Zoner Bounty RP

[Drake]

I can't even read past page 1 of the whiners trying to justify undoing years of established RP in the name of "I wanna do it no matter what's been done before or how it upsets the balance."

First of all, I'll point out that I've not had a hand in these doings from either side. I wasn't in the server at the time. My views on this are not biased from a victim's point of view at all, simply pointing out obvious things that everyone should already know.

Game Mechanics:

• Bretonians don't go to Omega-49. Period. The Bounty thread tried claiming O-49 as a Bretonian system and it is not. Bretonians go to Dublin to fight Mollys and are too busy with them to explore further. They just don't have any other viable route they'd use. Poole? that's a Guard system that the buccaneers shouldn't have access to.
  
• Buccaneer ZOI is the Tau systems. O-49 is not in the Taus.
  
• Zoners are a LAWFUL faction and, therefore, any bounty placed on them is UNLAWFUL. (The bounty was claimed to be a lawful bounty.) This would be the same as if someone were to place a "lawful" bounty on, say, the LPI because "they have a history of taking bribes and being corrupt." (which they do)
  
• Zoners are not, as much, providing safe havens as they are keeping the peace in their little corner of space. By the way, did you also make a "lawful" bounty on IMG players? They own FP4 and there are missions for Liberty Rogues, among others, on that base.
  

This was nothing short of inventing a shameless reason to gun down defenseless Whales and wreck any semblance of role play for Zoners.

Privateers, not Buccaneers. Entirely different animals.

Zoners aren't lawful. Nor are they really unlawful. They exist somewhat outside the lawful/unlawful axis. They try to stay lawful enough while still associating with unlawfuls.

Whether the Zoners are trying to 'keep the peace' for themselves, if their 'peace' turns out to be detrimental to another major faction (such as a House), then they cannot expect to remain neutral to that faction. Just because you claim to be neutral doesn't mean everyone else has to consider you such.

The Bretonian government (and military) consider the Zoners neutral, and they don't bother the Zoners. The Privateers, however, are not controlled by the Bretonian government or military (neither in-character nor OOCly). They are a bunch of ruthless pirating bastards, just like so many other ruthless pirating bastards out there. They are pointedly ignored by Bretonia, though officially they're outlaws, because they're useful to the Crown in their ruthless pirating bastardness.

While the Bretonian government remains neutral to the Zoners for political and PR reasons, the Privateers are their own entity, which aren't required to stick to the party line, so to speak If they don't see neutrality with the Zoners as benefiting to them, then they ignore it. Seeing as the QCP aren't a canon faction, they don't have a 'canon' neutrality to the Zoners.

If the BAF decided to rule all Zoners as Enemies of the State, then you might have a reason to complain. But you don't have any reason to complain about a group of unusually patriotic pirates bothering you. It's not power-gaming, it's piracy and bounty hunting from a group whose ZoI can include the Omegas, and who don't make use of Zoner hospitality, but whose enemies do.

Two final notes: First, Omega-49 isn't a secret, hasn't been in quite some time, and it is very easy to access. Only about 1/3 to 1/2 of Dublin is Molly-controlled, and the O-49 JH is sitting out in the open, entirely unguarded and almost as close to Graves as it is to Arranmore.

Second, the original bounty was not placed by a Privateer. We honestly have no idea who that guy is, but any bounties we posted would have had a lot more text to go along with them, and we wouldn't have dropped it once it started to draw heat. Zeltak, the placer of the current bounty (for reasons unknown to all but himself), is also not a Privateer.

Edit: As a point of interest, you can't really consider me biased against the Zoners. My first character, Isaac Drake, became a Zoner. He (me) was the first Chairperson of the Council of Zoners (no idea how I got roped into that), before I took a Leave of Absence from Discovery for a time. Until all my characters got wiped a couple months back, he was still my primary trader, Zoner Guard in a Zoner BW Transport ('Zoner Whale'). I haven't bothered to remake him because I really just dislike trading.

[Jinx]

@jammi: i am so sorry, it was an example - and maybe i should have marked it a bit more to be one...

let me just exchange the faction name "BAF" with the faction name "gaians". - hope you are fine with that change of names. - oh, and it is an example, btw. - i don t think the gaians RP is bad. - or replace BAF with ... umm.... bundschuh, RM, LN, zoners, KNF, KSP, GRN, - anything you wish. - it does not change the point of the example. - just put in anything but BAF if you insist.

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[jammi]

Damn... I was a bit more hostile than I meant to be there:(. My point is people seem to be blaming Bretonia as a House, rather than the Privateers themselves. S'like the ZNS Freedom or whatever it's called. Why wage war on 'Planet New Gran Canaria' when it really had nothing to do with it?

Anyway, apologies for the hostility.

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[Drake]

My point is people seem to be blaming Bretonia as a House, rather than the Privateers themselves. S'like the ZNS Freedom or whatever it's called. Why wage war on 'Planet New Gran Canaria' when it really had nothing to do with it?

Quite. The Privateers even changed their tag and distanced themselves from the BAF otherwise because of situations like this. They are no more under the control of the BAF/Bretonian government than the Corsairs are under the control of the Zoners.

[Quorg]

Quite. The Privateers even changed their tag and distanced themselves from the BAF otherwise because of situations like this. They are no more under the control of the BAF/Bretonian government than the Corsairs are under the control of the Zoners.

