Oolite Bulletins

I learned tonight what happens when you decide to be a little risky and trade in the more shadowy items like slaves and firearms...

No one likes to let you dock easily and the cops fire at you as you're trying to line up to the station manually.

How the heck's a guy supposed to make a decent wage

windrider wrote:

How the heck's a guy supposed to make a decent wage

Back to the staple computers and luxuries?
Or are you so desperate you're considering to pray on the hapless?
If you do steep so low, remember that sucessful pirates are the ones that manage to remain anonimous!

Getting shot at for just being an Offender is pretty harsh IMO. I think you should only get shot at for that if you're observed carrying out the offence.
OTOH you can sit around blowing up Vipers as they launch, and the station will still let you dock... Unfortunately Oolite doesn't have everything quite as right as the original.

If you’re an offender, you have been caught carrying out an offense.

They had a deal on drugs and guns I just couldn't pass up...

Ahruman wrote:

If you’re an offender, you have been caught carrying out an offense.

I meant by the police that saw you do it. As it stands, there's no difference that I can see between being an Offender or a Fugitive, except that the latter takes longer to clear. I also don't like the "have to be seen by the police" part - someone still sees enough of what you do to pay bounties, after all.

If the police see you they may just "mark you for fines", making you an offender rather than attacking. However, once you are an offender the police scan for offenders and attack the worst one they see. So you may be alright with a 10C price on your head if there are a few pirates about. But if you flying with some Clean traders then the cops may go for you. As is said in the orginal BBC Elite manual, "These police don't make arrests. They kill." If you commit all your piracy though when there are no blue golf-clubs or stations on the scanner, you get away with it and stay Clean.

Helvellyn wrote:

Ahruman wrote:

If you’re an offender, you have been caught carrying out an offense.

I meant by the police that saw you do it. As it stands, there's no difference that I can see between being an Offender or a Fugitive, except that the latter takes longer to clear.

I'd say there is a difference. Police won't fire at you if you're an Offender, except you just committed the offence right before their eyes (or in front of the station, which is basically the same). But if you just entered into a system being an Offender already they won't hunt you down, IIRC (only if they really have nothing else to do (hey, all this patroling in-system is a bit boring, after all)). They will, however, as soon as you're a Fugitive.

The other thing is: as an Offender a station still accepts the call from your docking computers and takes you in. As a Fugitive it's back to manually.

The difference between being Offender or Fugitive will by the way become bigger once you have installed Anarchies.oxp. First it will take you much, much more time to get rid of the Fugitive-status (the 'barrier' between Fugitive and Offender is made harder to break) and second in the final version of Anarchies.oxp (not yet available) there will be a couple of bountyhunters coming after you if you're a Fugitive. But they don't bother with Offenders.

I've just started a new 'Jameson' game becasue I'd reached ---ELITE--- and thought I'd try it with a fully OXP'd game I also want to try out improved OXP's. Now for some reason I managed to get the label of offender - I don't know why? Entering into a system I got persued by two cops I run into a 'renegade' (fugitive) who opens fire on me and the police continue to fire on me despite the obvious distraction of the fugitive ship. I didn't last long because I'm still trading (legal stuff) to gain the iron ass. Is this a bug in Oolite? Or are the police just scared of the real deal? It is advisable for new players to steer clear of contraband, however you are not marked as offender for scooping it. Leaving a station with contraband does mark you out as offender.

I liked what Elite A did. If you were an offender you'd sometimes get police appearing to keep an eye on you, but nothing else (the one time I've been an offender in Oolite I was attacked by all the police that saw me). Being a fugitive, you'd get attacked on sight, but if you got really bad the police would start launching and attacking as soon as you entered range of the space station.

I suppose all of this could be changed with an OXP if I don't like it, so I've no reason to moan.

Think the police also do a "consider the Odds" in AI. They may be sometimes too scared to come to the aid of a ship under attack by a real badass! You can play from a 100C Jameson with Renegades installed, but there are some very nasty pirates in the lawless systems if you do. You might want to wait a bit before installing renegades.

I'm using the run like hell method - usually the renegade harms me but I manage to twist and swerve enough to get away. It's real fun!!

Hmmmm...would going fugitive be a reason that none of the stations are offereing ships for purchase? I've hit several stations and none of them have had any available.

windrider wrote:

Hmmmm...would going fugitive be a reason that none of the stations are offereing ships for purchase? I've hit several stations and none of them have had any available.

THis happens sometimes. Sometimes stations don't offer any ships for sale regardless of legal status. You don't know how irritating it is when you want to buy a Python ET Special, fly through two of the worst Anarchies you could imagine to get to an appropriate TL planet and then finding said planet has absolutely no ships for sale

Captain Hesperus

I no sooner posted that and returned to the game and found I could get a ships menu on Eroneus. Smart game....new I was talking about it....