Who are We?

[bandarlog]

Hello there. I'm just asking this little simple question.
A little background:
I'm currently hunting for an M7M and planning the missile complex for it.
I just thought of the occasion of a future police scan.
Officer: We scanned your ship and did not find any illegal goods aboard. Here are your papers Sir! Are those kids in the backseat yours?
Me: Yes. She's Becky and he's Nathan. 6 and 4.
Officer: Nice little buggers. Can I ask you where are you heading?
Me: We want to make a family trip to Hatikvah's...
Officer: Really? I always wanted to go there, such a beautiful place...
Me: Magnificient asteroids
Officer: Well, good day sir. Wait. Can I ask you one more question. I see you are also the fan of the Argon Prime Yankees.
Me: Of course fellow sportsman.
Officer: What do you plan with those two megatons of Hammer Torpedoes?

You get the picture. I'm an individual entrepreneur. I'm hauling two megatons of manufactured solid death onboard.
I want an explanation for this. I cant imagine a universe where a sociomaniac wacko can buy and sell weapons of mass destruction.
I have some theories:
1. This is really a joke on the US firearms policy.
2. The joke is about the contrast of marijuana(spaceweed) vs guns.
3. Desperate times call for desperate measures. In an all out war(xenon) the authorities just dont care about gunblazing idiots. They dont jail them. They recruit them.

Who are we? Why can we be the Harbringers of the Apocalypse with a POLICE LICENSE?!

[Sabrina Bergin]

Because the devil pay's well.

No it's a feature of the game you have chosen to produce missiles with the intent of killing and capping other crews/ships are you seriously asking us to enter a philosophical debate about choices you have made in this game.

I would suggest that you role play the game by getting in character but don't ask us to rationalise your choices.

[Timsup2nothin]

Don't you know that once you have a 'police license' (badge) you can do pretty much anything?

Look at gun laws. In California this gun has to be registered, that gun you can't have at all...but members of law enforcement are exempt. A cop can have an unregistered arsenal in their home that would serve a small nation proud and that's just fine.

I had a cop pull a gun on me in a parking lot despite the fact that I had just said "have I committed a crime?" and his answer was a very clear "no you did not." When I reported this to a desk cop (anonymously from a phone booth) I was told "you're probably a big guy and if he felt he was at risk he has that right". So if you are in a conversation with someone and they are a big guy you can conduct the conversation with a gun in your hand just so you feel secure? Since when? Oh, since you got a badge.

I find your game scenario to be totally realistic. Once I get a police license I just run amok.

[bandarlog]

shaun bergin

Please, accept my humble apologies. I dont want to offend you. But my question is serious.
I haul missiles. Yes.
I fly through military complexes. Yes.
I drive a Missile Frigate. Yes...Wait what?
Military industry flourishes in real life.
But they dont swim around with private nuclear submarines.
There's a clear border between dealer and user.

Timsup2nothin

In my country these wild untamed beautiful creatures roam around on horseback whacking people with batons.
Seriously gamewise: Just as you said.
Someone bumped into you at a gate and broke your windshield?
Police Typhoon Time.
You scanned the cargo and found something unrecognizable and you dont have the patience to make a normal procedure?
Police Typhoon Time.
A woman asked you to kill the red highlighted ship? Wait. You cant murder peop- forget it-
Police Typhoon Time.

General
The rank mechanic is a good approach. "You cant do this, till we love you this much."
But flying around in war vessels in core sectors?
I dont care if that's the federation's grandma. If she's flying a death-platform in a civil zone, then it's time to some intervention.
There must be some logic here.
Here are some more sophisticated options:
-The corporations bended/eroded the law system to their liking a long time ago. Way before the Xenon affairs.
-The whole space exploration (old X) started a new age. Humanity had to adapt much quicker to never before seen situations. The rigid law system couldn't handle the pressure and collapsed.

The more I think on this subject, the more I understand the Xenon. They made a holly-jolly Eden for humankind. And the monkeys got wasted on spacefuel, got high on spaceweed and they started to decimate eachother.
It's a logical conclusion that it's just a matter of uncoloized planets remaining before the drunken apes decide to annihilate their now-useless spaceflying colonizing dishwashers.
The only viable option here is to strike. Definitely no viruses or system malfuction. Pure logic.

[Sabrina Bergin]

Banderlog:

I certainly won't be offended by comments, but aren't you loosing sight of the fact that this is a game and some rules and some suspension of belief is necessary to play the game.

To try and project the moral codes or lack of them from the game into real life is a flawed approach.

Whilst I do not disagree with Banderlogs statements regarding the morality of weapons and there abuses in real life this is surely the wrong forum to try and project those views off topic would probably be better suited for it.

For my own part I have the advantage of experience but even so I recognise my own failings.
It is our own efforts to master our failings that is important, I also find that it is all too easy to state that this and this is wrong in our society.
Sadly until people all people have reached a level of maturity they/we currently lack theses failings will persist at great cost to all of us.

[Sirrobert]

You raised a funny, but very true point.

Thing is ofcourse, the universe is a dangerous place. Xenon jump in wherever they damn well please, with several capital ships at a time. Pirates shoot everything they see. You have to be able to defend yourself.
And than there is the fact that Paranid and Argon shoot eachother on sight, and Split and Boron.

So you could say you are a bounty hunter. Maybe a privateer. Every time you kill an enemy of the owner of the sector, you get a reward
In Albion Prelude, the Argon (if you pick a commonwealth race) will recruit you for the war as soon as you enter M148. Checks and background? Meh, if you want to kill Terrans, you are welcome

So basicly, the universe is the Wild wild West from the movies. With Xenon flying around, can you blame anyone for arming himself?


Ofcourse you could also claim that you are a merchant, though I don't think that counts if you are sitting in a Missle Frigate (or anything bigger than M7 for that matter).
Than again. Why would you bring your kids along in a warship?

[_Axel]

My guess is that the official police forces aren't numerous / powerful enough to ensure everyone in every sector remain peaceful. Hence the bounty system and the fact civilian may be invited to join the war effort. From what I see it seems similar to the way bounty-hunting works in Cowboy Bebop (Well, with the exception governments want you to blow criminals up instead of keeping them alive for justice to sort things out.)