Will there be any mechanism for switching sides with a character in-game? Like say flying to a faction's main base and paying for the privilege of changing nations (maybe even joining a specific corporation directly). I think it is a tad silly that I would effectively have to restart my character or create a whole new character to simply work for a different side.

I agree. I expect that this will also help to even out the racial imbalance.

Would be really nice to be able to do this, Also, have some of the other factions as starting places for new character creation, like Tunguska, Orion, Valent, Corvos, etc.…

I saw uncledave ingame with xang xi behind his name in the sector list. Anyone care to explane?

are you sure your eyes weren't playing tricks on you? Wasn't the guy above or below his name in the list? =)

nope, i'm 100% sure here

Yes, I think that Faction switching would be a wonderful idea. If we could also change our character names and message board profiles at the same time, then that would be even more awesome.

We could then have a *single* character and a *single* message board profile, and by simply combining faction switching with customizable message board screen names, we could easily assume entire multiple personalilties!

Imagine the possibilities:

Sunday:
Character Name: ITANI_HERO
Ship: IDF Valkyrie Vigilant
Message Board Post:
12:00 AM | ITANI_HERO:
The SAF are impossible to beat one-on-one in their Serco SkyCommand Prometheuses. This isn't fair. Please reduce the thrust on this ship, and require the SAF to establish some kind of moral guidelines for their behavior.
-- ITANI_HERO

--

Monday:
Character Name: SERCO_HERO
Ship: Serco SkyCommand Prometheus
Message Board Post:
01:59 AM | SERCO_HERO:
Most of the new players choose either Itani or UIT. This is making CtC increasing more difficult for the Serco team. They have three players in CtC for every two of ours! We need to establish some means of ensuring that there is a fair population balance.
-- SERCO_HERO

--

Tuesday:
Character Name: UIT_HERO
Ship: Valent Marauder Rev B
Message Board Post:
03:50 AM | UIT_HERO:
IMHO, it is highly unfair that the UIT is currently excluded from winning CtC. Why should only the Itani and Serco have access to the Neutron Blaster MkIII? They can purchase it at their stations whenever they win CtC, but we never can. We need to have our own secret weapon. How about a new UIT Positron Blaster? Why do we always have to be excluded?
-- UIT_HERO

--

Wednesday:
Character Name: PIRATE_HERO
Ship: Orion Centurion Rev C
Message Board Post:
04:44 AM | PIRATE_HERO:
Gray space is becoming too safe. Everybody is getting bored. We need to get rid of the NFZ's in gray space. If traders don't want to get blown up, then they should stay in nation space. Vendetta® Online features *non-consensual* PvP, and traders should not be able to escape combat in gray space whenever they want. Along the way, infiniboost is an evil thing, and should be eliminated, too. Ion storms, at least in gray space, also need to become life-threatening, spine-tingling events for traders, so fill all the gray-space ion storms with Prosus Assaults, and double their thrust. Yar!
-- PIRATE_HERO

--

... and so on...!

-- DekuDekuplex Ornitier

FM? Devs? Care to comment? Throw us a bone on this one??

You obviously don't get it Deku. Switching nations would be a time-consuming process which would ruin any and all reputation you had with your former nation for a long, long time (unless you switched to a friendly nation, like UIT->TPG). It would not be something that you could do every 40 minutes.

PS: There's supposedly already code written to make you unaligned (not enabled yet, though). It probably wouldn't take much more to make a mission tree for "faction changing".

Here's how I see it:
Say I'm +900 with Itani, but I have a change of heart and decide to become Serco. I'd first need to get +600 with Serco. Presumably, there'd be some kind of high-risk mission available by this time to speed that process- killing political rivals, etc. Once I have the +600 Serco standing, I see the "Defection Mission" when I'm at a Serco station. This tree would start out with simple things like "kill this bot" and "move this cargo" and would work up to "kill this high-ranking Itani player" and "bring this Itani CtC cargo to Serco space". Eventually, you'd finish the tree and you'd switch from being Itani to being Serco. You'd get a -1000 Itani and a little mark in your CharInfo that says "Traitor", of course.

Okay, then switching nations won't work.

In that case, I guess that multiple profiles really are called for, after all. I'd need independent characters to have multiple experiences.

I'm actually not too keen on switching any specific character's faction and turning "Traitor" (to borrow your term).

Rather, I just saw faction switching as a shortcut to multiple profiles. Having multiple profiles is like being an actor, except that you also get to experience the lives of your characters. It is like participating as different characters in your own interactive stories.

But considering the faction hit factor, faction switching per se wouldn't work.

So, it seems that autonomous profiles (both in-game and out) really are necessary.

-- DekuDekuplex Ornitier

uh? he isn't talking about multiple profiles...he just said it'd be cool if your one character could decide to defect in game - i like that system you suggested there rogue :)

would be fun!

We allready have multiple characters DekuDekuplex..

I like the idea and I like roguelazer's details.
I'd probably be UIT with my main char (Zathras) for ever, but I think this should be a possibility in the game.

Also, belonging to multiple factions ("Double agent", "Saboteur") would also be an interresting possibility.

I think at the verry least you should be able to become a traitor and thereby be able to attack (and be attacked by) other members of your own nation. now that i thibk about it this may already be implemented, but i haven't ever seen it come up.

anyway, eventaly it would be nice to be able to actualy change your nation afiliation.

Yes, the "traitor" feature you describe exists already and there are pilots who have already attained this status.

Cameo!