Generc Ships Looting Wrecks

[Darth Saber]

When playing RC3 and RC4, I noticed a rather curious sight: the generic ships (i.e. the ships which are shown docked at stations, or wandering about, that are not classified as enemies) were traveling to the wrecks, looting them, and then scuttling the ships. Is this a normal part of the game, or is this an anomaly?

[digdug]

that's a new behaviour. I believe it only happens in proximity of friendly stations.

[Corporal Jomn]

Probably because 1) the Commenwealth issued a new law saying to clear all debris near Commenwealth, and 2) kind of to help you dock with that station, it's annoying how you dock with the wrong object.

[Darth Saber]

The annoying part is where you decimate a foe, and are beaten to the wreck by these generic thieves who proceed to steal loot rightfully belonging to you, then destroy the evidence. If you exact retribution, (i.e. flame the aforementioned generic thief), then you are declared a pirate, arrested, and prosecuted to the full extent of the law (endgame) while the thief joyfully either uses the loot himself, or sells it, thereby becomming richer at your expense.

Which reminds me, would someone be willing to mod a court of justice, where we could pay a fine for damaging CW property, serve a jail sentence if guilty of piracy, pay damages if we accidentally waste a ship belonging to a station - thereby enabling us to once again dock there, or even being able to buy our way out of an unpleasent situation (i.e. Black Market lawyer charging an ever increasing fee depending on the number of times we are guilty of an offense; all or any of these as opposed to an immediate endgame sequence? If so, the Trans-Community, not to mention myself, would be quite grateful.

[Bobby]

I think that's already here in rc4, the commonwealth has a court and will fine you for piracy instead of an insta-kill. blowing stations is still a very bad idea, and you want to be absolutely sure you can afford the fine too.

[Atarlost]

Now to be fair the looters should be forced to pay restitution to you for stealing. Or ships on loot orders for wrecks you killed should be considered "in the process of comitting a crime and outside the protection of the law"

And ships too fragile for combat that stray into combat should be considered to have comitted suicide.

[Arisaya]

Now to be fair the looters should be forced to pay restitution to you for stealing. Or ships on loot orders for wrecks you killed should be considered "in the process of comitting a crime and outside the protection of the law"

And ships too fragile for combat that stray into combat should be considered to have comitted suicide.

I completely agree.

[Blitz]

I think that it's a good it'll clear up the zillions of wrecks that clutter up the screen if you stay too long in one place. You don't have to steal every single piece of loot and this'll encourage prioritizing what loot is important to you. I mean, if you kill an enemy of the commonwealth, the wreck is rightfully yours. However, once you are done with the wreck, it's just that - a wreck that nobody cares about. Or would have to pay compensation to the wrecks that are placed randomly across the game?
As a compromise, I think ships should wait till you have docked at a station or moved through a gate before having access to it and maybe you could have ships that steal, i.e. loot your wrecks before you leave the area - killing these ships would give you a bounty, which depends on the difficulty, for catching a thief.

[Darth Saber]

"you could have ships that steal, i.e. loot your wrecks before you leave the area - killing these ships would give you a bounty, which depends on the difficulty, for catching a thief"

Blitz, the Salvager Nomad rather answers to that description.

[Psycholis]

i get very frustrated with nomads. i tend to hunt them down early game just because the wrecks of a system are all barren. now that more ships are doing it, i might just have to kill everything.

[Blitz]

"you could have ships that steal, i.e. loot your wrecks before you leave the area - killing these ships would give you a bounty, which depends on the difficulty, for catching a thief"

Blitz, the Salvager Nomad rather answers to that description.

True and you have no real penalties for killing nomads either. That's how it should be. Btw, I don't think nomads currently scuttle wrecks. They should...

But the important question is what about all the regular ships which show salvaging tendencies? I'm saying that regular ships should have some check to avoid salvaging in the middle of battle and should wait some time before salvaging. Such as the player leaving the area, or maybe the system or to let the player dock with a wreck atleast once...

[Retroactive]

"you could have ships that steal, i.e. loot your wrecks before you leave the area - killing these ships would give you a bounty, which depends on the difficulty, for catching a thief"

Blitz, the Salvager Nomad rather answers to that description.

True and you have no real penalties for killing nomads either. That's how it should be. Btw, I don't think nomads currently scuttle wrecks. They should...

But the important question is what about all the regular ships which show salvaging tendencies? I'm saying that regular ships should have some check to avoid salvaging in the middle of battle and should wait some time before salvaging. Such as the player leaving the area, or maybe the system or to let the player dock with a wreck atleast once...

We, the players, don't wait until battle ends to loot; nor do we let ships from Adventurer Outfitters or other armed stations get first pickings on the baddies that the station kills. Why should the AI show us a courtesy that we don't show them?

Also, does anyone know if looters sell their goodies to the stations they dock with, and whether that loot then shows up in the trade depot?

[george moromisato]

For RC5 I've made a couple of changes:

1. Scavengers only reach out to 100 ls away from the station (it used to be 150 ls).
2. Scavengers only have a 50% chance of going after a wreck in the vicinity (it used to be 100%).

Hopefully those two changes will give the players more of a chance.

Also, does anyone know if looters sell their goodies to the stations they dock with, and whether that loot then shows up in the trade depot?

Yes, they do "sell" their loot at the next station that they dock with.

[Blitz]

2. Scavengers only have a 50% chance of going after a wreck in the vicinity (it used to be 100%).

50% per ship, you mean right? How often do they attempt to check for wrecks in the vicinity and go after them? Or if a ship decides not to go after a wreck once it'll never go after the wreck?

[george moromisato]

2. Scavengers only have a 50% chance of going after a wreck in the vicinity (it used to be 100%).

50% per ship, you mean right? How often do they attempt to check for wrecks in the vicinity and go after them? Or if a ship decides not to go after a wreck once it'll never go after the wreck?

They only check for wrecks when they leave a station (to go to another station). The additional check means that 50% of the time, they ignore the wreck (but another ship might get it or they might get it when/if they come back).

The original code is like this:

Code: Select all

When leaving a station:

IF (there are wrecks to loot within 150 light-seconds
   AND the looting ship is not a large freighter
   AND the looting ship has a destiny between 1-180 [50% of ships do]
   )
THEN
   Loot a random wreck
   Destroy the wreck
   Sell any loot to the nearest station

I made two changes:

1. Changed the "150 light-seconds" to 100 light-seconds.
2. Added an extra condition:

Code: Select all

   ...
   AND a roll from 1-100 <= 50
   ...