I want enemies, that's the whole problem here. I'd love for my actions to have consequences that made me change the way the galaxy feels to me. There are so many things that could be done to reach that dream - this isn't it.
Exactly this. I want to roam around Hostile to as many Federal factions as possible. I want -100% rep with the Federation to actually
do something, because right now this:
... does absolutely nothing. Any Federal station will greet you with open arms.
But the reality is, that's a smart move by FD, because they know there's
absolutely no reason to reach this state right now. Why? Let's say there's a federal-occupied system, and you're neutral to everyone. What ways can you bring down that government outside of wartime?
- Dock at their starports and accept missions from opposing factions
- Dock at their starports and trade for loss on their markets
- Dock at their starports and sell on the black market[1]
- Dock at their starports and hand in bounties for your faction
- Murderhobo their ships in the system
- Flip mission boards for hours on end in a neighbouring system and try to luck out with a mission targeting them with negative effects (Good luck if they're anything but an anarchy)
If you're hostile, your options are:
- Murderhobo; and
- Boardflip for hours in a neighbouring system.
So already.... you want to harm your opponents in the most effective way possible? You have to stay friendly with them. Personally, I think that's pretty back-to-front.
Now, some might argue "Well, that makes sense, you're in peacetime, maybe political maneuvering, trade, espionage and other non-combat activities make more sense rather than kicking the doors in"... and y'know what? Despite how short-sighted I think the current implementation of Hostile rep is... there's a level of merit to that argument. If being Hostile means I have to rely on a paltry amount of missions originating from neighbour-systems[2] for incursions against my target faction during peacetime, or I need to maintain just a tiny bit of "decorum" around my enemy in order to assist my faction within that system... while I heavily disagree with the concept, I understand it.
But that means in wartime, the gloves should be off. Nothing should hold me back. Instead, the botched implementation of the BGS mechanics in combination with Hostile-lockouts means that in order to be the most effective fighting machine during war, I'm forced to "play nice" because for bizzaro reasons my kills in combat "won't count" unless I dock at the enemy(?!?!) port and get paid for it.
If Hostile means the enemy constantly sends spec ops ships at me, fine
If Hostile means I'm locked out of stations, whatever
If Hostile means I can't accept missions, great
But Hostile should
not mean I can't continue to hostilities towards that faction.
[1] Unless they're anarchy. Good luck there
[2] I've talked before about the desparate need for a "military career" path beyond the joke of a system we have now, where a reliable source of missions
targeting factions rather than supporting them needs to be made available.