Posts by {LNAW}Hawkinz

I agree, there were Role Play responses... and if this had been handled in ANY WAY like a role playing situation, then none of this would have happened. It never would have gotten to this situation. Let's just make it clear then.

Stranger named 1138 initiates the conversation. The character tag is nothing other than 1138.

1138 - nice ship you have there
1138 - did you get permission to purchase it?
Cygna - Since CFPD isn't on the server any more, it's kind of hard to get permission
1138 - Sure they are, they just aren't tagged
Hawkinz - Then they are violating the rules, since all clan members must be tagged
1138 - Oh, we got a smart mouth here. Don't quote the rules to me, I wrote most of them.
Hawkinz - I'm a smart mouth for repeating what is in big red letters outside Manhattan?
1138 - I'm going to kill you for mouthing off to me.

Now, that is abbreviated, but that's how it went. Not once did he identify himself. His responses weren't Role Play. He wasn't acting the Tough Cop. There are no Under Cover cops, nor are there rules that allow them to be in "Plain Clothes" or out of uniform. He even implies that he is well aware of others running around on the server not wearing their clan tags. This wasn't about egging him on. This wasn't about stolen ships.

In fact, this wasn't the first time an issue has popped up regarding clans taking action against others, without actually being on the server when the offense happened.
***PX Warning to UR on breach of Peace Treaty***

Sure CFPD is taking a break. Unfortunately, just as in that thread there, there are far more UNANSWERED posts about CFPD being no more, than there are about CFPD just taking a break.

I also still remind everyone... if CFPD was taking a break from being an active clan... then they were TAKING A BREAK. They therefore give up the right to say anything. It doesn't matter if they are still paying $30 a month ($20 euros, right?) for their system. They called a big Time Out. The game fines players if they decide to take a Mini Time out... if you hit F1 while you are in combat, you have to pay for it... so there is precedent that taking a time out comes with penalties. CFPD told everyone that they didn't want to play no more... doesn't matter if it was just "Until Further Notice". No one announced that the CFPD break was over... so there is no reason whatsoever why anyone should acknowledge any CFPD characters ACTING LIKE CFPD on or off the server. By their own admission they are taking a break. That's what taking a break means... it means they are stepping out of it. They aren't part of it. That means they aren't playing for the time being. You take a break at work, you don't get paid, and you don't have to work.

But what I'm hearing, is that the rules don't really apply in this case. I mean, Abras stood up for the rules, but otherwise I'm told there are subtleties and nuances here I don't understand?

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First, CFPD is still renting it's system so it is still considered an Active Clan even tho not much CFPD pilots a flying around

No. it's not Even Though there aren't many CFPD flying around... they might be renting a system, but they declared they were TAKING A BREAK and STEPPING AWAY FROM PLAYING. That is completely different from the number of active members on the server dropping due to other duties in RL stepping in the way.

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Second, 1138, as a CFPD member on hiatus, is acting like an ally of CFPD and has been given the powers to enforce the Redemption property rights.

Show me the post. At one point in the conversation, Gunny was quite proud of the fact that he only had 4 hours of play on that 1138 character. So, show me the forum post that proves you out on this.

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Third, yup he's got a smart mouth... I suggest you don't bite too hard tho cause he is teasing you for fun.

He wasn't teasing. He was angry. He was angry because some guy he didn't know from Adam was quoting the rules to him. He made that clear by IMMEDIATELY getting insulting at that point. He made that clear by boasting about how he didn't need to know the rules because he wrote them. He was angry because he wasn't getting the respect he thought he deserved... and before you say anything about GUNNY deserving respect, this was all happening with some "1138" not Gunny.

