'Clean' Bandits

[Cody]

A very ‘interesting’ cruise… I’d been dragged into interstellar space by Thargoids, splashed the swarm, and there I was, no fuel and nowhere to go. Only solution… use the GHD, so off to G3 I go. As soon as I emerge (in Radiqu system), I get jumped by two Sidewinders… ‘clean’ Sidewinders, but very hostile to me. There were quite a few Vipers about, but they ignored them completely. My status is clean, they were clean, but they attacked me. So of course I was forced to splash them, but my status remained clean. Ten minutes later, on approach to the station, I found the Moray Med Boat I’d originally been looking for.

Took this pic just before I fragged the second Sidewinder:



This game can always surprise you… don’t you just love it!.

[Commander Trigg]

to be honest I wouldn't be against the odd clean ship turning pirate. After all, my status is clean, but sometimes if I come across a Python in the depths of space...

[Chrisfs]

What kind of HUD do you have?

[Commander McLane]

Are you doing a Random Hits contract? In that case I assume the Moray was your mark and the Sidewinders its escorts. The escorts may have become clean via a jump, although I'm not quite sure whether they actually jump or would be re-created in the new system. And, come to think of it, I don't even know whether you would be able to finish a contract if you'd done an intergalactic jump in-between. So I am actually of no help in interpreting the happenings.

[Diziet Sma]

Random Hits jobs don't carry across to the next galactic chart. If you do a GH jump the contract is considered abandoned. (or at least, that's what's supposed to happen) If we were talking about GC5, I'd wonder if it was the cloak mission kicking in, but this is weird.. could it be another OXP causing this?

[Cody]

The only OXPs I have are:

Fighter Hud
System Redux
Target Autolock
Target Reticle
Griff's Ship Set

No contracts, no missions... just on my second eight, minding my own business. The Sidewinders were at the Witchpoint beacon, the Moray was close by the station... no connection.

[Cody]

More strange bandit behaviour… just going about my business and I get a distress call… from a Mamba. As is my habit, I hasten to rescue this poor soul. The Mamba turns out to be a fugitive being attacked by a Viper… fugitives are putting out distress calls now? I did indeed help this poor soul… rapidly into the next life.

[Commander McLane]

Considering that hitting a police ship with a laser instantly makes everybody a fugitive, this is entirely possible. Maybe the Viper originally came to the Mamba's rescue when it was attacked by a pirate, but in the resulting dogfight among three the Mamba accidentally hit the Viper when it was aiming for the pirate. AI-wise there is a certain chance that the Viper switches targets immediately and goes after the ship it originally came to rescue.

[Cody]

Thanks McLane, that is one very unlucky Mamba pilot then.

[DaddyHoggy]

Considering that hitting a police ship with a laser instantly makes everybody a fugitive, this is entirely possible. Maybe the Viper originally came to the Mamba's rescue when it was attacked by a pirate, but in the resulting dogfight among three the Mamba accidentally hit the Viper when it was aiming for the pirate. AI-wise there is a certain chance that the Viper switches targets immediately and goes after the ship it originally came to rescue.

I always thought this was a bit unfair and "unrealistic" - in a free-for-all firefight the chances of identifying who actually shot at you should be greatly reduced - I often can't tell who's shooting at me as I duck and weave, I don't see why NPC Police should be any better....

[Smivs]

AI-wise there is a certain chance that the Viper switches targets immediately and goes after the ship it originally came to rescue.

This got me wondering. I've got Galactic Navy OXP and often do missions as a reservist. Once I did accidentally hit a Navy vessel (the moron flew between me and the Thargoid Battleship I was targetting) and of course the next thing I know all my 'colleagues' are opening up on me. My point is, I'm sure I often take 'friendly fire' during these dogfights. Does the friendly AI ship that hit ME become a fugitive as well...I get the impression they don't. There ain't no Justice!
Also, as accidents DO happen, it would be handy to be able to send a 'Whoops, sorry!' message to other friendlies who 'get in the way', thus avoiding the hassle and fugitive status that ensues.

[Commander McLane]

AI-wise there is a certain chance that the Viper switches targets immediately and goes after the ship it originally came to rescue.

I'm sure I often take 'friendly fire' during these dogfights. Does the friendly AI ship that hit ME become a fugitive as well...

Unfortunately the Ooniverse is just like RealLife™: some are more equal than others.

Only hitting a police ship makes the offender instantly fugitive. You ain't no police, therefore you don't have that power.

If the victim of a shot is a non-police ship (which is the category you are falling under as well) there needs to be a police ship nearby and attentive in order to mark the aggressor as offender (not instantly fugitive; the police is making a distinction between attacks on themselves and attacks on everybody else; like in RealLife™ a cop-killer will be treated more vigorously than a "normal" killer). Nearby means: within scanner range, but this isn't yet sufficient. They also need to be attentive, meaning not engaged in a fight themselves when the offence is committed. While a police ship attacks another ship, it doesn't scan for other offences committed in the vicinity. It also doesn't scan for offences when it is busy scanning for escape pods.

So you would need an idle police ship nearby. However, in the case of a naval fight against the Thargoids it is highly likely that all police in the vicinity are engaged in some fight at any given moment. Therefore friendly-fire incidents are highly likely to remain undetected.

Apart from hitting a police ship itself there is one other exception to this rule: If ships which belong to the same group (like a mother and her escorts; or a station and its defence ships) accidentally hit each other, they will turn hostile towards each other. This is considered by many to be an AI flaw. LittleBear, for instance, has developed special AIs for his OXPs, in order to avoid this last kind of friendly fire incidents (instead of automatically turning against the "attacker" for every hit, the ship or station first checks who fired the shot; if it was a ship from the own group, the hit is ignored). These measurements haven't yet been incorporated into Oolite itself.

[Eric Walch]

More strange bandit behaviour… just going about my business and I get a distress call… from a Mamba. As is my habit, I hasten to rescue this poor soul. The Mamba turns out to be a fugitive being attacked by a Viper… fugitives are putting out distress calls now? I did indeed help this poor soul… rapidly into the next life.

Not really strange as it is programmed that way. Whenever a bandit has collected enough cargo to fill up its hold, it switches to a trader AI to sell its loot at the nearest station (Or jumps to an adjacent system, fuel permitting).

Traders do call for help, even when they have a bounty on their head. But, it is not very likely that such broadcasts from offenders are reacted on, other than attract more bounty hunters to its tail

[Cody]

Not really strange as it is programmed that way. :

Thanks Eric... I like that sort of programming... devious.

[Commander McLane]

I knew there was more than one possible explanation.

And, come to think of it, Eric is of course right in this case, because the Mamba is one of the ships only ever added as a pirate. So my explanation doesn't actually work in this case. It would however work with classic trade ships.