Elite Ranking, Communications & time taken

[Cholmondely]

In Oolite, acknowledgement of a kill, payment of bounty and the impact on one's Elite Rating are all immediate.

Does this actually make sense?

The details of the kill have to be sent to the Elite Federation for registration, and that message has to be communicated to all systems in the galaxy.

How long would this actually take? And how reliable is it?



TIME
Either Elite ratings are handled locally by a local office (presumably located in the main orbital station) or centrally (presumably Lave or Zadies for G1).

The information has to go from my ship to the office, analysed (how does anybody know for certain if my victim's ship is "dead" or not?), and my Elite ranking adjusted.

This happens instantaneously? Really?

And other systems find out instantaneously? Really? Even anarchies where the Main Orbital Station has been destroyed or occupied by pirates?

Should they not find out later - which could lead to interesting consequences if I have meanwhile arrived at that system and docked!

And there should also be consequences for bounty payment - this ought not to be immediate either!



RELIABILITY
How can I be credited for the kill in my Elite Ranking but not be tagged as a criminal unless a GalCop cop is present or I'm inside the aegis?

1) In G4, dominated by Commies, perhaps the Commie states have access to these records and can see that I was the culprit? And similar situations elsewhere... If I bump off the President of the Elite Federation (or of GalCop itself), will nobody ever find out that I was responsible? Really?

2) Is it the pilot's death which is being checked for? Or their ship's destruction? And how reliable is it?
- If I am on a secret mission, can I add in equipment which masks the death so I lose credit for it - but possibly escape being tagged as the perpetrator?
- And add other equipment so that my bosses can see that I've fulfilled their mission.



CONCLUSION

I think that this is an area possibly ripe for OXPing (vanilla game code permitting) with some interesting in-game possibilities.



References:
Communication

[Cody]

In Oolite, acknowledgement of a kill, payment of bounty and the impact on one's Elite Rating are all immediate.

Does this actually make sense?

The details of the kill have to be sent to the Elite Federation for registration, and that message has to be communicated to all systems in the galaxy.

How long would this actually take? And how reliable is it?

I suspect a chrono-synclastic infundibulum is doing its thing!

[phkb]

I think that this is an area possibly ripe for OXPing (vanilla game code permitting) with some interesting in-game possibilities.

You wouldn't be able to stop the bounty payment appearing as a console message. But aside from that, the bounty could be immediately deducted from your credits, along with the change in score, and then only applied when you visit some official location. I could probably add this to "Bounty System".

Edit to add: You probably wouldn't be able to stop the "Right on, Commander" message either. At least not without a bit of fiddling.

2) Is it the pilot's death which is being checked for? Or their ship's destruction? And how reliable is it?
- If I am on a secret mission, can I add in equipment which masks the death so I lose credit for it - but possibly escape being tagged as the perpetrator?
- And add other equipment so that my bosses can see that I've fulfilled their mission.

You would only be tagged as the perpetrator if there was some official entity within scanner range (GalCop Viper, GalCop Station etc). But you could certainly create equipment items to negate any bounty received when performing certain activities.

[Cody]

"Right on, Commander"

Good to see the missing comma (but not in-game, I guess?). Does it still pop-up every 256 kills?

[phkb]

"Right on, Commander"

Good to see the missing comma (but not in-game, I guess?). Does it still pop-up every 256 kills?

I believe so. I certainly haven’t seen it be removed! Usually I’m too busy fighting things at the time to see it pop up myself.

[Cody]

Usually I’m too busy fighting things at the time to see it pop up myself.

Yeah... many years since I last saw it.