Oolite Bulletins

Per this post of cim's:

cim wrote:

Oolite doesn't support fugitive players very well in the core game anyway - no way to get equipment beyond basic missiles, joining up with pirate packs is unreliable, etc. If anyone wants to start a different thread to talk about how that could be improved I'll be interested to hear your ideas - especially if there are some which could go into the core game.

I'd like to make one suggestion.. don't know how hard it would be to implement..

Further to making it easier to join a pirate pack, what about having the ability to start/lead your own pirate pack?

Re equipment, black market from F4?
Could have less availability and/or higher prices. Perhaps it has less tech or is tech level independant (then non fugitive players might be tempted to use it...)

I think providing an alternative to main system stations would be the place to start: scattering some pirate/nonaligned bases in certain systems (probably at the bottom end of the stability scale), where more or less the same goods and services are available, minus the Vipers and the attitude adjustments. Prices should probably be the inverse of the norm: items which legitimate traders are bringing in should be cheap and plentiful (based on the volume of trade), and items produced by the local planet should be more expensive. I tried to do this, more or less successfully I think, in the market prices for the Free Trade Zones - but that was a long time ago, and much has changed since then.

It might be interesting, though, to give these bases an alternative form of currency - or at least to give a heavy penalty to payments made in Co-op Credits. An unofficial trading network might prefer to deal in specie: gold, platinum and gems. How this would be handled, though, I don't know: maybe just setting a universally high selling prices for shinies in these bases would be enough? Repairs, etc. would probably be expensive, but this might be offset if you have a stash of precious metals to your name.

One basic thing, though, I think: the player would have to commit to a life outside the Co-operative. It should be very, very difficult to walk a line between both worlds. It shouldn't be impossible to cross back again - for a criminal to reform, or for a bounty hunter to become a pirate - but it should be hard to do; and very hard to do it more than once. There would have to be a difference, though, between just being an Offender/Fugitive, and making the leap into choosing the life of an outlaw: a point at which your legal status becomes fixed, without (say) clearing it via a Galactic jump.

The local reputation system would probably be the principal way to manage this: build a rep as a pirate or smuggler, and you have a chance of making a contact, getting a beacon heading for a pirate base, and working from there. There might also be an early mission, akin (at first) to the Trumbles offer, from which the player can be given the chance to wander down the primrose path into a life of crime (or resistance to the Co-operative, if you want to give it a bit of glamour). Maybe there could be an alternative native mission sequence: help to steal the Constrictor!

There are other issues: what happens if the player ejects, and gets caught, and brought in to a main system station? This might require the paying of a hefty bribe. Is there a mechanism for becoming a fence? An ostensibly Clean trader who can ship the loot in to a main station, and bring back e.g. food and consumables? (One method might involve bribing - at some risk - a local law enforcer, and obtaining a time-limited and perhaps not 100% reliable Clean record, at least as far as the Vipers are concerned; bounty hunters might be a different proposition, though!) Are there other services the player can offer a nonaligned base, like bringing in fuel, or spare parts?

Lots of good ideas there..

How about there being a chance that the main station in a system gets taken over by pirates/insurgents/malcontents. It's then open for fugitives to use freely. The chance could be linked to government type, so most likely in Anarchy systems, but not impossible even in a Corporate state. There could then be a second chance to revert, so making it unsafe/safe (depending on criminality).

Venator Dha wrote:

How about there being a chance that the main station in a system gets taken over by pirates/insurgents/malcontents. It's then open for fugitives to use freely. The chance could be linked to government type, so most likely in Anarchy systems, but not impossible even in a Corporate state. There could then be a second chance to revert, so making it unsafe/safe (depending on criminality).

I would imagine the chances of a Corporate State Station reverting, would be far higher than that for an Anarchy/Feudal State Station.. a corporation would be willing and able to put in a lot more effort (both in terms of $$$ and sheer brutality) to recapture a lost station.

I don't think the politics of the planet are that relevent really, as the stations are GalCop controlled. The only real difference is that the 'Higher' worlds can fund more policing of the space-lanes (if they choose too), but I don't think there is any more chance of a station at an Anarchic planet being taken over by pirates than anywhere else really.
If Fugitive support is desired (and I do like the idea) this needs to be done elsewhere, such as Hermits or dedicated (hidden) pirate bases, or carriers?

