Every time you get a bounty from GalCop you have registered a kill, every time you attack a trader and have your legal status adjusted as a result a record is created. As the Wiki states the Galactic Federation maintains these records and assigns your threat rating based on these numbers. Sure there is plenty of wiggle room and I'm contemplating adding a random factor to account for mis-reporting, however if you have ever collected a bounty your status is absolutely advertised. I see the Threat Scanner upgrade as simply interrogating GalCop for that rating along with the legal status and potential bounty. Again I'm playing with including a random time factor between target acquisition and rating reporting to account for the time to pull the information from the GalCop database across a sub-space link.
I have the same problem with this as Diziet Sma. Sure, GalCop does have your legal record. And I'd expect police Vipers to be able to access it. But nobody else. I don't believe at all that any random pilot would be 'simply interrogating GalCop for that rating'. That's not how the police work today, and it's not how police have worked ever. I certainly can not call the police and 'interrogate' them for the full legal record of any person I meet—in real time, while I'm seeing that person for the first time, no less! I'm also very certain that where you live you can't do that as well. And I see not the slightest indication that this would become the norm 1000 years in the future.
So, third parties can not access a pilot's legal record. And they also cannot access his Elite rating, because that one isn't recorded by GalCop at all, but by the private Elite Federation of Pilots, which is a secretive organisation that isn't known for 'advertising' anything.
I'm also very certain that where you live you can't do that as well.
Unfortunately in this part of the US my local tax records are freely available to all on the internet along with those of everyone else in the area. You can see all sorts of wonderful personal information. I do however see what you're saying and I hadn't thought about it that way. I would agree with you in that case.
I interpret the legal record somewhat differently. These days we have a list of "most wanted" in some cases, or "would like to speak to" announced via the media. So I don't see anything wrong with assuming that if at our current state we are appealing for information from the public, that in the far future someone's legal status is published, either so that information can be collected, or that somebody with the means to deal with the offender (on the assumption that GalCop is infallible) can can take care with the problem. (I also operate under the assumption that GalCop is merely responsible for keeping the peace, and therefore is willing to take any help that they can get, as long as it does not break any laws, or get in their way...
These days we have a list of "most wanted" in some cases, or "would like to speak to" announced via the media. So I don't see anything wrong with assuming that if at our current state we are appealing for information from the public, that in the far future someone's legal status is published, either so that information can be collected, or that somebody with the means to deal with the offender (on the assumption that GalCop is infallible) can can take care with the problem.
Legal status is one thing.. that's the whole point behind "Clean, Offender, Fugitive". Necessary to "keeping the peace", as it were..
Your Pilot Ranking, on the other hand, is another matter entirely.
Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck. ~ Disembodied
Your Pilot Ranking, on the other hand, is another matter entirely.
Perhaps Pilot Ranking is best viewed as analogous to qualifications. For the EFP ratings to actually mean anything beyond a number recorded (and easily faked) by your own ship's computer, people have to be able to verify your claim to be a Competent combateer. However, you as the pilot have to give them access to your EFP rating. Many pilots will probably do so routinely enough that it is public knowledge; others will only give you the ability to verify that they are at least Competent, because that's all you asked. (Elite combateers probably just have to put up with everyone knowing who they are)
(Elite combateers probably just have to put up with everyone knowing who they are)
Elite combateers probably do their best not to appear to be Elite..
Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck. ~ Disembodied
My guess the main part of the pilots do not say anything, a few famous hunter (with clean status and from competent level) reveal rankings to get more missions but anothers say fake rankings: weaks say higher to frighten off pirates and strongs say lower to cause surprises.
![[EliteWiki]](/images/elitewikismall.png){kind=small}
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