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PJFarland

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Posts posted by PJFarland

  1. LOL I would definately pay well for one of those. Just park it in the middle of a large battle and thumb my nose at everyone else. Hmmmm let me see.

    General Products Model 2 Hull

    Quantum II Hyperdrive

    Reactionless Thrusters

    Slaver Sunflowers mounted on the hull

    (Takes care of close fighters and missiles)

    Ringworld shadow square wire for mines

    (imagine flying into a net made from those)

    A larger version of a Slaver Disintegrator

    for ship weaponry

    Louis Wu: Captain

    Beowolf Schaffer: Pilot

    Nessus (the Puppeteer): Science Officer

    Marine Contingent to consist of Kzinti and Pak Protectors armed with Variable Swords and Flashlight Lasers.

    And cargo: Drouds, lots of drouds

    NOW I'm ready to take over the Universe!!!

  2. About the best thing to do with ME and backwards compatability is to set your system up with two OS's. Get yourself a second HD (you could partition the one you have but Windoze can get upset with not having the boot sector sometimes). And pop in Win98 in the second drive. Try all your old (and new) stuff out on ME and if it doesn't run, install it on the 98 drive. Dual booting can be a pain sometimes, but it'll solve any compatability problems you might have.

  3. Damn fine showing Parker! The Star Trek animated TV series had an adaptation of "The Soft Weapon" that they renamed "The Slaver Weapon". I figured it would take awhile before someone would get that. I know that they (Niven and Pournelle) would insist on creative control and should get in IMHO. Don't really think that they would insist on too much money though. And I have to admit that Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex is one of the funniest pieces of literature ever. And Louis Wu and Gil the ARM are some of the coolest characters too. If you can't tell I'm a Niven fan.

  4. Well for one I'm not talking about any sort of organization. I'm not ruling out joining one, or even starting one for that matter. But what I was saying with the now infamous "mercs code of honor" is that irregardless of any guild associations we mercs do need to police our own and take "care" of any mercs that are causing problems, reputation wise for the rest of us.

  5. Niven and Pournelle have to be the ABSOLUTE best colaborators in the sci-fi community. And for you Luc...the Kzinti and an adaptation of a Niven story have already been on TV. MAJOR kudos to anyone who can figure this one out. Though my choice for Niven on the tube would be Ringworld, now that would be an excellent series.

  6. I don't. Trust is something that is earned. And it will be much harder to earn that trust as a merc. I just want everyone to know that you can trust a merc. At least one that is a true professional. And all of my fellow mercs will have to work hard to gain the trust of any fleets we wish to work with and come down HARD on those of us who harm that trust. I must say though, aramike, you bring up quite a few valid arguments and I am learning alot from you. Keep it up man, you have my highest respect.

  7. Information gathering is one of those things that a merc will have to be careful at though. There is a fine line here that will be easy enough to cross and this is where the "mercs honor code" will be tested when the cred is being flashed in your face. A merc should NEVER give out or offer any information gathered while working for one faction to anyone else. The key here is confidentiality. If you are hired by fleet A and in the course of working for them find out that they are staging an attack, you should forget that you ever found this out. A merc MUST be carefull to seperate each and every contract that we hire on. If you are ever offered a contract to find out something you already know or have been involved in, the best thing would be to refuse that contract. No matter how much you are offered. Otherwise, everyone will find out that you are untrustworthy (and rightfully so) and you'll end up a broke, honorless, and probably dead merc.

    For emample, if I were under contract with the insurgency to do a convoy escort and figured out that the Insurgency was preparing for a major strike against Galcom, I would then refuse to do any Galcom contracts in that theatre of operations, until said strike has be launched and the resulting battles are over. That way the Insurgency could not say (justly or otherwise) that I had tipped of Galcom, and Galcom couldn't say that I was working for them and didn't do my job to the fullest by withholding information. On the otherhand, if I had not been on the convoy run and I was hired by Galcom to do an information run and I spotted an Insurgency Battle group forming I would inform Galcom of said fleet. Also if I had seen said fleet gathering and I was NOT under contract, I would not tell Galcom about it at all, even if I was subsequently hired by them. This is where trust will form. If I have worked for you, you can be certain that anything I have learned will stay between you and I. You can also count on the fact that I will not act on anything learned while I'm not under contract either. We mercs start with no allies or enemies and we should do our best to make certain that it stays that way. As a merc, if you chose your path and contracts carefully, you can become very rich, famous, and trustworthy. Otherwise, if you make the wrong choices, you'll become very dead.

