Generic IDs

[Antonio]

Freelancer ID is too generic and overused at the moment. Every unaffiliated ship uses it, and it covers anything from freelancing bounty hunting (lawful and unlawful), researching, smuggling, exploring, escorting or just being an independent pilot looking for RP. Considering that over 50% of all ships in the game use the Freelancer ID (including new players), which is a main representative of generic IDs, I was thinking it's time we bring back some of the generic IDs that were removed a long time ago. The difference now would be that those IDs would actually be different than the Freelancer one in the ID description as well (before they all had the same oorp lines and the only thing that was different was the name and interpretation of IDs, which was often misused). A few suggestion are:

1.) Mercenary ID - Specifically made for freelancing bounty hunters. In that case the line "Can engage any bounty contract" would get removed from the Freelancer ID, forcing those hunters to use this ID instead.

Mercenary ID

Pilot carrying this quasi-lawful ID is a Mercenary who:

Can attack any ship in self-defense or to protect an allied ship.
Can fulfill any bounty and escort contracts, and may treat transports as combat targets when executing a bounty or escort contract against them.
Cannot use any ships with more than 1,000 cargo space.
Cannot participate in unlawful actions except as described above.

Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats

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2.) Independent Trader ID - A freelancing trader who can fly transports up to X amount of cargo (most probably 3600). That'd encourage people to use this ID instead for the purpose of trading with a generic ID. Freelancer ID would get a significantly lower allowed cargo limit.

Independent Trader ID

Pilot carrying this lawful ID is an Independent Trader, who:

Can attack any ship in self-defense or to protect an allied ship.
Cannot use any transports with more than 3,600 cargo space.
Cannot participate in unlawful actions except as described above.

Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports

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3.) Smuggler ID - The shady version of an Independent Trader who would, as a reward, get a higher cargo limit but would be looked at as a quasi-lawful or even unlawful ID in certain areas. The cargo limit I'd suggest is 4300.

Smuggler ID

Pilot carrying this quasi-lawful ID is a Smuggler, who:

Can attack any ship in self-defense or to protect an allied ship.
Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo space.
Cannot participate in unlawful actions except as described above.

Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports

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4.) Researcher/Scientist ID - nothing special here, but this one would be for the RP fans who would get the same copy of Freelancer ID except that they wouldn't have the line "Can protect any friendly or allied ship." which would mean they can engage only in self defence. It would also give other people notice you're here for the roleplay above all else, especially of a researching/scientific type.

Researcher ID

Pilot carrying this lawful ID is a Researcher, who:

Can only engage ships in self defence.
Cannot use any ships with more than 1,800 cargo space.

Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats

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5.) Explorer ID - For those who want to use ships that have the exploring purpose such as the Bustard and Corvo. It would be a copy of the new Freelancer ID but with cargo limitation increased to 1800 units (Bustard's cargo size).

Explorer ID

Pilot carrying this lawful ID is an Explorer, who:

Can attack any ship in self-defense or to protect an allied ship.
Cannot use any ships with more than 1,800 cargo space.
Cannot participate in unlawful actions except as described above.

Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Liners, Gunboats

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The new Freelancer ID would look like this:

Freelancer ID

Pilot carrying this quasi-lawful ID is a Freelancer, who:

Can attack any ship in self-defense or to protect a friendly or an allied ship.
Can trade and escort traders.
Cannot use any ships with more than 1,000 cargo space.
Cannot participate in unlawful actions except as described above.

Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Gunboats

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I also think that the line "Can engage any ship in self defence or to protect a friendly or allied ship." from the current Freelancer ID should be reviewed. The "friendly" and "allied" terms are very tricky and situational, often causing confusion between people. My suggestion is to force those Freelancers who would assist their friends and allies to have the affiliation of those factions they're assisting, but keeping the Freelancer ID. For example, a Freelancer ID/Lane Hacker IFF ship would be allowed to assist a Rogue against the Navy through the use of that line.

Thoughts?

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[sindroms]

Dunno, Antonio.
I mean, the name of the game.
Being able to just be a freebird without obligations and make money wherever the coin lands is nice in theory.

If PVP abuse is the concern, then deal with the players rather than the ID.

