Ethics in a Literal Video Game

If I do have to destroy an aggressive ship... I want to see an escape pod.
I want that option.
I would feel better. :)
I think confirmation either way would upset people - I know I'd quit playing if it was confirmed I was killing people. Leaving it up to interpretation helps pacifists and psychopaths both.
 
A solution to the moral dilemma about attacking other ships is to always fit strong shields and be prepared to defend yourself when attacked.


The new size 1 slot is very helpful in this as you can fit a cargo rack with gold or meta alloy or whatever to ensure you get to defend yourself.
I do that for the Pirate kill missions. Guaranteed to get the right attention and the right, to fire back at them.
 
I think confirmation either way would upset people - I know I'd quit playing if it was confirmed I was killing people. Leaving it up to interpretation helps pacifists and psychopaths both.
Yeh, I've just realised, some peeps would target the pods.
Forgive me Potter, I could not save you!

Gosh, this ethics stuff is difficult (if you're not Arry).
 
Oh, I had no idea. No, it's just because it's catchier, and kind of looks a bit like 'Omni', which is a cool prefix that symbolises our all-encompassing efforts.
Well you should probably have called it Omnisty Intestellar then.Makes about as much sense,and if you added Universal you'd be known as oi u.
But i suppose you've had the letterheads printed already.Bit of Tippex and a ballpoint pen will soon have that sorted.
 
I roleplay a lily-white.

I don't deal in slaves of any kind, ever. My character's background story is that his family is from a planet that was frequently raided by slavers, so he hates slavers passionately. And yes, Imperial slaves are still slaves; while I support the Empire in its efforts to help bring order to an anarchistic galaxy, I disagree with their concept of quasi-slavery and do not support it. I almost never deal in lethal weapons or illegal drugs, but that's primarliy because I don't tend to make friends with people who think such things are legal commodities, and I never smuggle.

I never shoot at innocent (clean) ships. Communists and anarchists are, by defintion, slavers and therefore never innocent (again, it's that personal backstory that comes into play there - it's a rather entrenched prejudice), so I always shoot them in anarchy space, whether they claim to be "innocent" or not. I once took a "wetwork" mission from a faction I wished to support; turned out they wanted me to go to a nearby anarchist system and kill actual innocent civilians there (i.e. members of a non-Anarchist, non-Communist faction). I did the mission as I'm a man of my word, but felt terrible about it and haven't accepted a Wetwork mission since.

My ships are never kitted out for Emergency Response (no fuel or repair limpets, and half the time no guns), though I do have ideas to kit out my Type 10 battlewagon specifically for it. LIkewise, my explorers never have cargo space, so I never pick up the escape pods I find drifting thousands of LYs away from the next nearest human. I physically can't help, so no guilt about not helping.

"Always donate to Famines"? Don't be ridiculous. I always donate to Superpower-aligned factions and tend to accept every Superpower-aligned donation request I see, whether it's Famine or not, but starving Indies are on their own. Sorry, but they could have chosen correctly and picked a Superpower; instead, they chose poorly.

I like to think I'm not a jerk. But then, most actual jerks probaly think the same way, so it's important to maintain perspective.

Other ethical rules I abide by, not covered by the OP:

In case it wasn't obvious from my earlier statements, I support all three Superpowers, more or less equally (though in practice I do tend to support the Federation the most, simply because they're currently the most dominant Superpower in my home sphere of space). I won't, however, choose sides between them when they get to quarrelling among themselves.

Never start a fight, always finish one. Unless you're bounty-hunting or targeting an anarchist, in which case, shoot first, last, and everywhere in between - asking questions is redundant in such cases.

Never target modules for a "shortcut to killing". Bringing the hull down to 0% is the only "kill that counts".

Never hire a Harmless crewmember who brags about how many kills they've made in their prior life. If they'd really made that many kills, how come they're still Harmless? I can only assume they're lying to pad out their resume. Why would I want to hire a liar?
 
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I've also never tried to seduce a thargoid.
I, on the other hand, HAVE lost my Thargoid cherry by ramming my hardened Krait right up a Thargoid's cloaca until it went POP!
Really enjoyed it too. Left me sweaty and trembling in the cockpit.

Unfortunately I run bareback (shieldless) and caught a nasty mycoid infection.
Now I've got green coming out my tailpipes and frags.
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Was it Michael Brookes that said "The Alliance are a bunch of Thargoid loving hippies!"?
Yeah that.
 
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Depends if you're talking about the faction my group supports, or my group themselves, i guess?

The faction I support was pitched as a frontier Imperial entity, operating essentially as a military junta. When I've described them further to non-Elite players, people tend to say "Ah, space-racists!" which might not be too far from the truth, at least if you define "race" as Federal, Imperial, Alliance or Independent. Basically they've got nationalistic view, and claim the core Imperial worlds have "lost connection" with true Imperial values. As such, the faction has definitely expressed support for the cause of Nova Imperium and Hadrian Duval. The faction originally held support for Denton Patreus, though his lack of presence in the region and recent support for ALD has weakened that opinion. They reject the authority of all other entities except for immediate Imperial neighbours, or non-Imperial dictatorships, for demonstrating "True leadership". All others are put to the sword, so to speak. The faction themselves were born from a time when Torval was the incumbent power, with the "homeworld" almost slipping into the hands of anarchists under her watch. The faction was formed to fight back against these elements through ensuring "martial law", however after the vast success of the campaign against the anarchists, local support was maintained for the new rule of military.

As for my own pilot, they're an Imperial loyalist, but a shadow puppeteer of the above faction, pulling strings behind the scenes. Their ultimate goal is research and weaponisation of alien technologies which could give the Empire the upper hand. Experimentation on the general populace is not out of the question, with several UA bombings (of most note, Jacques) to their name. Towards that end, they affiliate closely with Canonn. Support is afforded to any and all xeno-research, though ones favouring weapons or defensive systems effective against humans are most-sought after. They'll do whatever it takes to make this happen, and their relationship with the above faction is for access to a military to channel these efforts through.

By way of comparison, if the faction was led by Wonder Woman's take on Erich Ludendorff, then my commander would be some analog of Doctor Poison.
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