So the Aoi Iseijin was approved and officialised last year, at the time no one had any serious problems or arguements as to why it couldn't exist, and the concept was great.
Unfortunately there were a few problems that many people didn't think of, problems that can easily be fixed.
When I joined the faction, I set to work studying and understanding the problems, so I could fix them up.
I'll take this moment to show you the different between the two main groups in the Aoi Iseijin:
Quote:The Trappers are the main force of the Iseijin, and the most dangerous task force. They impersonate ships of the Kusari Naval Forces, moving covertly through Kusari space. These pilots work inside of Kusari, keeping their disguise up at all times.
They are the Hanta-Iseijin. A separate division of the KNF dedicated to combating the alien threat based out of Heaven's gate, Tohoku. It is known to no group at this time that these pilots are infected.
Quote:Besides the Hanta-Iseijin, there is one other main group. The Hunters, or "remnants of Tekagi". The remnants of Tekagi are the infested soldiers of Tekagi still serving the Nomads. They are quick, deadly and show no remorse. Where they are stationed out of or who leads them remains unknown.
This group acts as a scapegoat, drawing the attention of the Blood Dragons, The Order and Kusari Forces. This lays no suspition of infection on the Hanta-Iseijin.
Now you know the two main groups,
Problems
1) Aoi Iseijin ships using Nomad Equipment and pretending to be KNF.
This was a relitively easy problem to fix, we originally said that our ships could only use the Man-made Nomad Cannons and Blasters, and act as if they were codenames or prototypes, but the [KNF] didn't like the idea, so we stripped the Trappers of all kinds of Nomad Equipment.
2) Everything shoots at us, even when we're disguised as KNF ships.
Now the main Trappers are supposed to be part of the KNF, with KNF IFFs and neutral reps, this would allow them to fulfil their jobs undercover without being shot by all the NPCs and bases.
The root of the problem here is the Wild ID, it repninjas everything except Wild and Nomad to full hostile, meaning we're stuck with Wild IFFs and hostile reps.
The reason we cannot use KNF IDs is because it's an important part of our RP and gameplay to be able to land on the Arch, which is a Wild base. The other problem is the KNF ID does not allow demanding of cargo and murdering ships within Tohoku, also, all of the current Iseijin Trappers already have Wild repsheets, so they are beyond repair.
This is not a problem for the Hunter taskgroup, as they work fine with Wild ID/IFF and hostile reps.
3) The gameplay in Kusari is disrupted by the Trappers using Wild ID/IFF.
The [KNF] have spoken personally with this, stating the problems of having the Iseijin ships assisting KNF ships even though it makes sense in RP. The Trappers must now avoid the KNF ships, and operate at gates and lanes without bases nearby or Capital ships patrols, meaning out gameplay is ruining by this drawback.
Solutions
So the first problem was solved, easily done as the lore was solidified.
Problems two and three persist though, and this is my main reason for starting this thread and showing the problems publically.
We've had alot of problems with ships in the past simply treating the Trappers like Wild due to the ID/IFF and ignorance of our Roleplay. This is not their fault though, but mine for not raising awareness right away.
So here is a quote from a document sent to the Admins for our new ID proposal,
Quote:After talks with Lotek, and Mike (Exile), I came up with a new piece of lore to fix the hostility and confusion between the KNF and Aoi Iseijin. Originally we acted like various KNF pilots, but the KNF weren’t entirely satisfied with what was going on, so I developed some compromises and a fix to prevent direct metagaming and confusion.
Originally the Aoi Iseijin had no input from the KNF, leading to them being a little distant when the two factions really needed to be a lot closer. There were disagreements about the nature of Trapper ships using Human Variations of Nomad guns on their ships, so the Nomad guns were stripped, this let the Iseijin better operate in Kusari as KNF.
There is still one problem of the Lore being wonky, so I talked to Lotek and we discussed making the Trappers part of the KNF, an extra wing like the LSF are to the Liberty Navy.
The Hanta-Iseijin was then born. A KNF Group was sent to the Arch to secure it’s treasures and the system, this group was then ambushed by the remnants of Tekagi, still present in the station, and infected. The Wild forces known as the Aoi Iseijin (roughly means Blue Aliens) reported back as the KNF, and created a veil of lies to spy on Kusari and gain power and resources.
Over the last year or so in particular, the Iseijin pulled strings inside of Kusari and got a special task force commissioned, the Hanta-Iseijin (roughly means Alien Hunters). The Hanta-Iseijin put Tohoku on lockdown, securing the system by setting up heavy weapon batteries and increasing infected KNF patrols in the system.
As far as Kusari knows, the Hanta-Iseijin work daily to protect Kusari from Alien threats, and research new ways of striking back. In reality, the Hanta-Iseijin are all infected, and their goals are to gather resources and intel.
The [KNF] have agreed to this, though some current problems persist, like the ID and the disruptive gameplay.
Right now, the only way to tell is a Kusari ship with Wild ID/IFF is an undercover KNF ship or an acutal Wild is to check for Nomad Equipment.
