Re: Elite: Dangerous - Design Decision Forum
Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:50 pm
Elite: Dangerous - Criminality
Final Criminality rule set from Frontier Developments.
Final Criminality rule set from Frontier Developments.
Mike Evans, Designer- Elite: Dangerous wrote:Hello Backers!
Here is the Criminality rules set that we've agreed on, following another set of extensive debate, both in the team and on the forum. We'd like to thank everyone for their involvement! As with other topics like this it will stay here for a few days, then be moved to the archives section.
Cheers,
-Mike
Crime List
Jurisdiction
- There are a set number of recognised crimes; they come in two severities:
- Minor Crime – Punishable by fine
- Unlawful Discharge - Unauthorized firing of weapons near a structure or ship controlled by the factional authority in the system
- Collisions – Colliding with a ship or owned structure enough to cause damage
- Shields soak up most collisions
- Damage is caused when two ships collide with a certain force
- A ship is exempt from this crime if docked or “dropped anchor”
- “dropped anchor” is a player initiated act that takes a small amount of time and protects against the exploit of quickly coming to a stop in front of a moving ship
- Stolen Goods – Being detected carrying stolen goods
- Illegal Goods (Minor)– Being detected carrying goods that are classified as illegal in the current system according to the factional authority
- Illegal goods includes passenger transporting of persons with reported crimes in the system
- Illegal dumping – Being detected jettisoning toxic cargo
- Jettisoning any cargo within a set distance from a dock is counted as illegal dumping
- Obstructing Justice – ignoring a request from factional authority vessels and structures (such as fleeing instead of stopping to allow a scan or trespassing in restricted space)
- Major Crime – Punishable by attack (via Pilot’s Federation bounty/faction bounty)
- Attack on a ship or structure– firing on and hitting an owned structure or locking on and firing at a ship
- Murder/Ship Destruction – causing death/destruction of an owned structure
- This includes destruction through collision
- Illegal Goods (Major)– Being detected carrying goods that are classified as highly illegal in the current system according to the factional authority
- Public Enemy – Failure to pay a fine for a set number of times
Witnesses and Reporting
- With the exception of Pilot’s Federation Bounties, a crime is only ever committed within a jurisdiction; in unregulated space such as dark systems and anarchies crimes are ignored
- A jurisdiction always belongs to a faction
- The defining nature of a jurisdiction is that it contains facilities to receive information transmitted by ships
- These facilities range from space stations and inhabited planets to automated defence stations and satellites
- Large vessels owned by the faction also provide this functionality, effectively generating a jurisdiction in the area they occupy
Pilot Federation Bounties
- Even within a jurisdiction, crimes must be witnessed in order to count as a crime
- All NPCs can act as witnesses to all crimes that don’t need special equipment to detect
- The chance they will report it depends on
- Their archetype (ie a pirate is unlikely to report piracy or whether they are an archetype with local law enforcement powers)
- Whether they saw it clearly enough to be able to identify the ship (ie on distance) and they will have to perform an active scan to do so
- The reputation of the perpetrator (communicated via a simple dialogue)
- Players can purchase cargo scanners, and for players that have achieved a high enough local status these can be equipped with secure law enforcement software that can also be used to report smuggling, for which in most jurisdictions there is a reward based on the value of contraband apprehended.
- Police patrols and occasional NPC vigilantes will also be equipped with cargo scanners, and may also do spot searches.
- Players may turn off their ‘squawk’ such that even if attacked the crime is not automatically reported.
Detection and Rap Sheet
- When a member of the Pilot’s Federation is attacked, they have the option of setting a Pilot’s Federation Bounty on their assailant, within a preset min and max credits for this
- This action is time limited – they forfeit the ability to set a bounty after a set time elapses once they have entered a different session (eg through death or hyperspace)
- Should their ship be destroyed by the assailant they have a limited amount of time from when their escape pod arrives at a dock to set the bounty
- Launching from a dock forfeits this ability if not already set
- The credit value of a bounty must be available in the player’s account, and is immediately deducted.
- A Pilot’s Federation Bounty can only be claimed by any member of the Pilot’s Federation
- The Pilot’s Federation Bounty system does not bypass local laws such as “Unlawful Discharge” that may be active so players need to bear this in mind
- A Pilot’s Federation Bounty is only removed if claimed by a bounty hunter or redeemed by the perpetrator
- Redemption can only occur after a set significant time period has elapsed (eg 1 calendar week) and the perpetrator makes financial restitution of a significant multiplier of the bounty (eg 10x) to the Pilot’s Federation
Right to Retaliate
- When a crime has been witnessed and reported it is logged to the perpetrator’s rap sheet, but this rap sheet is not visible to other ships by default unless they were direct witnesses – ships must scan the perpetrator and even then, they will only receive details out outstanding bounties applicable for the current jurisdiction(the scan automatically cross-references local authority reports) and active Pilot’s Federation bounties
- Players may have positive reputations with certain law enforcement agencies, then the scanner will be able to look up details of crimes committed in other jurisdictions
- A ship will detect and inform its commander when it is being scanned
- Some advanced scanners can scan without being detected
- Once a ship has been scanned, its commander’s outstanding bounties for the current jurisdiction are known to the scanning commander until the two commanders are not in the same session (discounting the ‘hot pursuit’ effect if you follow them through hyperspace)
- A commander can view their full rap sheet at any time
- A rap sheet contains the precise breakdown of crimes that the commander has been detected committing
- Each crime has a fine or bounty value attached to it
Authority Response
- When a commander is the victim of a major crime within a jurisdiction they automatically receive the right to retaliate:
- Their ship automatically scans the perpetrator, giving them knowledge of the outstanding bounties in the current jurisdiction
- They count as a witness and automatically transmit the crime to the factional authority controlling the jurisdiction
- They are allowed to attack the perpetrator with impunity in any jurisdiction controlled by the same factional authority as where the crime was witnessed and reported
- The right to retaliate does not grant immunity from prosecution in jurisdictions controlled by different factional authorities
- Note: If the commander is attacked in a jurisdiction that does not recognize the crime, the commander does not gain the right to retaliate!