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[SnakThree]

You can freelance, explore, trade and research with Freelancer ID. It's just people have these limits put on themselves that inhibits roleplay abilities with certain ID.

Just go out and be what you want with Freelancer ID. Go research aliens. Go explore Omicrons. Go work as gun-for-hire. Go smuggle and trade.

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[Oldum]

This brings the question if why all the above mentioned IDs were removed in the first place...

Also, I'm not sure if independent trader/smuggler should be separate, just make the independent trader quasi-lawful and there you go. With adding the exception of the Pirate Train to the flyable ships maybe, cause it's a KoS for most lawful factions anyways. The fact of being a smuggler or a lawful trader could be a subject of change this way.

Otherwise, I'm all for this.

You can freelance, explore, trade and research with Freelancer ID. It's just people have these limits put on themselves that inhibits roleplay abilities with certain ID.

Just go out and be what you want with Freelancer ID. Go research aliens. Go explore Omicrons. Go work as gun-for-hire. Go smuggle and trade.

Than Ageira can start making huge neon billboards saying "Don't judge people by their IDs " and it might work, otherwise, like as it happened to me once as well, didn't matter what I said or how I RPd, I was treated as a simple Freelancer cause my IDs name was that.

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[Foxglove]

Shouldn't the Smuggler ID have a line "Can transport contraband", because the "Cannot participate in unlawful actions except as described above" would prohibit actually smuggling unless it is explicitly mentioned in the ID that this exception is permissible?

This brings the question if why all the above mentioned IDs were removed in the first place...

Also, I'm not sure if independent trader/smuggler should be separate, just make the independent trader quasi-lawful and there you go. With adding the exception of the Pirate Train to the flyable ships maybe, cause it's a KoS for most lawful factions anyways. The fact of being a smuggler or a lawful trader could be a subject of change this way.

The thing is: the smuggler ID, with its extended 4300 cargo rule, allows the slaver RP with the Pilgrim liner again, which, in my opinion, would be a reason to separate these two ideas.

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[Antonio]

@sindroms , @"Snak3" And that's the problem right there, it's too generic and serves too many purposes. Cracking it into multiple smaller IDs, each with their own purpose, would make it easier for interaction. Other than the diversity I feel like the Freelancer ID is too good ooRP as well, the ability to do anything, go anywhere, shoot whoever you want and be neutral with the entire Sirius.

Maybe my proposal doesn't have to get implemented but the line "Can engage any ship in self defence or to protect a friendly or allied ship." needs to be better defined. I've seen a lot of Freelancer IDed ships assisting random ships with nothing but "Assisting my friend", including Freelancers helping other Freelancers because they're "friends".

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[sindroms]

Dunno, dude. I would rather have the notion of ''assissting firnedly/allied'' ships on generic IDs be defined properly. Or have the line removed and left only as escorting traders.

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PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
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[The Savage]

"Can engage any ship in self defence or to protect a friendly or allied ship."

Lemme quote our friend Jansen, but yes, it needs to be turned into more official green - but since it was an actual ID question, we can treat it as green in this case:

"Can attack any ship in self-defense or to protect an friendly or allied ship." Thats essentially escorting. Freelancers dont really have allies or friends.

[SnakThree]

So what is the issue? The perception of people towards someone or the actual IDs lacking permissions or having too many of them?

If it is the first, nothing will change. Even worse. Smuggler ID will be lynched on the spot like it was in the past.

You can always start your RP with:

"Greetings, my name is X Y. I am Researcher/Explorer/Smuggler/Mercenary/Trader"

People who want to RP back will do so. People who don't want to RP will not RP despite your obvious ID.

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[Lythrilux]

@sindroms , @"Snak3" And that's the problem right there, it's too generic and serves too many purposes. Cracking it into multiple smaller IDs, each with their own purpose, would make it easier for interaction. Other than the diversity I feel like the Freelancer ID is too good ooRP as well, the ability to do anything, go anywhere, shoot whoever you want and be neutral with the entire Sirius.

Antonio does raise a good point here.

I still think mercenary IDs should probably have their assist lines removed though. At least just the FL ID should,as it is generic and does not have defined diplomacy unlike the BHG ID.

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