Does anyone recall having a similar discussion to this one, or am I just being insane again?
Anyway, since people post their opinions, let me go with mine.
A house faction should use the ships that faction produces. It's kinda like a badge of honor, you know. For example, the Bretonian Cruiser/Destroyer may be the worst of it's kind, but a true bretonian (Which all of the SF should be, given who they work for/with) wouldn't care (Not mentioning that most militaries don't get a choice in the matter). That's right, every military in the world get's assigned a gun/ship/plane. They get no choice in the matter, the commander just says "This one is yours. End of story."
Pirates, on the other hand, grab what they can. If they can make their own ships, they should use those ships again because of pride. If they take ships (Legaly or otherwise) and modify them, then they use the modified ships (I doubt the Unioners would use straight up Eagles and whatnot without some modifications, but Freelancer is broken anyway, so...).
And now we get to the nitty gritty of what the problem here is; "I want this ship, for reason X."
Well, let's go over the possibilities...
1) The ship is part of your faction, thus there is no problem.
2) The ship is not part of your faction, but one of your allies. Thus, with perhaps a little payment to that faction (Plus the ship cost), it should be available.
3) The ship is not part of your faction, and is one of your enemies. Therefor, you should NOT be able to buy it.
You will note that I never did consider how the ship looks. That is because it dosn't matter. What matters, for Discovery terms, is who built the ship. I.E, the Black Squadron would not use the Bounty Hunter Dreadnought, precisly because it is made by the Bounty Hunters. Ships looks, while important, should not determine who get's it.
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