Are Space cops too blood thirsty?
- Thread starter KnightHeart
- Start date
If you are not friendly with their faction then yes a single shot is enough if they are unshielded. If the cop has a shield they will ignore a few shots even if not friendly and if friendly then they will ignore a few hull hits.
The reason they turn so quickly is because now there are friendly fire rules you can actually exploit them for punishment-free murder. Take a wing and find a friendly unshielded Anaconda. Each member of the wing can land a few shots without it turning on you and then wait for the timeout period before repeating. Eventually the Anaconda dies and nobody gets a bounty. For bonus points find an Elite Anaconda as that will contribute more points to your combat rating.
Friendly fire rules should never have been implemented as it just allows for sloppy shooting. Yes having cops turn on you is no fun (and they really should avoid your firing arcs which is coming in 1.3) but the second you clip one get out quick and there is no problem. Nobody thinks cops in real life and going to let you shoot the a few times before they shoot back so why should it be any different in space? Since beta I have clipped exactly 1 cop and bounty hunting is my primary job so it can be prevented with situational awareness.
I have always put this down to them wanting to finish off the smaller target first. Either that or they don't get the bounty since law enforcement is their job and they want the "turncoat" out of the way as cops have a dim view of bounty hunters.
I think the issue with FF is the fact the cops treat your fine like a bounty. Fines should never be kill on sight, that's what bounties are. Hopefully 1.3 will fix that (it's soooo damn close I can smell it)
Also the analogy of you shoot cop therefor they are justifiably is kinds dumb. It's more like you and the cop are in a shootout and your bullet hits his car. Yeah, technically you shot at the cop, but it was a heat of the moment thing and the cop himself didn't take any damage. And situational awareness can only go so far especially using the radar. That thing can get ridiculously cluttered at times and it's not exactly foolproof when trying to read it.
Also the analogy of you shoot cop therefor they are justifiably is kinds dumb. It's more like you and the cop are in a shootout and your bullet hits his car. Yeah, technically you shot at the cop, but it was a heat of the moment thing and the cop himself didn't take any damage. And situational awareness can only go so far especially using the radar. That thing can get ridiculously cluttered at times and it's not exactly foolproof when trying to read it.
Last edited:
I raised this in the bug section once, I accidentally hit a friendly with a missile I had already launched while we were attacking a 156,000 cr Anaconda , 200CR bounty on my head suddenly every ship ignored the 156,000 and came after me. I was told in the bug section that this is by design???? I gave up after that and decided when it happens again just to rush back to a station and clear it. The worry is when the 7 day rule comes in, if we have to wait for 7 days to clear an accidental fire fine it will be a major problem. We surely should be able to clear these fines straight away. A message comes from the police, "Clear fine in 60 mins or face the consequences" or something similar. Find a police ship in your contacts and transfer the credits, problem solved
Hopefully the changes in Powerplay will make the cops a bit more selective in their target choice as in this instance they clearly should've carried on fighting the Anaconda rather than all turning on you at once. I dropped into a USS once with 3 pirates, 1 trader and a cop. The pirates opened fire on the trader and instead of the cop attacking them he was quite happy to scan me for illegal cargo and leave me with a fine instead.
This only applies if you are firing lasers - even multicannon fire is slow enough that there can be nobody in your FOV when you pull the trigger but you can still hit the wrong person.
This can be fixed by only using kinetic weapons at closer ranges of course, I've shot the cops a few times - never on purpose - but it's been my fault every time bar one (when a Fed Security Service Viper flew into my multicannon fire). That said, I think a patch might have toned down how easy it is to get a bounty, I'm sure I've hit the cops at least once since then and not gotten a bounty.
I noticed some strange NPC behavior the past week or two. The most aggressive incident was yesterday as I was shuttling myself from HomeBasse to Shinrarta Dezhra to buy a new Vulture (again) in a Sidey with a bunch of D-grade set of modules. I was interdicted by an NPC ship, and nothing was said before the shooting began (weapons were not even deployed). I didn't even have a cargo hold on my ship. They just stop me and tried to kill me; a defenseless ship w/ no cargo. I got away ... barely.
.
I had been stopped several days before in my empty (old) Vulture and they realized I had nothing to offer and they left me alone. I did not know NPCs could be cold blooded killers.
.
the other strange thing ... I've been playing since pre-release beta and I now play Solo exclusively (for now) and I use a DC in my T9. In the past week I've seen several NPCs stuck in the slot or coming out of the slot while I'm going in (on "my" side) ... with lots of scrapes and nasty sounds but I got through. The DC typically works out the Que with no problems up to now.
