Tried my hand at piracy

pepak · Post by **pepak** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:11 am

and let me tell you that Anaconda really regretted the day it turned its exhausts on me! Anyway, it was quite a curious experience. As a Clean Poor spacecaptain I craftily positioned my ship just behind the Anaconda and matched its direction and speed. I flew that way for a while to make sure nobody was around and finally heated up my front military laser (which is actually the second laser I bought, after the rear one - it tends to be easier to shoot ships which are pursuing me than trying to hit those who are fleeing). The Anaconda didn't last a whole long.

Anyway, here I was, flying among this debris. I was trying to clean it out, because I just hate pollution. Then police ships arrived and nothing whatsoever happened - I was still Clean. How come? I work hard at becoming a notorious criminal and they defy me that way??? Later, I even scooped the poor captain whose ship got destroyed and guess what, he paid me 250 Cr for saving him. And then he failed to report me to the authorities. What is that?

LittleBear · Post by **LittleBear** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:02 am

In Oolite, you only get a criminal record if the Cops actually see you do the deed! (Some stations and carriers will also award you a rap sheet if the spot you up to no good!) If they arrive afterwards then you stay clean. You also won't be penalised for killing a ship that is not clean. If both you and the target are clean and the cops arrive in the middle of the battle, they may even take your side. If what the cops witness is the other ship fireing on you, they may assume he started it!

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:16 am

Well, if you want a criminal record...

just fire on the cops!

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:36 am

It's a great way of dealing with those irritating Boyracers in high TL Corporate systems. Let him call you names and fire at you, but don't respond until two events occur:
1) There's a purple 'lollipop' on your scanner,
2) The boyracer shoots at you.
At that point, he becomes an Offender and you have every right to blast him out of the stars. As LB says, the cop may even help you out!

Captain Hesperus

drdenim · Post by **drdenim** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 1:06 am

and I have found that once you get the cloaking device you can shoot down cops without consequences (at least rating wise) so long as you have that cloaking device one...you can even blow up stations...and still be clean...it's great for pirating...

speaking of rating...is there any way you can go from fugitive to offender or clean...?

I know you can go from offender to clean...but I've yet to encounter a way to go from fugitive to clean...

Jack_H · Post by **Jack_H** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 1:10 am

just takes time. i traded in narcotics twice, got fugitive, left station, got shot at by cop, hyperspaced, flew to another system, traded only good stuff, went down to offender.

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:24 am

One down side of using the Cloaking Device (well, two actually). First you don't get the kills added onto your Elite Rating and you don't get bounties for pirates killed while cloaked. Oh, and any missions that require you to kill someone will not be completed if you kill them while cloaked. Trust me I tried to kill Be Soin cloaked and had to go back uncloaked to kill him again....

Captain Hesperus

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:15 am

IIRC in assassins oxp the cloaking device is deactivated in some missions where stations are being defended, (or is that Qmines)

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 8:40 am

TGHC wrote:
IIRC in assassins oxp the cloaking device is deactivated in some missions where stations are being defended, (or is that Qmines)

No, the Mark Transponder 'deactivates' it, but I found that if you activate it before jumping to the target's system, it stays on.

And you can't turn it off....

Captain Hesperus

Makandal · Post by **Makandal** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:02 am

Ok, I understand better why sometimes I become offender and sometimes I stay clean. I thought it was a question of 'offence experience point'. Now, I understand it is linked to the presence or no of police.
I remind me a proverb of a gypsy friend "A thief is the one who is caught".
By the way, what is the status scale :
Clean/Offender/Fugitive/????/???
When I meet fugitive, they are always quiet, not attacking. Why ?

Makandal · Post by **Makandal** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:03 am

Ok, I understand better why sometimes I become offender and sometimes I stay clean. I thought it was a question of 'offence experience point'. Now, I understand it is linked to the presence or no of police.
I remind me a proverb of a gypsy friend "A thief is the one who is caught".
By the way, what is the status scale :
Clean/Offender/Fugitive/????/???
When I meet fugitive, they are always quiet, not attacking. Why ?

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:10 am

Fugitive pirates (that is ships that have the pirateAI) are set to Lurk until another ship comes into their scan range. They then attack. Other ships without the pirateAI can also have Fugitive legal status (either by hauling illegal cargo, attacking police, etc), but they have different AIs (like traders). These, while being Fugitives, will not attack unless provoked. I believe that's more or less right. Just exceedingly simple, like me.

Captain Hesperus

drdenim · Post by **drdenim** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:16 pm

Captain Hesperus wrote:
One down side of using the Cloaking Device (well, two actually). First you don't get the kills added onto your Elite Rating and you don't get bounties for pirates killed while cloaked. Oh, and any missions that require you to kill someone will not be completed if you kill them while cloaked. Trust me I tried to kill Be Soin cloaked and had to go back uncloaked to kill him again....

Captain Hesperus

huh...you know...I did notice that I was deprived of my substantial bounty associated with a fugitive ixian battle cruiser that I destroyed...and now that I think of it I've been hovering in the 980's kill-wise for quite some time...never occurred to me that I wasn't getting any kills...haha...

also...as a side note...if you shoot a missile at a cop while cloaked they still mark you as fugitive...

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:41 pm

drdenim wrote:
also...as a side note...if you shoot a missile at a cop while cloaked they still mark you as fugitive...

[fluff answer] That's because the missile bears the same ident code as your ship, so that GalCop and the Elite Federation can award you for kills made with missiles.[/fluff answer]

Captain Hesperus

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:44 pm

drdenim wrote:
I know you can go from offender to clean...but I've yet to encounter a way to go from fugitive to clean...

You can also make it harder to reduce your fugitive status to offender by installing Anarchies.oxp. This OXP changes the legal system in Oolite, so that your negative legal record stays with you longer. It also offers new (more or lesss expensive) ways of getting clean in an instant.

For the time being it's still available in version 0.1 on Oosat 2, but version 1.0 will be released soon (I hope).