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Because criminals are people too

Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 7:36 pm
by scrambler666
Hi everyone

this is my first post on this forum having discovered Oolite about 2 months ago..and i'm officially addicted!!

anyway i am currently in Galaxy 1 and have legal status of Fugitive. I'm am finding it difficult to reduce this status as i keep getting attacked by bounty hunters everytime i undock (i do manage to kill them though). i am aware that there are methods of reducing status (a certain amount of 'clean trading', destruction of pirates, infrequent hacker vipers in Anarchy systems and the mysterios stranger who offers to wipe your status for a large sum of credits) but these seem to appear infrequently and are mostly outside the control of the player as to when these opportunities appear!

My suggestion is to have a screen that loads upon docking at all corporate state galcop controlled (main) stations which allows access to the Galcop police desk.


This screen could contain things such as

Fugitives only

CRIMINAL AMNESTY!!

In keeping with the liberal traditions of peaceful corporate worlds fugitives can give themselves and their ship up to the police. In return, instead of being blasted out of the sky by bounty hunters and police vipers, the criminal is fined 90% of their current credit total has their current ship and equipment consficated and replaced with a basic cobra mk1. The now upstanding member of society can go freely about their business, their debt to society (apart from the mass of pointless deaths) paid in full!

COMMUNITY SERVICE!

The criminal is offered a way out of crime by carrying out a number of good deads...oops! i mean deeds (freudian slip) taking the form of a number of kill missions (perhaps 3 of increasing difficulty), upon the completion of which the criminal can have the slate wiped clean AND keep their ship and credits. The missions would have a time limit and failiure to complete would see this offer of Community service being withdrawn in the future.

Offenders only

DONATE CREDITS TO THE POLICE PENSION FUND!

A small donation to the Galcop Police Pension fund would see the offenders status be reduce to clean as the paperwork regarding the offenders fines mysteriously dissapears!

Anyone

ARMS AMNESTY!!!!

The police are offering Gemstones to anyone who brings in their old weapons (Firearms). The Firearms are destroyed and an amount of the the gemstones used in their operation is given to the donator.


The Galcop police desk could also be used to get missions, get experimental equipment, deals on commodities (narcotics seized on a raid on a rock hermit get sold off ahem! i mean securely destroyed.) etc...

This OXP (if it ever got made) would represent a way for criminals to reform and also show the corruption within Galcop (just like any other police force). obviously this allows for a lot of expansion.

your thought please

I do have other ideas regarding in game recycling - covert computers to platinum (1 ton of Computers to X kg of platinum), machinery to gemstones and alloys (1 ton of Machinery to 1 ton of alloys and 1 g of gemstones etc..... and also HOombase, which is a industrial station allowing the manufacture of certain commodities from raw materials (i.e Liquors and wines from food, Luxuries from Gemstones and furs, Radioactives from minerals etc.......)

thanks

please be gentle regarding this post

Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 8:52 pm
by DaddyHoggy
Welcome Scambler[number_of_the_beast].

That's an excellent opening posting!

Some intriguing ideas - but I can't see anybody giving up 90% of their fortune for a clean slate when a single mishap could jump you immediately back to Fugitive.

For me, a fugitive should be a dark world of shady dealing and dodgy passes and licenses and permissions - it would be nice if the concept of the save_anywhere OXP was part of the game with the same caveat as ship oxps (remove the ship oxp and you can't reload your save game, removing the station oxp and you can't reload the same game - the oxp station's co-ordinates and status being saved in the save game), this way, seedy space bars, constores, hoopy casinos - this would become your life, not the main stations...

Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 10:35 pm
by Kaks
Hello Scrambler666! The good news is that the community service, donations & various amnesties are very much doable via OXPs, so there's no need to wait for a new version of Oolite.

If you've ever felt like trying your hand at making an OXP, this might well be your excuse to get started! :D

Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 10:47 pm
by JazHaz
As no-one has said it, Scrambler666, welcome to the friendliest board this side of Riedquat!™ :lol:

Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 11:44 pm
by DaddyHoggy
JazHaz wrote:
As no-one has said it, Scrambler666, welcome to the friendliest board this side of Riedquat!™ :lol:
I hung back - I'm a sharing kind of avian! :wink: (I did say "welcome"!)

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 8:17 am
by Cmdr James
There are already a few options for fugitives, depending a bit on what OXPs you have installed.

THere is somewhere that can clean your record, I think the hacker outpost, and I think the salvager gang sometimes sell "new" id so you can become clean.

That doesnt mean i dont like your ideas, I just wanted to point out that there are already a couple of options.

..

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 8:40 am
by Lestradae
There is, though, no "Save Anywhere" that works with 1.73 or trunk available at the moment, and my usual prayers to St. Frame have not been answered :(

"Save Anywhere" would really, really make sense and would be perfectly doable, via oxp or even in the core game. I'm not up to do it myself in a good way at least. Anyone? No?

There's not even a canon reason against it ...