.
I also noticed a lot of NPCs just sitting in the stations until they get shot by the station defenses. It saw three get blasted within a few seconds yesterday. They're just sitting there so I slip through them and exit (no problems).
.
Something seems to have changed recently. (at least in my part of civilized space)
.
I had been stopped several days before in my empty (old) Vulture and they realized I had nothing to offer and they left me alone. I did not know NPCs could be cold blooded killers.
.
the other strange thing ... I've been playing since pre-release beta and I now play Solo exclusively (for now) and I use a DC in my T9. In the past week I've seen several NPCs stuck in the slot or coming out of the slot while I'm going in (on "my" side) ... with lots of scrapes and nasty sounds but I got through. The DC typically works out the Que with no problems up to now.
.
I also noticed a lot of NPCs just sitting in the stations until they get shot by the station defenses. It saw three get blasted within a few seconds yesterday. They're just sitting there so I slip through them and exit (no problems).
.
Something seems to have changed recently. (at least in my part of civilized space)
My first forum post so please go easy. ;-)
These kind of FF situations have happened to me a couple of times in the past few months, but I'm getting steadily better at avoiding them now, e.g. I've learned to quickly roll my ship to prevent turreted target-only lasers having any line-of-sight when friendlies pass near my target (quicker than pressing a button to retract or switch-mode), and preventing myself from holding the cannon trigger continually when there's a risk a friendly could pass by. But generally speaking, whenever this happens, I know the current solution is balance to shields/engines, boost the heck out of the area, find a neutral/friendly station and pay my dues.
I still think there need to be some tweaks, but not having beta access, can't tell exactly how this will pan out in 1.3/PP yet. There have been so many posts on the subject, so its kind of difficult to work out exactly how the in-game logic works (before/after PP). i.e. FF on a green/friendly is not as bad as FF on a orange/neutral ship - as far as I can tell, that's how it appears to be now(?). If the situation becomes significantly harder with PP, and maybe players need to travel further or wait a week just to pay off a fine/bounty for an FF hit, I can imagine its going to get a little annoying, and its going to be a bit harder to recommend this game. I'm hoping FD find a balance because I'm really enjoying the game otherwise.
Last night though, I was playing solo, cruising around a nav beacon doing a bit of bounty hunting and after a short lull in fighting, I noticed that a couple of system defence friendlies started shooting at each other (FDL/Condas). I didn't join in as I was a bit low on ammo, but my scans revealed that the highest bounty among them was 400cr. The same ships were clean earlier on, so it appears that NPCs get punished for FF too. No idea how much their ammo and repair bills were, but I'm assuming they would be considerably more than 400cr - hardly enough to justify a fight to the death IMO!
These kind of FF situations have happened to me a couple of times in the past few months, but I'm getting steadily better at avoiding them now, e.g. I've learned to quickly roll my ship to prevent turreted target-only lasers having any line-of-sight when friendlies pass near my target (quicker than pressing a button to retract or switch-mode), and preventing myself from holding the cannon trigger continually when there's a risk a friendly could pass by. But generally speaking, whenever this happens, I know the current solution is balance to shields/engines, boost the heck out of the area, find a neutral/friendly station and pay my dues.
I still think there need to be some tweaks, but not having beta access, can't tell exactly how this will pan out in 1.3/PP yet. There have been so many posts on the subject, so its kind of difficult to work out exactly how the in-game logic works (before/after PP). i.e. FF on a green/friendly is not as bad as FF on a orange/neutral ship - as far as I can tell, that's how it appears to be now(?). If the situation becomes significantly harder with PP, and maybe players need to travel further or wait a week just to pay off a fine/bounty for an FF hit, I can imagine its going to get a little annoying, and its going to be a bit harder to recommend this game. I'm hoping FD find a balance because I'm really enjoying the game otherwise.
Last night though, I was playing solo, cruising around a nav beacon doing a bit of bounty hunting and after a short lull in fighting, I noticed that a couple of system defence friendlies started shooting at each other (FDL/Condas). I didn't join in as I was a bit low on ammo, but my scans revealed that the highest bounty among them was 400cr. The same ships were clean earlier on, so it appears that NPCs get punished for FF too. No idea how much their ammo and repair bills were, but I'm assuming they would be considerably more than 400cr - hardly enough to justify a fight to the death IMO!