"Assault" charges

[DarkMecha]

This is seriously getting ridiculous. I just got blown away by station guns over a 400 credit bounty when I was trying to land to pay off that very fine. The death is not so annoying, even though I lost 115k in bounty claims and 52k in rebuying my ship. No, what has me feeling angry enough to walk way from this game for a week or two is that the only reason I got the stupid "assault" charge is because the dumb security eagle flew in front of me from out of nowhere while I was fighting a wanted target so close he nearly rammed me and of course got nicked by my beam laser in the process. Now I'm instantly a villain here even though I was being very careful with where my shots went and the laser barely did any damage to the stupid fool's ship.

This happens -constantly- no matter how careful I am with my shots, they always find some dumb way to get hit. Half the time even when I don't hit them at all and have no wanted status, the security craft will turn hostile and open fire on me for no reason at all. Naturally if I fire back, I will become wanted so the only option is to leave the location in super cruise then come right back. Suddenly the same exact security craft are no longer hostile to me, which makes it really seem to me like that's a bug, one that has been in the game since beta.

Lastly, what is the proper way of going about paying off a bounty? I previously have just docked at any station affiliated with the faction that gave the bounty and paid it off, so I thought that was the way to do it. Yet this time they granted me docking permission only to then open fire on me while I was trying to dock! What gives!? That has never happened before, and further if that is going to happen then how the heck are we supposed to pay off the bounty?

 

[Arkantes]

Lastly, what is the proper way of going about paying off a bounty? I previously have just docked at any station affiliated with the faction that gave the bounty and paid it off, so I thought that was the way to do it. Yet this time they granted me docking permission only to then open fire on me while I was trying to dock! What gives!? That has never happened before, and further if that is going to happen then how the heck are we supposed to pay off the bounty?

Outposts are a much safer bet than stations.

 

[CMDR Moortz]

If I recall correctly, fines turn into a bounty at some point after they are accrued - maybe you were unlucky and your fine turned into a wanted status as you were on your final approach? Did you get scanned by the local constabulary while you were docking?


I think the general consensus is that outposts are the best place to pay off fines.

 

[DarkMecha]

I went directly to the station right after receiving it, as I usually do. Normally I get scanned and they just don't care - I dock, pay it off and it's no big deal. I don't really understand what was different this time.

Either way, damage should have to pass some kind of threshold before it counts as a fine-able offense IMO. It feels like the cops are shoving something in your hand and going "HE STOLE THAT!! GET HIM!!" when this crap happens.

 

[WO-One]

If I remember correctly, a fine I acquired became a bounty after 24 hours.

Always check your wanted status before switching off.

 

[DarkMecha]

Right but not even 5 minutes had passed.

 

[Red Kite]

If you hit a police ship that is a bounty straight away. To pay it off safely go to a station not allied with issuing authority and pay through the Pilot's Federation contact. Or land at an outpost where there is usually less security.

The problem of accidental hits on police has been discussed numerous times and a solution of a small fine in the first instance has been proposed. That may help, but you just have to be more careful when attacking a felon with police around.

Police turning hostile without being hit is a different problem, caused by them being the same faction as the ship you are attacking. Even though the ship is wanted they turn on you instead. Frontier have acknowledged this is a bug and will hopefully fix it.

 

[DarkMecha]

If you hit a police ship that is a bounty straight away. To pay it off safely go to a station not allied with issuing authority and pay through the Pilot's Federation contact. Or land at an outpost where there is usually less security.

The problem of accidental hits on police has been discussed numerous times and a solution of a small fine in the first instance has been proposed. That may help, but you just have to be more careful when attacking a felon with police around.

Police turning hostile without being hit is a different problem, caused by them being the same faction as the ship you are attacking. Even though the ship is wanted they turn on you instead. Frontier have acknowledged this is a bug and will hopefully fix it.

Noted, and I do hope they implement that change soon. You can be as careful with your shots as you want, but I frequently have had the stupid AI cops ram me and other silly crap. It's like they love to find ways to be hit, even if you are trying not to hit them. I'm sure its just the AI being stupid, but it's extremely annoying and sometimes feels like it's intentional.

