Idea for Smugglers OXP

[phkb]

Everyone chime in and shoot this down if required (or point me to an existing OXP if it's already been done - I only had a brief look before posting), but I was thinking about creating an OXP that simulates a smuggling hold on your ship. The idea would be you could move contraband into the smuggling hold before launch to hopefully hide it from authorities. Based on the system type you launch from, there would still be a chance your contraband is detected, but it could make smuggling more interesting. The size of the hold would be limited, and it would reduce your overall hold space.

What do you think? It's been done before? Worth doing?

[Wildeblood]

It's been done before?

HyperCargo a.k.a. Hide A Cargo.

[spara]

It's been done before?

HyperCargo a.k.a. Hide A Cargo.

You do have a point here. HyperCargo really could be tweaked and rebranded to Smuggler's Cargo. Instead of giving extra cargo space, a part of your cargo hold could be altered to be hideable. As a bonus HyperCargo already holds the mechanisms for working with NewCargoes.

[Venator Dha]

You do have a point here. HyperCargo really could be tweaked and rebranded to Smuggler's Cargo. Instead of giving extra cargo space, a part of your cargo hold could be altered to be hideable. As a bonus HyperCargo already holds the mechanisms for working with NewCargoes.

How about using this to change the role of the cargo bay extension? Make that a smugglers hold - it could still be used for legit cargo so nothing would be lost, but something could be gained.

[ffutures]

You do have a point here. HyperCargo really could be tweaked and rebranded to Smuggler's Cargo. Instead of giving extra cargo space, a part of your cargo hold could be altered to be hideable. As a bonus HyperCargo already holds the mechanisms for working with NewCargoes.

How about using this to change the role of the cargo bay extension? Make that a smugglers hold - it could still be used for legit cargo so nothing would be lost, but something could be gained.

What about ships that can't be fitted with hold extensions? Anaconda owners might want to smuggle too!

But there's another problem - the existing hold extension can't be damaged and functions in all ways like the rest of the hold - for this I think it would have to have some costs in maintenance (and where do you get that done without the authorities noticing) and maybe a penalty on capacity/energy cost because it's screened to stop scanning. And possibly a time cost for moving goods in and out, since you would presumably have to open concealed doors etc.

[phkb]

I think a smuggler's hold could only be purchased in locations that fall outside Galcop's notice - perhaps rock hermits, or space bars, those sorts of places. If it's damaged, and you repair it at a normal station, your bounty goes up - the presence of a smuggler's hold must mean you are smuggling. You can repair it without concern at the places you bought it.

[phkb]

Sorry for dragging this up again, but it's on my list of things I'd like to see in Oolite, so, anyway...

Here's what my plan is:

1. Create a "Smugglers hold", which takes up 5t of cargo space. This cargo space can't be used for anything other than smuggling cargo (see next point). This smugglers hold can only be purchased at Rock Hermits or Space bars or Con stores - any non-GalCop station (open to suggestions here). The cost of this hold will be pretty steep - I'm thinking 30-50k (custom built, with special scanning-resistant materials handwave-handwave).

2. Create a interface screen where smuggling contracts are on offer. This screen won't be available at GalCop aligned stations, but at most other stations (again, open to suggestions here). The reason for having smuggling contracts, rather than just the standard illegal goods, is that, on their own, there's not enough space to make a smuggling hold worthwhile. Hiding 5t of firearms doesn't give you a high return at the other end, based on existing cost structures. If you're going to get into smuggling, it needs to pay off!

So, smuggling contracts will have a high net gain, offset against the consequences of discovery (see next point). Each contract may only take 1 ton of space, but have a high return. But the contents of the cargo will be known to the player. So, some smuggling contracts may be undesirable by the player (even smugglers have consciences!) and can be avoided.

The contracts offered will be based on reputation, same as for standard cargo contracts. The higher the player reputation, the more lucrative the offerings. Distance will also be a factor. Longer distance means more money.

Access to this smuggling contracts screen will depend on having a certain level of reputation in cargo contracts. That is, you need to have proven yourself as a reliable standard cargo hauler first. As another hurdle, you may have to do a particular cargo contract (details of which will be made known to the player after purchasing their smuggling hold).

