my proposal for indy IDs

[Ursus]

Looking at the freelancer/indy IDs in .86 it seems very few people are happy with what we've got. My suggestion is to reexamine their purpose and function, and to simplify through consolidation where possible.

Basic design objective is that indy IDs are for solo-play across the map. The Freelancer ID can do a little bit of whatever, and the other Indy IDs add additional privileges. They have access to most of the systems but are relatively limited in any given system, in contrast to factions that have more power but are constrained to a particular zone. Indy IDs should be considered as casual equivalent of real factions. New players will probably use them as training IDs to learn how systems operate. Gunboats and up are reserved for house forces; high-end transports are reserved for other IDs.

This compresses the mercenary and vigilante IDs into the freelancer ID, and compresses smuggler and slaver into the independent trader ID.

Freelancer The mostly-lawful adventurer/proto-pvp type, expected to evolve into house forces, or may stay indy adventurer. They can take missions, do cargo runs, provide escort services, etc., anywhere in Sirius, up to the limits of their equipment. They can claim some bounties, but cannot demand cargo, cannot attack faction lawfuls, and cannot engage in military combat. They do not get a mining bonus.
* May operate in any system, but beware that some houses may treat the ID as hostile.
* May defend lawful ships that are under attack from unlawful ships.
* May freely attack Independent Pirate ships wherever they are found. May NOT initiate attacks against unlawful faction ships, except in defense of a lawful ship that is already under attack.
* May NOT attack or threaten lawful ships, except at the specific request of the police within their jurisdiction.
* May NOT assist or defend unlawful ships under any circumstances.
* May NOT attack house military ships under any circumstances.
* May claim pre-existing bounties on ships that are destroyed in accordance with the above.
* May use fighters, bombers, and freighters, but beware that some house may treat some ships as hostile.

Independent Pirate The mostly-unlawful counterpart to the freelancer ID, except they are able to attack other unlawfuls as well as lawfuls. They have a broader combat writ than freelancers, since they have access to less of the map (on a practical basis) and are hunted by more factions. They are excluded from the mining subsystem.
* May operate in any system, but beware that some houses may treat the ID as hostile.
* May demand whatever cargo can be carried, or the equivalent value in credits, from any ship, and may attack if the demand is rejected [note the equivalent value part, this means no 2mill demand from empty starflea].
* May assist and defend any ship from attack.
* May claim pre-existing bounties on ships that are destroyed in accordance with the above.
* May use fighters, bombers, and freighters, but beware that some house may treat some ships as hostile.

Independent Miner The mostly-lawful miner. The single advantage over freelancer is that they have access to transports up to the max miner size. They advantage over independent tader is that they get a mining bonus. The bonus is less than faction miners get, but they can mine anywhere (may get shot at for doing it though).
* May operate in any system, but beware that some houses may treat the ID as hostile.
* May defend lawful ships that are under attack from unlawful ships.
* May freely attack Independent Pirate ships wherever they are found. May NOT initiate attacks against unlawful faction ships, except in defense of a lawful ship that is already under attack.
* May NOT attack or threaten lawful ships, except at the specific request of the police within their jurisdiction.
* May NOT assist or defend unlawful ships under any circumstances.
* May NOT attack house military ships under any circumstances.
* May claim pre-existing bounties on ships that are destroyed in accordance with the above.
* May use fighters, bombers, freighters, and transports up to 3000 cargo [max miner size?] with AT LEAST ONE mining turret equipped, but beware that some house may treat some ships as hostile.

Independent Trader The neutral trader. They might carry lawful goods under contract, or they might smuggle contraband. It would be very nice if the trade system fed into the IFF, and adjusted the Independent Trader based on whether goods bought and sold are lawful or unlawful (or ignored if neutral); although this would only be seen by NPCs, that would be a big step. Although this ID is neutral, they are porhibited from engaging in unlawful combat. The single advantage over freelancer and miner is that they have access to transports all the way through the liners (but not the largest transports). They do not get a mining bonus.
* May operate in any system, but beware that some houses may treat the ID as hostile.
* May defend lawful ships that are under attack from unlawful ships.
* May freely attack Independent Pirate ships wherever they are found. May NOT initiate attacks against unlawful faction ships, except in defense of a lawful ship that is already under attack.
* May NOT attack or threaten lawful ships, except at the specific request of the police within their jurisdiction.
* May NOT assist or defend unlawful ships under any circumstances.
* May NOT attack house military ships under any circumstances.
* May claim pre-existing bounties on ships that are destroyed in accordance with the above.
* May use <strike>fighters, bombers,</strike> freighters and transports up to 4200 cargo, but beware that some house may treat some ships as hostile.

---

Discovery 24/7 Negotiating Tactics:

[Maelstrom]

This is a good idea, I think. But I'd do the breakdown a bit different.

Freelancer: Lawful
Mercenary: Semi-Lawful
Outlaw: Unlawful

Freelancer:
Can claim legal bounties.
Can trade and escort lawful traders.
Can engage unlawful ships and factions
Can mine and escort miners
Cannot engage in unlawful activities
Cannot enforce house laws, but can escort house authorities and demand contraband when working with them
Can fly fighters, bombers, freighters, gunboats, and transports with 4200 and under.