 

[babelfisch]

If you cant handle your weapons, dont use them. You have three options:
a) Check your targets, dont fire if you dont hit
b) Trade your beam laser in for some burst lasers, maybe its easier for you to handle them
c) If option a) and b) doenst work for you, you could become a trader or explorer as you are clearly lacking the skills for fighting. One does not simply attack security vessels.

I'm a newb myself, but when I preordered the game I watched let's plays and read forum posts. This helped me a lot to understand how this game works and I can tell you that 90% of similar threads and problems arent due to bad design decsisions, but to players who dont understand the game mechanics.

Regarding security vessels becoming hostile without attacking them, it's because your target is in an allied faction with local authorities. I think that only happens at Nav Beacons and alike where security vessels are already present, so it shouldnt happen while bounty hunting in USS. An easy way to get around this is to become friendly with local factions, even wanted ships will become green and thereby you know who is safe to hunt.
This actually is a broken mechanic as you cant help security vessels fighting an allied criminal without getting hostile, but I think if you do it doesnt affect your reputation. As you said jumping out and back in again resets the status of security vessels to neutral/friendly and you can continue bounty hunting.
I'm pretty sure Frontier is aware of this problem and are working on a fix.

 

[LtCasey]

Sorry for you, that you have been shot. This has never happened to me. Are you sure you weren' t loitering over a pad? Docking clearance granted?

 

[DarkMecha]

If you cant handle your weapons, dont use them. You have three options:
a) Check your targets, dont fire if you dont hit
b) Trade your beam laser in for some burst lasers, maybe its easier for you to handle them
c) If option a) and b) doenst work for you, you could become a trader or explorer as you are clearly lacking the skills for fighting. One does not simply attack security vessels.

I'm a newb myself, but when I preordered the game I watched let's plays and read forum posts. This helped me a lot to understand how this game works and I can tell you that 90% of similar threads and problems arent due to bad design decsisions, but to players who dont understand the game mechanics.

Regarding security vessels becoming hostile without attacking them, it's because your target is in an allied faction with local authorities. I think that only happens at Nav Beacons and alike where security vessels are already present, so it shouldnt happen while bounty hunting in USS. An easy way to get around this is to become friendly with local factions, even wanted ships will become green and thereby you know who is safe to hunt.
This actually is a broken mechanic as you cant help security vessels fighting an allied criminal without getting hostile, but I think if you do it doesnt affect your reputation. As you said jumping out and back in again resets the status of security vessels to neutral/friendly and you can continue bounty hunting.
I'm pretty sure Frontier is aware of this problem and are working on a fix.

Yeah, thanks for the "advice". I handle myself just fine.

I believe about all that's useful has been said about this issue. Thank you to those who have provided useful responses.

 

[babelfisch]

Noted, and I do hope they implement that change soon. You can be as careful with your shots as you want, but I frequently have had the stupid AI cops ram me and other silly crap. It's like they love to find ways to be hit, even if you are trying not to hit them. I'm sure its just the AI being stupid, but it's extremely annoying and sometimes feels like it's intentional.

Well as I already said I'm a newbie myself. But after killing over 300 criminals I once hit a security vessel. Thought stupid me, be more careful next time, headed over to the next station and paid my well deserved bounty. It never happened to me that I got rammed. And I never attacked a security vessel again. So when I can do it, it's not the stupid AI, it's not intentional, it's only you beeing irresponsible with your weapons.

There was a thread called "1001 stupid mistakes" or something like that in the gamma forum. It helped me a lot.

 

[Lenroc elisav]

"System map" will tell you at which station you are "WANTED". I avoid those when I get a bounty on me, go to one that doesn't care I was a bad boy, pay the bounty and I'm back in business. Also when you become wanted you get a "WANTED" in red on your low right HUD, above the signature indicator (I think it is).

