(12-30-2014, 04:21 AM)Karst Wrote: Okay, so recently there were a couple cases involving unofficial factions which often attracted considerable drama.
I believe the entire concept of forcing faction rules on an unofficial group that is not seeking officialdom is nonsensical.
The main issue is that there is no reason at all for any group of people that wish to fly together to call themselves a faction in the first place, when this gives them absolutely no additional rights, but tons of additional responsibilities.
For example, let's say I fly a Freelancer ID'd ship that works with some friends of mine flying Corsairs. As long as we don't share a common tag, that's no issue at all, but if we decide to identify ourselves as part of the same group, it would suddenly be a problem because we don't all have the same ID.
And what's the point? Even if I am for all purposes and intents part of their group and never fly without them, a situation which is np np without a tag, the mere addition of a tag with literally no other changes makes it a "faction rule violation".
All that I can see this encouraging is groups not bothering to do forum RP / unofficial faction threads, and flying untagged, since they're essentially being punished with pointless rules for no gain.
For a long time I never thought the faction rule regarding ID's would apply to unofficials. I had never seen it enforced at least. I agree that it makes little sense to enforce faction rules on groups that don't get the perks of being official. They should have to choose 1 to go official, but before that, ID rules already set the guidelines to who can group with who and under what circumstances. As long as those rules are being followed, especially in the case of Freelancers, people should be able to associate freely, even with a tag. However there might be some pushing the limits RP wise that could be looked at on individual basis, and it would be wise to perhaps go with a common IFF. In the end it will be a deterrent for people to want to form unofficial factions, which are the basis for future official factions, if they will be so highly picked apart before even being able to feel out what direction they want to go. Why bother when you can just lose the tag and group based on ID restrictions right?
This is actually part of the reason why I decided to try to hire guys as private 'privateers' with acceptable ID's and IFF's to base what kind of interaction we could have as a group (defend each other etc) and never bothered trying to form another 'pirate' faction, since tags aren't exactly tactically sound and it would put everyone involved under the regulations of not having ID freedom on tagged ships (within reason of their rep, like if a FL turned pirate, or Junker, or Zoner, all of which are independents, with nothing really stopping them from freely grouping).
There are enough faction perks to encourage people to go official. Unofficial factions and their members should at least have the freedom to float a little within reason of their individual reps and ID regulations.
![[Image: G38aJ6J.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/G38aJ6J.jpg)