Role playing as a military officer.

[bnoury]

I love playing as a military officer. I can spend hours crossing the galaxy for the betterment of my faction. In this role I am unabashedly and totally committed to the interest of my faction, and every action is preceded by, "will this action reflect poorly or favorably on my faction's honor?"
In this regard,
1) I never tolerate smugglers trying to sneak though a friendly planet's inspection protocols.
2) I never tolerate foreign pirates operating in allied/home faction space.
3) During war, enemy warships are destroyed without mercy, non-combatants are looted, and enemy allied factions are stopped for inspections, always.
4) Merchants are normally ignored if I believe they have a permit or it is not my faction's space, however:
5) Trade wars are prosecuted without mercy, across the entire galaxy.
6) No attack on my vessel will go unanswered.
7) No contract will be conducted against my home faction, ever.
8) If I have no mission in particular, I will patrol for hostile vessels, and dispatch with them as I see fit, and finally
9) Away from home faction space, I use my own best judgment for the benefit of the faction.

I have great fun role playing in this regard. WWJPJD? What Would John Paul Jones Do?

[spike]

That is excellent. A good starting point for The Code of The Military Officer.

It would be cool if the game allowed you, as Military Officer, to detect any Permits or Warrants (or Rank) held by a potential non-player Captain.

[Cory Trese]

spike _ I think this dovetails into the desire for a "target cargo scanner" and other pre-combat features.

"Ignore" and "Status" are the beginning of this transformation. Hopefully I will be able to provide features that help bnoury better execute Faction business.

For example, Scanning a Merchant for any illegal goods ("that's no merchant!") or a Smuggler ("they have nothing on board, Sir.")

[spike]

Nice.

[oldalchemist]

WWJPJD?

I don't see how backing up Jimmy Page is a viable track for military advancement. However, having Robert Plant wail "No Quarter" at a pirate vessel would be pretty sweet.

[bnoury]

@cory - Scanning would be a huge help. Also, although it is a bit of a complication, perhaps any player who has rank with a faction should risk losing rank if they do not adhere to certain laws and law enforcement protocols. i.e. failure to stop smugglers in orbit of the faction's space during a trade war or willfully alowing your ship to be captured during a solar war, etc.
If you lose enough rank, perhaps even losing reputation with all factions might be in order since it is all about honor and integtity. Also, perhaps enough victories against aliens and a limited supply of special, high-value rogue independents could increase reputation for all factions, allowing for some increase in rank to be puchased as a nice counterbalance to the demanding code of an officer.
One final point. I've often felt that almost as much as reputation is required to gain rank, low rank should retard reputation growth by some factor. Keep in mind, this galaxy is not the US or British armed forces where low ranked soldiers are likely to be nearly as exalted for good deeds. In this galaxy, the hierachy, not he deed, is much more important.

[Kelvin Zero]

bnoury--I would say I would be ok with a military officer allowing an enemy smuggler to escape if his own ship is already torn up from a previous battle. A brave military officer never shirks his duty but an old military officer knows when not to fight.

[slayernz]

I agree - a Zealot would show no mercy, even when his own ship is really just a smoldering pile of cadar-shrapnel. Military officers would be a lot smarter than that.