Mercenary can:
Can trade and escort lawful and unlawful traders
Can mine and escort lawful and unlawful miners.
Claim lawful and unlawful bounties
Cannot enforce house laws, but can escort house authorities and demand contraband when working with them
Cannot pirate, but can escort pirates and demand cargo, credits, and slaves when working with them
Can fly fighters, bombers, freighters, and transports 3500 and under

Outlaw:
Can trade and escort unlawful traders
Can mine and escort unlawful miners
Can demand cargo, credits, and slaves
Can claim unlawful bounties
Can engage lawful ships and factions
Can fly fighter, bomber, frieghter, gunboat, 3600 transports, and the pirate train

---

[Ursus]

I don't think it's necessary or desirable to enumerate all of the things that somebody is allowed to do. Rather, it should be assumed that a player has natural rights to do whatever they want, and to only itemize things that are prohibited. So saying that they can trade or escort traders is not desirable, in the same sense that saying they can mount weapons on their ship is not desirable--it should be assumed that they can do it. There is a line here, and I'm not sure where it is or if it has ever been stated, as to whether or not a player has the natural right to attack another player without provocation, but in general, they should be allowed to do anything unless explicitly prohibited.

Freelancer: Lawful
Mercenary: Semi-Lawful
Outlaw: Unlawful

I don't think it's possible to have nuetral/semi-lawful combatant without exploits. You can have it on other types (like merchant) because they will be too weak to participate in advanced PVP, but its not possible to have it on a ship that is dedicated to combat without the mechanics being exploited.

Cannot enforce house laws, but can escort house authorities and demand contraband when working with them
Can fly fighters, bombers, freighters, gunboats, and transports with 4200 and under.

Gunboats are the most advanced fighting ship, and you should have to join a faction to use them--this is true for the lawful freelancer and the unlawful pirate. Join a faction if you want to pirate in a gunboat.

Merchant ships should be split off so that players get cargo space and earning potential as a balancing tradeoff for giving up the focus on combat. I don't think I did a good job of balancing this out. Maybe remove access to fighters and bombers for this class. Maybe loosen some of the restrictions so that they can be more nuetral/open as a result of losing access to fighter-class ships.

---

Discovery 24/7 Negotiating Tactics:

[Switchback]

Independent Pirate The mostly-unlawful counterpart to the freelancer ID, except they are able to attack other unlawfuls as well as lawfuls. They have a broader combat writ than freelancers, since they have access to less of the map (on a practical basis) and are hunted by more factions. They are excluded from the mining subsystem.
* May operate in any system, but beware that some houses may treat the ID as hostile.
* May demand whatever cargo can be carried, or the equivalent value in credits, from any ship, and may attack if the demand is rejected [note the equivalent value part, this means no 2mill demand from empty starflea].* May assist and defend any ship from attack.
* May claim pre-existing bounties on ships that are destroyed in accordance with the above.
* May use fighters, bombers, and freighters, but beware that some house may treat some ships as hostile.

Bolded point 1: Everyone already sees pirate ID'd ships as bad. This is useless. ZOI is...lol. Indie pirate ID does not need a specific point in the ID saying that "Hey, you can go wherever!" We already do that. gg.
Bolded point 2: Piracy is based around 2mordai, and have you ever seen a pirate ship of the old just be all "oh look no cargo, totally not worth raiding" when infact they did. Logically, the bigger the ship, the more the "spendable" cash. And what about traders that kill their cargo before a pirate comes in scanner range? Sanction magnet much?
Bolded Point 3: No Gunboats? Nobody will go for that.

tl;dr version: As a longtime pirate player, No. Never. Its fine as it is, go back to attempting to collect bounties.

Edit:

Gunboats are the most advanced fighting ship, and you should have to join a faction to use them--this is true for the lawful freelancer and the unlawful pirate. Join a faction if you want to pirate in a gunboat.

So, you just want pirates to stop using GBs? What about indie pirate factions that have the infrastructure for supporting GBs and above? (srp caps)

---

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

[Maelstrom]

I don't think it's possible to have nuetral/semi-lawful combatant without exploits.

You have to have a semi-lawful otherwise the only people who can smuggle are pirates and that doesn't make sense. I don't see how that can really be abused, especially if this id gets the most restricted ship list.
It allows the character to be an outlaw in one house but a lawful in another and there is nothing wrong about that. It certainly won't overpower the character in pvp because the semi-lawful id is set with the most ship restrictions.

Gunboats are the most advanced fighting ship

No they aren't. They are the least of the capital ships and there is a civillian model. There is no reason why the lawful and unlawful shouldn't have access to the Ahoudori. I only limited the semi-lawful to balance it's greater range of actions.

Merchant ships should be split off so that players get cargo space and earning potential as a balancing tradeoff for giving up the focus on combat.

I disagree with this wholeheartedly. The transports and freighters are already set as the weakest in the game. They already have to give up cargo space for thier armor and weapons, any more and they are just floating targets waiting to be raped.

---

[Ursus]

So, you just want pirates to stop using GBs? What about indie pirate factions that have the infrastructure for supporting GBs and above? (srp caps)

just the indies, unlawful factions can still use them, since they have zoi restrictions and opposing factions, both of which serve to keep them under control

---

Discovery 24/7 Negotiating Tactics:

[Ursus]

You have to have a semi-lawful otherwise the only people who can smuggle are pirates and that doesn't make sense.

that's what the indy merchant is for, just take away their ability to be aggro in exchange for cargo capacity

---

Discovery 24/7 Negotiating Tactics:

[CzeReptile]

Use sense.

and to add, some will always find a way around as PVP excuse.

---