Smivs wrote:

I don't think the politics of the planet are that relevent really, as the stations are GalCop controlled. The only real difference is that the 'Higher' worlds can fund more policing of the space-lanes (if they choose too), but I don't think there is any more chance of a station at an Anarchic planet being taken over by pirates than anywhere else really.

I'd respectfully disagree.. not only would such an event have a severe negative impact on the Corporation's bottom line (sorry for the marketing-droid speak) due to loss of trade, but it would have a similar affect on their reputation, stock price, and so forth.. I'd think they'd be willing to go to considerable effort to rectify the situation, ostensibly on GalCop's behalf, and out of the goodness of their hearts, of course.. and no doubt attempting to wring some concessions out of GalCop by way of compensation. Heck, they'd probably have their own mercenaries on-call for such things.. Witness MonSatan's Monsanto's recent acquisition of Blackwater/Xe/Academi.. what possible need has a seed, chemical and fertiliser company for owning the world's biggest private mercenary army (with the worst reputation, to boot)?

Diziet Sma wrote:

what possible need has a seed, chemical and fertiliser company for owning the world's biggest private mercenary army (with the worst reputation, to boot)?

In case their genetically-modified plants develop limbs and break out of the lab, of course.

More support for fugitives? A contrabandista such as myself would definitely be in favour of that (and I keep thinking of Corke's Drift for some reason)!

Diziet Sma wrote:

I'd respectfully disagree.. not only would such an event have a severe negative impact on the Corporation's bottom line (sorry for the marketing-droid speak) due to loss of trade, but it would have a similar affect on their reputation, stock price, and so forth.. I'd think they'd be willing to go to considerable effort to rectify the situation, ostensibly on GalCop's behalf, and out of the goodness of their hearts, of course.. and no doubt attempting to wring some concessions out of GalCop by way of compensation.

Unless it was the corporation who took over the station They might want to have free trade in pharmaceuticalsnarcotics for instance. Corporate state doesn't necessarily mean good .

Venator Dha wrote:

Corporate state doesn't necessarily mean good .

I'd go a little further.. Corporate State by definition means Not Good.. if not Downright Evil..

But maybe that's just the anarchist in me..

Diziet Sma wrote:

Witness MonSatan's Monsanto's recent acquisition of Blackwater/Xe/Academi.. what possible need has a seed, chemical and fertiliser company for owning the world's biggest private mercenary army (with the worst reputation, to boot)?

Worst reputation for a chemical company or for their security forces? ...Because in their case you have to be more specific.

Disembodied wrote:

Is there a mechanism for becoming a fence? An ostensibly Clean trader who can ship the loot in to a main station, and bring back e.g. food and consumables? (One method might involve bribing - at some risk - a local law enforcer, and obtaining a time-limited and perhaps not 100% reliable Clean record, at least as far as the Vipers are concerned; bounty hunters might be a different proposition, though!) Are there other services the player can offer a nonaligned base, like bringing in fuel, or spare parts?

I would think the player just visiting a "wretched hive" is almost automatically a fence -- they can't help but buy those cheap trade goods, seeing that there's easy profits to be made off them. And if there's some trade goods with a considerable price markup, that's quick profits for "savvy" traders. And as for selling equipment, removing lasers already exists as an OXP as does sell equipment OXP. Anarchies OXP has Salvage Gang stations with all kinds of salvaged and possibly questionable-reliability "used" equipment.
Worst comes to worst, you could sell your whole ship for a poorly equipped, non-jumping fighter or miner type...you'd just have a slow and bumpy ride back to the main station to "fix" that. Doing all that is already almost trivially easy to do via OXPs.

The hard part is making it balanced so you can't just "farm" it over-and-over again.

Switeck wrote:

Diziet Sma wrote:

Witness MonSatan's Monsanto's recent acquisition of Blackwater/Xe/Academi.. what possible need has a seed, chemical and fertiliser company for owning the world's biggest private mercenary army (with the worst reputation, to boot)?

Worst reputation for a chemical company or for their security forces? ...Because in their case you have to be more specific.

Arguably, both.. but in this case I was specifically referring to Blackwater.

I seem to recall stations taken over idea - might have been Anarchies OXP.