I think you could add in "The user of the this ID is not allowed to attack another player except when contracted or in self-defense. Contracts must be posted on the forums."
I believe a few are sold on non-BHG bases.. Could be wrong but I believe I saw some on other faction's stations.
I agree with Virus' last statement for the most part. However, some mercenaries may have private feuds with another group, business competitors, or people who attacked them in the past. They shouldn't be restricting from counter-attacking or vengeance killing because they don't have a contract.
I agree it needs defined in some way, and we can't make it as open and free as the Freelancer ID was, but neither can we restrict it too much.
' Wrote:"The user of the this ID is not allowed to attack another player except when contracted or in self-defense. Contracts must be posted on the forums."
Your only thinking about this server. You have to remember that other servers with different rules use this mod. You have to think of something that works with all of them.
About 5% of contracts are posted on forums, most people like private contracts. Bounties are different. A privateering contract is worthless if its posted. Then the person it is against knows who is hiring the privateers, making the entire contract worthless.
The Merc ID is also sold on the Lost battlestar, but that really doesn't help you. I think that selling it on the freeports would make sense, but having it so that you can only attack people while on contract or in self defense really doesn't.
' Wrote:Must have missed that forum comment he made..
About 5% of contracts are posted on forums, most people like private contracts. Bounties are different. A privateering contract is worthless if its posted. Then the person it is against knows who is hiring the privateers, making the entire contract worthless.
One of the tricks to role-playing is to not act on knowledge your character wouldn't be appraised of, but you are still aware of (ie, ignore OOC (Out-Of-Character) information while playing your character). This is a lesson from playing Forum-based RPs and Pen-and-Paper.
But, you are still right, and it's probably best to avoid trying to deal with that fact by not having the knowledge available.
Currently: Remastering Kiith Somtaaw's Acolyte Fighter. These Homeworld ships need some Sirius work done on them. ^.-
"Do not interfere! We're here to protect the President! Schultzky's a traitor!"
For peace throughout the colonies! We will never forget..
"He who controls the [insert orange powder drug here] controls the universe!"
The reason I said that Storm, was because some people do not follow that personal rule. I do, and even when I see where people have made attacks on others in Theta, I force myself to wait till they or someone else brings it to me, or posts in a message dump my character has access to.
Some people do do that, but there are a few who will manufacture reasons in RP of how their character can just 'know' it happened. This type of contract would be prone to cause that incident at one point or another.
The private contracts that where mentioned are definately possible. All the client needs to do is PM the contract to the Bounty-Hunter or Merc on the forum, rather than post it publically. When the merc or Bounty Hunter fulfills the contract, he can post both the contract and the kill screenie on the forum to both validate his actions and gain his payment.
There should be some ID that compliments the BHG. one for the unlawful side of things. Call it an Assasin ID: this would mimick the BHG ID in all ways except it would be for unlawful bounty contracts. Since the game creators seemed to be interested in giving a strategic advantage to lawful factions, make the Assasins more limited in what actions they can perform. You could prevent them from participating in military actions and terrorism, but perhaps allow them to pirate (to pay the bills in slow times.) I would sell it at Order bases, as they are an omnipresent quasi-terrorist faction and have done assasination before.