Galileo Mining Rights

[Barrier]

Hey guys. In order to facilitate RP around the conflict between DSE, Kishiro/Samura, and Bristol, I and @Shulsky came up with an impromptu document describing the context of the ongoing Platinum extraction in Galileo. The idea was to incorporate existing available lore, and create a very loosely-defined list of regulations which are rife with loopholes and therefore inrp opportunities to do what you want.

Without further ado, here it is:

Galileo Platinum Extraction Regulations

• 1.0. Commercial exploitation of the Platinum fields by Kusari and Liberty is pending a survey analysis of the composition of said fields. Premature exploitation may be punished with fines and further sanctions.
  
• 1.1. For Kusari, only Samura and Kishiro are allowed to begin extraction once agreements are in place. All other groups in Kusari must operate under the umbrella of one of these corporations, or risk being branded enemies of Kusari.
  
• 1.2. For Liberty, only Deep Space Engineering are allowed to begin extraction once agreements are in place. All other groups in Liberty must operate under the umbrella of DSE, or risk being branded enemies of Liberty.
  
  
• 2.0. Commercial exploitation of the Platinum fields by independent contractors is available at a limited scale.
  
• 2.1. All independent contractors must belong to a registered entity. Failure to do so may result in being branded a pirate.
  
• 2.2. All independent entities must not exceed a monthly Platinum extraction quota. Exceeding the quota may be punishable with fines and further sanctions.
  
  
• 3.0 Commercial refining of platinum ore must follow guidelines outlined within the Interspace Industrial Insurance Initiative, thus recieving a permit to operate such refineries. Failure to do so loses the IIII permit.
  
• 3.1 Any commercial entity may apply for the permit for a sum after ensuring sufficient production pipeline quality, to be examined by Interspace inspectors (or approved sub-contractors). Production flaws, obfuscation, or interference with Interspace inspectors may result in the denial of an application.
  
  
• 4.0 Claim-jumping (the exploitation of a previously registered claim by a separate entity) of any kind is strictly forbidden within Galileo. Registered entities engaging in claim-jumping risk losing their status and being relegated to pirates under 2.1.
  
• 4.1 All registered claims may be relinquished to another entity upon mutual agreement. Failure to heed such agreements may result in fines and further sanctions.
  
• 4.2 All registered claims must be sufficiently enforceable to discourage casual piracy. Any entity failing to do so risks losing the registered status of their claim.
  

Based on the above, the following things already occurred inrp:

• Samura has been sanctioned for violating 1.0 and causing the escalation of the situation in Galileo
  
• Literally every registered entity has been fined by Interspace for violating 4.1
  
• Multiple entities have made use of 4.2 to provide additional "security" in exchange for various favors
  
• Many claim exchanges via 4.1 have been made under duress, but this is rarely proven
  

I would welcome any feedback and additions/modifications of the list. Again, the main idea is to loosely define the context of the situation in order to better facilitate ongoing RP in the area.

[9th.Legion]

Remove Samura IFF. If Liberty is going to have only 1 IFF to mine it, then Kusari should have the same. We need to balance things out and be fair to all IFF's regarding Ore mining and bonuses.

- Nothing personal. Dont keel me.

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[IahimD]

Remove Samura IFF. If Liberty is going to have only 1 IFF to mine it, then Kusari should have the same. We need to balance things out and be fair to all IFF's regarding Ore mining and bonuses.

- Nothing personal. Dont keel me.

Liberty has only 1 IFF because only DSE is mining out of Liberty official corpos. But technically Bristol also has Libertonian roots, so one could argue Liberty also has 2 IFFs mining Platinum.

[9th.Legion]

Remove Samura IFF. If Liberty is going to have only 1 IFF to mine it, then Kusari should have the same. We need to balance things out and be fair to all IFF's regarding Ore mining and bonuses.

- Nothing personal. Dont keel me.

Liberty has only 1 IFF because only DSE is mining out of Liberty official corpos. But technically Bristol also has Libertonian roots, so one could argue Liberty also has 2 IFFs mining Platinum.

AH, crap. I tottaly forgot about the Bristols. Sorry i was fooled, they weren't mentioned in the thread.

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[TheSauron]

[*]1.1. For Kusari, only Samura and Kishiro are allowed to begin extraction once agreements are in place. All other groups in Kusari must operate under the umbrella of one of these corporations, or risk being branded enemies of Kusari.

[*]1.2. For Liberty, only Deep Space Engineering are allowed to begin extraction once agreements are in place. All other groups in Liberty must operate under the umbrella of DSE, or risk being branded enemies of Liberty.

