looks across to avatar < <
The Empire is evil.
- Thread starter SwordDance
- Start date
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Slaves are a commodity packed in containers just like any other.
In the ED world there is no real felt difference between a tonne of tobacco or a tonne of slaves.
FDev has never taken the trouble to give trading a bit more depth. It would have been so easy to do this for slave trading.
If for example they had added gameplay around liberating slaves, like many players have asked for years ago, then it would already feel very different. FDev could have added some sort of Underground Railroad equivalent to the game. I would have absolutely loved that.
If for example you would have to add special modules to your ship to turn it in a slave transporter, then this would have made the player much more aware of what business he is in. One might even have had to add a security module to keep the slaves in check.
Stuff like this would have brought slave trading to life and made it feel more real. Slave trading might have felt more like a moral choice.
I made a more detailed proposal about this years ago, and I am not the only one. This would have made for a good gameplay loop and it would have added more depth and stories to the game. It could also have served as a pretense for cool player interaction.
As it is now I couldn't care less whether I have titanium or slaves or liquor in my cargo hold. Whatever is most profitable in a given sector.
But isn't everyone evil in some form or another?
Let's take being a Mercenary with warped Morales for example.
I'm Aligned with the Federation, I Contract for Sirius, and I'm basically a Freedom Fighter for the Wolves of Jonai, Yet, I ignore my duties for credits in another system, I donate millions to Federal systems, and then I slaughter my Federal brethren for the greater good on behalf of Sirius or the Wolves-or if the right contract is available, alot of Credits-I ship medical supplies for hours one day, then happily slaughter the people I'm saving for Classified Wet Work the next, But I've never once hurt the Authorities. Life works in strange ways.
For the Greater Good. -The Blue Man looking after my bank account
Let's take being a Mercenary with warped Morales for example.
I'm Aligned with the Federation, I Contract for Sirius, and I'm basically a Freedom Fighter for the Wolves of Jonai, Yet, I ignore my duties for credits in another system, I donate millions to Federal systems, and then I slaughter my Federal brethren for the greater good on behalf of Sirius or the Wolves-or if the right contract is available, alot of Credits-I ship medical supplies for hours one day, then happily slaughter the people I'm saving for Classified Wet Work the next, But I've never once hurt the Authorities. Life works in strange ways.
For the Greater Good. -The Blue Man looking after my bank account
The anti slavery thing is just gaining a power base to eventually become Emperor. Same with the overtures to Hadrian Duval when she thought there's a few more supporters to add to her cause. When the time comes to push for a takeover she'll be aiming to have Torval's skull as a wine glass.
I think we all need a Jack Sparrow moral compass module in our ships, to guide us in these dark times...
I have one myself:I think we all need a Jack Sparrow moral compass module in our ships, to guide us in these dark times...
Imperial Patronages: good
non-Federation democracies: good but inefficient
Corporate States: evil
Alliance Democracies:
Federation Democracies: an oxymoron
Federation Corporate States: the hypothetical offspring between Sauron and Cruella deVille
for everyone else, there's moral ambiguity
I have one myself:
Imperial Patronages: good
non-Federation democracies: good but inefficient
Corporate States: evil
Alliance Democracies:
Federation Democracies: an oxymoron
Federation Corporate States: the hypothetical offspring between Sauron and Cruella deVille
for everyone else, there's moral ambiguity
But the (Harma) Rum?
"Inebriation is over-rated"
I have one myself:
Imperial Patronages: good
non-Federation democracies: good but inefficient
Corporate States: evil
Alliance Democracies:
Federation Democracies: an oxymoron
Federation Corporate States: the hypothetical offspring between Sauron and Cruella deVille
for everyone else, there's moral ambiguity
I support factions with cool names
Variety is good too, when one faction dominates a region that's boring, like a field vs a meadow.
I never really thought of the Pilots' Federation as bad.
Powerful, certainly. Secretive, yes. But bad? I think of them as the main reason the interstellar community is the way it is. They're the ones cultivating and preserving this highly-decentralized, opportunity-rich culture of everything. They're the reason that space is a bit like the wild west. It's not because they're inherently unlawful, though, but because they wish to encourage all the mom-and-pop-spaceman enterprise on idealistic grounds as well as their own various reasons (not least of which that PF is a tongue-in-cheek play on being FDev).
Even so, they're still just one organization. The total directable power of the various superpowers dwarfs what they have. Their control of information is outsized relative to their power and to their contemporaries, but this is part of how they maintain their influence against forces like the Federation or Empire.
You have to think though that if they weren't around, things wouldn't be nearly as good for the average space-goer on the actualization front.
