ARG! AAAAAAAARRRRRG!
I blew up a BM station took all the military loot, and then docked at the nearby Commonwealth station. You can guess what happened next. I blew myself up afterwards which I shouldn't have done either, since it was a promising ship. A fast shuriken is *nice*. Btw, could damage ratings be reported in their actual formula inside the game. 2-8 is probably 2d4 but 4-8 is ambiguous (1d6+3 or 4d2 and these two are not *quite* equivalent)
I also tend to die by accidentally pressing "d" near a BM station after I have blown up a few of them.
So, could it be possible to warn the player if docking will result in nasty consequences (ie. confiscation and death)?
Do you want to dock?
I'm not so sure- sound like a case of
Trans: "Do you really want to do that?"
Me: "Yes."
Trans: "Are you EXTREMELY sure?"
I was actually thinking about this the other day. Why is this a common mistake? I've never forgotten about carrying illegals when playing similar games (which are close enough to transcendence in that there are illegals and you can get busted for docking with them in your hold).
But then I realized - In Frontier or other games, carrying illegals can get you busted in flight. Police ships can come up beside you and scan you, and if you get caught, you're realy in trouble: there's actual consqeunces (fines, angry police vessels, outlaw status if repeated, etc).
So if the you actually decides to carry around illegals, you are ALWAYS on the lookout for cops and are basically sweating the whole way through. There's no way you will forget because forgetting will get you caught.
In Transcendence, pretty much everyone will sell illegals they find if they can. There's no reason not to- at worst they get confiscated and you lost some cargo space. But if you could get seriously fined or attacked by Commonwealth vessels in flight, you could, for one, increase the price of illegals making them a little more profitable, and two, make it a real choice between honest upstanding citizen and smuggler.
It also makes smuggling way more fun (and potentially more profitable without balance-breaking) because you're on the lookout for patrols and ditching your stash (and potentially losing it) if you think you're about to get busted.
Trans: "Do you really want to do that?"
Me: "Yes."
Trans: "Are you EXTREMELY sure?"
I was actually thinking about this the other day. Why is this a common mistake? I've never forgotten about carrying illegals when playing similar games (which are close enough to transcendence in that there are illegals and you can get busted for docking with them in your hold).
But then I realized - In Frontier or other games, carrying illegals can get you busted in flight. Police ships can come up beside you and scan you, and if you get caught, you're realy in trouble: there's actual consqeunces (fines, angry police vessels, outlaw status if repeated, etc).
So if the you actually decides to carry around illegals, you are ALWAYS on the lookout for cops and are basically sweating the whole way through. There's no way you will forget because forgetting will get you caught.
In Transcendence, pretty much everyone will sell illegals they find if they can. There's no reason not to- at worst they get confiscated and you lost some cargo space. But if you could get seriously fined or attacked by Commonwealth vessels in flight, you could, for one, increase the price of illegals making them a little more profitable, and two, make it a real choice between honest upstanding citizen and smuggler.
It also makes smuggling way more fun (and potentially more profitable without balance-breaking) because you're on the lookout for patrols and ditching your stash (and potentially losing it) if you think you're about to get busted.
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dvlenk6
- Militia Captain
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I wonder if it would be possible to mod a 'roadside search' where Commonwealth Centurions 'pull you over' and search the cargo hold.
If you run, they open fire and copy your 'license plate' into the CCD (Commonwealth Criminal Database).
If you run, they open fire and copy your 'license plate' into the CCD (Commonwealth Criminal Database).
I would really like this better than magic drug detecting scans.I wonder if it would be possible to mod a 'roadside search' where Commonwealth Centurions 'pull you over' and search the cargo hold.
If you run, they open fire and copy your 'license plate' into the CCD (Commonwealth Criminal Database).
I suppose you can see through the hull on the right wavelengths, but you'd have to visually inspect it, there are easy ways around it, and how the heck are you going to tell the difference between illegal tempus syrettes and legal medicine syrettes? I don't think there's any way to really efficiently detect stuff like that from a distance.
Although I think if you have them "scan" you (with a percentage chance of detection increasing by mass of illegals and a small chance of a false positive) all the time, and then only ever pull you over if the test is positive - (at which point if you have them, they will find them).
This might open up some new types of smuggler hold-
the current is scan shielded only, so they won't detect you, but if you get a false positive or get searched for some other reason you will still get caught, and a new type can be hidden in a secret compartment at the cost of even more cargo space, but searches are unlikely to discover it.
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dvlenk6
- Militia Captain
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Like the Millenium Falcon's smuggler compartments in Star Wars ep. IV.
I've played games where I 'accidentally'
blew up a couple CW Stations. It would make smuggling risky; becuase it's tough to make it without CW support.
I've played games where I 'accidentally'
blew up a couple CW Stations. It would make smuggling risky; becuase it's tough to make it without CW support.-
arichallan
- Anarchist
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:39 am
One other thing that could be added is an expensive option at Black Market stations to 'clear your name' by deleting criminal records or create a false ID for you and your ship in order to make it so the Commonwealth is unaware of your past misdeeds.
Well, if anyone here has ever played the PDA game Space Trader (low graphics, very addictive - I've often played it from full charge on my PDA to an empty battery, and full charge is 12 hours!), there was a quest of sorts where if you smuggled someone past the police, military and such and got him where he told you to go, at the end he would hack into their computers and clear your name, free of charge.
I'd like to see more of that sort of thing in Transcendence - it might even make it more addictive!
I'd like to see more of that sort of thing in Transcendence - it might even make it more addictive!
