RULE: (Bounty Hunting and Freelancer Hire) 4. Mercenaries, freelancers and bounty hunters may be hired on the spot in game by non-generic IDed players to assist with a combat without a forum post. The other parties involved in the combat must be made aware of this.
QUESTION: ID-wise, Freelancers are always allied to each other. The Freelancer ID states Freelancers can assist friendly or allied targets in combat. I have the following questions:
Can a Freelancer ID'd ship hire escorts via forum, as that would be not on-spot?
Can a Freelancer ID'd ship hire escorts BEFORE a combat situation is about to happen (like, at the start of a journey, for example)?
Can a Freelancer ID'd ship assist other Freelancer ID'd ships on-spot, as they are technically allied per reputation?
Am I allowed to hire Freelancers on my SRP, as my ID lines are basically Freelancer ID lines without ship restriction? Does it make it still a generic ID? (Like, I'd be pretty effed if I as a battleship weren't allowed to hire snubs.)
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ADMIN/MOD ANSWER: Just as the rule implies, you cannot hire freelancers with a generic ID to assist with combat. Ongoing combat.
You can, however, ally with a freelancer as a freelancer (Ally: be in a group with) and they may defend you if you get attacked by another player and vice-versa.
This is how escorting is handled. If you, however, want your escort to fly ahead and engage everything along the way as a generic ID - you cannot do that.
SRPs with a SRP ID/Special Ops ID are non-generic IDs.
SRPs with standard IDs are treated as generic or non-generic based on the ID they have.