  8. Oh, lord my head hurts from laughing at all this.

    Just think though, someone is going to have to give the SC sponge baths so he won't slip in the tub and bust his head open. Who is going to take that job? I won't though I'll be perfectly happy to cook, so he won't burn his typing fingers.

    SC, must be nice to be so loved.

  9. I don't believe that a "Merc/Indie High Council" is the way to go. Like the man said "If you want that join a fleet". But IMHO I do think we mercs SHOULD have somewhat of an honor system. Nothing set in stone (or paper, HTML, or what have you). Pretty much, if a particular merc is causing lots of trouble and giving the rest of us a bad name, some of us should get together and go and teach the "offender" a lesson.

    On another note, yes aramike we probably won't be doing alot of work for the fleets. But some points you have missed. One, mercs could be an excellent utility for the different fleets to gather info by. I'm not really sure how it will work online and such. But thinking along the lines of RL and History, mercs would have more free riegn to go places that a Fleeter couldn't without stirring up a can o worms. For instance a Galcom ship going into Gam space. I would think that a merc would be able to pull this of better that fleet registered ships. Not that the Gams would be really happy about a merc putting around thier space, but would be alot happier about it than a fleet for certain. Second, thier would be times that the fleets might need us. Yes they have alot of ships and all, but say you and your wing are escorting a convoy and a much larger group of Galcom ships drop by to say "howdy". I would think that you would be much more likely to yell to any local mercs for help than to just lose the convoy and it's escorts. Or you have a nice big battle planned out and alot more of the enemy show up than you expected. If you don't have any allies close by again the mercs close by could be called in to bolster your forces. These probably would not be the normal case (and could be totally of base here, being a newbie and such). But thinking along the lines of reality, this would be happening often enough. Sure that would turn us mercs into "battle vultures" waiting around until we were needed, but such is the nature of the biz. Sure a fleet wouldn't want to call a merc that last month cleaned the clock of some of its people, but if the need was there it might have to be done. A necessary evil you might say. I think alot more viable than Galcom ship calling the local Insurgency ship for help against some Valkerie Raiders though. All in all you're right though, most of our work would be "private sector" stuff. I just want to finish this saying that I deeply respect you, I'm not arguing with you, and once again I'm not really sure how this all would work out (or not) in game. Just some thoughts (and long winded ones at that).

  10. Well thank you! I just want to make sure that mercs don't get looked down on like they usually do. Through out history mercs have almost always been considered very helpful and even necessary. Jeeze, the British used the during the Revolutionary War and they were the worlds leading power at the time. For some reason though, nowadays mercs seem to be considered scum and heartless though they have almost always fought with the most honor and battlefield skill than the national armies that they have fought alongside.

  11. Thanks Nova!

    The comment about docking fees was something I misread in a previous post. Sorry, but my girlfriend broke up with me today so my brain has not really been working correctly. Not that it ever has though.

    On a different note, I wouldn't even go so far as to have to pay someone to "rough up" anyone who skipped a merc contract. Just get a bunch of us together and deliver the message. Not by just killing the offender, but by leaving his smoking hulk of a ship broadcasting an SOS in the middle of space. More humiliating that way AND less likely to create a revenge chain. One thing I hope the fleet people understand is that we are out here doing a job. We may be hired by the insurgents one day, the working for Galcom the next. Niether side should take that as we are their enemies for eternity if we happen to be working for thier opposite fleets. If that happens all we will end up being is low-paid, self-supporting fleet fodder. But also we mercs, have to act as PROFESSIONAL soldiers. We won't be able to get away with things that fleet commanders will. I look at that to mean, no non-military land targets, no unarmed cargo ships, not razing entire planets, no nuclear weapons sent planet side and such. I don't believe we should have a mercs rules and regulations thing, but we should limit ourselves to being professional about how we go about our business. Otherwise all we will have is alot of bounties on our collective heads and no one willing to deal with the "barbarian mercs". And we should probably police our own and have a little "talk" with anyone who thinks its fun and profitable to go around OTSing planets. With this in place we will probably start to become a more available option rather than a last ditch effort to solve and problems.

