The OP has a point. I don't consider the AI scanning routines to be 'fair' or 'realistic' - I've been scanned by AI and failed passenger mission for a) having one spawn right behind me when dogfighting another NPC with 'report crimes against me' off, and b) within 2 seconds of take off from a planetary base. Yes, both were bad luck due to RNG, and I moved on with my life, but still...
With a) if we had AI system traffic that were persistent across both supercuise and normal space, perhaps I could have spotted a police patrol and known them to be in the area prior to the interdiction (or at least allowing some stealth gameplay to evade in supercruise).
With b) having the AI patrol a few more kilometers out, or in supercruise around the planet, rather than directly at the station might help. I'd like to 'thread the gauntlet' against patrols whilst still in supercruise as part of stealth gameplay, with those patrols near stations only paying real attention to people coming in too fast, with weapons out, or deliberately trying not to be seen (e.g. the area around an intermittent contact should be checked out). If you are in an airport, what's more likely to draw attention to yourself and get you stopped? Walking through security as if you had nothing to hide? Or shooting at security, running through security or trying to hide suspiciously? 'Cus Elite seems to encourage the latter behaviour for 'smuggling'.
I'd also have chaff and/or ECM throw off scans for a short period. And more shielded cargo/passenger cabins (with expense, reduced capacity, and additional fines if caught in possession of), to assist smuggling gameplay.
Regarding criminal passengers, I'd like to see more differentiation between those criminals that will get you killed, and those that will just get you fined. Regarding any passengers - having them abandon ship when you're 7000ly from a station (e.g. due to "hull" damage - which I've had from brushing a cargo pod whist scooping) is also pretty silly. Regarding instant 'pass/fail' of missions, well OK, but some more warning (e.g. reduce the reward drastically first) would be nice, plus opportunities to 'recoup' standing with the passenger (e.g. why is a secretive passenger secretive? Presumably because they don't want people to know where they are/have been and act on that. Therefore the longer I go without being scanned, the more uncertainty there is in the NPCs location, so they should become a bit happier as time goes on).
As it stands, I'm halfway to Colonia with a 47 million cr passenger, who'll probably be off at the next station. Anacondas aren't that stealthy.
With a) if we had AI system traffic that were persistent across both supercuise and normal space, perhaps I could have spotted a police patrol and known them to be in the area prior to the interdiction (or at least allowing some stealth gameplay to evade in supercruise).
With b) having the AI patrol a few more kilometers out, or in supercruise around the planet, rather than directly at the station might help. I'd like to 'thread the gauntlet' against patrols whilst still in supercruise as part of stealth gameplay, with those patrols near stations only paying real attention to people coming in too fast, with weapons out, or deliberately trying not to be seen (e.g. the area around an intermittent contact should be checked out). If you are in an airport, what's more likely to draw attention to yourself and get you stopped? Walking through security as if you had nothing to hide? Or shooting at security, running through security or trying to hide suspiciously? 'Cus Elite seems to encourage the latter behaviour for 'smuggling'.
I'd also have chaff and/or ECM throw off scans for a short period. And more shielded cargo/passenger cabins (with expense, reduced capacity, and additional fines if caught in possession of), to assist smuggling gameplay.
Regarding criminal passengers, I'd like to see more differentiation between those criminals that will get you killed, and those that will just get you fined. Regarding any passengers - having them abandon ship when you're 7000ly from a station (e.g. due to "hull" damage - which I've had from brushing a cargo pod whist scooping) is also pretty silly. Regarding instant 'pass/fail' of missions, well OK, but some more warning (e.g. reduce the reward drastically first) would be nice, plus opportunities to 'recoup' standing with the passenger (e.g. why is a secretive passenger secretive? Presumably because they don't want people to know where they are/have been and act on that. Therefore the longer I go without being scanned, the more uncertainty there is in the NPCs location, so they should become a bit happier as time goes on).
As it stands, I'm halfway to Colonia with a 47 million cr passenger, who'll probably be off at the next station. Anacondas aren't that stealthy.
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