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 9:15 am
by scrambler666
Thanks for the replies people :o)


I agree with what has been said already...if you could save at any oxp station then the fugitive situation would make more sense as there would be no need to travel to the main stations....

I still think that there is room for a legitimate way to make amends for the fugitive status, and those who wish to stay fugitive could continue to do so..and travel to the seedy bars and hacker outposts etc....

i would love to make this into an OXP but i lack the programming skills in the required language (i don't even know what it is!) .. however i used to be a programmer (may moons ago) in do based qbasic 4.5

i also had a go at this 3d modelling lark this morning and produced a ship based upon space above and beyond ching ship however i have no idea how to upload picture for scrutiny, or shade, texture, script and all that milarkey (what exactly is a milarkey!)

anyway if anyone would like to use these ideas as a basis for an oxp please feel free

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 9:47 am
by Commander McLane
Hi, scrambler666, and first of all welcome to the boards and of course to this great game! :D

Basically the game offers only one (and very easy) way of getting rid of a fugitive status: Jump around a little, and don't kill anyone while in front of the police. Oolite measures your legal status with a number, which represents the bounty set on your head. For each jump that number is halved. As soon as it falls under 51, you're no longer fugitive, but offender. As soon as it reaches 0, you're clean. Usually it shouldn't take more than seven or eight jumps to become clean again.

(Example: 200 (which is an extremely high bounty) -> 100 -> 50 (no longer fugitive) -> 25 -> 12 -> 6 -> 3 -> 1 -> 0. Eight jumps.)

A galactic jump cleans you instantly, as does using your escape pod.

Of course, if you continue to trade with illicit goods, or commit crimes in front of the police, you will get new bounties on your head, and stay a criminal a little longer.

All of this is true for plain Oolite.

The main OXP which influences what you read above is Anarchies.oxp. You find a detailed description of what exactly it does on its Wiki page http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Anarchies_OXP

Only with Anarchies.oxp installed some of the alternative methods you mentioned become available. By the way: if you have it installed, the new ways appear frequently. There is a Salvage Gang in a lot of Anarchies with a techlevel between 4 and 6, and there is a Hacker Viper showing you the way to the Hacker Outpost in each Anarchy with a techlevel between 7 and 9. The opportunity of bribing an official turns up more rarely, of course. But still it is worthwhile to check out the equipment department in all Anarchy main stations you visit.

Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 2:34 am
by Sydney2K
(Note: this post is a :D )

NO!! You are a fugitive, at that means one thing- you are an evil man! You have done evil deeds, and your nature is cruel and despicable. In the bars I frequent, and on the GalCorp bulletin boards and bounty hunter channels I have seen your name connected with some of the most foulest crimes imaginable. If ever I catch you in one of my many pirate hunting sorties I will hunt you down, and you will certainly eat space dust, after I get through with you! You'd better invest in an escape pod- forunately I am too honourable to shoot at defenceless escape pods- not like some of the stories I have heard of you!

*shakes fist*

( :D )

Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 9:22 am
by Killer Wolf
i think i'll start work on a Corrective Therapy OXP for young girlie pilots. If they lose their clean rating they can dock at Wolfie's House of Punishment where we'll make sure they pay for their crimes in a suitable manner before sending them off w/ a clean record and a stern warning to do it again.
sorry, NOT to do it again.

Posted: Tue May 04, 2010 9:44 am
by Commander McLane
Killer Wolf wrote:
i think i'll start work on a Corrective Therapy OXP for young girlie pilots. If they lose their clean rating they can dock at Wolfie's House of Punishment where we'll make sure they pay for their crimes in a suitable manner before sending them off w/ a clean record and a stern warning to do it again.
sorry, NOT to do it again.
Excellent idea. :lol:

Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 10:48 am
by Diziet Sma
Commander McLane wrote:
Killer Wolf wrote:
i think i'll start work on a Corrective Therapy OXP for young girlie pilots. If they lose their clean rating they can dock at Wolfie's House of Punishment where we'll make sure they pay for their crimes in a suitable manner before sending them off w/ a clean record and a stern warning to do it again.
sorry, NOT to do it again.
Excellent idea. :lol:
Agreed.. be sure to take full advantage of the new mission-screen capabilities to display some pics! :twisted:

..

Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 12:00 pm
by Lestradae
Diziet Sma wrote:
Commander McLane wrote:
Killer Wolf wrote:
i think i'll start work on a Corrective Therapy OXP for young girlie pilots. If they lose their clean rating they can dock at Wolfie's House of Punishment where we'll make sure they pay for their crimes in a suitable manner before sending them off w/ a clean record and a stern warning to do it again.
sorry, NOT to do it again.
Excellent idea. :lol:
Agreed.. be sure to take full advantage of the new mission-screen capabilities to display some pics! :twisted:
The first adult only oxp in the works? :twisted:

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:12 am
by Killer Wolf
sounds like it might be worth moving ahead on this project then :-)
perhaps there should be an option for other pilots to dock and pay a fee to watch the naughty girlies being corrected.