Well, Drake and Jammi, I can see that you two are frustrated. I realize that it is not the fault of Bretonian players, which is why the RFS Freedom restricts its hostilities to Bretonian NPC's.

However, at least when the hostilities started, the QCP were still flying under Bretonian colors, with Bretonian ships and equipment, transmitting a Bretonian Armed Forces IFF. It is also strange that they are constantly able to repair and replace their Bretonian equipment.

Again, I realize this might not be through any choice of yours, which is why you haven't seen Zoner Juggs in New Gran Canaria's orbit blasting away at every player that flies by.

We'll probably be winding down the creation of new "films", however, since diplomatic efforts geared towards isolating the Privateers seem to be improving.

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ATTENTION SMUGGLERS
The Midnight Express: A Slaver <strike>who doesn't completely realize what he's doing.</strike> (video)

Quorg, you're officially a moron.

...mongs like Quorg being like a malignant little cancer...

Way to be useless, Quorg.

[darthbeck]

and for all of you who think that the QCP went into omega 49 for the bounty,

[font=Blackadder ITC]To Queen Carina's Most Diligent Interdiction Wing (in exile),

Right, it appears that we have found the source of Kusari's industrial strength, boys and girls. Recent identification code scanning, as well as the presence of ship classes such as Zoner Borderworld Transports, Zoner Whales and even Aquilon Carriers in Kusari, all carrying metals for the Kusari war effort, leaves me wondering where they all come from.

Recent reports seem to indicate that the Zoners aren't the space-station dwelling anarchists and hippies that we once all loved to hate. These days, they appear to be a colonial power, supplying Kusari's Naval Forces with all sorts.

We know what planet they're operating from. We can therefore hit their shipments at the source, and perhaps take out the Aquilon Carriers before they rendezvous with their Kusari allies.

Base from Graves, in the Dublin system. We have an understanding with the BMM. Hit Zoner transports in Omega 49 until they stop sending supplies to our enemies or until we've stolen all the supplies ourselves.

Watch out... apparently the Zoners are also harbouring the Corsairs that have plagued us for years. They seem to have it in for us for some reason. The Corsairs hired by the Zoners seem a dangerous lot, having annihilated a planet, Planet Cork, with nuclear warheads. Now, the inhabitants may have been Mollys, but there is war and there is barbarism.

Good luck.

Yours,

Sir Andrew

june 24th. over a month before the bounty was posted.

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<span style="font-family:Century Gothic">Violence is Golden</span>

[bluntpencil2001]

On neutrality:

If Al Qaeda terrorists hid in Switzerland, a neutral country, what would happen?

Would Switzerland say "It is okay, so long as you and the Americans don't fight in Switzerland. We're neutral, we let you AND the Americans in!"

Or would Switzerland say "GTFO AL Qaeda!"

What would America do if Switzerland said "Al Qaeda can come here for chocolate, but so can you, so long as there is no trouble."?

I can imagine the Americans nodding and smiling, yes.

And before you say anything about Corsairs and Al Qaeda not being equivalent, you would be correct. The Corsairs are worse, since they wiped out all life on Planet Cork.

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[Rudo]

@Rudo:

it is up to no one to decide who deserves to be punished for "bad roleplay" but the admins based on the rules.

the QCP thing does not help the zoners, it twists the zoner RP.

if i "thought" that the RP of the BAF was bad, it wouldn t be good to gather some bullys and hang around their places shooting them down till they give up and leave the game. - and bath in the sunshine of self rightousness saying "all i did was weeding out the bad crops - you should THANK me!"

again - roleplay should work on both ends. - and when i notice that the other side i try to roleplay with ( in the very case i am actually interested in roleplaying and not in satisfying my personal grudge ) doesn t like it.... i stop. i don t insist on playing. when i see that my attacks, NO MATTER how i justify them in RP causes only bad feelings, i stop - that is the sensible thing to do. if i fail that - i fail a very important social lesson.

Jinx:

I'll clarify my previous statement. I'm not for judging who is to be punished for bad RP either. But I am for seeing who can keep it together in-game when a bad situation outside their control arises. A lot of RP situations come up without consent from both parties and a lot of them involve some element of conflict. Piracy or acts of war for example. There will be times in every player's life when regardless of RP or factional orientation that he or she will need a thick skin and to be seperated from his or her character; bad things will happen.

I'm not a fan of the bounty or the behavior that prompted it. I abhor it. But things like this happen and such things are not always going to be previously agreed upon or consented by the victim.. I'll rehash what I said before -- never mind what people say or do in regards to your characters. You and you alone control what your characters are, what they say, and what they do.

I agree that if an element of RP is causing bad feelings, that the party taking the action should stop. But where does that line get drawn? A blanket bounty on all members of an NPC or player faction for no real reason is the far end of that spectrum and should be made invalid without previous RP. We can all agree there. But let's say you have an RPed trade run. Or a trade run that, admittedly, you are just doing for credits. Along comes a pirate. It's not his RP to care what you're hauling or why. He sees a cargo going to a destination and credits to be made by the ransom of said cargo and ship. If you don't want to interact with the pirate and feel ill will towards the character, the player behind the character for having the audacity to approach you and the game in general for allowing such things to happen does it make the pirate's play any less valid? Should he stop because the player behind the trader is upset at having to lose part of his bottom line? Pirates, mercs/bounty hunters and anyone who flies a combat-oriented ship will inevitably make someone upset because they did not want to be interacted with in that way.

Where do we draw the line, is what I'm trying to ask.

TL;DR Version:

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