* Can only attack those who are : directly attacking Zoners or Zoner NPC faction allies, carrying Zoner pilots, diplomatically hostile to Zoners, or those who have violated Freeport neutrality
* Cannot ally with anyone except against Zoner faction enemies, or to defend Zoners, Zoner bases and Zoner allies
For those who are unaware I have been leading a faction called the Zoners Abolishing Slavery, for quite some time now, this faction is, as its name suggests, opposed to slavery. further details in the siglink
We differ from the Zoners in general quite substantially, in that we don't hold such neutrality, as you might expect, both Slavers and Outcasts are quite hostile to us, and likewise, us to them. At least, we would be, except the Zoner ID doesn't allow us to be physically hostile unless attacked first.
A solution has been found in which we use Vigilante IDs for hostile interdiction, however, this doesn't allow transports, or allying. Therefore if a demand to drop slaves is met, another pilot has to come with a transport to pick them up. This could be considered allying.
Furthermore if one of our Zoner ID'd transports or liners is on its own, and passes a slaver there's very little it can do.
So what I'm asking is, if the ZAS declares a group such as the SU hostile, or vessels carrying slaves enemies, would that fulfill the Zoner ID criteria? This would allow us to be uniform in IDs, and remove the question of allying, Whilst also helping our transport/fighter teams to work together more effectively.
Furthermore, the CoZ has voted to allow zoners to follow their own conscience in regards to slavery, does this make it already allowed through the rules for zoners to demand slaves be dropped?
Actually, this is easily resolved if you look at it from a common sense standpoint.
Remember that the base ID's for each faction revolve around the generic npc faction. In other words, nothing in the ID can go against the vanilla stuff. One of the reasons for ID's is that there can be specific faction requirements that slightly stretch or modify what's hardcoded into the game.
Also remember that our player factions, unless it's something REALLY big, cannot speak for all players. So you can have independant players, and you can also have multiple player factions representing the base npc faction, and those two (or more) player factions can have different diplomatic status with others, due to the variations in their RP, as long as it does not conflict with the base npc faction.
So, this little phrase - "diplomatically hostile to Zoners" - Your ZONER faction is against slavery. Slavers would therefore be totally hostile to you. You still live and maintain the general Zoner philosophy - you just have objections to slavery for whatever reasons.
Common sense says that if you're a ZAS tagged ship, your Zoner ID is perfectly fine.
While the TAZ "Enemas List" closely correlates with the CoZ's "Declared Hostile" list, I would also reserve the right to declare some "Pentabarfer" as banned from Baffin and boilable vegetative matter without the support or permission of the CoZ.
Likewise, ZAS~ should have that right. I am hoping that our other fine Zoner "groups", (ZAS~, OSI, and "ZTC") will soon be granted offical status, as that official status "might" be deemed necessary by sombunall higher authorites in order to make those "declarations of hostility".
I would welcome Admin's interpretation of the phrase "declared hostile to Zoners" as well. (Which "Zoners"? How? When? WhY? etc.)
Being someone who has Slaver characters, I agree that the ZAS should be able to engage slavers and the like with an engagement notice and so long as they make their intentions clear both on the forums and in game, and as long as they don't attack other Zoners.
I would concur with your comments that Common sense would say that the zoner groups can form their own diplomacy, however, the ID itself is vague, as mal said, which zoners?
If a faction is allowed, could an independant do so if they had enough reason?
The Slaver's Union will not throw sanction reports at ZAS vessels (or anyone else with so much as a little RP- only if we felt it was a serious abuse, really) trying to "liberate" our less humanitarian (well, depends on you PoV) cargo. To be honest, we appreciate a dedicated nemesis, and RPing with y'all can be pretty fun. And eerie. I wonder how your pilots would react to a long chat with Sophie Richtofen... *cringes*
I can't speak for indy slavers (although one of our RP goals is to institutionalize them... by force if necessary) but I'm quite certain the rest of the Union agrees with me.
Allrighty, i would suggest you use vigillante id, and get special rp request for transports...
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Skype: jure.grbec
My primary char: Jose El Nino - Corsair Elder captain of the SS Greenhawk
Currently Inactive due to pursuit of life long dreams, will be back...*edited* As promised am back.
I Wholeheartly agree here. The ZAS are a faction. Unofficial, but never the less, a faction. They really should be able to declare their own enemies (Slaver ID users and anyone who transports slaves) and act accordingly. They shouldn't be able to demand the cargo necessarily, making the enemies dock at a FP or other Base to free the slaves would be enough.
I don't get it why this is such a problem with the ZAS while other unofficial groups, like the Ghost Ships can declare whole of Sirius as hostiles (including their factions allies) and go unsanctioned.
An Admin statement on this would be really nice, so everybody knows what they can do and what not.