What if WE were the police in ED?

I've been floating this exact idea for about 2.5 years. I really hope it gets implemented someday, along with tracking mechanics. If they do this, then they'll need to find a way to extend the jump range of the FDL since it is specifically designed as a primo bounty hunter's ship, but somehow lacks the range to follow anyone's wake. One way to ameliorate this without changing any balance issues is to let people follow someone's "wake tunnel" to their destination regardless of the following ships jump range. This would be like jumping after Alice down the rabbit hole. You scan the wake, then you get the "frequency" to reopen the tunnel they just created and follow them down it to their destination system. You could also use this system for fleets of explorers to ride along in the wake of a flag ship with extra long legs, which would be helpful and FUN during big group expeditions.

It would turn the asp into an interstellar tugboat. :)
 
Will we be able to issue tickets for speeding? I'd like to pull over people and glare at them disappointedly over the top of my mirrored sunglasses as they roll down the window and immediately get sucked into space due to pressure difference.
 
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In my humble opinion, their should be 4 main archetypes that fdev should aim to support:

A- The miner

B- The trader

C- The criminal

D- The bounty hunter

My wish is that fdev focused on those 4 main archetypes and by extension this would enrich gameplay for everyone.

For me -

a) Explorer
b) Trader
c) Bounty Hunter
d) Pirate/ganker
e) Smuggler
f) Xeno hunting/research
 

Powderpanic

Banned
Player Bounty Hunting, much like Piracy, is a total waste of time in Elite Dangerous because the game is badly designed for consequence.

The new crime and punishments wont make any difference to this.

For Bounty hunting or Player Police to be a thing, you would need a way to keep a player in an instance long enough to be able to kill, disable or arrest.

Seeing as the game makes it actually impossible to do this vs even the most average of players, its not going to work.

/thread

Now if you wanted to be Player cops to kill NPC's just roll play it and tbh, it would be just as easy as it is to currently farm NPCs like the ducks in the barrel they are.
 
Not sure it is such a good idea, unless there was no way to tell the difference between NPC and player, and you only got to see the bounties relative to your signedup to faction.

If it were done properly, where you could have a proper police career, and eventually join the Feds or Imperial navy from a local faction or even the Pilots Federation supercops - then I might be pro it. But if all that happens is a player tried to pirate an NPC for a few bucks, and 10,000 players playing policeman descend on the person - it just smacks witch-hunt; rule of the righteous is not a galaxy for the free.

We want crime, we want crime to pay, it should pay VERY WELL - it should be dangerous. But there should be balance.
 
Cracking idea! And, as you say, all the mechanisms (afaik) are already in place.

Possibly an extension of the KWS, or a specialist faction/role?
 
I want to be able to fly a police Viper, SLF or similar ship. At the station I want to sign up for station patrol duty, subject to having a clean record in that jurisdiction. I don't have my own suitable ship I could effectively be loaned a police vessel subject to some kind of insurance excess. I want to fly round the station scanning people for a given amount of time. The game could spawn holo waypoints for me to fly "between" in order to make sure I was actually patrolling. If I stick to the route and scan enough of the ships flying around, taking appropriate action when one was found to be wanted, I'd earn a payout. Attacking clean ships, letting too many bad guys slip through, or crashing would be looked upon unfavourably by the authorities.

See also: escort missions.

See also: trading/mining protection detail.

See also: races.
 
It would be nice to see a 'rogue' system like the one used in the Division. When someone is in the top 5 bounties for instance, they are marked on your radar. Ofcourse this means nothing if they are in solo/private but I only said 'something' like. I agree with OP that the current information makes the art of bounty hunting almost impossible.
 

Rafe Zetter

Banned
Frontier may resist. They have previously indicated something along the lines of not wanting to have a directed supported vigilante system. Which is essentially what rent-a-cop would become in elite. I think more structured options for PVP would be good. But I can see their POV.

Isn't a "bounty hunter" a licenced vigilante? - what am I missing?

I suggest FDev look up the meaning of vigiliante.

a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate.

Surely "rent a cop" is EXACTLY what an elite universe needs, because space is big and cops are few. Skilled bounty hunters even fewer; so a "rent a cop" system to pick off the low hanging fruit of minor bounties that have not escalated to ATR involvement is an ideal system.

Maybe it's a licence only available to those with enough rep with a faction or power, and only valid in their territory.
 
I'm 100% behind you, OP. The thing is though, people are so anti-criminal gameplay around here that they don't realize they are hindering TWO forms of gameplay.

1: The criminal like myself.

2:. The bounty hunter like you.

If fdev made crime more rewarding then their would be more criminals and hence more people for bounty hunters to hunt.

In my humble opinion, their should be 4 main archetypes that fdev should aim to support:

A- The miner

B- The trader

C- The criminal

D- The bounty hunter

My wish is that fdev focused on those 4 main archetypes and by extension this would enrich gameplay for everyone.

Everyone seems to forget about the explorers. Why can't I negative rep you!!


(comment made in jest but my point stands that explorers needs to be on that list as well :p )
 
Isn't a "bounty hunter" a licenced vigilante? - what am I missing?

No. A vigilante acts out of a perceived notion of 'common betterment of the community', 'fighting evil' and such. A bounty hunter wants money. For himself. I dont care *why* someone has a bounty, whether it was justified or not or how serious it was: you pay me to kill him, I kill him. A bounty hunter is closer to an assassin, acting against the law if needed.

BH'ers are bungholes. Vigilantes are wannabe-heroes.
 
I like where the Crime & Punishment system is heading.. but.. what if being a Bounty Hunter in this game wasn't just PvE? What if you could "subscribe" to bounty notifications and get them on your message display "CMDR X just committed Y crime in Z system"? All the mechanics are in game to collect the bounties already, simply notifying us players of crimes committed would help in a huge way IMHO. I know you can currently see "Top 5 bounties" on the Mission Board, but I've tried using that to track down wanted players and my guess is the info is either too stale, or they're in Solo/Private.

What do you guys think? Who'd want to RP a Bounty Hunter, bringing justice to real players instead of NPC pirates??

+1 Superb idea, FDEV; please make this happen.
 
I've been floating this exact idea for about 2.5 years. I really hope it gets implemented someday, along with tracking mechanics. If they do this, then they'll need to find a way to extend the jump range of the FDL since it is specifically designed as a primo bounty hunter's ship, but somehow lacks the range to follow anyone's wake. One way to ameliorate this without changing any balance issues is to let people follow someone's "wake tunnel" to their destination regardless of the following ships jump range. This would be like jumping after Alice down the rabbit hole. You scan the wake, then you get the "frequency" to reopen the tunnel they just created and follow them down it to their destination system. You could also use this system for fleets of explorers to ride along in the wake of a flag ship with extra long legs, which would be helpful and FUN during big group expeditions.

2.5 years? Not bad try 3.5 years. Good idea guys I think this needs to happen....now move along or you're all nicked!
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/15852-Police-expansion-Pack

By the way we need music for this if it happens..an old fav Larry Wallis:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMgkXAug6L0
 
We already have some self-appointed Speed Police - they like to lurk outside stations and ram into speeding ships to cause station-induced rebuys.

Isn't it great?
 
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