Where, if anywhere, is the limit of plausibility now ?
Can't comment on the incursion stuff because I think I wasn't too active around then, and the whole topic you linked was all news to me.
Well, I remember getting flak about "just text RP" before, so I took it to heart and actually brought in-game items to where I said I had stuff happen, with "photographic evidence."
So, limit of plausibility, I guess, would be in what you can show in-game. If someone has the game money and the time to gather up 100,000 soldiers and means to ferry them all into a system, then I think they should be given some acknowledgement for that.
In lieu of that, if you really want to wage war, well, you're going to have a hard time if all you have are ground troops, and no in-game items I think exist for example for air-superiority fighters, ground support vehicles etc.
That is what I had in mind when I made my claims, what is plausible? A thousand well trained mercs fighting guerilla warfare across an entire star system (not all of them are in Kahah III) sounded in my mind very feasible. Since the number is also so small, I figured it wouldn't be hard to recruit enough mercs who would also lay down their lives in a suicide mission, which Kahah III pretty much is, for example to pay for a better life for their loved ones.
Aye, I think you've got the right idea, although I'm not up to speed on the specifics of any of this.
I think plausible is where people get 'iffy' about things, here's been my metrics over the years:
-Are there in-game items that you can spend ISK (effort) on available for this idea? If I'm landing mercenaries let me buy a few on the market along with small arms/whatever and show them in my cargo. This actually means a lot.
-What's the disposition of the area we are non-in-space RP fiddling with? I don't care how many mercenaries you have in your cargo, a capsuleer isn't going to land 1,000 of them on Amarr Prime in 1.0 space, for example. A planet in the middle of nowhere in 0.0? This seems more likely. Do you own the planet? Does your organization? Is there a war on? What seems plausible based on your relative strengths and weaknesses and realistic power projection in the area you are screwing with?
-Your character's relationship, credibility, and experience related to the arc. I think we'd all do well to generally give a bit of leeway to the characters who would reasonably know their way around and the ins and outs of the politics and mores of a thing if they are knee-deep in it. I don't care how much money Silas has, I highly doubt a lowsec Amarr Sabik is capable of influencing much of anything in Republic High Sec that even smells related to her, make sense? Lowsec Kindom? All over it. Tribal politics NPC storyline? Very unlikely to be doing much fuzzy influence RP in that arena. Soft influence giving money or items to the RPers who can? Sure. If your character doesn't know the ins and outs of an area and their politics, maybe they should work with someone who does, etc. I'm just a big fan of characters 'staying in their lanes' when it comes to the fuzzy things, out of respect for everyone's focus and history, if that makes sense?
Kahah is a 0.7, which is high sec, which means RKN all over anything that sneezes funny. 100% not saying YDIW, I think this is a great discussion. I'd probably have gone way lower than 1,000 but I don't see anything fundamentally wrong with the premise at all. It's a warzone all of the sudden right? So you can argue that that means things are more confusing and it's easier to land a few teams here and there, or you can argue that it's less likely because the system is swarming with RKN and ground troops now.
-Immersion-breaking. There's enough ISK and things are priced a certain way that just because you can do a thing in game doesn't mean it's not facepalming for everyone else. I don't know what 'mercenaries' cost now but most could afford to buy legions and legions of them and show them in your cargo and say you are parking a freighter full of them in orbit to rain death on the populace/whatever. Not a good look.
Hows the arc going anyway?