Escape Pods should not be illegal salvage

[Soron Silin]

I've just found a crash site on a HMC world about 1000ly from the bubble. There's a broken ship, 4 tonnes of personal weapons, 2 tonnes of narcotics and an occupied escape pod. All of them are marked as illegal salvage.

In game, I can understand why it's illegal to take the goods, but it should be legal to rescue the pilot. There's no other way that he's going to survive.

That even goes for open space in the bubble. Escape pods are not immune to failure or weapons fire in canon. Pulling them onboard and delivering them to a medical team is a moral act. We should be able to turn them in at a station. In this case, either High Security to stand trial or Low Security to get back to his mates.

Out of game, it's probably not a good idea to give a bounty for them even if that would be reasonable in-game. But it must be a simple fix to make occupied escape pods legal salvage with a zero sell price.

 

[E-L-Y-S-I-U-M]

Or sell them into slavery on the black market, that should be an option too

 

[Iskariot]

I agree that Escape Pods should not be illegal salvage

I disagree with the "zero sell price".
In this cut throat greedy universe there should be a decent finders fee for rescuing people.

And it would be cool if perhaps some escape pods had missions attached to them: Someone in an escape pods might give you a mission to kill his attacker, or to retrieve some goods, free his captured wife from slavers etc.

 

[Lestat]

I have two takes on this and I think they need to enhance the Escape pod some.

I've just found a crash site on a HMC world about 1000ly from the bubble. There's a broken ship, 4 tonnes of personal weapons, 2 tonnes of narcotics and an occupied escape pod. All of them are marked as illegal salvage.

In game, I can understand why it's illegal to take the goods, but it should be legal to rescue the pilot. There's no other way that he's going to survive.

You just described what the Pilot had — illegal goods in most systems. So the Escape pod should also be unlawful. Now if the Pilot had a mining ship or cargo ship, they should be legal unless it a pirate But that my take. Now if you found a ship and no other cargo. Is the Escape pod should be a toss-up.

That even goes for open space in the bubble. Escape pods are not immune to failure or weapons fire in canon. Pulling them onboard and delivering them to a medical team is a moral act. We should be able to turn them in at a station. In this case, either High Security to stand trial or Low Security to get back to his mates.

You have to remember depending on that medical team. They might not see things as Moral or not. Depending on group or Religion, they might see outsiders as Immoral.

Out of game, it's probably not a good idea to give a bounty for them even if that would be reasonable in-game. But it must be a simple fix to make occupied escape pods legal salvage with a zero sell price.

I think they can enhance what escape pods are and when they add more mechanics. Like if you pick one up and be able to wake them up and they can tell you the location they are headed and you can drop them off.

 

[dxm55]

Occupied escape pod....

Sounds like biowaste to me. The rotting corpse of the pilot inhabiting it will prob create quite a stink.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Or sell them into slavery on the black market, that should be an option too

I'd rather sell them to the Thargoid engineers to unlock them

 

[Azmuth Divarchchron]

I've just found a crash site on a HMC world about 1000ly from the bubble. There's a broken ship, 4 tonnes of personal weapons, 2 tonnes of narcotics and an occupied escape pod. All of them are marked as illegal salvage.

In game, I can understand why it's illegal to take the goods, but it should be legal to rescue the pilot. There's no other way that he's going to survive.

That even goes for open space in the bubble. Escape pods are not immune to failure or weapons fire in canon. Pulling them onboard and delivering them to a medical team is a moral act. We should be able to turn them in at a station. In this case, either High Security to stand trial or Low Security to get back to his mates.

Out of game, it's probably not a good idea to give a bounty for them even if that would be reasonable in-game. But it must be a simple fix to make occupied escape pods legal salvage with a zero sell price.

I thought escape pods being illegal salvage was fixed with the search and rescue update.
But I agree they shouldnt be illegal.

 

[BinakAlgo]

I agree completely with you here, OP. Just had been in the same situation 3 months ago before I stopped playing for IRL reasons and I thought back then just to make a thread like this one.

Like 5k ly away, destroyed, SRV, no other salvage inside, just the scape pod so I picked up of course. A few clicks away I found a wreckage site and 7 scape pods with some legal salvage, picked them up too of course. Then I got back to the bubble and just then I realized that I had an "illegal" escape pod, the first one.

Sorry if I sound too SJW for the Internet's tastes but how the heck is a human being in a distress situation illegal? Even if there is a criminal inside it should be valid search and rescue plus maybe a bonus for capturing him, and even if there is only a dead body inside it should be still valid salvage.