- In unregulated space no crime is ever committed and any form of retaliation is acceptable
Consequences
- Once a major crime has been reported to the factional authority that controls the jurisdiction a response is dispatched to the location – and that dispatch will be rapid – usually they would arrive by hyperspace within a minute if they respond at all.
- The size of the response is related to the severity of the crime, modified by the total amount of crimes logged for the location and the background simulation for the system
- If the victim is present at a location when authority ships arrive the crime is instantly detected by the authority ships and they gain knowledge of the perpetrator’s rap sheet
- If the victim is not present the authority ships will be required to scan the perpetrator to detect the crime and gain knowledge of the perpetrator’s rap sheet
- Their behaviour will in general lean towards scanning all vessels once they arrive but may be influenced by reputations and ship appearance to the point that a scan is guaranteed or never initiated
- The standard response for a major crime will be to attack directly once a faction bounty has been detected though we may have archetype variations for law enforcement where they give a warning – giving the option of a bribe or of buying off the bounty at 10x (or more) there and then.
- Once a crime has been detected by a factional authority vessel/structure whilst an authority ship remains in direct contact all associated ships and structures of the faction also have knowledge of the perpetrator’s rap sheet. Otherwise they have to choose to look it up as normal.
- This knowledge persists according to rules described earlier in the Detection section
- Multiplayer - crimes against human commanders that cause a bounty to exist make the criminal able to be matched with any other human commander present in the “all players” group
- This punishment lasts for a set amount of game time
FinesFaction Bounties
- When the player is witnessed committing a crime punishable by fine, they immediately accrue the fine and have a set period of time in which to visit a representative of the appropriate faction/Pilot’s Federation and pay it
- Failure to pay within the time allotted increases the fine
- Once a commander has failed to pay within the allotted time a set amount of times they commit the public enemy crime for the faction/Pilot’s Federation
- A commander always has access to his crime sheet to view fines
Crimes and Docking
- A faction bounty can be claimed by anyone that destroys the perpetrator whilst having knowledge of their rap sheet
- Knowledge of the rap sheet can be obtained via a scan of the perpetrator or from an event or mission (which acts the same as if the perpetrator had been scanned)
- The destroyed husk of a perpetrator can be scanned to obtain its ID and then look up its rap sheet – though attacking a ship without having knowledge of its rap sheet would itself be a crime, so it is safer to “scan first, shoot second”
- The commander that delivered the killing blow on a perpetrator obtains a bounty data item ‘voucher’ if they have knowledge of the perpetrator’s rap sheet
- This voucher can be traded in at a dock that contains a representative of the appropriate factional authority to claim the bounty
- The voucher can also be traded between players (presumably at a discount) to cover players that might be unable to cash in the voucher due to crimes of their own.
- When a commander with a rap sheet gets their ship destroyed, any faction bounties are immediately turned into fines via a conversion factor
- The commander’s “failure to pay fine count” is also reset
- This does not prevent a commander that destroyed the perpetrator’s ship whilst having knowledge of their rap sheet from claiming the bounty
- Bounty vouchers once created will have to be cashed in within a particular time, or they will expire.
Missions/Events and Exemptions
- When a commander with a rap sheet arrives at a dock via escape pod they are automatically scanned and knowledge of their rap sheet for the current jurisdiction is given to the faction that controls the dock
- When a commander with a rap sheet arrives at a dock in their ship, they may be scanned:
- The chance of being scanned is modified by reputation and ship appearance
- If there is ‘hot pursuit’ by the same factional authority as that owning the dock, then the dock also has knowledge of the commander.
- No action is taken against a commander for crimes on the rap sheet that occurred in jurisdictions not under the control of the factional authority that owns the dock
- If a commander has crimes on their rap sheet that occurred within a jurisdiction controlled by the factional authority that owns the dock the following event automatically occurs:
- The commander must pay off all fines before they can leave in addition to any payments required to obtain a ship
- The commander must use a creditor if they lack the funds to pay off the fines
- Based on chance and reputations, a commander may be able to bribe the dock authorities into “looking the other way”, allowing the commander to launch without paying off fines, or even to mark them as ‘cancelled’
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- Based on reputations, game logic and contacts, missions and events can be generated that affect a commander’s rap sheet
- Rap sheets can be used to generate bounty missions awarded via bulletin boards and contacts
- Based on reputation, events that allow commanders to hail authority vessels and bribe them to let the player escape (or even in extreme circumstances turn bounties into fines or clear rap sheets) can be generated
- Contacts may be able to alter, reduce or clear rap sheets
- Such services are rare and will always entail a cost of some kind
- Commanders with sufficiently high reputations can petition for Letters of Marque from the Empire or Warrants from the Federation
- Letters of Marque and Warrants authorise attack and plunder of vessels openly allied to the specific opposition faction, but only in independent space (jurisdictions not controlled by the either opposing faction)
- Letters of Marque or Warrants mean that certain actions are no longer crimes for that player.
- Letters of Marque and Warrants can effectively give the player law enforcement powers in that area, and corresponding greatly reduced chance of scan/search.