners)
Bundschuh (similar backgrounds, little contact, differing goals)
Order (nomads are bad, but they're not around us very much)
Neutral (literally neutral)
ALG (cleaning up is good)
Lane Hackers (very little overlap in any matters)
Hogosha (potential business allies)
Zoners (they keep to themselves and don't mess things up much)
Ageira (useful technology, don't mind if they don't disturb us directly)
Cryer (scientists, often at CRI, thus easy to relate to, so long as they aren't horribly disturbing Gaia)
GC (generally just cause, but alliances and cardamine usage are bad, plus not a huge area overlap - mostly an ignore sort of group)
Unfriendly
IMG (more responsible than corporate miners, still to be watched though)
Gateway (deals with IMG, not BMM, or the BAF like Bowex does - secondary target to the others)
Mollys (some mutual overlap, violence only when they're directly impeding Gaian goals)
Corsairs (some overlap, interest in artifacts, but they're jerks who blow stuff up - friendliness considered when they clean up their act)
Universal, Republican (shippers not directly working with BAF, not much concern, still an irritant)
DSE (useful like Ageira, but more prone to show up and potentially cause issue)
IC (financing too many things we'd dislike)
Kishiro (terraforming in Okinawa)
GMG (Okinawa)
Samura (distributing alien organisms for dubious reasons)
KNF, KSP (some useful aspects, but still allowing destructive actions, ie Planet Junyo, Kishiro/Samura's activities)
Hostile
Bowex (connections with BMM and BAF)
Daumann (BMM-esque miners, but less contact)
Kruger (BMM-esque miners, but less contact)
BHG (they like to get paid to shoot us)
Outcasts (all sorts of problems)
Synth Foods (their approach to food production is bad for planets)
"Explosion time" type of hostile
Planetform
OS&C
BAF
BPA
BMM
Phantoms
Nomads
You know, something I never quite understood about the Gaians is this: Why do they care about Planetform actually changing dead planets into living ones? After all, Harris was a dead planet before it was decided to terraform it. Sure, it had an atmosphere, but it had no lifeforms on it whatsoever. Ayr, Atka and California Minor have no lifeforms on them, although again they did/do have an atmosphere. I never really saw the whole big deal about hating Planetform for that. It'd be identical to them hating planetform for taking a rocky planet like our moon and turning it into a Gaia. It would make no sense.
From what I know it's because they want to terriform Gaia (the planet) which would completely wipe out the current, fully functioning ecosystem that is already present.
Gaia doesn't actually need terraforming though, that's why it is considered to be a beautiful natural world of wonders (hence the name Gaia too). People can live on it, stuff can be grown, most things can even be eaten by humans. From everything I have ever read, what the Gaians don't want happening is people like OSC, Synth Foods or BMM from selling the place out to tourists, strip mining it or modifying it to grow Synth Paste. Planetform has little interest in Gaia beyond curiosity as to how it evolved to its present paradise world state.
Also: Why would Gaians ally with Farmer's Alliance because of Synth Foods? Since when do Gaians care about Synth Foods? The Bretonian Government are the ones that don't want Synth Foods in Bretonia.