Give smugglers a little help

[Astronaut Teemo]

So irritating avoiding authority ships left and right, only to be scanned in a distracted moment and tagged with a huge fine. Some ideas.

1. Authority ships are a different color on the scanner. You can now easily see on your scanner that auth ship is near.

2. When you are being scanned by an auth ship, the ship voice instead says " authority scan detected". Very useful at nav beacons and USS and extraction points, since you get scanned by so many different ships.

3. Make chaff actually disrupt cargo scans? It was this way back in beta, and I know that currently when an npc pops a chaff it interrupts my scanning of him, but does not work this way when I'm being scanned by an auth.

4. When using a heat sink, if the heat loss turns you into an unresolved target during someone's scan of you, some kind of audible notification that the current scan has been broken.

It is very damaging getting fined for illegal cargo. The way I play, I load up on illicit cargo and fly around with it until I find a suitable buyer. In between, I hunt at nav beacons, USS, etc. it's just really annoying that's anytime there is an auth ship ANYWHERE I am, I just have to SC away, because if I don't that ?$&@&$ will just follow me around constantly trying to scan me. I have to sneak into all the stations I go to, which is fine, but I just feel the overall system for smugglers could use a little love.

 

[Astronaut Teemo]

Bumping.

 

[slugys]

I'd like a progress bar to let you know how far the scan is from completion.

As for black markets, get to know the area real well and know where the black markets are =]

 

[Jockey79]

I'd like a progress bar to let you know how far the scan is from completion.

As for black markets, get to know the area real well and know where the black markets are =]

Small outposts with black markets - a dream come true. I love Psamathe Kapp Terminal for that very reason. No police, no fuss

 

[CMDR Random]

What I would like to see is some black market upgrades to your ship, one example for the smuggler would be a hidden/masked cargo hold or anti cargo scan system so that you have the ability (but not 100% guranteed) to overcome the scans of your ship when approaching major stations

 

[Phrygian]

So irritating avoiding authority ships left and right, only to be scanned in a distracted moment and tagged with a huge fine. Some ideas.

1. Authority ships are a different color on the scanner. You can now easily see on your scanner that auth ship is near.

If you get friendly with a system then all system cop ships go green. So do everybody else in that faction, but it's still useful. In my mind, this is akin to being granted access to system comms channels when they trust you enough, so you can spot your mates from a distance. Plus, you're not supposed to always be aware the police are coming... if you are they're not very good at their job.

2. When you are being scanned by an auth ship, the ship voice instead says " authority scan detected". Very useful at nav beacons and USS and extraction points, since you get scanned by so many different ships.

I'd buy this, but only if you'd already got confirmation that the ship was, indeed, authority. If they sneak up on you then fair game.

3. Make chaff actually disrupt cargo scans? It was this way back in beta, and I know that currently when an npc pops a chaff it interrupts my scanning of him, but does not work this way when I'm being scanned by an auth.

If chaff disrupted cargo scans, then it would make the entire silent running mechanic redundant. No matter how naughty you were, you could swan into any station at leisure just dropping space glitter and nobody could touch you. Having said that, if NPCs can disrupt ~your~ scans with chaff (not ever come across it myself), then that should be fixed as it's inconsistent.

4. When using a heat sink, if the heat loss turns you into an unresolved target during someone's scan of you, some kind of audible notification that the current scan has been broken.

I'd also buy this. Your ship knows a scan has started, so why wouldn't it be able to tell when a scan has been broken?

It is very damaging getting fined for illegal cargo. The way I play, I load up on illicit cargo and fly around with it until I find a suitable buyer. In between, I hunt at nav beacons, USS, etc. it's just really annoying that's anytime there is an auth ship ANYWHERE I am, I just have to SC away, because if I don't that ?$&@&$ will just follow me around constantly trying to scan me. I have to sneak into all the stations I go to, which is fine, but I just feel the overall system for smugglers could use a little love.

This is the balance with smuggling though, if you're carrying contraband you have to be wary of the police. It's not annoying, it's just the law.

Plus, black markets are a dime a dozen. They are very easy to find.

 

[AV2012]

1. Authority ships are a different color on the scanner. You can now easily see on your scanner that auth ship is near.

This would be really helpful, not just for smugglers, but also to aid situational awareness in combat. I'm pretty sure the "LAW" was a different colour on the scanner in earlier Elite games.