Does anyone else kill the 'Mass locker?'

[Layne]

If possible, I always go to the assistance of fellow couriers - often at some cost.

I'm also a hopeless white knight! I'll answer just about any distress call and run to the aid of just about any escape pod-- even if it means I have to jettison cargo, as my hold is only three tons.

[cim]

So there should be something more than just the legal status in case the cops show up.

There is a (hidden) set of reputations in the game which track roughly how the player is behaving even if there's no obvious witness - word gets around, black boxes are found weeks later, rescuees praise you to the insurance company, and so on - which do affect how NPCs react to you in various circumstances.

[avder]

If I went to the trouble of making damn sure I'm not on one of the three main routes and I run into something that mass locks me, it's getting laser masslock removal treatment from Dr. Military Laser.

[Cody]

If I went to the trouble of making damn sure I'm not on one of the three main routes and I run into something that mass locks me...

In some systems, you may well find something of interest off-lane - don't be too trigger-happy!

[Alex]

My-oh-my, bloodthirsty and impatient lot, you folks are. Hope I never have to be in front of you in a supermarket line!

I only ever go to supermarket just after 2pm on a wednesday. Hardly ever have to pull out my mil. laser then.

As for they bloomin mass lockers my response tends to be 'mm how do I feel.' And more than often than not 'Target Practice'
Can never have too much practice.
Another way of looking at it is if it's there, it's there for practice.

On the other hand I always answer a distress call and pick up escape pods. I even prioritise the pods over cargo.

As already has been said, if you don't like the traffic, getoutta the lane.

[MSA-S23]

I got caught for smashing a Tembo (after stealing its fuel with the Fuel Collector mod) and ended up with an approximate 500$ bounty before I was ruthlessly slaughtered by a Behemoth cruiser.

Ahhh, Oolite!

Cheers, MSA-S23

[Fritz]

There is a (hidden) set of reputations in the game which track roughly how the player is behaving even if there's no obvious witness - word gets around, black boxes are found weeks later, rescuees praise you to the insurance company, and so on - which do affect how NPCs react to you in various circumstances.

I always tried to stay legal, I never attack "clean" ships, I try to help other ships calling for help, and I even get a bad feeling when I kill pirates pleading for mercy. So this behaviour is actually helping me? I never noticed, but I'll probably notice some day!

I hope, scooping cargo from ships that got killed by somebody else isn't a big problem for my reputation...

[Norby]

this behaviour is actually helping me?

Once after this post I thinked how to award the goodwill in various ways. I have no time to implement, but maybe others will do.

Here is a draft for a Friends OXP:
Traders that you saved from pirate attacks offers some variety off mini missions:
-Jumping to the next system to meet him/her
-Asking for a money loan,
-Asking for help to cross a dangerous system
-Offer help against a common enemy, Like a pirate that has sworn to wipe you out,
-Revenge for the Death of a common friend,
-pop up suddenly like the cavalry to save your "stern" from an assassination ambush (If he/she happens to be close),
-ask you to take some parcel/passenger that he/she can not carry out because of reasons.
Pirates that you disturbed or arrested and just got out of prison
-Hunt you down to the end of the world and try to kill you until the end of times ( or his)
Cops, hunters, hitch-hikers etc.
Receive emails from these if Email OXP is installed.
Meet them in places within the station if Life in the Frontier OXP is installed.
In F4 a list of names and details (ship, relation, location: meet, known and planned).

[Anonymissimus]

I never attack "clean" ships,

It's not as if every clean ship is an innocent one and every offender is guilty. That's just what Galcop says. Illegal goods traders are hard to distinguish from pirates. Assassins are much worse than pirates, they mercilessly kill escape pods for money, yet they are clean. If I identify any ship as an assassin I hunt it to death anyway. Too bad I can't in the aegis, in the anarchy bottlenecks they are already swirling around me before I make my jump, seemingly follow me through and then attack afterwards. I hope my assassin bounty is at least 100k credits or so.

I even get a bad feeling when I kill pirates pleading for mercy.

They almost always thank you for it by attacking again some time afterwards.

[Smivs]

I even get a bad feeling when I kill pirates pleading for mercy.

They almost always thank you for it by attacking again some time afterwards.

What?! Zombie pirates...Yikes!

[Anonymissimus]

I even get a bad feeling when I kill pirates pleading for mercy.

They almost always thank you for it by attacking again some time afterwards.

What?! Zombie pirates...Yikes!

...if you let them go...

[Fritz]

They almost always thank you for it by attacking again some time afterwards.

What?! Zombie pirates...Yikes!

...if you let them go...

That's why I kill them if I can. Some were even firing a missile at me while pleading! And I like to scoop up debris in peace and quiet.

[Imaginos]

Do I kill the 'Mass locker?
If I have spare cargo space and there are no Vipers around, it might just happen.

[MSA-S23]

Hahaha!

[Ranthe]

Quick question:
Does anyone else engage the unfortunate Python, Adder, or whatever other piece of scum that 'Mass locks' your Torus Drive?

I'm tempted. Oh yes, I'm tempted. Being a 'Conda jock my normal inclination is to let them outrun me in cruise mode and save whatever injector fuel for when I really need to get out of Dodge, and on most occasions a judicious course change to let the faster ships (i.e. most of them) get out of mass-lock range faster.

But in all too many Commie systems, my nemesis lurks: the Worker's Commuter. The only ship as slow as an Anaconda, and consequently the hardest to break mass-lock with. I can't outrun it without injectors, it can't outrun me, and the 'stards always seem to travel in widely-spaced pairs close up to the local station, meaning that I can't break mass-lock with one without hitting mass-lock with the other (or the local planet when coming in for docking).

So yes, sometimes my trigger-finger gets itchy. I casually lock on to one of these monstrous mass-locking beasts and dream about "eliminating the problem." It would be so easy! A standard missile launched from within scanner range would do the trick as the Worker's Commuter doesn't have ECM capability. Or I could close in and open fire at near point-blank range. That big old monstrosity wouldn't stand a chance...

... and neither would the two hundred-odd "commuters" sitting on spartan benches in a spartan cabin. Two hundred-odd corpses flash-frozen or torn to pieces in deep space by my lasers, for committing no other crime than being born in a lousy Commie system and travelling to working in ZPF and SLAPU facilities in a hideous cheap-ass abortion of a interplanetary transport. And there wouldn't even be the compensation of any valuables to be "salvaged" from the wreck, seeing as the fruits of their endless labours are transported in "proper" freighters.

An occasional bounty hunter and "freedom fighter" I may be, but a mass murderer I ain't.

So my fantasies remain that - fantasies. I breathe deeply, select a suitable listening channel on the Interstellar Radio, pull a mug of tea from the Tea Dispenser (suitably 'fortified' if supplies permit), and settle in for a long wait. Again.