There are no true AIs -- no ships flown by computers alone -- and even with automated support we all have to work hard ourselves to fly, fight and so on.
Hm, but
[Advocatus Diaboli] Do we know that? I mean, just that we as Commanders have to do it by ourselves doesn`t mean that GalCop does it like that? Perhaps many police vipers ARE actually flown by an AI and have no physical organism on board? As far as I know, nothing sure is established about the nature of policemen or if there are any AIs and what level they are on in Elite or the novellas you guys refer to? [/Advocatus Diaboli]
I do like the idea... It could be achievable with an illegal transmission jammer. Chance of getting found and fined on orderly systems, I like that too...
Anyway, it could be a device that only worked while activated, and drained the energy banks over time; you turned it on before going a-hunting, and in case a copper showed up and caught you red-handed, he wouldn't be able to squeal at all while within scanner range...
Another cool thing is that bribe, or should I say, 'contribution for the police beneficent ball fund'?
You know those who, having been mugged and stabbed, fired, dog run over, house burned down, wife eloped with best friend, daughters becoming prostitutes and their countries invaded - still say that "all is well"?
I'm obviously not one of them.
[Advocatus Diaboli] Do we know that? I mean, just that we as Commanders have to do it by ourselves doesn`t mean that GalCop does it like that? Perhaps many police vipers ARE actually flown by an AI and have no physical organism on board? As far as I know, nothing sure is established about the nature of policemen or if there are any AIs and what level they are on in Elite or the novellas you guys refer to? [/Advocatus Diaboli]
True, it's not actually known, but I feel that if AIs existed that could pilot ships, then we'd probably all be out of a job! The only thing a computer pilot seems good for is docking, and even then it's still a bit shaky; all that jigging round to get lined up, stopping and starting... it gets the job done but not as well as a proficient biological pilot could do it. As far as I know, none of the Elite fiction refers to any sentient machinery at all. And there's still the issue of why tech level 2 computers are just as good as tech level 14 ones.
Oops - good point about not 0-ing the criminal record but just restoring it back to what it was before... I didn't think about it since my criminal record is always so squeaky clean!
You have always been able to clean your record by using the escape capsule, which to be fair is a bit of a cheat, so it would be good to eliminate this too.
This has long been eliminated, if you have Anarchies installed. No more escaping your legal record.
others: I think it makes sense to tie the whole thing to a device, like a cop-jammer. The obvious place to purchase this kind of device would of course be a Hacker Outpost. And it would be expensive.
I also like the idea of a (small) chance that the device itself could be detected by the police, leading to its removal and a fine for the player.
As for bribing the police, may I remind my honourable (and even more the not-so-honourable) co-players that there is already the chance to get rid of your whole criminal record for a bribe, if you regularly visit the equipment store in main stations in Anarchy-systems (provided you have Anarchies1.0.oxp installed, of course )?