And you know I really wouldn't mind a do-gooder Jack Sparrow-style pirate being brought into powerplay to balance out Archon's evil-doer persona. I think that might hurt Mahon player-numbers though.
Powerful, certainly. Secretive, yes. But bad? I think of them as the main reason the interstellar community is the way it is. They're the ones cultivating and preserving this highly-decentralized, opportunity-rich culture of everything. They're the reason that space is a bit like the wild west. It's not because they're inherently unlawful, though, but because they wish to encourage all the mom-and-pop-spaceman enterprise on idealistic grounds as well as their own various reasons (not least of which that PF is a tongue-in-cheek play on being FDev).
Even so, they're still just one organization. The total directable power of the various superpowers dwarfs what they have. Their control of information is outsized relative to their power and to their contemporaries, but this is part of how they maintain their influence against forces like the Federation or Empire.
You have to think though that if they weren't around, things wouldn't be nearly as good for the average space-goer on the actualization front.
And you know I really wouldn't mind a do-gooder Jack Sparrow-style pirate being brought into powerplay to balance out Archon's evil-doer persona. I think that might hurt Mahon player-numbers though.
The Pilots Fed control space- they are the ones that tell your flight computer where you can and can't go. This is fed by explorers giving them data making explorers complicit.
That makes the King sad. He's a happy go lucky guy too
but, but, Blue hair!!!!! aaaaawwwww
The Pilots Fed control space- they are the ones that tell your flight computer where you can and can't go. This is fed by explorers giving them data making explorers complicit.
That makes the King sad. He's a happy go lucky guy too
View attachment 166192
I'd buy Harma Silver Sea Rum!
But as for the PF controlling space... how much control could they really exert? If Hudson ordered the Federal Navy to send a fleet to say... Toolfa, and the PF didn't want it to happen, what could they do? Even if they were to break their no-politics rule and shut off the nav computers of the Federal ships, the Fed ships could still do the jumps manually Faraway-style.
How many permits have people got round? They have space sealed tighter than Mahons wallet.
The Pilots Federation control all information in the Galaxy.
They control everything a Cmdr knows and reports from the first time he gets into a sidewinder until Forever, as he will never die, only rebuy !
It is the Pilots Federation who permit the trade of slaves not the Empire.
but also...
It is the Pilots Federation who deny the trade of slaves not the Federation.
It is a strange and worrying situation, Cmdr`s start work for the Pilots Federation on day one, Cmdr`s cannot leave them or work against them, Cmdr`s never age, feel hungry or get hurt and Cmdr`s never ever die...
But hey at least Diamonds give lots and lots of shinny credits, thanks PF !
They control everything a Cmdr knows and reports from the first time he gets into a sidewinder until Forever, as he will never die, only rebuy !
It is the Pilots Federation who permit the trade of slaves not the Empire.
but also...
It is the Pilots Federation who deny the trade of slaves not the Federation.
It is a strange and worrying situation, Cmdr`s start work for the Pilots Federation on day one, Cmdr`s cannot leave them or work against them, Cmdr`s never age, feel hungry or get hurt and Cmdr`s never ever die...
But hey at least Diamonds give lots and lots of shinny credits, thanks PF !
If that's all we did, you might be right. But the Pilots Federation, as a group, is creating wars for fun and profit. We've also created famines and plagues for similar reasons. Let's not even go into the killing sprees that many members engage in, for the exact same reasons. And that's just at a system level. At the galactic scale, we've been perpetuating grinding covert war between the Powers that Be, which has cost millions of lives and trillions of credits to date, simply for fun and profit.
Even the "opportunity-rich culture" you describe depends upon keeping local buyers and sellers in the dark about what commodities are really worth. Its the reason why so many "moms and pops" are barely scraping by, and human life is considered disposable throughout most of inhabited space.
I consider us the third most powerful Superpower in human space (sorry Alliance), on par with the Federation and the Empire. If just a handful of us decide to kick any of the Superpowers out a system, we can... unless other members of the Pilots Federation decide to interfere. We are effectively above the law, in both the Federation and the Empire, because we effectively are the law out in the vast reaches of space. Heck, I've assassinated Federation corporate executives, handed others over to the people they've oppressed, and all it takes is for me to switch to a new ship, and the fatted calf will be slaughtered when I returned, simply because I've supplied their coworkers with their illegal vices.
edit:
You've never helped chased one of the Federation's finest out of a system, have you?
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#DornLifeHacks
Dorn: what you don't see
Now imagine a meaty squish right at the end of that GIF.
Magnificent.