Oolite Bulletins

When bimbling along from the waypoint to the Coriolis station, I'll take out any Offenders or Fugitives I meet.

But when out there on your own, halfway between the two, and you meet a single, solitary trader ... are you tempted?

Do you, like me, lock a missile on them so that you get a beep when they are no longer preventing you jump-driving onward? And do you spend all that time thinking "Of course, if I just sort of, you know, 'tested my lasers' then I could pick up some cargo too..."

So far, my conscience is (mostly) clean. Of my 800+ kills, one was an innocent. And that was play-testing, so it doesn't count. Probably.

So, how about you? Have you ever spilled the blood of innocents?

I've killed just about anything as walks and crawls but usually I play very clean and honorable. Playtesting has its perks as there are no consequences to being the nastiest copkiller in the sector!

If more realistic possibilities for piracy become possible(saving anywhere and backwater places only pirates can even find) then I be a pirate. Arrgh!

If I'm in a kind and generous mood, I'll let them live. If I'm impatient and want to hurry on in to the station, I'll take out anything that masslocks me! Except Vipers... Being an Offender's easy enough, but having a Fugitive tag can make life a tad tricky sometimes! So I'll think twice before taking on an official of the law. And Anacondas and Pythons? Just too tempting!

Besides, it's easy to keep a ship afloat that way! Just hold on to the acquired goods until you find a port willing to pay a good price for them!

I've not gutted an innocent trader yet... splashed plenty of Vipers in self-defence, though.

Piracy is against my Oolite character's principles. In the heat of battle I have accidentally fired upon clean ships but stopped short of destroying them. The cloaking device comes in handy in this case.

I practice anti-piracy. It can be quite lucrative if you use the correct tool for the job. My two favorite tools are the Werewolf, and the Merlin. The Werewolf can carry more pirate booty, but I can take on a whole hive of pirates with my Merlin, and come out on top with all their goods. It's fun.

I have two separate installs of the game, with different OXPs.

When I play as Ganelon, I am a Knight of the Feudal systems, a Bounty Hunter, and the scourge of anything marked "fugtive" or even "offender" if I feel it looks too suspicious. I have a stainless record.

When I play as Carver, it depends on if I feel I can take the prey and if I feel I can get away with it. Innocence is over-rated. But that would be option "Oo-arrr. It be what us pirates does." and not the most extreme option you gave, since just shootin' at everything that moves would be bein' just a trigger-happy loon, not a Gentleman of Fortune, y'see? Now, so far as a single solitary trader, well it's a matter of business, y'know. If that single solitary trader be pilotin' somethin' that has the look of there bein' cargo worth the bother in it's hold, or big enough to be worth ransomin' the crew and passengers and salvagin' the derelict.. Well, then "innocent" would be "innocent of havin' any brains in their skull" if'n they don't hit fer the escape pods as soon as they see the Jolly Roger.

It's the Jolly Roger we fly, though, not no murderin' red flag. So long as people are sensible like, there's no reason for bloodshed, now is there matey? Ah, I see ye understand my point. Smart as paint ye are, lad, smart as paint.

Sad it is, though, that some folks don't have the simple sense to get off a damaged ship in dangerous parts o' space. (Sighs) She's a cruel mistress, space is, SandJ lad.. and that's a fact.

Everything that mass-locks me on the way to the station is killed, whether trader, pirate, galcop or salvage gang

so definately the KILL, KILL, KILL option for me

with about 3,500 kills... about 500 were galcop, 200 thargoids, 1000 offenders/ fugitives, and the rest were 'inocent' traders, I later found that most of them were carrying narcotics... so they deserved to die

I don't kill for cargo, I'm usually full. I kill for fun

SeaDog wrote:

I don't kill for cargo, I'm usually full. I kill for fun

Not to get off topic but now you see why an MMO wouldn't work for this game. Most people probably would like to role play. What we need is to create more oxp's to allow/encourage role playing while penalizing indescriminate carnage. Being a pirate isn't about killing. It's about forcing the crew to abandonship or dump his cargo and running. Clean pirates should be possible if they're good at what they do. Bounty hunting is about selective killing. Mass murderers usually get a swat tactical unit thrown at them when spotted in RL and it could be that way here to.(Johnny Killevreewon soils his pants as 50 "Iron-Assed" Police arrive to take him out whenever he's spotted in a civilized system.)

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Clean pirates should be possible if they're good at what they do.

As I've said repeatedly: no pirate who is not an absolute idiot will ever be anything else than clean. Personally I am always clean, and I kill and scoop everything on my scanner.

The are real solarpaths out there. Unthinking, amoral killing machines. They're not afraid of death or capture, they'd start a fight while heavily outnumbered in deep space just... well, because.

That'll be me then

Commander McLane wrote:

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Clean pirates should be possible if they're good at what they do.

As I've said repeatedly: no pirate who is not an absolute idiot will ever be anything else than clean. Personally I am always clean, and I kill and scoop everything on my scanner.

I am offended (just kidding), I consider myself an excelent pirate, yet galcop ships mass-locking me causes me to always have a bounty of 255Cr (for some reason it won't go above that).

It is possible to be a good pirate and not be clean, it just takes more skill to not be killed.

SeaDog wrote:

The are real solarpaths out there. Unthinking, amoral killing machines. They're not afraid of death or capture, they'd start a fight while heavily outnumbered in deep space just... well, because.

That'll be me then

and me...

Commander McLane wrote:

CommonSenseOTB wrote:

Clean pirates should be possible if they're good at what they do.

As I've said repeatedly: no pirate who is not an absolute idiot will ever be anything else than clean. Personally I am always clean, and I kill and scoop everything on my scanner.

Does that include Vipers!?

Although most of the time I try to avoid becoming a Fugitive, it can be quite exhilarating sometimes! Docking in a Corporate State Dodec whilst a fugitive really tests one's docking skills!

Mauiby de Fug wrote:

becoming a Fugitive, it can be quite exhilarating sometimes! Docking in a Corporate State Dodec whilst a fugitive really tests one's docking skills!

Heh... oh yes indeed!