How to defeat a commander that tries to scan your ship while you're in the station

[Tuub t Tute]

I will fix this for you:
The player shooting at your ship and maybe destroying it is just not engaging game play. It is fustration for the at shoot one and the shooter can get nothing more than a smug for destroying some hardware, which most likely is insured anyway.

If you logged into Open and a Corvette blew you to pieces with a full salvo whilst you were still docked, that might be equivalent. Apples and Flame Throwers and all that

 

[WR3ND]

Its all about imagination & blaze your own trail , you dont need rewards , thats enough!

Playing the game is the reward, but you know, a lot of people just seem to want that extra 1007-1337, so they take the easy, time-efficient route to get it. I can't entirely blame them for that. That it's a viable option in the first place that detracts from intended game-play and in effect encourages a poor gaming experience is the problem, not the actual people doing it.

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

Switching modes is fun.

Ok. Floats boat whatever.

And this is exactly why I scan CMDRs who are hogging the medium pad

Thanks guys, you saved me typing it.

 

[Altair8800]

If you logged into Open and a Corvette blew you to pieces with a full salvo whilst you were still docked, that might be equivalent. Apples and Flame Throwers and all that

Remember when they fired dumbfire missiles through the mailslot of stations, laughing their *ss off from the caused havoc? These things will get fixed, same as this scanning inside the hangar. These are not the real problems with the game, just small uncomfortable issues, that very easily can be avoided if one is annoyed by such nonsense.

 

[Weps]

Because the thing is, ultimately at its heart, when player A cargo-scans player B so that player B fails a mission, that is just an utter, massive nuisance for B, for not even any gain for A beyond the potential pleasure of knowing to have caused this. And doing something for the sole pleasure of causing another player anguish is exactly this: griefing.

I agree, but (playing devil's advocate a little) I would take the more complex, less likely-to-happen, hopeful approach: why not create a gameplay element to give this behaviour some meaning. Here's a quick example:

When player A performs the scan, he receives a mission / message in his inbox to report his findings to the proper authorities / relatives of the victim / parties interested / rival slave gang etc. B will only fail the mission if A completes this mission in turn. The information must be delivered to the destination of B's mission. Multiple missions are issued depending on B's missions. The payout for each of A's missions is substantial. If B completes his mission first, A's mission fails.

This becomes a race between A and B to reach said destination first and complete the mission before the other one. C and D can join in anytime and "steal" A's or B's missions in the same manner. They can choose to fight or outrun each other. Since missions are long range, the decision to perform the run or simply farm new missions becomes relevant.

Bottom line: I would like player scanning to still be a part of shadow deliveries, if it has some meaning in the universe. Sadly, this is not something which can be said about many other things in the game.

 

[Tuub t Tute]

I agree, but (playing devil's advocate a little) I would take the more complex, less likely-to-happen, hopeful approach: why not create a gameplay element to give this behaviour some meaning. Here's a quick example:

When player A performs the scan, he receives a mission / message in his inbox to report his findings to the proper authorities / relatives of the victim / parties interested / rival slave gang etc. B will only fail the mission if A completes this mission in turn. The information must be delivered to the destination of B's mission. Multiple missions are issued depending on B's missions. The payout for each of A's missions is substantial. If B completes his mission first, A's mission fails.

This becomes a race between A and B to reach said destination first and complete the mission before the other one. C and D can join in anytime and "steal" A's or B's missions in the same manner. They can choose to fight or outrun each other. Since missions are long range, the decision to perform the run or simply farm new missions becomes relevant.

Or the scanner could hail the scannee and demand a cut of the profits, which could be orchestrated through a much improved UI console, for not turning over the data to the Feds. Smuggler completes his run and 10% of his profits are wired directly to the scanner? E-Piracy... probably open to abuse for gold farmers though :/

 

[racer1]

I will fix this for you:
The player shooting at your ship and maybe destroying it is just not engaging game play. It is fustration for the at shoot one and the shooter can get nothing more than a smug for destroying some hardware, which most likely is insured anyway.

I'm all for that. I should have said I meant being scanned while docked as there is no defence. If you are attacked in space you can take defensive action.

 

[Tuub t Tute]

Remember when they fired dumbfire missiles through the mailslot of stations, laughing their *ss off from the caused havoc? These things will get fixed, same as this scanning inside the hangar. These are not the real problems with the game, just small uncomfortable issues, that very easily can be avoided if one is annoyed by such nonsense.

Aye, I think we are somehow disagreeing from the same side of the argument. I have no love for the "gamey" aspects of the game and I hope they get addressed in the mission overhaul of 2.1.
It does seem to fold into the "In that case I have to avoid Open"... "Well if you are avoiding Open, it is a stain on your character, sir!" type arguments.

 

[Goose4291]

I'm just going to put this out there.
I've been scanned before while inside a station by NPC's, literally less than a day ago in Harvestport doing this Onionhead CG.

 

[Kizbot]

@OCflyer - Just out of curiosity, are you aware that you still block the pad even when you are inside the hanger?

ok serious question if this is true..

say i land on the med pad at robigo in solo and log off, get some lunch drink tea whatever.

In this time someone lands and sits at the med pad in open and stays there.

I then log in to open (starting me inside the hanger) and request take off. hows that work?

