Oolite Bulletins

I'm fed up with getting an Offender tag because I forget to sell the odd tonne of scooped contraband.

1. Is it possible to write an .OXP that automatically sells (or even releases / hands in / donates) all slaves, narcotics or firearms immediately on docking?

2. Do you always get an offender status when launching from a main station with slaves, narcotics or firearms on board, regardless of circumstances?

3. From what kind of dockables can you launch with narcotics, slaves or firearms on board without getting a criminal record?
From Seedy Space Bars / Navy SecCom Stations / Navy behemoths / Navy Condors / Wasp nests / Pi42 Con Stores / Rock Hermits / Imperial AstroFactories / Collective SLAPUs / Collective ZGFs / Astromine Penal Colonies / GRS Buoy Factories?

I'm not asking anyone to do the research for me, I'm just wondering whether it varies by OXP or if there is a general rule.

SandJ wrote:

I'm fed up with getting an Offender tag because I forget to sell the odd tonne of scooped contraband.

1. Could a .OXP be produced that automatically sells all slaves, narcotics or firearms immediately on docking?

2. Do you always get an offender status when launching from a main station with slaves, narcotics or firearms on board, regardless of circumstances?

3. From what kind of dockables can you launch with narcotics, slaves or firearms on board?
From Seedy Space Bars / Navy SecCom Stations / Navy behemoths / Navy Condors / Wasp nests / Pi42 Con Stores / Rock Hermits / Imperial AstroFactories / Collective SLAPUs / Collective ZGFs / Astromine Penal Colonies / GRS Buoy Factories?

I'm not asking anyone to do the research for me, I'm just wondering whether it varies by OXP or if there is a general rule.

1. Yes, sort of, ship's manifest is writable. However, the price at the station is not readable, so the price you get for them would be a bit arbitrary. (You might find the Illegal Goods Tweak OXP, which gives you a chance to hand them over to the authorities for a token reward when you dock, a reasonable solution, and certainly solve the problem of accidentally forgetting you have them)

2. Yes, as far as I can tell.

3. As far as I know, nothing other than a main station applies a penalty for launching with illegal goods, though in theory an OXP author could do this.

Capt. Murphy released his Illegal Goods oxp. I have it installed and it gives a few other things to do in the Ooniverse. I would really recommend it. It checks for illegal goods on docking and gives you a few options.

Thank you each and all - an excellent set of responses.

Hi everyone still in the hospital so I won't be able to launch my cobra mk iii until I get out Saturday.

I thought in Oolite law under the bounties act that any offender or fugitive eliminated that any cargo dumped is considered a salvage bonus and not subject to charges as its part of the loot from apprehending a criminal.

Now I love the illegal goods tweak oxp it kind of feels it males it stricter, but realism is what I love about a game like this. However when asked to hand over illegal goods it seems kind of cheap when you have 5t of narcotics or firearms or slaves and the going price is fairly high only to get like a 7Cred reward for risking your ass helping the government.

Even if it was half market value/unit they awarded you it would be more incentive to hand it over. But I quickly realized that this applies to the main station only its not too bad..

It would kind of be cool if there was a way to introduce licences for the ability To transport those goods on a time basis so if it were a traders guild permit it would cost so much a month and fluctuate I like the realism of prices jockeying up and down from time to time.

. I remember someone else suggested this ages ago just to give credit to the original persons idea. Even in real life you need licenses for everything..

Bounty insurance would kind of be cool it would be like credit so if the first level was 500 it would protect you for up to 500 credits of bounty on you.

Or a spare id transponder that youd encode prepaid then if you got an offender or fugitive status you could enable that and then it would clear your record
. But costs and availability would balance the service.

Hope my thoughts help.. take care everyone

MEGALODON wrote:

Hi everyone still in the hospital so I won't be able to launch my cobra mk iii until I get out Saturday.

Hope it all goes well.

MEGALODON wrote:

It would kind of be cool if there was a way to introduce licences for the ability To transport those goods on a time basis so if it were a traders guild permit it would cost so much a month and fluctuate I like the realism of prices jockeying up and down from time to time.

It's possible, since the bounty increase on launch can be prevented in various ways by OXPs. I'll have a look at permits for New Cargoes, certainly.

MEGALODON wrote:

Or a spare id transponder that youd encode prepaid then if you got an offender or fugitive status you could enable that and then it would clear your record

Anarchies OXP has a few similar things. (And if you don't have Anarchies OXP installed, then arguably the Escape Capsule is one of those)

MEGALODON wrote:

when asked to hand over illegal goods it seems kind of cheap when you have 5t of narcotics or firearms or slaves and the going price is fairly high only to get like a 7Cred reward for risking your ass helping the government.

Now I come to consider this, I see why one should get a zero credit reward:
- someone would set up a secret megaweed farm and go into business selling the output to GalCops for the reward;
- (... and ensure traders could buy plenty of cheap narcotics from their cloaked yet dockable MegaWeed.OXP solar space station);
- someone would produce an automated alloys-to-firearms production unit and go into business selling the output to GalCops for the reward;
- (... and selling their automated alloys-to-firearms production units as an .OXP to traders to supplement mining income);
- pirates would extend their income by branding captured crew as slaves and selling them to GalCop for the reward.

