Illicit goods question

[NZCrusader]

So I was wondering if x4 will have an easy way to drop illicit cargo if you get scanned?

In x-rebirth every time the npcs scanned me I would get shot at by them as by the time I had opened my cargo and tried to locate what they were complaining about so I could dump it to space they had already timed out and decided that I was running from them despite me being at zero speed

[birdtable]

Smuggling/illicit cargo was definitely under utilized in Rebirth, brings tension and challenges, whether in Rebirth this was a test bed another 30 days and we will know..

[Tomonor]

Also, when you accidentally shot a CCC and there was no way you could explain yourself afaik. The entire sector just turned red on you.

[sd_jasper]

Also, when you accidentally shot a CCC and there was no way you could explain yourself afaik. The entire sector just turned red on you.

Yeah. You could flee the sector and wait a bit. Eventually they would reset (I don't recall how long that is). You probably had a (permeant) faction loss for attacking, but unless you were already in the negative relation, it wouldn't keep them hostile.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

I do hope crime and punishment are more fleshed out in X4. WAY too easy to evade the law in Rebirth, but also not really any nefarious recourse if you got caught.

IMO, Elite Dangerous handles crime time really well these days and it would be worth emulating here. When you get caught doing something naughty, having your rep get hit is one thing, but if your rep is really high, that's an easy hit to tank - same with a militarized response. But E:D also tacks on *fines* and *bounties* that stick until you pay them or hack them off - sure, you may be able to tank the rep hit, but you also need to pony up seven digits of credits before the offended faction lets you use any of their station services again, and if you don't pay up in time, it'll turn into a bounty and it'll suddenly be wabbit season on your ship.

They also have a mechanic where your criminal actions are tied to the *ship* you used, not to yourself - so you have an opportunity to do crime and switch ships to try to get away with it. With X4's player teleporter it might be a little too easy to game a system like that, but one or another type of "disguise" system would still be pretty cool - where the specific ship you use to do crime stays hot, but the rep hit / fines / whatever else doesn't actually hit your *faction* unless they manage to do the space equivalent of scanning your license plates.

[csaba]

They also have a mechanic where your criminal actions are tied to the *ship* you used, not to yourself - so you have an opportunity to do crime and switch ships to try to get away with it. With X4's player teleporter it might be a little too easy to game a system like that, but one or another type of "disguise" system would still be pretty cool - where the specific ship you use to do crime stays hot, but the rep hit / fines / whatever else doesn't actually hit your *faction* unless they manage to do the space equivalent of scanning your license plates.

This would be neat. I would definitely keep some hot ships about. Late game this is a bit too silly since you can replace even hot capital ships easily but I bet veteran, triple elite ED players have several Anacondas tucked away just the same.

[Wou]

Wouldn't mind a simple system of "pay your fine or pay the consequences!" like in some Skyrims and Oblvions and whatever.

If you get caught red handed smuggling stuff you get the option to pay some credits and all of the goods in questions are automatically ejected and you're on your merry way. Otherwise the whole system turns red like it is now.


On a side note the fact that you were picking up so much random stuff from the stations, and some of it was illegal in some places with little warning wasn't very helpful.

[Tenlar Scarflame]

On a side note the fact that you were picking up so much random stuff from the stations, and some of it was illegal in some places with little warning wasn't very helpful.

Yeahhh... that is irritating in Rebirth. >.>

E:D would at least give you a nice red warning in your cockpit saying "SOMETHING IN YOUR CARGO IS ILLEGAL FOR SOME REASON, HEADS UP BRO."

[spankahontis]

Yeah, Being scanned gave me the Heads up, rushed to the nearest docking platform, landed and the Police Vehicle that scanned me for illicit goods suddenly suffers from a case of Goldfish Amnesia and goes back to doing what it was doing and I leave without incident with my illicit goods in storage.

DEFINITELY!! This needs overhauling! A Fine slapped on you, Random Bounty Hunters come after you, the higher the bounty, the larger the Bounty Hunter Fleet.

You could even tie that in with Bulletin Quests like the Mystery Box Mission.. Could be an awesome Prize waiting for you? Could be an elaborate trap laid out by Bounty Hunters Just for you!

Rebirth had Police Officer NPC's, they were hard to find but they were there, basically License Dealers with a new name, useless and yet I feel that maybe Egosoft didn't have time or simply forgot in later patches that they were there and did nothing with them?
Maybe Egosoft wanted Police Officers to be there for the task of collecting Fines in later patches/sequels?

[Tenlar Scarflame]

They also have a mechanic where your criminal actions are tied to the *ship* you used, not to yourself - so you have an opportunity to do crime and switch ships to try to get away with it. With X4's player teleporter it might be a little too easy to game a system like that, but one or another type of "disguise" system would still be pretty cool - where the specific ship you use to do crime stays hot, but the rep hit / fines / whatever else doesn't actually hit your *faction* unless they manage to do the space equivalent of scanning your license plates.

This would be neat. I would definitely keep some hot ships about. Late game this is a bit too silly since you can replace even hot capital ships easily but I bet veteran, triple elite ED players have several Anacondas tucked away just the same.

Well, of course, rich folks do tend to get away with crime by virtue of having the resources to do so.

But, you could mitigate the late-game situation you're talking about by scaling how long it takes to identify the owner of a "hot" ship (which is what would trigger rep hits / fines / penalties for the player, not just aggression toward the hot ship itself.) The scale could be based on the size of the ship (bigger ships would be quicker to ID and could be ID'd from a greater distance), and maybe on installed hardware (maybe there could be some kind of low-emission equipment set or piratical ID scrambling hardware that would increase the required scan time.) That way, large, loud ships would be ID'd more or less immediately if they do crime, but small vessels could do crime and, while still triggering an aggressive response, have the opportunity to return to friendly territory and hide out without getting tied back to the player himself.

That's all pretty high-level stuff, of course, and I expect it would be challenging even for a mod to pull off - it would require untangling whatever existing crime and punishment scripting is already in place (and sidestepping anything that happens to be hardcoded), and would be non-trivial to balance properly. Nothing's impossible, though. ^^