Oolite Bulletins

Commodore Sics D'fore wrote:

Selezen wrote:

...If you are carrying valuable cargo, your ass is grass, ...

Which makes me wonder: How do those pirates know what is in my cargo hold? I can't tell what's in theirs!

What do people think? Would it be cool or not to have some kind of sensor device for purchase that tells you (at least to some degree) what other ships are carrying? I don't even know if it would be practical from a programming standpoint (as I know nothing about programming), but would such a thing add or detract from the game experience, in your opinions? Would it spoil the suprise too much, or add an extra layer of strategy/interest to the game?

to which I said...

NoSleep wrote:

The scanner idea makes sense. Otherwise, if I choose to be a pirate myself, how come I'm the only one without this inside information?

Instead of scanner, there could be a message describing a ship that is carrying valuable cargo in that system. That would make it more of a hunt, like a mini-mission within each system. Maybe you should have to buy in to this (high price, of course).

After all, we already have automatic identification of pirates, Although I prefer the the 'mini mission' idea.

There are more obvious things to consider.
The game, it seems, poses challenges partly due to your experiance and gain.

More importantly though, your trade routes have a big outcome on your likelyhood of a pirate encounter. Anarchy = bad, corporate= ok (everything else in between is whatever; democracy, feudal etc).
So, if you trade in contraband the GalCops will purse you more vigorously in a corporate system. If you trade likewise in a anarchic system, it's riddled with low-lifes anyway. They don't care what you have got onboard, it's profit at your loss - well life to be exact .

The moral here is: Don't visit rogue star systems. Don't trade in contraband and your life will be easier.
Bear in mind that such a conservative approach will do little for your rating...

I think you're wrong. What prompted me to post this was someone else's observation that pirates (also cops) seem to know when you're loaded with valuable (or in the case of cops, illegal) cargo. I've noticed this bias myself.

This discussion leads me to another idea. Illegal upgrades for your ship. Basically stuff you can only buy if you've been a fugitive for a set amount of time, to establish your killer reputation.

Prophaniti wrote:

This discussion leads me to another idea. Illegal upgrades for your ship. Basically stuff you can only buy if you've been a fugitive for a set amount of time, to establish your killer reputation.

a) For balance, you'd also have to have equipment that you could only get if you were legally squeeky clean, such as military equipment.
b) As these would be illegal and secret, they obviously wouldn't be covered by your escape capsule insurance.

What you could do is have local weapon restrictions, for example not being able to buy Quirium mines in Corporate States or Dictatorships.