The level of mutual exclusivity is still far too lenient for two nations that are supposed to be at war. My recommendation is that the sum of both faction standings be no greater than +399. This would allow someone to still be Neutral with both the Serco and Itani, but if someone reaches Pillar of Society (+1000), they'd be forced to Hated (-601) with the other, which is really as it should be.

It should have been this way since the inception of basic mutual exclusivity, thanks for bringing it up again draugath.

Yarrr, agreed.

this is pretty important imo.

/me can't wait to hear the lamentations of the traders.

Maybe this could be different if your character is UIT like the sum could be +1250. They could be respected with one side while being POS with the other.

/me can't wait to hear the fuss of serco and smurf nationalists! XD

Oh deathspores you know full well that standing represents what the nation thinks of you, if I got my way, serco would be far more intolerent of an individual having itani standing than the itani would be of people having serco standing. There's no reason why two different stations would be equally as tolerant as each other.

I am not opposed to the concept of being even dually Pillar of Society with warring faction. However, it should be very difficult to accomplish and very difficult to keep. That aside, is there even any real-world precedent to support a person being respected by both sides of a conflict, let alone respected by one side while being considered a paragon by the other? Sure, it's a game, but I find it to be a little hard to swallow that through non-clandestine means a person could be respected by both sides. For that matter, I don't believe the UIT have ever been more than neutral with both sides at the same time, according to the backstory.

I suggest you re read the history of IBM during WWII :p

The backstory is woefully misleading in terms of the role of the UIT, players get an extremely wrong impression that they are assumed to be default neutrals in serco/itani conflict and this misleads them when Serco/Itani nationalists demand they choose a side or leave the sector/do something else.

This suggestion is to rectify that amongst other things.

What's wrong with Switzerland? :p

-1 We should really should go back to there not being any limits on faction. This forced nationalism is pretty lame.

+1. This doesn't force nationalism at all, greenwall. Anybody who wants to be neutral with both sides can be neutral with both sides, no big deal.

+1

Yes Rin you can be neutral -- but neutral means you don't get the nice ships on either side, which is stupid. Now, perhaps having Itani and Serco POS simultaneously shouldn't be as easy to achieve as a single POS faction, but ruling it out entirely is unreasonably restrictive. Draugath touches on this, and I think it's very important.

It's probably really difficult for the devs to make a separate path for universal POS (which I might call Diplomat of the Universe) so I'm not holding out hope that it might ever happen. But still...

-1 to making this worse than it already is.

I actually agree with draugath as well, but I prefer to err on the side of harsher exclusivity. Generally speaking I prefer to avoid impossibilities in my games. I'd rather the things people want to be impossible actually just be really fucking hard, and when I say "really fucking hard", I mean like so hard that most people would rather just go have oral sex with a snapping turtle. That's what maintaining POS with both the Itani and Serco should be like.

*Imagines greenwall is out looking to purchase snapping turtles*

Why is it completely necessary that everyone be able to buy nation specific war ships? Because that's what they are, they're a ship designed for the war effort and signifies loyalty to that nation and its progression.

Because the devs have fundamentally failed to produce a range of ships that allows a variety of combat styles whilst simultaneously allowing roleplay flexibility. TL;DR the Valkryie and Prometheus are OP best of class ships and everything else blows. #honestyundertheinfluence

It isnt hard, +1000 with one means -1000 with the other... grow a pair and fix it.

"It isnt hard, +1000 with one means -1000 with the other..."

Not necessarily, I liked greenwall's idea of 'Diplomat of the Verse' thing, and I agree that it must be something quite hard to get.

the "diplomat of the verse" thing is an excuse to abuse the role and do whatever the hell you want.