Also on a more rule related note. I say fuck the redo on the missions and just go back to the original format where we have some missions, you can do them, perhaps even institute some rewards for doing them, but at no time leave our actions dependent upon them. And Hop, I apologize but your just going to have to understand that no one is telling you that you cant, or even shouldnt play the SL you have picked, but you need to know your going to be playing from a disadvantaged position. But isnt that the point of it after all, any idiot can play an imperial character, but it takes skill, activity, and devotion to pull off a good rebel one. You also need to trust in our alliance. Im not going to leave you out to dry dude, our OOC bullshit is exactly that, OOC and should be kept out of the game. I will happily sacrifice my flagship to keep one of your planets under your control. So yeah, under the original rules things would be slower for you, but your position isnt as bad as your making it out to be. As I said all along, my character is still very much a friend to the republic, he just doesnt agree with your rules of engagement, thus why he broke away in the first place.
But yeah, having all this structure where all your actions you can make are dependent upon some obscure mission system feels to me like we are sucking all the creativity and free-forum aspect out of the game. It makes it no longer an RPG. It just makes it feel too much like StarCraft II, and starcraft II sucked... I dont want our game to suck. =(
Edit: For example, for the diplomacy mission, perhaps we could up the rewards for it. That way yes, its slower to do diplomacy, but the added rewards for taking a planet diplomatically equal out the disadvantage players would have at not being allowed to invade a planet due to a creative storyline. Say at 5 days you get a 1 time addition of 500KCs, and any planet that goes through the full 20 days of diplomacy action gets a 1000KC starting bonus and gets to keep its original PDF. Likewise we could say a planet thats been invaded, once under your control has nothing on it as far as defenses. Either they were destroyed or captured from planetary rebellion activity, and the planet forever looses its planetary bonus. (IE: Bespin would never get the 100KC per action day bonus cause it was conquered by an invasion)
With the above system, bonus's for using diplomacy are great, meaning its worthwhile to do it, likewise there are penalties involved with invading a planet to get it instantly. This would in essence eliminate the penalty for Hops SL, while still not limiting every action in the game to some mission protocol.
Edit Edit: See, if you just give us a chance to address concerns before slamming people with attacks, accusations, and wholly unrealistic scenario's we can accomplish things to a satisfactory end. Civilly I might add!