3. The chance of detection of the smuggling hold, or really, the contents of it, will increase based on the tech level of a system. The higher the tech level, the more likely police will detect the cargo. Also, the proximity of the police vessel will increase the chance of detection. The closer the police vessel gets to the player, the higher the chance of detection. These two factors gives the player plenty of ways of trying to avoid detection - keeping to low-tech systems, and keeping away from police.

If the cargo is detected by police, the player will be marked as offender, and the next time they dock at any GalCop station, their cargo (and perhaps even the hold itself) will be confiscated. That will have flow-on consequences: the person who sent the cargo and/or the intended recipient of the cargo will put a price on the players head, so assassins will be after the player at every witchpoint.

If the player can avoid docking at a GalCop station, though, they might still be able to deliver the cargo on time. Afterwards, if the player docks at a GalCop station, there will be words spoken and warnings given, but no other action will take place.

Police will not detect an empty smugglers hold.

I'm uncertain about having the cargo detected on docking. The reason being, it's a straight dice roll. There's no skill in it, you're either lucky or you're not. That seems a bit too random and arbitrary to me.

4. The smugglers' hold can be damaged as well. If it gets damaged, there will be a high probability that some or all of the contents will be destroyed. If so, be ready for some assassin attention. If the hold is damaged, and cargo remains, the chance of discovery goes up a lot. Given the high-tech materials involved, the hold will have a high degree of damage probability.

Edit to add: Another thought: at higher-tech systems, occasionally have customs police vessels near the witchpoint entry, ready to scan incoming vessels.

So, what do you think? Would this be a valuable addition to the Oolite ooniverse? Or too similar to standard contracts? Needs something extra?

[Wildeblood]

Access to this smuggling contracts screen will depend on having a certain level of reputation in cargo contracts. That is, you need to have proven yourself as a reliable standard cargo hauler first.

Makes no sense. If people asked for evidence of competency before engaging smugglers there wouldn't be all those drownings in the Timor and Mediterranean seas.

[phkb]

True, but the types of contracts likely to be available via this OXP will not be of the "fleeing persecution and desperately need transport to somewhere else" types. I was thinking more of the "need this 1 ton hi-tech military gadget, hot off the back of a truck, shipped to a discerning customer" type.

[Wildeblood]

I was thinking more of the "need this 1 ton hi-tech military gadget, hot off the back of a truck, shipped to a discerning customer" type.

So when you wrote "smuggler's hold" you were actually thinking of a diplomatic pouch?

[SteveKing]

Here's my few credits worth -

Why can’t your smugglers contract be sized from 1-5t, then you can possibly have more than one, but usually not more than 2 or 3. If smuggling contracts are quite lucrative, they ought to be fairly rare, therefore you couldn’t easily access them at every/any independent station (low chance). This takes care of the need for rep (although this could be a hidden value generated similar to RH) that may also affect the value of a smuggling contract (a “we know who you are and how successful you’ve been and you don’t need to know how we know” sort of situation). However, I agree with WB, having previous rep for hauling is pointless. Maybe make it available once you’ve reached something like ‘average’ rank. The main reason for not wanting a smuggling career is the inherent ‘you will be blown out of the sky’ reasons, so a reasonable ability in combat might be assumed/required.

I would be ok with smuggling offered, as per ‘Courier Contracts’ or ‘Commodities Contracts’, from even Galcop stations. Perhaps the contract value can be tied to Tech Level and System Government as well as distance (harder smuggling to high tech, but the payoff is better). Yes, I agree that the chance of detection should be variable and tied to Tech Level and System Government (an Anarchy or Feudal system may accept a bribe without altering status), but have no problem with the chance of detection persisting until docked. There would then be at least one chance that the cargo is detected from system to system if the Commander insists on visiting the primary station (to pick up the best normal trade deals). If you want to avoid detection, pay a premium for fuel or sun skim, forgo the decent returns on normal trade, etc.