Any equipment other than ID/IFF that isn't human, means the ship can be treated as a Wild and isn't undercover. If the ship has full KNF equipment on a KNF ship for example, it can be considered covert and disruptive to the Roleplay if people begin shouting out "Wild!"
Our current solution is to talk to players ingame privately, and explain it, but if they don't take the hint and comply, we just engage them and consider them a liability.
New ID changes
So a new ID has been proposed, and sent to the Admins as a request.
It has been approved by the Aoi Iseijin and KNF, and Sovereign advised us from a Dev-Team perspective on how it should look. This is the final proposal:
Quote:Kusari Naval Forces, Hanta-Iseijin ID
Pilot carrying this ID is an Aoi Iseijin Trapper, who:
Can hunt pirates and terrorists within their Zone of Influence
Can destroy traders in Kusari who belong to corporations headquartered in Houses that Kusari is at war with if the trader refuses to drop all cargo and leave Kusari.
Can demand cargo within faction roleplay, levy fines and destroy ships if they refuse to comply
Cannot fulfill bounty contracts
Cannot ally with any unlawfuls except Gaians
Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo
Can land on any lawful base in Kusari Controlled space
Can engage any ship within Tohoku at will
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Liners, Gunboats, Cruisers, Battleships
Carrying unmounted IDs in your ship, as well as not equipping an ID, is a serious crime.
Now let’s break it down.
Kusari Naval Forces, Hanta-Iseijin ID
This line emphasises the KNF aspect of the Hanta Iseijin, meaning people who scan us know we are of the KNF.
Pilot carrying this ID is an Aoi Iseijin Trapper, who:
This means that it is clear this is not a public ID, meaning only Aoi Iseijin should be using it. Also, this ID should only be sold on the Arch.
Can hunt pirates and terrorists within their Zone of Influence
The engage everything at will has been removed, meaning the Iseijin Trappers have the same ability to engage as the KNF do, meaning they can do their jobs like KNF.
Can destroy traders in Kusari who belong to corporations headquartered in Houses that Kusari is at war with if the trader refuses to drop all cargo and leave Kusari.
This line is from the KNF ID, meaning the Iseijin Trappers have the ability to kick out warring corporations like KNF can.
Can demand cargo within faction roleplay, levy fines and destroy ships if they refuse to comply
This line means the Iseijin Trappers can request small amounts of certain cargo, often to validate them etc. This is a cover to obtain cargo required for the Iseijin’s plans. For instance, if we spot a trader with 2000 Refugees, we demand a few of them, stating they are known criminals in Kusari, the real reason being they make excellent Hosts for infection.
The bit about levying fines and demanding contraband is from the KNF ID, meaning Iseijin Trappers will be able to uphold the laws of Kusari as the KNF do.
Cannot fulfill bounty contracts
Obvious reasons, the KNF shouldn’t be doing bounties, neither should the Hanta-Iseijin.
Cannot ally with any unlawfuls except Gaians
Altered version found on the KNF ID. This means the KNF will not support any unlawfuls except Gaians, as the diplomacy makes them quasi-legal in Bretonia. The Hogosha and Farmers Alliance are Quasi-Legal, so they can be allied with anyway.
All in all, we have the same alliance state as KNF, without the ability to ally with the Corsairs, as I don’t forsee us ever needing to, or the logic behind it.
Cannot use any transports with more than 4,300 cargo
Standard for most Military IDs, we will not need the usage of bigger ships. The biggest transport we have is 3200, I think.
Can land on any lawful base in Kusari Controlled space
This is because the Iseijin Trappers are KNF, officially, meaning they land on all sorts of bases in Kusari anyway. Kusari has no methods to scan for infection, meaning the Iseijin are relitively safe, unless Kusari knows what it is looking for. This would make our operations in Kusari make more sense, and opens up alot more RP opportunities.
Can engage any ship within Tohoku at will
Tohoku has become a Guard system for the Iseijin really, meaning we should be able to execute any ships in Kusari. Also, this is the conditions in which a Hanta-Iseijin Capital Ships (We only have one Trapper Cap right now) could engage Transports.
Allowed ships: Fighters, Freighters, Transports, Liners, Gunboats, Cruisers, Battleships
The Cruiser and Battleship is allowed, due to our tight restrictions on usage of Capital Ships. We currently have one Trapper Dessie. In the near future, we may request a bigger ship commissioned to defend Tohoku etc.
The Hanta-Iseijin ID is to have the same Tech Chart Cells as the Kusari Naval Forces, anything outside of that will be SRPed.
The RepNinja for the ID will be as follows:
Kusari Naval Forces Guard - +0.9 - Flashing for IFF
Kusari Naval Forces - +0.9
Kusari State Police - +0.0
Hogosha - +0.0
Farmer's Alliance - +0.0
Gas Miners Guild - +0.0
Independant Miners Guild - +0.0
Nomads - +0.0
Nomads Guard - +0.0
The Wild - +0.0
All Corporations (except BMM, Bowex, Gateway) - +0.0
Everything else - Hostile Possibly an Aoi Iseijin NPC faction for the IFF, displayed as ‘Kusari Naval Forces’ as an IFF*
Above, the Kusari Factions have been set to Neutral, this is due to the fact the current Wild ID reps everything to hostile, meaning all of the NPCs and bases shoot us. This makes being KNF very hard, as players are suspitious of us, and we constantly have to run from NPCs. Also, we cannot land on bases that we otherwise should be in RP.
