Exterior Space Station Green Zone Removal
The initial introduction of the relaxation of Green Zones will be removing the armistice zone around the exterior of Rest Stops. This update will allow players to fire ship weapons around Rest Stop exteriors and comes with many updates to the law system and station defenses to help accommodate this. Destructible defenses of a few sizes and varieties have been added on and around the rest stops. These range from the small S4 turrets (now destructible) placed on landing pads, through S6 sentries seen in the Claim Jumpers missions, to ALL new S10 turrets on and around the perimeter of the stations. Once destroyed, these currently respawn after 5 minutes (subject to balancing), but in future we aim improve this simplistic system. We have created a Security Response system which while still quite simplistic, adds the CrimeStats of all players in the area (we’re calling this internally the “heat”) and spawns security ships of increasing number and strength in response. The system responds quickly to increases in an area’s heat by spawning in new ships and despawning out any weaker ships they replace. The system responds slower to the killing of its own members (should the heat not be raised by this) and slower still to decreases in heat (to keep security patrolling for a time to ensure the threat doesn't return any time soon). We will develop this system further in the future to also take into account the type of ship the players are using. A new infraction has been created called the Armistice Violation. This is a felony and is given should players damage other ships or station defenses within the Armistice Zone. It does have a grace period and allowance in which the player is warned that further infractions will result in a felony. For it the first implementation, this new infraction will only remain active on the player’s criminal record of 1 day. Should the player enter the Armistice Zone while having a CrimeStat or gain a CrimeStat whilst within the zone, they will be shown a warning telling them to leave immediately. Players attacked by any NPC or player valid to arrest them should have a start/reset arrest timer started on them. If the player then dies by any means whilst this timer is active, they will be arrested. This timer is ended should the player manage to quantum travel, and will be between one and three minutes, extended by level of engagement with the NPC. This is to get around the unfairness of being arrested simply because an actor valid to arrest you is nearby as now that actor would have had to have attacked you recently. Criminals will now respawn at GrimHex if they die without being arrested or log out without using a ship bed. Players are now briefly offered the option to press charges/forgive on crimes committed against them. This is defaulted to press charges for crime committed by non-party members and defaulted to forgive for party members should the notification be ignored. We have converted the indirect killing of players from homicide to the lesser crime of manslaughter in some cases. This includes crushing players with a vehicle, killing via triggering an explosion such as an explosive barrel or a ship-self-destruct. We have also made it manslaughter for every kill aboard a ship other than the pilot. Locking a missile on a ship will now count as hostility and allow that ship to attack you in self-defense. It will cause AI to attack and trigger an “Assaulting an Officer of the Law” infraction if done to law enforcement. Quantum snaring now only gives the player an infraction should they snare a ship and it will give one for every ship snared. Quantum dampening an actor the player has the right to arrest should no longer be a crime. Players should no longer be able to avoid security scans by getting out of their seat. We have fixed several ATC/pad loitering and impounding bugs to ensure the experience is more reliable and consistent. Pad ramming will now be ignored as a crime if committed by a party member. This is mainly to not punish party members for small bumps along the way. You’ll still be able to give a party member a crime stat if the pad ramming is so severe it ends with your death or ship destruction.
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