The main difficulty will be with game balance. You won’t want to make smuggling contracts more accessible than normal ones if the payoff is better, even if the risks are greater. This should be thought of as supplemental income, although our resident ‘Contrabandista’ might want to try it.

[Smivs]

I'm not sure people trafficking is what was originally visioned for this. To my mind a 'smugglers hold' would be more like the small hidden compartments as found on Millennium Falcon or Serenity. More like the ship's safe than the cargo hold. To be credible, these would have to be quite small - say max 1TC capacity.
To make sense in the game, and even to work as expected, this OXP would probably need to work around rather than with the core game. In other words the trafficked goods, the way they are traded and even possible detection by GalCop would have to be handled by the OXP without any reliance on the core mechanisms. This should avoid conflict problems and ultimately would make the OXP much more versatile, but at the expense of it probably needing to be quite a big, complex affair rather than a simple 'fudge' of core game functionality.
Interesting idea on the whole.

[Day]

Nice oxp idea.

After having done the erehwon mission, I liked that some NPCs randomly pop up to thank the player (me ^^). I think it could be a nice addition here, too:
- NPCs thanking the player,
- NPCs cursing the player,
- NPCs finally meeting the player and then setting a contract on his head...

[Layne]

Reading this with bleary-eyes and a fraction of an attention span, I like where this is going. 'Illegal Goods Tweak' and 'Undocumented Launch' already provide a few station-side mechanics that help simulate smuggling. Adding a few hidden compartments to a ship would give a bit more on the player's side of the issue.

My only muttering grumble about illegal goods in Oolite is one I've mentioned before: all illegal goods are the same from system to system. Slaves, Firearms, Narcotics; Narcotics, Firearms, Slaves; Firearms, Slaves, Narcotics. And did I mention Slaves?

For this kind of an oxp to really be interesting, something on the order of 'New Cargoes' is needed as well, where contraband can be different from system to system. That Communist system? Luxury goods are illegal. That Feudal system bans computers as being unholy. The monks who run that Multi-government system have declared a prohibition on wine and liquors. A Dictatorship has been under a food-import embargo from GalCop to pressure them politically.

Give the player a touch of variety in what is illegal where and suddenly smuggling becomes not only more profitable but more of a /story/. I used to love smuggling in Frontier because you could do it and /still be a good character/, a roguish devil-may-care sort who was technically a criminal but doing it for the 'right reasons'. I never felt the urge to smuggle in Oolite because it's really just things I feel a bit slimy about dealing in anyhow. Especially slaves, which I go out of my way to rescue and set free as much as I can. But give me something 'fun' to smuggle and yeah, I'd be interested in that.

It might also be worthwhile adding a 'black market' screen to some stations-- if your commander has the right contacts/passwords/secret handshake and knows who to talk to. Not every station should have one, which would be part of the trick. You have to get tips from others.

Have I ranted? I have ranted. This is what flows unhindered from my chattering keyboard in the minutes after waking up.

Caveat emptor.

[phkb]

For this kind of an oxp to really be interesting, something on the order of 'New Cargoes' is needed as well, where contraband can be different from system to system. That Communist system? Luxury goods are illegal. That Feudal system bans computers as being unholy. The monks who run that Multi-government system have declared a prohibition on wine and liquors. A Dictatorship has been under a food-import embargo from GalCop to pressure them politically.

In this system, there wouldn't be a need for specific smuggling contracts, or a smuggling compartment, but for a reassessment of existing cargoes.

I'm intrigued by this: would you perhaps put some extra description on the F7 screen to make it clear what is considered illegal in that system? And then add a boost to the commodity prices of those goods so smuggling is worthwhile. So, a communist "mainly ag" system, where the price for computers would normally be kind of average, would instead have a 150 per ton price. But to get to the station and get those prices, there will be extra customs police vessels who could, if they get close enough to the player, flag the cargo as contraband and have it confiscated on docking. That flagging would only carry weight in the current system, so the player could then decide to jump out, missing out on the sweet prices but keeping their cargo.

I'm liking this, as it means there is no need for another interface screen, or even more equipment. Maybe a cargo scanner disruptor to make it harder for the customs vessels to scan your cargo.