Oolite Bulletins

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]

Just saying.

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'?

Lestradae wrote:

[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.

As for the "bent copper" idea, I like it!

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!

TGHC wrote:

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 )?