Yeah, but one is easy to do in the code, and one isn't.OddBob wrote:I would really like this better than magic drug detecting scans.I wonder if it would be possible to mod a 'roadside search' where Commonwealth Centurions 'pull you over' and search the cargo hold.
If you run, they open fire and copy your 'license plate' into the CCD (Commonwealth Criminal Database).
How do you envision the system working? If you give me a description of what you see happening, I can see if I can mock up a prototype.
No, the damage dealt is shown as a bellcurve in a graphic so you're always very likely to deal average damage with one shot. Why would you want to know exactly? Have you got a slowish weapon like the Howitzer installed maybe? You'll fire many times per second so it levels out fast.F50 wrote: Btw, could damage ratings be reported in their actual formula inside the game. 2-8 is probably 2d4 but 4-8 is ambiguous (1d6+3 or 4d2 and these two are not *quite* equivalent)
So, could it be possible to warn the player if docking will result in nasty consequences (ie. confiscation and death)?
Again no, well i'm against it. You will learn like i have learned it, the hard way and believe me i lost my loot and my license over a hundred times.
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dvlenk6
- Militia Captain
- Posts: 519
- Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:56 am
- Location: Sanctuary and beyond
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Well, I think if the Centurions could be made to at least appear as if they are docking with your ship; before actually doing the scan would be good enough. I don't know about the cinematics of that. Would be cool, but not really absolutely needed.Burzmali wrote:How do you envision the system working? If you give me a description of what you see happening, I can see if I can mock up a prototype.
You could be given a message that they want to search your ship. You could refuse but would then be assumed guilty and they would come after you. If you agree and they search and you don't have the special hidden cargo hold(s) installed, then they will find any illegals. If you do have it installed, then they might or might not find them.
Maybe have it so that if you run and get away, you just have a fine to pay.
If that can't be done, just a scanner with random chance of finding the illegals would be fine. The special cargo hold would then make it so they will not have much of any chance of finding the illegals.
It would still need to be so that you (the player) would have a little time to stash the illegals in a crate and jettison it. Maybe the 'police' ships could have a random chance of 'seeing' the jettison; then they could just confiscate the crate contents (But not be able to prove that the player was the actual smuggler, therefore no additional penalties)
EDIT - If you have unpaid fines of a certain amount, maybe the CW could hire some bounty hunters that could come after you.
EDIT2 - If edit 1 is the case, then BM shipyard (and maybe stations) could issue the phony IDs at some cost.
They'll get you on littering charges.It would still need to be so that you (the player) would have a little time to stash the illegals in a crate and jettison it. Maybe the 'police' ships could have a random chance of 'seeing' the jettison; then they could just confiscate the crate contents (But not be able to prove that the player was the actual smuggler, therefore no additional penalties)
Well when was talking about it, it wasn't so much for a mod, but here's how I see it working in Theory, where everything is easy. The real version is after this.Burzmali wrote: How do you envision the system working? If you give me a description of what you see happening, I can see if I can mock up a prototype.
You're flying along. IF you get close enough to a CW police patrol (some Centurions or Ronins flying around), you will get scanned.
This happens in the background (you don't even know). The scan has a chance of working proportional to the mass of the illegals: more than a ton or so is a sure hit, while one kg is nearly undetectable. There is always a chance of a false positive (whether you have a cargo hold or not - this also represents intentional random searches).
If the scan is positive, you get a message:
"Please come to a stop and dock for contraband search."
At this point the Centurion stops where it is, and the Ronin follows you. You have 20 seconds to dock with the Centurion, at which point you get a little storyline about how they search your ship and about whether or not you got busted. If you're innocent, they let you go, if not, penalties are given.
Docking isn't too hard, objects can dock with a live ship after all, it is the "stopping" that is the tricky point. How about this:
1. A police squadron equipped with scanners spots the player ship (by range for now and by event if possible to account for stealth armor).
2. Once they have closed to within scanner distance, the player' ship is scanned. Every 10 kg of illegals creates a 1% of detection normally, and a 0.1% if a smuggler's hold is installed (i.e. 100 kg of illegals would be detect 10% of the time with a normal hold and 1% of the time with a smuggler's hold). In addition, there is a small chance of a false positive.
3. If the scan is positive, the player is directed to dock at a nearby customs station (or nearest CW station) for a contraband search. If the player has a targeting ROM and/or Visual Display enhancement, the station is targeted and/or highlighted.
4. Two ships are dispatched to escort the player to the station. The first leads the way, and the second follows the player and recovers any cargo pods that the player jettisons. If the player strays too far from the lead ship, they are warned, then declared a fugitive.
5. At the station, each illegal type has a 10% per kg change of being detected and removed normally, 1% per kg if a smuggler's hold is equipped.
All of that should be modable, without too many problems.
1. A police squadron equipped with scanners spots the player ship (by range for now and by event if possible to account for stealth armor).
2. Once they have closed to within scanner distance, the player' ship is scanned. Every 10 kg of illegals creates a 1% of detection normally, and a 0.1% if a smuggler's hold is installed (i.e. 100 kg of illegals would be detect 10% of the time with a normal hold and 1% of the time with a smuggler's hold). In addition, there is a small chance of a false positive.
3. If the scan is positive, the player is directed to dock at a nearby customs station (or nearest CW station) for a contraband search. If the player has a targeting ROM and/or Visual Display enhancement, the station is targeted and/or highlighted.
4. Two ships are dispatched to escort the player to the station. The first leads the way, and the second follows the player and recovers any cargo pods that the player jettisons. If the player strays too far from the lead ship, they are warned, then declared a fugitive.
5. At the station, each illegal type has a 10% per kg change of being detected and removed normally, 1% per kg if a smuggler's hold is equipped.
All of that should be modable, without too many problems.