Hey I am a beta/alpha player and I was thinking of adding one thing. The Valk, Prom, and Maud back to all three factions like before. Sure they are 'Faction ships', but think of it Serco and Itani are enemies, correct? Well I believe it should stick to that moral and not have to gain faction standing for a ship. The reason this game goes on, which I believe, is because we have two factions that disagree and want to kill each other. Now I know this isn't why everyone plays but I think it is why most play, to kill the opposing faction, or be neutral. Now back in the old universe, two sectors belonged to each faction, and in those two sectors were stations, and in those stations were ships which held three faction ships: Itani Valkyrie, Serco Prometheus, and Neutral Territories Marauder. Sure the faction describes the owner of the ship, but gaining favor means you have to be nice to the factions that could possibly be your enemy too, for example Serco and Itani, they have been sworn enemies and I personally do not want to ruin that tradition. I say we bring back the three faction ships to all the factions for old times sake.

[STAMP OF HELL NO]

yea sure i would always like to give the serco a good beating with a skyprom

but i got to turn this idea down

Im not talking about the advanced prototypes of the ship, just the standard Prometheus, Marauder, and Valkyrie.

Interesting idea, i may bring this up in the PCC if you dont. We could do something along the lines of "parts of itan have a truce with serco" and vice versa. try putting this on the PCC forums if you are a member. if not i would be happy to do it for you. just let me know if i should.

[stamp of strong disapproval]™

We need more national identity, not further blurring of the national boundaries.

I see that there was an attempt to explain the rationale for the change - but I didn't understand it. It seemed to be an argument against itself.

For a moment it seemed that you were suggesting that nation-specific ships be awarded immediately to members of each nation respectively (serco gets the basic prom, Itani's get the basic valk, etc.) for the purpose of getting down to the business of killing our sworn enemies right off. Then there was that bit about being nice to your enemies. I'm confused.

This is not a terribly important issue. A taur3 can compete with a sky prom, and a corvus maud can compete with a valk. and mauds are available across the galaxy. I think you are just being lazy.

What im saying is that we should give the faction ships to the three nations. No one complained about it during beta, but i don't think the enemy part should be changed.

Well, can't you already buy all three if you have good faction standing?

Ah, yes, when you repeat nearly the same phrase as your original post, it all becomes clear.

We DID complain about it in beta, but not so much as we would now - because that was beta and this is now. The nations are nearly identical (save that some nations have more members) and we need to be seeing more differences, not less.

[Stamp of DISAPPROVAL]TM
What Roguelazer and Whistler said.
Also, as Phaserlight said, you can already get all 3 ships if you get the 3 faction up. We need more distinct differences not less.

Okay, you know how Itani outnumber Serco at least 2 to 1 in most engagements at the moment, just because of player numbers? Now imagine the Itani having superior numbers AND Proms... no one would play Serco anymore.

Ever been ganked by 3 proms? It sucks.

the prom needs a buff, and available to serco only, no matter faction standings
but i suppose some of this will come with all of the faction redoing that is supposedly in the works.

Thank you whistler for that finalization stamp of 'Disapproval'. We may not have many distinct differences, but if we are going to go into this real life military style of factions, then stealing ideas is one way we fight. There are tons of other ways to differentiate ourselves from each other, we just need to think of ways. I don't think ships would really be that much of a drastic change. If ships are all we have to distinguish ourselves from each other than that isn't too great either. And as I am trying to say EddyHolland is Serco and Itani should be enemies, and shouldn't have to gain your enemies faction standing.

If you don't want to have to gain an enemy faction's standing, then just don't use their frakking ship. I haven't used a prom since beta, and I'm none the worse off...

I agree with roguelazer, this is why there is a faction system. If anything I would rather see more faction specific ships.

We have players complain that there is not enough differance between faction ships, and we have player complain that there is too much differance.
Player opinions will differ, sometimes to extremes, and this is a case in point. Somewhere in the middle is the compromise, and the current system is somewhere near that middle.
Your request is a deviation from a reasonable compromise, and is expected to annoy more players than it satisfies.
Thank you for your suggestion. It has been evauluated, and found to be incompatable with desires of other players.

Predator, the Itani don't give a rat's tail about how much standing you need to work up to earn the Prom. You're not grinding *Serco* faction because the Itani want you to help them out. Your whole point of Itani and Serco being enemies and therefor shouldn't have to work up faction to use the enemy's ships makes absolutely no sense by any means of the word. Rather, because they are enemies, they would most likely not appreciate you shipping supplies for the enemy, which is how the faction system is currently being fixed.

What might be interesting is if all three ships could somehow find their way on the black market every so often, thus being available not to all three nations, to those of no national loyalties.