So, I am flying and some screwhead named "1138" decides he'd gonna be a smart mouth, and starts cracking wise...about how no one should be in a redemption without CFPD permission. I wasn't in one... I was in an APC. But my partner was, and he says that since CFPD isn't on the server, it's hard to get permission. This smart mouth decides he's gonna talk about how that depends on whether they are tagged or not. So, I remind him of the BIG RED POST outside Manhattan that says if you are in a clan, you gotta be tagged. It's right there for everyone to see. Am I wrong? Does it not say right outside of Manhatten in big red letters that if you are in a clan, you have to be tagged? Now, this smart mouth seems to think that everyone should know who he is, since he says he wrote most of the rules himself. He says if someone is taking a break, they don't have to be tagged. Where is that in the rules for everyone to read? So I remind him that the rules are right there, and I'll meet him in NY so we can see for yourselves. He decides to threaten me, and tell he he's gonna kill me for mouthing off to him.

I don't care who he is. I've had the rule book thrown at me for what I can do in my clan. Fine. Everyone else is gonna eat that same rulebook, regardless of who they are.

And if this schmuck is really CFPD, he deserves to be kicked from his clan. No cop gets to act like that. I am not getting threatened, because I QUOTED THE RULES HE CLAIMS TO HAVE WRITTEN! No interpretation, no bending or twisting of them... right there in red letters. Simple, plain, and easy to understand. Where is the issue?

But... if he IS taking a break from being in his clan, and that's why he's playing an untagged character, what right does he have opening his mouth? He's not tagged. He's not showing he supports his clan. He's not displaying any support for his clan or system at all by running around tagged as 1138. If he's taking a break from being in his clan, he's got no right to say a word about whether or not people are buying redemptions in his system. For all anyone could know, he could just be some schmuck stirring up trouble. I'm supposed to respect someone, who can't respect his own clan, or the rules he claimed to write?

Why don't the rules apply to everyone? Why don't they apply equally to everyone?

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Unless you are a member of a clan, you must not use clan tags on your character. If you are a member of a clan, you must use the correct clan tag on all characters. Clan tags are set to a specific string of characters, no deviation from this is allowed. If you join a clan you will have 7 days to get your characters properly tagged and to delete untagged characters.

Ok. So, after conversation with Gunny, as that's who it turns out to be... he says that we should know ahead of time to treat the clan as if it is active on the server, even though it's not active on the server. How is that right? Moreover.... where is that posted? Not asking where it is posted that they are taking a break... asking where it is posted that everyone should still treat them on the forums as if they are NOT taking a break? Where is that in the rules? It's not a respect thing.... it has nothing to do with respect. You don't get respect by flying around in an untagged character, telling people they need to get permission from a clan that's not active on the server, claiming that you wrote the rules and thus you can't have them quoted back to you. That's someone acting as if they are above the rules.

If CFPD is taking a break, fine. Let them take a break. What right do they have to come on in untagged characters, and act as if they AREN'T taking a break? What... like calling "Time out" and "time in"? If the rules don't apply to everyone, what good are they? If CFPD are going to fly around in untagged characters, they should not be allowed to make people treat them as if they are tagged. That goes for everyone, right?

Welcome Captain Tiapan to the League of Non Aligned Worlds.

With BMGs...

You have Earth in Sol always selling three commodities... Coffee, Tobacco, and Sol Artifacts. Regardless of what else changes within the economy, Earth always sells these things... so it should be possible to have unlawful bases always selling BMGs... what bases will buy them, and at what price... that would be what changes... right?

Faction Reps...

Players can already mess up their reps so they can't dock at certain bases. Most don't do this, if they only run the expensive missions on Planet XFire against CSF... which seems nice and convenient as there are no CSF bases that one needs to dock at. If you look at Vanilla, if you chose to run missions, you inevitably ended up excluding some bases from you... if you were a trader, you would have the potential access for all bases. Since there is no "sneaking" onto a planet or base (We assume the technology is advanced such that you would be recognized regardless of your disguise) it makes sense to a degree that if you are a known pirate, there would be a lot of places that were off limits to you. As far as Smugglers are concerned... that's harder. A smuggler should have access to a wider number of bases... maybe even all the same bases traders have access to... maybe just never able to be "friendly"... which would allow them access to a base to buy and sell goods, but not to buy the equipment you would need to be "friendly" to buy... that is, if you want to put that system back into place.

