Oolite Bulletins

Something that's always confused me is that GalCop System Ships et al. can be found in large numbers in the most stable systems (Corporate States, Democracies, etc.), but you'd be lucky to see even a single Viper around the station in an Anarchy. If GalCop's remit is to keep the space lanes between the Witchpoint and the station open, why are they securing the most stable systems and ignoring the least stable. As I see it, in Corporate States, the majority of peace-keeping vessels should be independant companies, employed by the Corporations of the system to maintain the space lanes and deter piracy (like Ramirez' Seleza.oxp), while GalCop would be tasked with taking Law To The Lawless (to coin a certain futuristic comic character) in the Anarchies and Feudals.

What does anyone else think?

Captain Hesperus
"I think a little help against these damn pirates would be VERY handy!"

Well, I think the anarchy doesn't have government, so no cops, but Feudalism should definitively have some, as should Communism etc.

It's funny though. Sometimes in Feudalism or Anarchy I meet bunches of pirates, but sometimes none at all, while in Corp states sometimes there are also bunches of pirates attacking me (or attacking the cops). Seems rather dumb to me...

Captain Hesperus wrote:

Something that's always confused me is that GalCop System Ships et al. can be found in large numbers in the most stable systems (Corporate States, Democracies, etc.), but you'd be lucky to see even a single Viper around the station in an Anarchy.

I guess for the original games sake there had to be a relationship between the number of pirates and police found in systems. You would expect to find that more pirates would appear in an anarchy system and vice versa.

Perhaps an OXP to introduce Galcop SWAT patrols very occasionally into an anarchy system together with a few extra aggressive pirates wouldn't upset the balance and make life a bit busier. In fact it would make sense to add them to the optimal trading pairs, so that high profit making would be a little more dangerous.

GalCop runs the Station. The Govenment runs the planet. I guess in the more dangerous systems the GalCops stick close to the Station, so are rarley seen in the Space Lanes. I'd always figured that the Station was like an Embassy where you were subject to GalCop Law regardless of the System's Govenment. Eg the UK Embassy in America is British Terrorory even though it is in the US and you are subject to British Law whilst in the Embassy and visa versa with the US embassy in the UK.

What'd be fun though would be to see Govenment Cops in the Space Lanes (but perhaps not blue on the scanner as they are not offical GalCops), Dictatorship Cops firing on you for bring in certain goods banned in the Dictatorship, but allowed by GalCop.

LittleBear wrote:

I'd always figured that the Station was like an Embassy where you were subject to GalCop Law regardless of the System's Govenment. Eg the UK Embassy in America is British Territory.

That's been my take on things. In the more stable stable systems, I see the government as being a fully paid-up member of Galactic Cooperation, and so GalCop effectively becomes the local police force, responsible for protecting both the space station and the spacelanes. Having said, I also see the Corporate States as being slightly more independent of GalCop than the Democracies and Confederacies and so may also maintain separate military fleets (kind of like the UK or US operating outside of the UN or NATO when the need arises).

In the less stable systems (Communist and below), I think the relationship between GalCop and the government isn't as strong, and the main purpose of GalCop units (if any) would be to defend the space station and to offer some protection to visitors arriving from neighbouring systems.

LittleBear wrote:

What'd be fun though would be to see Govenment Cops in the Space Lanes (but perhaps not blue on the scanner as they are not offical GalCops), Dictatorship Cops firing on you for bring in certain goods banned in the Dictatorship, but allowed by GalCop.

In the dictatorship expansion I'm working on, I have government-backed militias patrolling the spacelanes, seeking out dissidents and other political enemies, while only a handful of GalCop units are present to look after the station. My thinking is that in a dictatorship, the government is more concerned with oppressing its own citizens than interfering with lucrative foreign trade, and so a small GalCop presence in the system is tolerated.

Ramirez wrote:

In the dictatorship expansion I'm working on, I have government-backed militias patrolling the spacelanes, seeking out dissidents and other political enemies, while only a handful of GalCop units are present to look after the station. My thinking is that in a dictatorship, the government is more concerned with oppressing its own citizens than interfering with lucrative foreign trade, and so a small GalCop presence in the system is tolerated.

I look forward to your take on this. It sounds like variations on some of your ideas could also be used for future versions of Commies.