Does the thought of doing an honest day's work make you sick?
Does someone else owe you a living?
Do you thumb your nose at any kind of authority?
If so, you've got the makings of a Career Criminal.
Unfortunately, Elite does not, but this is easily remedied.
So how does this work? Well, for starters, you have to engage in illegal activities. The mission boards usually have at least a few of these - smuggling, liberating cargo, shooting down civilian transports, blowing up generators - all pretty standard fare for the common criminal.
But what about the Uncommon Criminal? Well, that's where things have to take a little turn. We have a system for sending random missions, or mission wrinkles, already in-game. No reason this system cannot be used to send the aspiring space thug an offer they can't refuse - namely the opportunity to impress folks who were beating up kids and taking their lunch money while you were still in diapers.
These Criminal missions will challenge you to more and more daring feats - high-value smuggling, long-range smuggling into the highest security systems, stations and installation out there, daring hijackings of armed and escorted transports, prison-ship breaks, assassinations of rivals, until you really prove yourself - and are invited to visit Criminal Lairs - these could be planetary installations similar to Engineer bases - unknown until invited, or megaships in Anarchy systems, where you can then begin the real work, making a real name for yourself among the only people who matter to you - you, and other scum like you.
From these locations you'll enjoy a litany of benefits, based on your standing within your chosen organization. At the lowest levels, you will have access to a wide array of criminal missions to suit your chosen area of crime - homicide missions to spread death, data-jacker missions to acquire data, smuggling, piracy, jail-breaking - just to name a few. As you progress further, you'll gain additional benefits as well - reduced costs to buy the tools of your chosen trade - discount, though usually hot modules, ships of questionable origins including those "locked" behind Federation or Imperial Ranks, access to not only sell to Black Market dealers, but to purchase from them as well, at any station throughout the galaxy.
That is, if you're able to access those stations any longer, as one of the constituents of maintaining your place in the Criminal Underground is maintaining your notoriety. Much as Power Players work to maintain their ranks within their chosen powers, so too must Criminals work to maintain their "space cred". Let your notoriety drop, and you'll lose the respect of your peers, and access to the perks they offer.
Sell out, and you'll find yourself hunted by your former associates.
And we're not done there - there is one other avenue of interest for the Career Criminal, and it affords the opportunity to maintain that standing - Turf Wars.
Much like Power Play, Criminal Organizations seek to maintain their hold on their chosen regions, and Turf Wars are they're done. This shadowy mirror of Power Play allows syndicates and mobs to expand their territory, drive back their rivals, and show the rest of us why they're not to be trifled with.
Activities for Turf Wars include the blowing up of various ships, be they rival gangs or system authority ships, either in Conflict Zones or throughout free space, raiding other organization's installations or megaships, stealing valuable data to disrupt their plans and weaken their control, locating and stealing their caches of loot (ever seen a stack of cargo containers just sitting there, begging to be sold somewhere?), and inflicting general mayhem (take a mission from a designated faction, but do not take their cargo where they tell you, but sell it in your own organization's black market instead), and Defend the Boss - the opposite of Pirate Assassination missions - you find the boss and hold off a well armed and outfitted wing of would-be Bounty Hunters (spare no one).
Of course, all this juicy and fun mayhem comes at a price - you won't be wanted in most civilized systems (or rather you will be Wanted in most civilized systems), and can expect a suitable response based on your notoriety. But that's why you have your own network of scum and villiany to support you.
Comment and Endorse away! Got some good ideas of your own to add? Let's hear them!
Does someone else owe you a living?
Do you thumb your nose at any kind of authority?
If so, you've got the makings of a Career Criminal.
Unfortunately, Elite does not, but this is easily remedied.
So how does this work? Well, for starters, you have to engage in illegal activities. The mission boards usually have at least a few of these - smuggling, liberating cargo, shooting down civilian transports, blowing up generators - all pretty standard fare for the common criminal.
But what about the Uncommon Criminal? Well, that's where things have to take a little turn. We have a system for sending random missions, or mission wrinkles, already in-game. No reason this system cannot be used to send the aspiring space thug an offer they can't refuse - namely the opportunity to impress folks who were beating up kids and taking their lunch money while you were still in diapers.
These Criminal missions will challenge you to more and more daring feats - high-value smuggling, long-range smuggling into the highest security systems, stations and installation out there, daring hijackings of armed and escorted transports, prison-ship breaks, assassinations of rivals, until you really prove yourself - and are invited to visit Criminal Lairs - these could be planetary installations similar to Engineer bases - unknown until invited, or megaships in Anarchy systems, where you can then begin the real work, making a real name for yourself among the only people who matter to you - you, and other scum like you.
From these locations you'll enjoy a litany of benefits, based on your standing within your chosen organization. At the lowest levels, you will have access to a wide array of criminal missions to suit your chosen area of crime - homicide missions to spread death, data-jacker missions to acquire data, smuggling, piracy, jail-breaking - just to name a few. As you progress further, you'll gain additional benefits as well - reduced costs to buy the tools of your chosen trade - discount, though usually hot modules, ships of questionable origins including those "locked" behind Federation or Imperial Ranks, access to not only sell to Black Market dealers, but to purchase from them as well, at any station throughout the galaxy.
That is, if you're able to access those stations any longer, as one of the constituents of maintaining your place in the Criminal Underground is maintaining your notoriety. Much as Power Players work to maintain their ranks within their chosen powers, so too must Criminals work to maintain their "space cred". Let your notoriety drop, and you'll lose the respect of your peers, and access to the perks they offer.
Sell out, and you'll find yourself hunted by your former associates.
And we're not done there - there is one other avenue of interest for the Career Criminal, and it affords the opportunity to maintain that standing - Turf Wars.
Much like Power Play, Criminal Organizations seek to maintain their hold on their chosen regions, and Turf Wars are they're done. This shadowy mirror of Power Play allows syndicates and mobs to expand their territory, drive back their rivals, and show the rest of us why they're not to be trifled with.
Activities for Turf Wars include the blowing up of various ships, be they rival gangs or system authority ships, either in Conflict Zones or throughout free space, raiding other organization's installations or megaships, stealing valuable data to disrupt their plans and weaken their control, locating and stealing their caches of loot (ever seen a stack of cargo containers just sitting there, begging to be sold somewhere?), and inflicting general mayhem (take a mission from a designated faction, but do not take their cargo where they tell you, but sell it in your own organization's black market instead), and Defend the Boss - the opposite of Pirate Assassination missions - you find the boss and hold off a well armed and outfitted wing of would-be Bounty Hunters (spare no one).
Of course, all this juicy and fun mayhem comes at a price - you won't be wanted in most civilized systems (or rather you will be Wanted in most civilized systems), and can expect a suitable response based on your notoriety. But that's why you have your own network of scum and villiany to support you.
Comment and Endorse away! Got some good ideas of your own to add? Let's hear them!
