OK, after reading it:
Looks good, LOAF. Very good.
However, I would dispute Gemini being 'quiet'.
Sol Sector is quiet. Gemini is the Wild West. Enigma and Vega are like the trenches of WWI.
That's one thing that stood out for me, reading the Privateer manual again. Gemini is not a place most people would go. It's a border sector. A quiet sector, compared to the Vega and Enigma sectors, but still on the borders.
Something also: I am unsure that the Confederation would issue Letters of Marque (the proper term) as such. Everybody wandering around with military-spec armament and rights to fire freely makes the state's monopoly on violence difficult. Indeed, one of the traditional conditions for a sovereign state in international law is that it has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Such is why privateers were banned by treaty in the 1850s, with privateering becoming universally illegal (as more and more states adopted the treaty) by the 1890s; When you allow ordinary folks to exercise force on your behalf but not under your control, you cede a vital power of the sovereign: the right to authorize violence.
What is more likely is that, like how towns in the American colonies required every able-bodied male to own a gun and be available for service in the militia, Confederation regulations encourage every ship flying in the border sectors to be armed, to defend against the Kilrathi. On the same level, surplus ships are more widely available in the border sectors.
The fact that piracy and the like starts up is an unintended, and unwanted, consequence. After the war, the Confederation intends to crack down. However, they have bigger problems right now.
Some additional roles we may want to consider, in consequence:
1. Passenger liners.
2. Military contractors: People contracted by the military to join convoys in the war zones, for example. Or contracted to handle 'rear-area security', garrisoning rear systems in the war zones.
Looks good, LOAF. Very good.
However, I would dispute Gemini being 'quiet'.
Sol Sector is quiet. Gemini is the Wild West. Enigma and Vega are like the trenches of WWI.
That's one thing that stood out for me, reading the Privateer manual again. Gemini is not a place most people would go. It's a border sector. A quiet sector, compared to the Vega and Enigma sectors, but still on the borders.
Something also: I am unsure that the Confederation would issue Letters of Marque (the proper term) as such. Everybody wandering around with military-spec armament and rights to fire freely makes the state's monopoly on violence difficult. Indeed, one of the traditional conditions for a sovereign state in international law is that it has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Such is why privateers were banned by treaty in the 1850s, with privateering becoming universally illegal (as more and more states adopted the treaty) by the 1890s; When you allow ordinary folks to exercise force on your behalf but not under your control, you cede a vital power of the sovereign: the right to authorize violence.
What is more likely is that, like how towns in the American colonies required every able-bodied male to own a gun and be available for service in the militia, Confederation regulations encourage every ship flying in the border sectors to be armed, to defend against the Kilrathi. On the same level, surplus ships are more widely available in the border sectors.
The fact that piracy and the like starts up is an unintended, and unwanted, consequence. After the war, the Confederation intends to crack down. However, they have bigger problems right now.
Some additional roles we may want to consider, in consequence:
1. Passenger liners.
2. Military contractors: People contracted by the military to join convoys in the war zones, for example. Or contracted to handle 'rear-area security', garrisoning rear systems in the war zones.