    "stepping down from soapbox"

    [ 08-05-2001: Message edited by: Malleus Malefictorum ]

  12. I posted this on one of the other threads but I thought it would do as well here.

    I'm still a newbie here so take my comments for what they're worth. The way I see it a few guilds are ok, but we should stay away from a large organized coalition with dues and docking fees and rules of order and some such. BUT we should think about something along the lines of a union. Just enough to give us free reign on our OWN actions and enough to give each other support if needed. I mean if you're hired by some Gam riding in a Stormcarrier (nothing about you Herro Yuy) and he stiffs you for your fee after you complete the mission what are you going to do? I for one don't see me acting out my revenge with just a cruiser. But, maybe a few merc cruisers tagging together to go teach the offending commander a lesson that you DON'T stiff mercs. That way we don't become a free force to accomplish the dirty missions that others don't want to dirty thier hands, paws, claws, or whatever on. With this we still keep our Indie status and don't have to worry about becoming cannon fodder for everyone else. As for being enemies of the raiders, well if the cred is good, I'm there. I have a ship and crew to support and can't be bothered with principles and such. Conversly though, this hypothetical Mercs Union should also take a very dim view on someone jumping contract because the pay is good. Meaning if a Trader convoy hires you to do an escort and some Raiders fly in and offer you more money to work with them against said convoy, and you take it. Well then the union should come after YOU. Otherwise who would hire mercs later? As for vengence, well that doesn't pay. If Joe Merc on contract happens to leave your beloved ship a charred hulk orbiting Alpha Centuri like an asteroid, oh well. After you repair and refit you maybe working side by side with him and need his help (or him your help) and should get it. This also stands for fleets too. Remember we are the messengers and deliverers of the actions, not the originators. You may need our help some day and if you're hunting some of us down for a contract we did, you're less likely to be able to hire the cream of the crop for a mission that you need done. That is about all I have to say on the matter for now.

    As well, please tell me if I have my sig right. I've just changed it, so I don't know yet.

  13. Well, I'm back. Hopefully I got this sig done right along with my registration. From what I can tell we mercs just choose our ship type right? If I made a mistake in my signature please tell me, but be nice I am a newbie (along with the first Syrion as far as I can tell). We aren't the Borg, we don't want your stinking technology, and we have no use for your species' genetic distictiveness, so deal with it! LOL

  14. I'm still a newbie here so take my comments for what they're worth. The way I see it a few guilds are ok, but we should stay away from a large organized coalition with dues and docking fees and rules of order and some such. BUT we should think about something along the lines of a union. Just enough to give us free reign on our OWN actions and enough to give each other support if needed. I mean if you're hired by some Gam riding in a Stormcarrier (nothing about you Herro Yuy) and he stiffs you for your fee after you complete the mission what are you going to do? I for one don't see me acting out my revenge with just a cruiser. But, maybe a few merc cruisers tagging together to go teach the offending commander a lesson that you DON'T stiff mercs. That way we don't become a free force to accomplish the dirty missions that others don't want to dirty thier hands, paws, claws, or whatever on. With this we still keep our Indie status and don't have to worry about becoming cannon fodder for everyone else. As for being enemies of the raiders, well if the cred is good, I'm there. I have a ship and crew to support and can't be bothered with principles and such. Conversly though, this hypothetical Mercs Union should also take a very dim view on someone jumping contract because the pay is good. Meaning if a Trader convoy hires you to do an escort and some Raiders fly in and offer you more money to work with them against said convoy, and you take it. Well then the union should come after YOU. Otherwise who would hire mercs later? As for vengence, well that doesn't pay. If Joe Merc on contract happens to leave your beloved ship a charred hulk orbiting Alpha Centuri like an asteroid, oh well. After you repair and refit you maybe working side by side with him and need his help (or him your help) and should get it. This also stands for fleets too. Remember we are the messengers and deliverers of the actions, not the originators. You may need our help some day and if you're hunting some of us down for a contract we did, you're less likely to be able to hire the cream of the crop for a mission that you need done. That is about all I have to say on the matter for now.

  15. Pretty good so far. I happen to love sci fi and science in general. If you have any physics or quantum physics questions give me an email and I'll be happy to answer them for you. I'm scetchy on the math but pretty good with the laws and I have a friend who's even better at it than I am. Other than that, I'm interested in why the lights don't work.

    Patiently waiting for more

    Malleus

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