The Corporations have been set to neutral due to Samura and Kishiro being housed in Kusari, and passing NPCs wouldn’t be red to us. Also, Bret Corps are still hostile, as they should be. This makes all the reps, like they should be for KNF.
GMG and IMG are neutral due to the fact they are neighbouring and wouldn’t shoot the KNF on sight.
Nomads and Wild are also neutral, as rarely, and I mean rarely, the Iseijin might encounter actual NPCs, or sneak onto Altair in Iota. This is just so Nomads don’t shoot their own brethren.
Everything else is just hostile, as we never really should meet them, though perhaps Gallic Factions should be neutral for part of the treaty with the KNF and the occupation of the Taus in 4.86.
*If an Aoi Iseijin NPC faction is created, and the IFF reads Kusari Naval Forces or something, that could be the IFF instead. The KNF reps would have to remain high though, so that we may purchase equipment for our own usage.
This would function effectively as a seperate KNF Guard rep, which would be repped with our new ID.
The Future
Currently our gameplay and other's is disrupted by these problems, and without this new ID change in particular, we're left with our roleplay only being half as good as it can be, and are left with two alternatives.
1) The repninjas proposed on the new ID are all Admin'ed on and locked, so with the Wild IDs, we still have neutral rep to Kusari, and KNF IFFs, and can Roleplay better, even if our ID is still Wild.
(This could serve as a great temporary solution until the new ID is discussed and/or implemented)
2) We become what the Das Wilde are, overt We drop all our covert roleplay and force ourselves to become everyone's worst nightmares, which we don't want to do. We could just murder everything as the Das Wilde do, but we don't want to.
In Conclusion
We've spent alot of time working on this new idea, and are ready to begin the new lore, but the most important thing at this point is for the new ID to be implemented.
We have added our own restrictions so that our engagement rules are pretty much the same as the KNF. We've also restricted such things as Captial Ships engaging Transports, so they can only do so within Tohoku. Restrictions like this remove alot of the special faction aspects of the Aoi Iseijin Trappers.
Also, this will help us to open up recruitment to alot more people who are interested, and get rid of the disgusting view of "Invite only factions".
Thank you for reading, feel free to leave comments and suggestions.
Please don't post disapproval for the faction's existance, we exist, and we aren't going anywhere.
Please respect fellow community members and post sensibly.
concerning the repninja, did you consider not having one at all (except an obvious repninja towards wilde and keepers - to dock their bases)
that way the characters could keep their previous repsheet (or adjust it as they wish) and keep their old iff flashing. thus preserving the 'undercover' roleplay.
' Wrote:concerning the repninja, did you consider not having one at all (except an obvious repninja towards wilde and keepers - to dock their bases)
that way the characters could keep their previous repsheet (or adjust it as they wish) and keep their old iff flashing. thus preserving the 'undercover' roleplay.
Well, as the Iseijin never really intend to leave Kusari, this is just what we thought of doing.
We could have one where we could rep to KNF, then get an Iseijin ID to repninja us to Nomad/Wild/Iseijin so we can use the Arch.
Alot of our ships (As in, all of the Trappers) are already beyond repair, so we'd have to have them fixed somehow.
Out of curiosity, would there then still be those interactions when some Aois pretend to be Dragons?
Or, in case of Jansen, pretending to be a GC?
And if yes, would they continue to use the standard Wild ID or are you all switching to this new ID?
In a brilliant tactical movement, i charged backwards.
' Wrote:Out of curiosity, would there then still be those interactions when some Aois pretend to be Dragons?
Or, in case of Jansen, pretending to be a GC?
And if yes, would they continue to use the standard Wild ID or are you all switching to this new ID?
New ID is all part of the KNF side, the Dragon and GC trappers will have to use Wild IDs I'm afraid.
We could request special replocks for those such as Jansen's so that GC and BD are neutral and possibly IFFed.
Those are in the minority though, and the new problems are seriously outweighed by the benefits.
In discussing this with Akura and the other Iseijin, the possibility was mentioned of making the undercover ID generic enough for such tasks. However, we felt that it would become too convoluted, and that it was best to just stick to KNF Trappers. If RP handwaving is needed, suppose that the Blood Dragons and Golden Chrysanthemums are close-knit enough that they would not be fooled when one of their own returned from Heaven's Gate. For one, they do have Ryuku in the system, and can probably track where their ships are. Infested Blood Dragons and Golden Chrysanthemums are still possible- they are just so deeply undercover that they act as completely ordinary members of those factions, including not docking on the Arch.
In other words, those pretending to be Dragons and GC will either go deep undercover (BD/GC IDs, including the repninja hostile to the Arch) or embrace their new destiny and become Hunters (Wild ID, ***DESTROY***).
EDIT: Or not change at all. Could do that too.
As for the repninja, I don't think it would be too difficult to make the Iseijin ID have the KNF ID repninja + proper Wild/Nomad rep.