Remember:
- No good deed must go unpunished.
- If it doesn't hurt, it isn't charity.
- Government revenue collection is not designed for giving money away.

Whenever I dock at anything, I (try to remember to) immediately sell any contraband items, and at some of the dockables the price of contraband is 0 Credits per tonne. I just accept that loss as necessary for keeping a clean licence and helping make the galaxy a Better Place For All.

I shall try not to think about the hundreds of tonnes of slaves, narcotics and firearms I must have sold unnecessarily for 0 credits; it probably doesn't come to much more than the cost of 4 military lasers anyway (sob).

MEGALODON wrote:

Or a spare id transponder that youd encode prepaid then if you got an offender or fugitive status you could enable that and then it would clear your record

Anarchies OXP has a few similar things. (And if you don't have Anarchies OXP installed, then arguably the Escape Capsule is one of those)

Illegal Goods also has an equipment item as a special mission reward that does this as-well. It's one use but clears your legal record instantly.

Re the very small nominal reward in Illegal Goods (I think I need to remove the Tweak from the name, it was appropriate for the first release when it was about 5 lines of script but not any more) don't forget you can always choose to take the legal hit if you the sell price is worth it, or try a bribe....also buying up slaves when cheap at OXP stations for release at main stations can turn a nice profit when they start contacting you and inviting you for dinner a few game weeks later...dinner is normally accompanied by a fat thank-you cheque. Good Karma as-well.

How very humane Captain Murphy. I hate the idea of slavery.

SandJ wrote:

1. Is it possible to write an .OXP that automatically sells (or even releases / hands in / donates) all slaves, narcotics or firearms immediately on docking?

Shouldn't be too difficult.

SandJ wrote:

2. Do you always get an offender status when launching from a main station with slaves, narcotics or firearms on board, regardless of circumstances?

Yes, unless you get a fugitive status.

To clarify: each ton of each illicit commodity on board your ship gives you either a 1₢- or a 2₢-raise on your bounty, depending on the commodity. Subsequent launches give subsequent bounty raises even when immediately docking again. All bounties starting from 51₢ are automatically translated into a 'fugitive' tag. Thus it's very easy to become not only offender but fugitive.

SandJ wrote:

3. From what kind of dockables can you launch with narcotics, slaves or firearms on board without getting a criminal record?

Everything that's not a main station.

MEGALODON wrote:

I thought in Oolite law under the bounties act that any offender or fugitive eliminated that any cargo dumped is considered a salvage bonus and not subject to charges as its part of the loot from apprehending a criminal.

If I understand you correctly you are worried about what happens if you scoop illicit cargo and deliver it to a station.

Nothing will happen on a main station, as long as you don't forget to sell the cargo. It is perfectly legal to dock at a main station with illicit commodities. It's only illegal to launch while having them on your ship.

And nothing at all will happen on any other station. Non-main-stations don't care about your cargo, neither on docking nor on launching.

Very interesting responses indeed.

I'm wondering if there's any point in an additional or revised script, to introduce some kind of how do I say it.....

Like a good standing +/- scale

For example like in escort contracts the more successful you are the more they pay. Perhaps some sort of consideration could be implemented into this illegal goods..

One thing I thought of is like getting pulled over on a traffic stop.

Possibilities of a comms screen to have galcops threaten to open fire if you do not stand your weapons down in a time interval. Or a request to drop cargo for a small reduction of your bounty.

Another thing I'm not sure about is the rate or factor your rep is repaired.

For example getting into station aegis and a huge battle is going on. You lock up an offender and bounty is say 12, creds you blast him or help out a cop and it barely drops.

Any thoughts to when you eliminate a criminal that for every 10 of targets bounty yours drops by a random number from one to 10 perhaps. ?

Perhaps a chance to when you dock like the reserves for navy
Based on your record your given a quota to do bounty hunting.
The bounty is banked and then
Either you pay a lesser fine when you complete it,
Or your bounty is reduced something along those lines.

Just some thoughts hope people are in agreement.

Or a quick random mission of stop this shipment of (random selected contraband)
For each you recover and hand over your bounty will drop.

If you leave the system your bounty triples or some major penalty if you default on your assignment.

Also if your wanting amensty to dock at a behemoth for duty you should be able to declare your intent that you are coming to help and should not be attacked, if the navy is going to fire on you for coming to take their offer you should be given a delay to dock without harassment if you want to help. It makes no sense to try and dodge fire when you're answering the call for duty.

Some of this is already part of vanilla Oolite (bounty reduction for helping the police, for instance). For other features around your bounty you should look into installing  Anarchies.oxp.

MEGALODON wrote:

One thing I thought of is like getting pulled over on a traffic stop.

This is part of  Vector.oxp .-)

I'm impressed thank you for the recommendation for vector.

From what I read it gives a true fork in the road kind of like an intergalactic feel of Blade Runner and Good Fellas.
Gangstas in space and cunning cops..

Traditional cops and robbers or five-o in space.

Very cool..

Didn't get much sleep yesterday trying to find the right mix of oxps to get a smooth and enriching game play thank you so much for sharing this, a true holy grail gem in the ooniverse.

with respects Commanders.

MEGALODON