Before you chose to be Neutral...

[__________PaulyShore]

Think of playing neutral as moving around the difficulty setter on any video game. Not everyone wants to play on "easy."

[Bionitrous]

Neutral is not so 'difficult' (as far as I can tell) post level 60. I have to sometimes step back and remember that those who decided to work for or oppose Omni-Tek have certain restrictions as to where they can go outlined in the Tir Accord.

I DON'T miss the token board and the never ending quest for tokens or having to worry that I've killed enough in the mission before picking up the reward. God, it's so liberating not to be a slave to that damn neckpiece.

I absolutely love the respect that true guards give me when visiting their fine cities. If only players and NPC's would respect my decision as well. But, I can deal with it. Haven't been unwillingly killed by a PC in about 7 months.

Shopping is a non-issue post- about level 75 when you can't get what you want in the stores anyway. The only time shopping is an issue is when you want to 'buy' (which few people do) nano-crystals of Qlvl's 100-125. Newland general stores and Borealis Fair Trade have everything you'd ever want.

Mission terminal selection is at once both limited and more varied. We can get missions in Mort and at the same time Omni-Forest with equal ease. Can't use any of the Clan or Omni specific terminals but have easier access to ICC terminals throughout the planet.

Save terminals is the biggest issue. We know the 11 places we can store our data. I can probably rattle them off in about 5 seconds.

The human players of Neutral characters have enough real-life character to play an in-game character that might be 5% 'gimped' by the game mechanics. That and the inability to 'gank' other players means that many players of Neutral characters have class and intelligence. This doesn't mean the other sides don't have their fair share of great people. It just means the the Neutral community has less people striving to be 'the Best' and 'r0XXor teh clan scum'. These people want to have fun. With that attitude the people they associate have more fun as well.

The real drawbacks come in the form of storyline involvement and player-driven PVP.

As an example, I don't think the Neutrals have an option to trigger the Alvin/Dodga static mission. We just may have not found the right NPC to trigger it yet since only 1 out of 20 players is Neutral.

The inability to shoot first hurts our survivability rate in ganking PvP. But since one decided to be Neutral this is a non-issue. You didn't declare a hatred for either side so (with the exception of one trying to play a mercenary or lunatic) why would you be attacking another player unprovoked? Besides, there are always 0% gas mayhem zones for the really high level Neutrals who are fed up with BOTH overly violent Omni-Tek employees and the anarchist Clanners.

[cellestron]

Bionitrous,

Neutrals can trigger the Alvin/Dodga static mission and complete it. I completed the Alvin mission all the way to receiving the reward. Now I have an omni-only item that I cannot use and 5 omni mission tokens.

That is the worst part of being neutral....There is not much in the game to actually DO. FC has restricted almost everything from us, to discourage people from playing neutral.

Perhaps we could have the ability to sell and buy unique or NODROP items. Then we could do missions like this and sell to either side. We could also be go-betweens.

[__________PaulyShore]

IMHO, being able to trade NODROP items sounds like it'd be better suited to a profession, such as, say, Fixers, rather than Neutrals. I think that'd be a pretty cool fixer-only power that might make the prof more attractive, at least. I'd say Traders too because trading NODROPs kind of fits into the idea of a Trader, but Traders already have plenty of goodies.

I agree that being neutral isn't exactly "difficult," and I experienced the same breaths of fresh air when I didn't have to slave over the token board. However, with the new token changes it's a little different. It's NOT that difficult to get up to the 120 board anymore. Those few 100 or so health points can make a pretty nice difference.

I can see neutral as being quite difficult for classes that are somewhat forced or led into overequipping nanos (engis, traders, MPs...) if you don't have a higher level character or guild to help supply nano needs.

[_______________drago]

Hi,

Having this idea that my character is in the Clans side because he was born in that side. Was taught to hate the Omni, their suppression, their "cruelty".

However, thinking that at very high level, he finally understand that both sides will not win and none will stand to gain and also he is so tired of the war. Thus, decided to draw out from the conflict (in effect becoming a Neutral). However, players might attacked him cause he might killed them before or they might feel betrayed by him.

Pity that the game dun allow for conversion to Neutral after joining a side.