Oolite Bulletins

There have been a few times when I encountered a ship with Offender status that behaved like a conventional ship - didn't make any hostile moves, didn't even face me. Of course, any ship with Offender status is fair game, so I blew them away, but I got pitiful "Help! They're firing at us!" and even "Please leave us alone!" comms. This leads me to believe they weren't pirates but maybe good guys who left a system with contraband on board...

However there was no mistaking what happened just recently. I stumbled into a large group of pirates, 8 or more, and they started pounding me, so I high-tailed it out of there with injectors. A Krait follows me with his injectors, hitting my aft shields all the way. When I'm safely clear of the pirates and he's the only one left (still banging away at me) I turn around and face him, blasting him with my military laser. He complains "Help! They're firing at us!" then "Help! Anyone!".

Sheesh. He chases me when I try to run, firing the whole way, gets away from his buddies, then acts like I'm the bad guy.

Ah, but were you clean at the time? If you are an offender or more, some clean ships will lock you with their ID computers and see that there is a bounty on your head and attempt to pocket it! The rule that an offender is fair game applies to the player as well. The attacker will stay clean and any police ships that come along will take his side. These NPC bounty hunters do wine though they find that they've bitten off more than they can chew, broadcasting distress calls hoping some nearby Cops will come to their aid. Cowardly fat birds!

I, sir, am always clean.

Hmm. Could be a bug then. Probabley someone accidently give a ship with pirateAI a zero bounty entry. That would make him clean, but he'll still behave like a pirate, so won't become an Offender unless a Cop spots him firing on a Clean ship - including the player. Some traders are Offenders though, as they've become offenders by hauling stuff they shoudn't, so although they have a bounty they are still cowardly traders and won't fire unless fired up and may just decide to try to run away, pleading as they go!

LittleBear wrote:

Some traders are Offenders though, as they've become offenders by hauling stuff they shoudn't, so although they have a bounty they are still cowardly traders and won't fire unless fired up and may just decide to try to run away, pleading as they go!

I figured this was the case. They just didn't behave at all like pirates.

The Krait that was chasing me though, was definitely a pirate. I thought it was pretty funny. I could picture him trying to explain it to the GalCops:

"But he started firing at me!"

"What were you doing at the time?"

"Chasing him with my fuel injectors. He was trying to get away from me with his fuel injectors."

"Were you firing at him?"

"Uhh, yeah, but he shouldn't have fired back! No fair!"

Yeah, thats how it works. If a cop had come along he would have said to himself "'ello 'ello 'ello, whats all this, that guy is attacking a clean ship. That's a crime! Attack!". His AI does a scanforOffenders and a scanforOffences. If he spots a guy with a criminal record he goes for him. But he'll go for the worst bad guy if there is more than one. So if you were a Fugitive scrapping with an Offender the Cop might take the other guy's side (and visa versa). If he spots an offence being committed (like firing on a Clean ship), he awards the perp a criminal record. That ship then becomes an Offender and he attacks. This can cut both ways though. Although you were fired upon by a clean ship and only returned fire in self-defence, if the cop only picked up your battle on his scanner half way though the furball and so all he saw was you fireing on a clean ship, he spotted you committing a crime and gives you a rap sheet!

"But Officer he fired on me first!"

"Not what I saw sonny! Your nicked!"

Hey, misscaridges of justice can happen somtimes.

LittleBear wrote:

Although you were fired upon by a clean ship and only returned fire in self-defence

He had Offender status, which is what makes his comms all the more funny.

LittleBear wrote:

Yeah, thats how it works. If a cop had come along he would have said to himself "'ello 'ello 'ello, whats all this, that guy is attacking a clean ship. That's a crime! Attack!". His AI does a scanforOffenders and a scanforOffences. If he spots a guy with a criminal record he goes for him. But he'll go for the worst bad guy if there is more than one. So if you were a Fugitive scrapping with an Offender the Cop might take the other guy's side (and visa versa). If he spots an offence being committed (like firing on a Clean ship), he awards the perp a criminal record. That ship then becomes an Offender and he attacks. This can cut both ways though. Although you were fired upon by a clean ship and only returned fire in self-defence, if the cop only picked up your battle on his scanner half way though the furball and so all he saw was you fireing on a clean ship, he spotted you committing a crime and gives you a rap sheet

This is a great tactic to use on BoyRacers. let one start climbing all over you, wait til a GalCop is there and let the little git shoot you. Result? the BoyRacer get's a record and you get the bounty when you kill him. Everyone's happy

Captain Hesperus

I got a Fugitive Python screaming for help - screams didn't last long. Cake scoops active.

This could simply be the reverse of the trader-with-pirate AI problem reported earlier..

I was attacked by a clean Krait, even thoug I was clean myself, in the presence of two vipers, who immediately turned on him. Luckil I was able to finish him off and pocket the bounty before they did. What kind of idiot attacks a clean trader in full view of the cops?

lolwhites wrote:

I was attacked by a clean Krait, even thoug I was clean myself, in the presence of two vipers, who immediately turned on him. Luckil I was able to finish him off and pocket the bounty before they did. What kind of idiot attacks a clean trader in full view of the cops?

Consider it natural selection. He was never going to make it in the big wide Ooniverse, so his genetics decided to give him a glorious death in battle rather than an ignominious end at the hands of the Thargoids.

Captain Hesperus

I've had the same thing happen to me a couple of times, and the first time it was a Moray Medical Boat, which I've never seen in a pirate role. I'm wondering, could it have got attacked and accidentally hit the wrong ship in the battle? If the police were around that could've got the guy an offender tag (which is a bit harsh for the odd stray shot).

Moray Medical Boats (and some other ships) will behave as pirates when created by scripts requesting traders in versions prior to 1.69.1. The auto_ai property was introduced to circumvent this problem.

It's not necessarily a bad thing that they do. Being able to tell whether or not some ships are threats or not purely based on ship type isn't entirely logical - the question should only be "Would this ship be of any use to a potential (possibly desperate) pirate?"