That's not a bad system to bring back either... where you need to be friendly with a faction to buy the best equipment at a particular base. It means when you choose a side, you do limit what equipment you can use.

It's easy enough to make a char neutral with Vanilla FL factions... except Nomads, of course.

As far as the CF factions... if we imagine being in this world, being in the press could be considered just as dangerous an occupation... maybe only certain individuals with a powerful enough SNN tagged character could venture into the more dangerous systems with an armed escort... I can actually imagine an individual going up there and NOT fighting... but taking screen shots and whatnot... and still surviving, providing they had an escort.

As far as being neutral with all the RP factions... it all depends on whether that faction WANTS to be portrayed favorably in the press... there are certainly people and countries here that do not want to allow the press freedom of movement... it is certainly possible that some clans would not want the Press to have free access to their domains... it would just look REALLY bad for them if they were attacking unarmed press characters.

I don't imagine that someone who is in a press tagged ship has to stay out of RP... I mean, journalists get along well enough as war correspondents... You talk and get along with people... you are just an observer... JAFO. Perfectly normal that different people would feel differently about being in the spotlight. Some might even ham it up when there is press around, just to get their picture on the news.

It struck me that the formation of the Sirus News Network might be interesting. Now, I'm not sure if this has been proposed and dismissed already... but it would essentially be where interested players could create a neutral character tagged with [SNN] to specifically and ONLY report on what goes on in Sirus. Those players would take screen shots to accompany any stories... maybe even use FRAPS to make videos. Of course, interested players would not be allowed to participate in any action they were reporting on.

There could be limitations on what ships SNN correspondents are limited to using, whether or not they are allowed to mount weapons, etc.

Again. I'm not announcing the formation of this... just starting the discussion.

Fly to Kepler, and kill Xenos outside their base (Nome base) in the south-west corner of the map. This will get you Sergent pods (60,000 each) as well as improve your rep with every other faction.

Purdy sweet. Sharp and snazzy.

Standard techniques for fixing one's rep....
Killing Xenos.... always works. You kill enough Xenos, you fix your rep with EVERYONE but Zoners... oddly enough Zoners don't like to see you kill anyone, so killing Xenos will bring your rep down to neutral with them. Where do you find Xenos to kill? Kepler. Off in the lower left corner of Kepler is the Xeno base Nome. Hang out near there and go fishing. Kill enough Xenos, and you'll fix your rep with everyone else.
Bribes. This one is harder, because you are spending money that you need to get to the next level... and you need to buy them.
Depots. Not the option for you... because destroying Depots swing rep in two ways... which is not what you need. You destroy depots, you lose rep with some factions and gain rep with others... and you need to gain rep without losing it.

So, Kill Xenos would be my recommendation.

It's not a matter of the system not being able to handle that many active missions, Faaby.

If handled properly, as Abras detailed, then people can keep on getting missions.

Firedragon, Cerby, I and two or three others were in X-3043, and at least Firedragon, Cerby, Aurealcici (sp), and I were running missions off Planet XFire. I watched from outside the planet as Firedragon docked, then used F1 over and over again to log out and back in until he was able to get a mission. He had to do it mebbe 8-10 times. He left the planet, and I docked... and I got nothing. I tried the F1 trick a few times, and gave up. Maybe I should have stuck with it, but it was too annoying a hassle. Now, I KNOW someone else was docked on the planet, because not 20 minutes before, at least the three of us were getting missions without issues.... but there were not as many people in the system.

What I don't get, is if someone needs a break, why can't they park on the shipyard RIGHT OUTSIDE the planet? I know, no idling..... but they know parking on any location interferes with running missions from that location... so why be that annoying?

Quote from Riddler_Nigma

you give me good guns me kill you if you not pay me tax okay friend

So, he's got no money, and he's all about demanding money or he'll kill us for not paying the tax... then he demands that someone give him good guns so he can kill us for not paying the tax.