 

[Karla]

Generally speaking, the few of us who play occasionally as Robigo Mines PD operate under one simple rule, which was to only scan players who were spawning on the pads (so mission hopping) and only then, scanning them once per appearance.

If someone flew into Robigo, docked and left in the same instance we mostly left them alone.

I haven't done a Robigo run but I'm now tempted to go there and pretend to mode switch without actually taking on any missions just to see how many times I get scanned. Hah! That will show them! They're sitting in front of a computer spending hours just scanning stationary ships so they get the satisfaction of annoying people and I'm doing the same logging in and out knowing that their efforts are futile and they don't even realise it. Who has the last laugh now then? Eh? Eh?

(That wasn't meant entirely seriously by the way).

Honestly, what kind of sad individual likes annoying people that much to spend time doing that? Some people have too much time on their hands when they could be an economic resource using up the Earth's resources instead! What I find funny is how people find all kinds of ways to rationalise such behaviour because they have to assume some kind of purpose behind it or say that it is done as some kind of role playing. No. The scanner just likes being annoying. But I suppose if that's what gives them some sense of agency and purpose to their lives then I suppose that's what it takes.

 

[Altair8800]

It does seem to fold into the "In that case I have to avoid Open"... "Well if you are avoiding Open, it is a stain on your character, sir!" type arguments.

These arguments are quite funny, as long there is no player interaction implemented in open, other than shooting a bit at ships of other players, or dropping some cargo someone else can pick up. Of course these minimalistic dumbed down things get old very soon, so one has to be creative about finding anything entertaining to do, like doing Robigo runs or scanning people there, whatever is possible with this very limited game mechanics. That is the real problem of the game, hopefully much better with 2.4 sometime. If people had to do something in the game, they won't have too much time trying such stupid things.

 

[sewerratuk]

ok serious question if this is true..

say i land on the med pad at robigo in solo and log off, get some lunch drink tea whatever.

In this time someone lands and sits at the med pad in open and stays there.

I then log in to open (starting me inside the hanger) and request take off. hows that work?

Instancing will put you into a different Universe

 

[evoelise]

I had no interest in smuggling missions at all; I never carry slaves and don't do the mode-switch dance as it's obviously a broken & daft game mechanic.

But having read this thread I now have an overwhelming urge to travel to Robigo with my cargo scanner...

 

[Tuub t Tute]

I had no interest in smuggling missions at all; I never carry slaves and don't do the mode-switch dance as it's obviously a broken & daft game mechanic.

But having read this thread I now have an overwhelming urge to travel to Robigo with my cargo scanner...

Well depending on where you are in the bubble and what ship you fly it will be a 15 to 30 jump trip out there, to sit around hoping to see someone in your instance. Come back and let us know how your session played out. if you'd be so kind?

 

[Zeeman]

I can't say that I have seen any real hard evidence for this assertion. I personally believe that they do work by the same rules - and that any perceived difference is actually nothing more that the subjective differences between first and third person views, possibly combined with a minor bug or two here and there. I do know that SJA has stated on many occasions that her minions play by the same rules and I have not seen any evidence to the contrary - for myself. I have seen them getting smarter, and having some pretty wicked load-outs on occasions as well (I'm thinking rail-asps and so on here) but never playing by different rules.

Plenty of ways they don't play by the same rules. Try launching chaff when being scanned by an NPC and see what happens (hint - nothing). Try scanning an NPC that launches chaff. Don't get me wrong, I don't care when it comes to smuggling - they also can't scan beyond 1km, and have yet to know where to find the boost button when chasing. I can also dock in 40-50 seconds easily (from SC drop out to touch down) and have never been scanned when I did not want to be.

But I digress, if you play long enough, you'll know where the rules for NPC's and humans differ. I'm all for harder NPC's, but I'd like the same mechanics to apply to us all...

Z...

 

[Kizbot]

Instancing will put you into a different Universe

F me those outposts just teleport me to another dimension!? That is some high tech wizardry right there with no immersion broken.

Lets be honest here, even when role playing, the very idea of spending game time sat out side a station scanning ships. Fun times..

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Lets be honest here, even when role playing, the very idea of spending game time sat out side a station scanning ships. Fun times..

IKR? I'd much rather spend my time logging in and out of the game and reading the bulletin board...

 

[Goose4291]

Honestly, what kind of sad individual likes annoying people that much to spend time doing that? Some people have too much time on their hands when they could be an economic resource using up the Earth's resources instead! What I find funny is how people find all kinds of ways to rationalise such behaviour because they have to assume some kind of purpose behind it or say that it is done as some kind of role playing. No. The scanner just likes being annoying. But I suppose if that's what gives them some sense of agency and purpose to their lives then I suppose that's what it takes.

I see you jumped passed the part where I explained a lot of people doing this are either RP-ing Federal pilots trying to quash people trafficking, Imperial Customs Officers trying to stamp out illegal slave trading (when they controlled the station) or just plain anti-slavery types.

Don't assume because you don't appreciate or 'get' the other persons idea of RP/gameplay choices that it is griefing, ganking or anything else just because it clashes with your personal stance on the matter.

Additionally, I'd also add a lot of the scanner types generally only do half an hour here or there and do it as an aside to their normal gameplay.

 

[snadge]

I'm all for that. I should have said I meant being scanned while docked as there is no defence. If you are attacked in space you can take defensive action.

Maybe stop mode switching, stay in solo and have a little patience for the BB updating normally.