[*]2.0. Commercial exploitation of the Platinum fields by independent contractors is available at a limited scale.

[*]2.1. All independent contractors must belong to a registered entity. Failure to do so may result in being branded a pirate.

[*]2.2. All independent entities must not exceed a monthly Platinum extraction quota. Exceeding the quota may be punishable with fines and further sanctions.

How do you reconcile independent House contractors being branded an enemy of the state, but independent independent contractors being allowed to operate unbothered? Shouldn't all parties not explicitly part of Samura, Kishiro and DSE be barred from accessing the field, whether they're house entities or otherwise? What interest do Kusari and Liberty have in allowing random freelancers in the fields while being so ruthless towards their own entities?

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One MD Admiral

[Barrier]

The way I see it, there is no actual thing as an "independent House contractor". They are all sub-contractors under the relevant mega-corp, and anyone not willing to play that game is basically made unable to operate in the House.

However, with the legal proceedings looking to draw out, both sides basically agreed informally that some profits are better than no profits. This is where the independent contractors come in. Of course, both Liberty and Kusari believed they would be able to win the proxy war while the legal war grinds on, by using their own shells or convincing the indies. But they don't want to give access to people that are hard to control (e.g. a single Hege), so the rule is that they must be registered somewhere. That allows both sides to put pressure on the independent company.

Soon after this was agreed, Samura decided to just say "fuck them rules" and started mining anyway (or maybe they used a very obvious shell). With that, DSE and Kishiro just shrugged and went into it themselves. But the independent contractor clause is still there from the earlier draft, and people like Bristol are making use of it to get a piece of the pie.

[rwx]

They are all sub-contractors under the relevant mega-corp, and anyone not willing to play that game is basically made unable to operate in the House.

As far as I know, enforcing roleplay consequences in house space, as result of situations happened in the borders, is against the server rules.
So you cannot act against unregistered players without mining rights in Liberty or Kusari.

[Barrier]

As far as I know, enforcing roleplay consequences in house space, as result of situations happened in the borders, is against the server rules.
So you cannot act against unregistered players without mining rights in Liberty or Kusari.

This is basically a lore discussion, with little to do with the server rules. However, I believe it ties in nicely with the current gameplay loop:

If you are a miner, you are already flying as DSE, Kishiro, Samura, and Bristol, and you need to sell to a refinery PoB. But the only people who will bother refining Platinum at any scale are also the 4 ids above. DSE won't ever get gov permission to build a plat refinery in Kusari, same for Kishiro/Samura in Liberty. Bristol could try this in either House, but they already have a PoB in Galileo. So already, we see that the only people refining in Liberty are DSE, the only people refining in Kusari are Kishiro and Samura, and this is unlikely to change.

So that leaves Bristol operating in Galileo. Well, they're independent contractors. They're not interested in operating under Liberty or Kusari anyway. If they we interested, I assume they would never get permission to build a House PoB without the relevant corpo's backing. But as soon as they have that backing, they're now under the umbrella of that corp.

So in summary, I doubt the issue will ever come up with the way things are now. And if it does, I personally don't plan on involving the government. It'll be DSE itself handing out consequences. The whole reason behind this is to flesh out RP around the situation to give more flavor to ongoing and future interactions.

[Catto]

Which point would an unaffiliated corporation assisting extraction by Kusari and Libertonian authorized corporations fall under?

Consider that mining ops can be assisted by haulers from other IFFs for both lore and practical reasons. There are arguments for and against allowing that.

Obviously it'd be better to involve more people and actors as is in terms of pure productivity and overall economy health. However, allowing said unaffiliated actors to affect regulated extraction would also inevitably make one side unable to compete, due to the overall political landscape favoring it. In the spirit of any agreement zoning out the system, assistance from the outside should be prohibited or heavily limited.

A more sensitive extension of the issue is that not only miners and haulers can be involved, but also defense forces can operate in the region to protect mining operations. This can lead to skirmishing, proxy attacks, etc. I think it necessitates designating a neutral party to oversee defense in the region, and it should be one unaffiliated with any of the mining corporations.

In summary, if platinum mining is to be distributed between DSE, Kishiro, Samura, and Bristol, they need to demilitarize their presence in the area and hire a common defense contractor to oversee security, whilst limiting transport and mining assistance to either solely themselves or their immediate allies.

[A Magpie]

Catto, you can forget about anyone other than DSE mining that field if LSF gets its way, this entire document is a piece of paper waiting for anyone sufficiently powerful to make it worth the paper it’s printed on.