Neutral issue, plz all read

[_____________Lorepan]

Hello all

The 14.2 patch will have an effect that few have thought about but will shake the foundation for the neutral community (a very close knit community, more so than most people realize). When a person starts off as a neutral they have a very hard and difficult road to travel. It is a road that is chosen mostly by those that put thier moral code before them and are willing to go through hell to get what comes easily to clan and omni. When you are neutral everything attackes you on site and you are always looking over your shoulder (this applies mostly to lvls lower than 100, which are the hardest for most neutrals). Heres a small example of what it was like in my early days just to illustrate:
Borg hunting in mort:
-find team
-scout for clan npcs in area while your team is getting ready to hunt. Find the wandering clan npcs and lead them away in plane(takes a while, your also getting shot and no heals at this point, team is getting xp and you are not). This has to be done or else you will get shot in back while your team is consintrating on borgs. The team also refuses to help clear them out, which they could do easily.
-go back to team( which is miffed cause your not pulling your wieght) and procede to hunt for 30 min.
-npcs wander back, repeat from step 2

What the AO community doesnt realize as a whole is that the neutral community is built on respect, and that respect is earned not given when a person signs on the dotted line. When you give an established agent the right to switch to neutral, you slap the face of all neutrals who have gone through hell and back to get what little xp they could. It undermines the very foundation of respect that the neutral community is built on. If you dont believe me how hard it is look at stats. How many neutrals are above 100? a handful? above 150? 7 or 8? So much respect exists in fact that i can go to a neutral i dont know and place the life of my chaacter in his hands and know he would go to the ends of the planet to protect it, as i would do for him. This patch will allow an agent to lvl up omni or clan and then switch to neutral on a whim when he is a high lvl and is on the easy road. I am a well established neutral (lvl 173), my concern is for my fellow neutral agents who have worked VERY hard to get where they are. This patch will only serve to lessen thier acomplishments in peoples eyes and that should never happen and never be allowed. Well thats all i have to say. I hope you can look at it from a neutrals point of view. High lvl neutral agents sudden materializing would not go unnoticed my the community and i doubt they would find any respect from my fellow neutrals, i certainly would give none.

I have nothing against the premise (in fact i think its pretty cool)but i assumed if something like this was put in the game it would be something simple like a nano formula and timed, just enough to fool npcs and people around you. As it stands now from what i can tell its a semi permanent deal where your actual affiliation can change for as long as you want. This really is unfair too neutral agents, its been a much harder road for them and the only payoff has been the respect of the people around them. I hope you can all understand this and pass it along to people who can make a difference, it really is important that this be known. Bump too plz =p if nothing else.
Thanks

[___________NightFear]

Even though I'm Omni, you Neutrals do have my respect. You have taken the toughest road there is and gone the distance. I agree with you 100% But, even if it is on a timer, all he/she has to do is buff it back. I cant wait to see the patch notes to see exactly how this will work.

[-Zagadka-]

At one point, I had put a lot of effort in to get my 300 tokens. I was proud of that accomplishment, and I was on my way to having over 400 tokens before level 100. It wasn't the most tokens ever, but I was happy with my honest progress.

Then, they made tokens worth nothing.

No one really seemed to give a sh*t about it, so I've found it INCREASINGLY hard to give a sh*t about other status symbols and respect.

Anyhow, once you prove to me that anyone is going to False Side Neutral PERMANENTLY at level 150+ JUST for the status it brings... you have a point.

[___________burrowowl]

I see this as a great way to make being neutral even less appealing than it presently is. Most folks have no idea why we stay neut, so this is a non-issue to them.

With any luck there will be a benny associated with this smack.

I'd just as soon not see it happen.

[_____________Solrael]

I agree with you, this patch will take away what makes being a neutral great! Being so, not normal, the few and the proud.

[_______FeloniousPunk]

I don't see why this is a big issue. It's there as a roleplaying aid and as an advantage that frankly agents should have had long ago.

This patch will only serve to lessen thier acomplishments in peoples eyes and that should never happen and never be allowed.

How? Please explain.

High lvl neutral agents sudden materializing would not go unnoticed my the community and i doubt they would find any respect from my fellow neutrals, i certainly would give none.

Well, problem solved, I would say.

[___________Yorkforce]

Originally posted by Lorepan
When you give an established agent the right to switch to neutral, you slap the face of all neutrals who have gone through hell and back to get what little xp they could. It undermines the very foundation of respect that the neutral community is built on.

It doesnt just apply to agents , but its a path in which ever direction your character takes,with the upcoming war , some players from both sides might decide to take a neutral stance against the agression , who knows.

To suggest that a character joins neutrals to slap everyone else in thier profession who is neutral isnt very nice and probably very far off the mark,they are joining to make a statement that they no longer wish to be a clan or an omni member.

[Destractor]

Other profs should noever be able to move to neutral.
If you are in OT and disaprove of their tactics in the war and leave them, you are considered there enemy (ie clan). The same goes with clan->OT, once you have joined a side you are in the war and can never be considered neutral.

If players want to be neutral they can start an alt.

The only reason agent could do it would be to infiltrate. My worry is that agents will never be trusted again (agents can't pretend to be another prof all the time) and may be blacklisted from guilds.

An agent could really destroy a guild from the inside.

I would much rather see a nano to mimic a side. At teh very least there should be a way of finding out a characters real side.
Surely other agents should be able to see through the discise with a bit of help from a gadget.

[Bionitrous]

Hmmm .... trying to think what of what accent to put on this:

'Let me see your papers!'

Got no problems with giving that functionality to the Agent. Just the Agent. The fact that you'll never fully trust them till you've known them a long time is just perfect.

[_____________Silente]

Well, I agree with what you're saying to an extent--there's not a lot of love for neutrals.

As a starting neutral agent I know even by level 8 the road gets so hard to walk that the lure of those Omni and clan application forms is STRONG. "Sign us!" they plead, "You're an agent--soon you can always switch back!" So far, I've resisted and plan to keep doing so.

However, I like the idea of infiltration very much--I hope that you can change your name when you do so and hide your guild affiliation so that you can mole more effectively. I like the idea of neutral agents accruing tokens from both the clans and Omni.

Also, to a large extent, I think everyone SHOULD mistrust agents. We're shifty. We can shift sides, and our faces (please, let us change our names too?). True, it makes for what ammounts to a four-sided war: Clans, Omni, Neutrals, and agents--but that's somewhat appealing to me too--we're hated by everyone, but essentially untouchable.

Perhaps what is needed is a "Starting Affiliation" field listed in /list and /tell helpbot whois questions about a character? Sure, he's clan, but he was once neutral--kill the turncoat first. Or better yet--a "Starting Affiliation" field that ONLY agents can see.

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