"There's only three alternatives. It thinks we're either a threat, food or a mate..... It's either going to kill us, eat us or hump us! Either we persuade it that we're not that kind of ocenaic salvage vessel or we scarper pronto!"
- Dave Lister, Technician 3rd Class, Jupiter Mining Corporation Vessel - Red Dwarf.
Our corporation (Shadows of the Federation) rules of engagement are clear - Not Blue? Shoot it! (NBSI).
Nice and simple, if you don't have good or better standings to my corp then I can attack you, and CONCORD security standings be dammed. Yaaarrrrrrrrrrrrr!
We're currently having an early "spring clean" of the corp and looking at this issue. And things are getting complicated with our friends and allies, the Minmatar Militia!
We are Gallente Militia and therefore have always been fighting alongside the Minnies, not against them. We can legally shoot their enemy, the Amarr, and they can shoot ours, the Caldari (if they can find any, we're struggling). We're allies in the back-story and in the past, have been in-game. However, now there is a problem with them.... or should I say that they have a problem with us!
Whilst we are a militia corp, we are also generally a pirate corp (I'm -4.99 after the weekend. Just 0.01 more naughty points...). Some of the Minmatar militia have set us to "Terrible" standings because of this. So now we have some of the Minmatar who we are "kill on sight" to, and others that are friendly. In the past it was simple, if the pilot had Minmatar militia next to his name in the overview we were reasonably confident he'd be friendly towards us. Now we don't know if that Minmatar pilot is friend or foe. Are they going to help us or attack us?
Generally low-sec is relatively clear of this political BS. I assume the guys who are setting us red are roleplayers. So no point trying to reason with them, hell why would we want to? We're a PvP corp here for the PvP and if they want to offer themselves as extra targets for us to shot, Fan-fracking-tastic! MOAR TARGETS!
However, we're not sure how many Minmatar Militia corps have done the same. So what do we do?
Keep All Minmatar "Blue" by Default as Previously
Not really an option as some of the corps have said they will attack us. Our corp members may think they are on grid with a friendly and end up being killed by that friendly.
Set Unfriendly Minmatar Corps Red Whilst Defaulting General Minie Militia to "Blue"?
This is going to be a problem as we don't know everyone in Minmatar militia who has set us red. Therefore our pilots would be at a disadvantage against someone who has set us red but our pilot thinks that they are blue. Also a mixed Minmatar gang is going to be confusing with blue-on-blue incidents a plenty.
Do not see Minmatar Militia as "Blue" and make them all viable targets?
Not ideal as we're supposed to be fighting on the same side! We're not big role-players... actually we're not role-players by any means. However, it still feels wrong to be gunning for the Minnies!
Set Friendly Minmatar Militia Corps to +5 and keep to true NBSI, Ignoring Militia
Looks like this is our only real option. This is not ideal. But, we don't see any other alternatives. Any Minmatar militia corp or alliance who wants mutual blues will get it, no questions asked. But you have to ask for it. Otherwise we have to assume you're one of the "KILL THE PIWATS!" lot and will fire on us given half a chance. Therefore we'll be taking the Malcolm Reynolds approach.
I'm personally not happy with this situation but what choice do we have?
Unfortunately some Minmatar militia corps started this by setting us red. In the words of one of our FC's..... watchya gonna do?
Any Minmatar Militia corporations or alliances who want to be friends, please contact Gallactica in-game to sort blue status.
I covered a similar topic in a recent blog post. Things always get weird for everyone for some reason when RPers get involved, especially antipirates. With how unreasonable anti-pirates can be they're almost like religious extremists, I don't know if thats on purpose or just a a side effect of being a RPer.
ReplyDeleteEither way, its pretty obvious the game they play has a completely different set of rules than the one we do.
Come to the darkside.
ReplyDeleteYou don't actually take standing hits with the Gallente for blowing up minny FW corps.
And managing separate blues will turn into a nightmare because you'll run into mixed minny fleets and the rpfags are going to shoot you sooner or later in one of those situations.
@pinky
RP'ers have this wierd competition thing going on where they all want to be the most 'hardcore' rp'ers not unlike religious extremism indeed, good comparison.
I had to redo that last inspirational poster. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://poeticstanziel.blogspot.com/2012/03/goonswarm-friend-to-all.html
Love it! Lol
DeleteAre you one of the very few corps having this problem?
DeleteEvery corp I have been in faction war - for amarr - has set the caldari blue unless they attack us. They never have AFAIK except by mistake. Seems you guys are in the extreme minority having troubles with this.
But if they did we would then set them red on a corp by corp basis.
So how does that work out for us in the Minmatar Militia that haven't got into a corp yet?
ReplyDeleteSorry, but you'll be shootable. We don't know how many in the NPC Militia corp are gunning for us :(
DeleteSurely that makes no sense as the NPC militia corp has you set to blue as friendly militia and there is no way for the NPC corp to have you set to red.
DeleteNPC militia corp surely has you neutral ?
DeleteNope, they'll be blue as they are friendly militia.
DeleteNo, Shadows will be blue to Tribal Liberation Force members as they are classified as a friendly militia corp.
DeleteAh poo ...
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, we have no way to set you to blue (or red)
ReplyDeleteWe are -10 flashy pirates, so i doubt we will appear neutral to you.
ReplyDeleteOn any other day you could have gotten away with this crap but this one was too big, too important. You could have joined us Minnies on the campaign in Kamela but instead you made a clear choice to side with the opposition. From now on, if they are sensible, the Amarr will never really trust you because you betrayed the people who are supposed to be your allies far too easily. On top of this none of the Minmitar involved in the campaign will forget this betrayal. You've seriously burnt your bridges.
ReplyDeleteOh wait... I remember... it was US who burnt your bridges, and your drones and your ships and your pods and left a haul of loot out of your wreckage large enough to make Jita look like corner shop. It's not a roleplaying issue, it's about choosing your friends.
So good luck with that one.
Having said that stuff about betrayal and all. I have to also say that faction warfare in the run up to Inferno has been absolutely great fun and bodes well for FW post-patch.
ReplyDeleteHeh. Just set y'all red after Kamela. I think you guys are all KOS to most Minnies now.
ReplyDelete