Does this remind anyone else of a thief who tried to rob a gun store, first demanding a gun so he can use it to hold up the cashier?

Or is it just me?

I just PMed the OP... and I guess I should have read this thread first...
I also am getting the ""I'm sorry, but the account name and password you provided are not valid on this server. Be sure that you typed your account name and password correctly and try again." error. I thought it was because I had just reinstalled FL and everything, and I had used the mp_id_sav.bat to save my FLID before doing it... but apparently not when at least one person is getting the same error.

Granted, it's not like logging in and finding characters gone.

Sorry OP about the PM.

It WAS working. Last night... 12 hours ago, it was working fine. You could buy and sell, and undock and no one was kicked for cheating.

Right now, it is not working. If you sell commodity, and you undock, you are kicked. In fact, I was kicked, and I still had the commodity I had sold, in my cargo hold.

I have restarted my clients. I know the server has been restarted between now and when I logged off 12 hours ago, since the Depots in Liberty that had been destroyed are back again.

So, to repeat, the problem went away, and is now back.

Yeah, I guess those are like things I was talking about... you know, things you had all new characters do when they joined a clan. I mean, that was what *I* was walking about.

Kinda sucks that you have all new clan members in the clans you belong do actually do those things... but hey... times change.

You really put me in my place, that's for sure.

So, I was talking to Cygnus while on the server, talking about one of the things we used to have new clan recruits do... and I started remembering the other things we'd have rookies do... part training, part initiation. This was also back in late 2003 and 2004, when Freelancer was not only new, but so were most of the players on the servers. It was not uncommon to get players that hadn't played the SP version of FL, let alone had any MP experience whatsoever. Now remember, this is a Vanilla FL server.

Mining Grind
This was partly to get recruits into the habit of earning their own money, shooting with accuracy and skill, and staying alive during long and boring game periods. We'd do it in Dublin, because mining for gold is just classic. Ok. It was boring, repetitive, and busy work. But it was better than a fraternity initiation of making someone drink whisky from a butt crack. So, you give

Fishing Trip
When it came to AI races to pick on, Xenos always won out. Sure, they are one of the races everyone (in the game) hates, and if you kill enough of them, your rep gets better with everyone else (except the Zoners, oddly enough). There are others, but Xenos have a base just on the other side if the Colorado NY jump hole. So, you take a recruit out there, and park them in space... and go fishing. You don't run missions, you just kill and kill... I guess you could call it a Xeno hunt... but you didn't go hunting... you just sat there like a fisherman in a boat, and they came to you.... like going fishing. Of course, it was repetitive, but it did to a lot for improving a recruit's ability to dogfight, and stay alive. I know... nothing compares to actually dogfighting with another player... but remember, we were talking about players with little to no FL experience.

Theta Run
This is always fun and challenging. Here were the rules. Start a new character. Load up on batts and bots... and that's it. No CM, no more guns, no better shield, and no better ship. You, and your Starflier. Your mission? To undock from Manhattan, and not dock ANYWHERE until you reach Freeport 9 in Omicron Theta. you can take whatever path you like, and there was no time limit. You just were not allowed to dock at any bases along the way. If you died, you would (of course) respawn at Manhattan and have to do it again. If you left the game via F1, you failed, and had to come back and do it over. To this day, this one is STILL a challenge. You might think it is easy... and once you know how it can be easier than the first time you try it... but if you have never done it... give it a go.

So... anyone else have any related stories to share?

I guess this is the place to wave and say Hello to everyone. I'm Hawkinz aka Bon Gart. I'm new to the CF server, and new to CF, but I'm a Freelancer vet of many years. I'm glad to be on the server, and I hope to learn my way around and prove useful. In fact, I've already discovered I know a few FL tips that are not as common as I thought... as it has turned out that others I've met on the server didn't know about them. I'm used to seeing a forum category dedicated to introductions, where each member gets a chance to introduce themselves... but times change, eh?

The Mod looks great from what I've seen so far... both in SP and MP.