Scooping Escape Pods for Fun and Profit

[Disembodied]

This has been raised before, but is there a better way of dealing with scooped escape pods? At the moment, scooped pods are listed on the f5 manifest as slaves, and whenever the player docks, any scooped pods are immediately handed over for either a bounty or an insurance payout, regardless of whether the player has arrived at a main station, a rock hermit, or a dockable ship like a deep-space dredger. Would it be possible to 1) identify the scooped pods in the manifest in some way; 2) restrict the automatic insurance/bounty payouts to main stations only; and 3) offer players a little moral choice when docking anywhere else that has a market: to either a) keep the pod and its occupant on board; b) to release the occupant in return for a fee (offered by the occupant - probably because the occupant wants to avoid arrest, and therefore would be worth more than the bounty at the main station); or c) to sell them as a slave at the current market rate.

Pods listed in the manifest would have to display the occupant's name, and their legal status. This wouldn't have to give an exact bounty - just Clean, Offender or Fugitive should be enough (or even just colour-code the name as green, amber or red).

As regards moral choices, it might also be worth considering tweaking the value of slaves on rock hermits. Currently, nobody has to be concerned with the morality of the slave trade, because it's so unprofitable. But if there was a healthy demand for labourers to work in the unpleasant and dangerous conditions of an asteroid mine, then people would have to make a conscious choice not to get involved.

[Cody]

I kinda see it as a law of the 'lanes: occupants of escape pods must be released at the earliest opportunity, wherever that happens to be.
It could certainly be handled better at rock hermits though - no police or insurance, but perhaps an offer from the occupant instead.

[Disembodied]

It could certainly be handled better at rock hermits though - no police or insurance, but perhaps an offer from the occupant instead.

That could work. The offer might even be a request to be taken all the way to the station in return for a bonus (only applicable to rescued pilots who are Clean, of course: Offenders and Fugitives would pay handsomely not to be taken to the main station).

Another possible wrinkle: if the f5 manifest listed the rescued pilot's name, species and planet - e.g. Sto Dionabonfire, a Small Yellow Fat Humanoid from Esbiza (Offender) - there could be a bonus on any payout, bounty or insurance, if the player delivers the rescued pilot to his or her home system. It would add a little bit more to the craft of being a bounty hunter, as well as helping to make specific systems stand out from the crowd. Criminals being taken home would have a much grimmer fate awaiting them (there could be a range of possible event descriptions, based on government type, ranging from being led away in cuffs to being hauled away to a centrifugal gibbet); Clean pilots could have friends and family there to greet them.

[Norby]

delivers the rescued pilot to his or her home system.

I think this is OXPable: when an escape pod is scooped and there is an empty passenger berth on board then the guest can ask for a ride to his goal in a better cabin. If the player accept the offer then get a normal passenger contract and not a slave. Without free cabin get a complain message including the money what can not get due to no apartment in the ship.

[Disembodied]

I think this is OXPable: when an escape pod is scooped and there is an empty passenger berth on board then the guest can ask for a ride to his goal in a better cabin. If the player accept the offer then get a normal passenger contract and not a slave. Without free cabin get a complain message including the money what can not get due to no apartment in the ship.

Would it work with criminals, too? They obviously wouldn't want to be delivered to their home system (if we accept my assumption that the home system would offer a bigger bounty - which I think might make for a good game mechanic).

Perhaps it could involve a new piece of equipment, for bounty hunters: an onboard holding cell. It takes the same amount of room as a passenger cabin, but it can carry 4(?) prisoners. When an escape pod containing a criminal is scooped - or possibly when the player docks after scooping a pod - there would be the option to either hand over the perp to the local authorities immediately, or to transfer him/her to the holding cell. Once in the cell, the scoopee becomes like a specialist kind of passenger contract, where the player has X number of hours/days to deliver the criminal for trial and collect a bonus. If the player doesn't meet the target date, the criminal is handed over at the next stop for a standard bounty (or the player can sell him/her as a slave - I think the idea of making slaves a valuable commodity on rock hermits could be a good one).

[Cody]

Would it work with criminals, too?

Or the occasional slave who has grabbed their owner's escape pod?

[Disembodied]

Or the occasional slave who has grabbed their owner's escape pod?

That's true ... it would be a much more satisfactory way of dealing with the occasional "You scooped a slave" messages you can get when collecting a pod. The slave could ask to be taken back to their homeworld, which may, or may not, result in a reward from their family ... but at least there would always be the warm fuzzy glow from dong a Good Thing.

[Cody]

The ship's safe is contained within the escape pod, yes? It is for players, so that's how I see it - that slave may have resources!

[Disembodied]

The ship's safe is contained within the escape pod, yes? It is for players, so that's how I see it - that slave may have resources!

That's true! A good point ... mind you, what would that do to bounty hunting? What happens to NPCs' safes when their escape pods get scooped?

Of course, a lot would depend on the size of the ship and the number of escape pods it contains. Maybe it would be a better idea if players lost the contents of their safe when ejecting (or offer two grades of escape pod: the cheapo version with no safe, or the deluxe with inbuilt safe and minibar).

[Cody]

If the scooper received an award of gems/metal on top of the reward/insurance, that would improve a hunter's game, I'd think.

[Disembodied]

If the scooper received an award of gems/metal on top of the reward/insurance, that would improve a hunter's game, I'd think.

It could only really work when scooping criminals - I don't think you'd be able to (legally) swipe the property of a Clean scoopee (and if you could, then the same thing would happen to the player, which would undermine the point of having a safe in the escape pod).

What about parcels? Do they stay with the player on ejection, or are they lost? If they stay with the player, then ejecting as a result of assassination attack wouldn't be much good ...

[Cody]

What about parcels? Do they stay with the player on ejection...

Yes, parcels remain with the player (but there is a time penalty, which is often many days).