Oolite Bulletins

Hello, all ye old traders!

I am still pretty new in this business, and have come to ask you for a little bit of help.

You see, in my young days, while still trying to learn the ways of the traders, I thought I could make a great profit in pharmaceuticals. I should have known better, as the unfriendly coppers told me. Well, I made a mistake, and I paid the fine, and that should have been the end of it.

But from that fateful day, I am labelled as 'offender'. I am afraid that soon that I start to be able to do some serious business, my associates will frown upon such a label. Is there any way to wipe out that one youthful transgression from my books and clear my name?

Humbly yours

Heikki III

Welcome to the boards, heikki III!
Every young Jameson gains at least an Offender status at least once in their career. It's no great harm in the long run, a few hyperspace jumps between systems and keeping your nose clean (no shipping 'pharmaceuticals', you rascal!) and GalCop tend to clear your record again. It's only if you remain an unremitting Offender, or worse, take your frustrations out on, say, a Viper, you will get nailed with a Fugitive status. This one sticks much longer.

My advice, trade in less 'illegal' merchandise and keep your nose clean. Oh, and can I interest you in a cute, fluffy, adorable little pet to keep you company on the long, quite journey?

Captain Hesperus

Captain Hesperus wrote:

Welcome to the boards, heikki III!
Every young Jameson gains at least an Offender status at least once in their career. It's no great harm in the long run, a few hyperspace jumps between systems and keeping your nose clean (no shipping 'pharmaceuticals', you rascal!) and GalCop tend to clear your record again.

Thanks. I have learned the lesson that one guy's vital medicine is poison for another, and outlawed substance on the next world... I guess I just need to wait it out, and hope the GalCops will forget and forgive...

Captain Hesperus wrote:

Oh, and can I interest you in a cute, fluffy, adorable little pet to keep you company on the long, quite journey?
Captain Hesperus

No thanks, I don't have enough room nor credits for this yet. Maybe some day I can find myself a nice little hermit rock to retire on, and start breeding them for food. Said to taste good when properly grilled...

- Heikki III

heikki III wrote:

Said to taste good when properly grilled...

Be careful about the rumours you listen to....

Captain Hesperus

heikki III wrote:

Is there any way to wipe out that one youthful transgression from my books and clear my name?

It's possible, I think, to purge away your sins doing Good Works. This pretty much consists of slaughtering any and every ship you see that happens to bear an "offender" or "fugitive" tag: get hold of a Scanner Targeting Enhancement if you don't already have one, to get a peek at another ship's criminal record (don't point it at Hesperus, though, or it might burst). A bit harsh, really, especially when some may just have an overdue library book. But their loss of life is your gain in respectability... and some of them may be carrying some tasty cargo, too, so it's win-win. Well, less so for the deceased, but they were probably bad mammals/reptiles/birds/amphibians/bugs/slugs etc. anyway. In desperate straits you could seek to boost your standing in the galactic community by seeking out Thargons to destroy -- although frankly you're best to save this option until you have more than harsh language to aim at them.

In the old days (i.e. on the Spectrum Elite) making a Galactic hyperspace jump to a new galaxy would clear your record, no matter how villainous you might have been. Presumably criminal record-handling technology hasn't advanced much beyond that of the UK's own dear Home Office.

Disembodied wrote:

It's possible, I think, to purge away your sins doing Good Works. This pretty much consists of slaughtering any and every ship you see that happens to bear an "offender" or "fugitive" tag: get hold of a Scanner Targeting Enhancement if you don't already have one, to get a peek at another ship's criminal record. A bit harsh, really, especially when some may just have an overdue library book. But their loss of life is your gain in respectability... and some of them may be carrying some tasty cargo, too, so it's win-win. Well, less so for the deceased, but they were probably bad mammals/reptiles/birds/amphibians/bugs/slugs etc. anyway. In desperate straits you could seek to boost your standing in the galactic community by seeking out Thargons to destroy -- although frankly you're best to save this option until you have more than harsh language to aim at them.

I don't know about that., I think it only works by jumping system to system.

Disembodied wrote:

(don't point it as Hesperus, though, or it might burst)

OI!!!!

Disembodied wrote:

on the Spectrum Elite) making a Galactic hyperspace jump to a new galaxy would clear your record, no matter how villainous you might have been. Presumably criminal record-handling technology hasn't advanced much beyond that of the UK's own dear Home Office.

I think this also works on Oolite.

Captain Hesperus

Captain Hesperus wrote:

I don't know about that., I think it only works by jumping system to system.

Oh... oh, well, this may just be a delusion I've had for 20-something years.

Captain Hesperus wrote:

OI!!!!

What? What? I said it "might" burst. There's always the possibility that it won't. If it's robustly built, and well-maintained, and adequately cooled, and you're far enough away...

Disembodied wrote:

(don't point it as Hesperus, though, or it might burst).

I'm sure GalCop has him listed as 'general public neusance and minor health threat', with a measly 5 cred bounty, thusly, career bounty killers such as I leave him alone; he's not worth the effort.
If his pets got loose on an agri world, he'd be carrying an ecoterrorism charge and a high price, and every Viper and bounty hunter in known space training lasers on him.

Hi Heikki III and welcome to the boards.

All the above is good advice, there is also a bit of a cheat too, when you hit escape and toddle off in the escape capsule, when you arrive at the Corriolis space station, your ship is "replaced" with an identical one and your status reverts to clean, but you will have lost all the cargo you had on board. You can then purchase a new escape capsule. So........ unscrupulous traders with plenty of dosh have been known to empty their cargo hold, beat up a few innocents and Galcops to increase their kill rating, and then clean themselves up!

Hi, heikki III, and welcome to the board!

Never mind this little Offender status. It will go away after some jumps to other systems.

Note, however, that drugs are not the only illicit commodity. Trade in slaves as well as in firearms will harm your reputation in the same way, but you might have figured out that.

Note furthermore, that only those commodities you transport out of a station will add to your legal record. You are allowed to bring anything in and sell it on the station without any prerogative. So, if you happen to scoop a couple of cargo canisters with drugs or firearms in the course of a battle, don't fear, brave commander! But make sure you realise your profit in the same system.

Good deeds will not help you (except for your killcount, of course).

And indeed, the last resort is to use your escape capsule (you should for obvious reasons sell all your cargo before you do that).

Please keep in mind that the automatic docking system of a station refuses to let you dock, should you have become a Fugitive. (Nevertheless you still can dock manually.) Also the police ships will attack you mercilessly.

******

Or you could install Anarchies.oxp. Still in version 0.1, but version 1.0 will be available before soon (as soon as I have sorted out these *&§*%ing escorts). This will change your Ooniverse in a few ways:

- The Fugitive status will stick to you much longer, not just a couple of jumps.

- Once you are Offender or Fugitive, good deeds will do you good. Sometimes you will get a reduction of your legal status instead of the bounty.

- The escape capsule-trick will not work anymore.

- In anarchy systems there will be a couple of other (more or less illegal and thus more or less expensive) way to get rid of your legal record and become clean again. But don't bother, if you once have made hundreds of thousands in cash with piracy and illegal trading, a couple of thousand credits won't do you harm.

So, feel free to choose your way of living. Anarchies.oxp (0.1) is still available on Oosat 2.