Police ships docking with you?

Aeonic · Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:15 am

Obviously its possible to dock with ships given the CSCs, but is it possible for ships to dock with you? Or at least simulate something to that effect?

It would be near if we could create some police ships that would patrol systems and periodically ask you to stop your vessel and be searched. Such a search would have a moderate chance of failure and penalty if you have a smuggling hold, but they would be guaranteed to find something if you did not. If you refuse to stop your vessel for the search, the police ships will follow you and fire upon you until you do.

Something to that effect would make life much more interesting for smugglers. It doesn't turn into a piece of cake once you have a smuggling hold - you still have to evade the authorities.

Don't know if that's even remotely doable, just thought I'd throw it out there.

Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:06 am

I'd consider this a bad mechanic. Sure, it penalizes smugglers, but is also penalizes non-smugglers, who will be forced to stop periodically and be boarded.

If you're in the middle of a fight that's not just annoying, it's potentially lethal. The scripting is not adequate, nor will it likely ever be adequate, to identify combat in a way that can't be spoofed.

Bobby · Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:15 am

That's not necessarily true, you could put an overlay on the player, which upon being damaged, will tell the police the player is being shot.

it would still be annoying though, but rather than being forced to stop, the player could be told to maintain a steady heading while the police ship swoops in for a non-contact scan. There's no reason to board unless the scan picks up something interesting.

Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:31 am

It's possible to be in life or death combat without taking damage though. In such situations staying on a constant heading is usually just as deadly as stopping completely.

Sat Dec 12, 2009 2:28 am

No, I do not think this is a good idea, though perhapse if it were mission specific to a single system, once with only scripted stuff going on, where the player perhaps gets boarded once or on scripted events, perhaps if say this were a system devoted to classified weapons and ships testing or something, then it could be workable, but even then that might get rather annoying... Dunno. But certainly not during regular play.

schilcote · Sat Dec 12, 2009 4:20 am

I had a sort of similar idea. Upon entering a post-QZ system, the player would be towed forcibly by a large-ish battleship to a station and somehow forced to dock. If the player fires upon the battleship, it would just use a really big EMP cannon (disables a ship instantly for a very long time, but can only fire once every two minutes or so making it near useless for the player) and then tow you and forcibly dock you.

Does this seem possible?

Bobby · Sat Dec 12, 2009 4:24 am

nothing can "force" the player to do anything directly, the player has undivided control of his/her ship. Making it impossible to resist is fully possible though.

Sat Dec 12, 2009 5:46 am

You want to introduce noninteractive cutscenes to a game mercifully free of them? What kind of sadistic monster are you?

Aeonic · Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:19 am

Well perhaps you could just have police vessels that, within a certain proximity, can scan your vessel and if you're carrying non-shielded illegal goods, they'll fire upon you?

I just want to see if I can come up with something to make carrying around illegal goodies a little more dangerous and exciting.

Vizth · Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:50 am

Aeonic wrote:Well perhaps you could just have police vessels that, within a certain proximity, can scan your vessel and if you're carrying non-shielded illegal goods, they'll fire upon you?

I just want to see if I can come up with something to make carrying around illegal goodies a little more dangerous and exciting.

do that but have them say to jettison your illegal cargo then show a timer. jettison it in time and they scoop up the container and leave you. otherwise they attack

Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:49 pm

If you wanted to get really in depth, you could have the ships run a trade route order and if you and they are within a certain distance of a CW station THEN they decide to scan you.
If you happen to have some illegals but no smugglers hold then they could order you to jettison it and display a timer, perhaps even call in some backup.
Further, they could scan around stations for cargo containers or wrecks with illegals in them and confiscate them too. I'm sure this is common practice for many vet players that like to stop n shop at CW stations while carrying illegals, waiting for an enclave.
This could also be expanded for military items if the player doesn't have an ID yet, but that might just get a little too annoying.

schilcote · Sat Dec 12, 2009 2:17 pm

Atarlost wrote:You want to introduce noninteractive cutscenes to a game mercifully free of them? What kind of sadistic monster are you?

It's so that the pepole on the station can shove a translator into your ear (and give you some extremely helpful pointers as to how not to die).

Didn't say they were noninteractive anyway. I think I'd just have the player be unconscious for most of it, then a quick chat with some occupant of the station, then Squadalla, we're off!