Um... AppleCore, you haven't shown me that instance, and I have gotten ALL my facts from the Mission Computer, which is better than Resedit, so you have no basis for your argument.

Uh... isn't the switch-sides mission only available if you start beating on the confeds after working for them for a while? Not to mention landing on Rebel territory. Basically, the player wanted to switch sides, and the game was allowing them to do that...?

Anyway, about the freighters, they are still Confed. In war, you don't just allow enemy shipments to go through a war zone untouched. No fighting force in the history of time, nor in the future, will ever not fire on enemy shipments when able.

mrxak, on Nov 25 2005, 04:08 PM, said:

Uh... isn't the switch-sides mission only available if you start beating on the confeds after working for them for a while? Not to mention landing on Rebel territory. Basically, the player wanted to switch sides, and the game was allowing them to do that...?
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Correct. I believe the pilot needs a good status with the Rebels, but I'm not sure. In the Confed's defense, you can't say no. If the mission is aborted, both sides hate you. That's no fun.

But it's common sense not to walk into an enemy bar without knowing that you have a contact in there.

As far as I'm concerned -

Confeds have traders that work for them. These traders get blown apart by any rebel ships nearby.

The rebels rely on independent trade. The confeds leave these guys well alone.

rebellion - kill civilian traders. Confederation - don't

--gav

The Confeds would attack the Rebel freighters if they could pick them out effortlessly, like the Rebels reading the tags off the ships that fly the flag of the Confederation.
Confed traders = idiots.

The Apple Cřre, on Nov 29 2005, 03:24 PM, said:

Confed traders = idiots.
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No kidding. Being independent would keep them safe from anybody (except pirates, of course).

So you're saying that rebel freighter captains don't want to be associated with the rebellion, or that they are abusing the system? Either way, the rebels are the losers.

Losers? Only if you play as a Confed.

And it makes sense that both Rebels and Confeds would "glean" info from pirates. They'd sell anything to anyone for a price.

The Apple Cřre, on Nov 23 2005, 03:43 PM, said:

wishes he could move this to Just ChatView Post

Nah, not enough mud.

EVWeb, on Dec 1 2005, 05:29 PM, said:

So you're saying that rebel freighter captains don't want to be associated with the rebellion, or that they are abusing the system? Either way, the rebels are the losers.
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No, it's just that those who do shipping for the rebels are Independant. They have no formal shipping, can't afford the manpower or ships. The Confeds on the other hand have formal shipping under direct command of their military structure.

It's like comparing to

mrxak said:

The Confeds on the other hand have formal shipping under direct command of their military structure.

I think we can be reasonably certain that not all freighters bearing the transponder 'Confed' are military vessels; luxury liners bear it, and the descriptions make it quite clear that they are run by Centauri Spacelines, a private company. The transponder doesn't appear to indicate anything beyond a ship registered in the Confederation, whether military or civilian.

I only looked through the first 5 or so replies, which might make what I have to say just a repeat of someone else, but, the fact is, neither side can be classified as the good-guys or the bad-guys. Everyone is bad in one way or another, so that only leaves room to compare relative ratios of evil between the two groups using our own human judgement and deductions which are not only completely inept in this matter to come to a clear answer, but they will also always be biased and based on all of our differing experiences. So the only way to know would be if the storywriters of the game flat out stated the fact. But, this is a topic open for debate, so i guess in spite of all this, there is room to discuss. But, it seems to me that the bad-guys are the one's who need to be stopped. So a better question is, assuming that it's obvious that a rebellion was necessary, is the way that the rebellion carried out their plan to diminish the Confederate's tyrant-like power having a relative over-all positive net effect by doing everything it can to create justice for as many people as possible? Or, is it having an over-all negative net effect, and creating a new tyrancy causing a snowball effect of tyrants enforcing the old phrase, "two wrongs don't make a right"? But I can't be happy with either choice, so, I'd say that the only good guy would be someone who could create peace between the two sides, which perhaps is what the game challenges you to do..but I dunno

Well put, even if it was similar to what I wrote :p.

I would also like to note that in past wars, governments have taken advantage of sea-going Luxury Liners and used their openly proclaimed neurality to smuggle muntitions (the Luisitania, for instance). The Rebels may have just been trying to stop arms-shipments to military hot-spots (not that that justifies attacking innocent civilians, but war is war).

PS, David, is there an EV-version of the Geneva Conventions? Just wondering.