The option to sell them to slavery sounds terrible but I guess it's a valid option for those who want to roleplay a cruel slaver, I guess.

 

[Soron Silin]

And it would be cool if perhaps some escape pods had missions attached to them: Someone in an escape pods might give you a mission to kill his attacker, or to retrieve some goods, free his captured wife from slavers etc.

I like the idea of missions being created from rescued pilots, but that would be a much more extensive fix.

I disagree with the "zero sell price".

I was concerned with the possibility that PvP kills may produce an escape pod. We don't want to give PvP pirates more reason to go after innocent pilots, even ones with no cargo. That goes in-game too; insurance companies would be wary of offering a bounty in case pirates took to destroying ships just to get the escape pods to sell.

 

[Iskariot]

I like the idea of missions being created from rescued pilots, but that would be a much more extensive fix.

I think this would be very easy to do. After you have delivered an escape pod to a station you could simply get a message that contains a mission.
I would love this to be more elaborate though. You might be asked to meet someone near a specific planet and then get the mission, or even better, when FPA/FPS gameplay is introduced, you would actually go into a station on foot to meet the person you rescued in a bar... etc. etc.

I was concerned with the possibility that PvP kills may produce an escape pod. We don't want to give PvP pirates more reason to go after innocent pilots, even ones with no cargo. That goes in-game too; insurance companies would be wary of offering a bounty in case pirates took to destroying ships just to get the escape pods to sell.

I understand, and the concern is justified, but perhaps in PvP situations the game might ask confirmation from the cmdr piloting the destroyed vessel.
One could devise other schemes too to prevent escape pod harvesting in PvP situations.

 

[Factabulous]

If you want to RP it then the Legal ones have no contact for recovery, so you can take that contract and be that hero. Illegal ones have already got someone coming for them - and sometimes even have defences present - hope you didn't shoot them, naughty boy. You should leave them for the Pod Rats or whoever else has the contract.

Means you have to pay a bit of attention, and a bit of added gameplay. If you want them to remove the illegal ones then I suggest you come up with how it enriches and expands the game

 

[Old Duck]

I'd rather sell them to the Thargoid engineers to unlock them

Would that allow me to replace collector limpets with a tractor beam?

 

[dm06]

4 tonnes of personal weapons, 2 tonnes of narcotics and an occupied escape pod.

This is a definitely good person in the escape pod. I can't even get a glue why the pod should be illegal.

 

[Soron Silin]

This is a definitely good person in the escape pod. I can't even get a glue why the pod should be illegal.

Yeah he was clearly a smuggler. But that shouldn't make it illegal to bring him back for trial. Okay, so justice in ED is swift and brutal, but should that extend to leaving even a criminal on a deserted rock to die? Wouldn't the game be richer if we were allowed the moral choice?

 

[Azmuth Divarchchron]

Yeah he was clearly a smuggler. But that shouldn't make it illegal to bring him back for trial. Okay, so justice in ED is swift and brutal, but should that extend to leaving even a criminal on a deserted rock to die? Wouldn't the game be richer if we were allowed the moral choice?

I guess its red dangerous redemption out there

 

[BinakAlgo]

Yeah he was clearly a smuggler. But that shouldn't make it illegal to bring him back for trial. Okay, so justice in ED is swift and brutal, but should that extend to leaving even a criminal on a deserted rock to die? Wouldn't the game be richer if we were allowed the moral choice?

I don't think it is even needed the moral angle. You got a smuggler, assassin, whatever. You deliver it to the authorities or to a criminal group or sell him to slavery, but I see no reason to mark the scape pod as "illegal" and be unable to do anything with it except sell it to a black market.

 

[Borderline Bob]

The 5 escape pods that I collected from crash site today didn't have "Illegal Salvage" against them, perhaps your escape pods had really nasty people in them, Tax Inspectors or BBC licensing "outreach teams" perhaps.

 

[Jmanis]

And it would be cool if perhaps some escape pods had missions attached to them: Someone in an escape pods might give you a mission to kill his attacker, or to retrieve some goods, free his captured wife from slavers etc.

This actually exist(ed)... don't know if it ever made it past beta, but it used to be that you'd occasionally recover pods, personal effects or other cargo, and you might get a mission to return it to it's owner.

Dunno what happened but it doesn't seem like it happens anymore.