 

[Red Kite]

Noted, and I do hope they implement that change soon. You can be as careful with your shots as you want, but I frequently have had the stupid AI cops ram me and other silly crap. It's like they love to find ways to be hit, even if you are trying not to hit them. I'm sure its just the AI being stupid, but it's extremely annoying and sometimes feels like it's intentional.

All the best for your future career from a fellow bounty hunter. The AI does do some stupid things which are difficult to avoid, I admit, but it was much worse in earlier testing. Deliberate ramming and instant death was all too common!

 

[bullfrog]

Well I learned about this in the alpha so its a known play factor for me now but I can see it might come as an unwelcome surprise the first time if you are used to playing games with friendly fire off. In Dangerous it gets messy when the cops show up and you need to watch your back to get through it and take the bounty. At least the cops dont go red when they friendly fire on players, neither do they get any kind of censure. Better news is they are less inclined to steal kills than they used to be.

You probably got scanned OP, there is a way to break scanner lock...

 

[Poseidal]

Security seem to stay clean when they hit a clean ship. Don't know if it's intended or not.

 

[JACyo]

Yes it is annoying that the security ships love to suddenly zap into your line of fire to enjoy the fireworks between you and the target as close as possible...
I hope FD can eventually implement a better mechanics to distinguish between friendly fire (which should result only a fine for the first time but not an immediate bounty), assault, manslaughter and murder.

Currently, we can only resort to checking the radar more frequently and train ourselves better situation awareness.
I find it quiet handy to get at least friendly to the security faction so that whenever you see a green dot in your radar approaching your vicinity, you take extra care before firing.

 

[Opeth_Ivey]

I think an easy fix is that A fed ship wont fine you unless you have him targeted when you fire. This solves the issue of him flying in front of you and getting tagged. Everyone makes the argument don't fire when they are in front of you, or watch where you are firing. fine that's ok, but how about don't fly in between a pilot and a wanted ship. The feds don't take any responsibility for their actions in flying in front of your guns while you are engaging a wanted target?

Between this and the rep loss for getting scanned with illegal cargo it is impossible to gain rep no matter how many missions you run for the fed. I ran fed missions for 5 hours and went from neutral to hostile because to 2 friendly fires and 2 cargo scans. Seriously. Its obvious that the cargo scan effect on rep far outweighs any mission running you do for a faction.

 

[bullfrog]

It just happened to me yet again and the cop flew right in front of me between me and the target at very close range to the front of my ship, so I could not possibly have anticipated the move and didn't have any time to stop firing. I was saving his skin from two crims but I had to shift out when he went red to me and leave him to his fate. Then I had to sneak into a platform and pay the bounty off. I made it though I can't help wondering if it was deliberate and the cop was being paid off when I stumbled into their little meeting and was saving his crim buddy by getting in the way and making me a legit target. Its what a human player would do.

But I still kind of like the clean and simple cops and robbers mechanics even if the AI are apparently oblivious to fire paths of non enemy ships in their vicinity. I think this is where any effort might be of benefit assuming we don't want furball friendly fire to be so obstructive, maybe FD do. Consequences are at least affirmation of the meaningful nature of the play so are desirable.

I just wonder what the mechanics are if you are allied to a fighting force and persuing combat bonds, I havent tried that yet and it would be quite a pain if you had to quit a warzone battle every time a shot went astray and hit one of your own side. Maybe that would justify some kind of one strike warning with a cooldown timer.

 

[Pigpen]

I think it would save a lot of pain if the game gave you an hour's grace or so to pay off the fine before being condemned to death, but only if you cease fire on whatever it was that gave you the bounty within a couple of seconds of receiving it. If you keep firing, then the death penalty it is.

I stopped using turreted weapons because of this, they're a liability. Even when set to "Target Only" they'll keep blasting away as a friendly ship swoops in through the fire, there's nothing you can do to stop the fine short of maneuvering your ship so the friendly is out of the firing arc of the turret.

I'd love to have a large ship covered in turrets to defend it. As it stands now you'll end up hitting the defence forces that may be trying to keep the nasties off your back. I can't imagine maneuvering an Anaconda with fixed forward weapons to hit anything smaller than a cobra is particularly fun.