So why can't it do both, punishment for those who need it and gameplay for everyone else. I don't think they are far off on the second and with some work, it will likely improve.
Hmm...its at the point where its a real physical effort to force meself not to expand on this, but that only leads to further expansion of...other things...sorry sir I wont mention it again...
I hate using examples from other games, but Im gonna anyway. Wouldnt it be cool if we were to make it more like real life and have the ability to just bribe the cops? Im absolutely deadly serious btw, not being funny with that one.
Likes of GTA5...call Lester when yer wanted and fer a fee, Lester bribes the fiveO and the heat is gone. Same thing could be applied here through a new contact found in Anarchy systems only...obviously bypassing the intended effects of notoriety in ED would come with a hefty pricetag, donuts being as expensive as they are and inflation and police cuts mean that the economics are passed along to those with more to lose.
Not gonna start some sorta debate over how close to real life this is because its sort of a standing joke in many parts of the world just how corrupt the system really is...its accurate enough and whats more, it has the added bonus of becoming another credit sink. Ive suffered the effects of notoriety personally...trust me when I say if the option was there to bribe me way out, I wouldnt even hesitate.
Little emphasis on the cost in that it escalates with how high notoriety actually is...fer the lower end of the scale, couple mil should keep the cogs and gears of justice moving, while high notoriety would need a lot more fer the fiveO to ignore, so lets settle on a nice round figure of 20m...thats 2m fer every 2 hours time saved...Im dumber than ye guys so lets keep it simple fer once.
Course if ye dont have the greens, then the old fashioned way of what we have now...flying in circles while ye make the dinner, walk the dogs, sleep, trivial stuff with half a lollipop stick jamming a key down so the game doesnt just disconnect ye fer idling ^
Hmm...its at the point where its a real physical effort to force meself not to expand on this, but that only leads to further expansion of...other things...sorry sir I wont mention it again...
I hate using examples from other games, but Im gonna anyway. Wouldnt it be cool if we were to make it more like real life and have the ability to just bribe the cops? Im absolutely deadly serious btw, not being funny with that one.
Likes of GTA5...call Lester when yer wanted and fer a fee, Lester bribes the fiveO and the heat is gone. Same thing could be applied here through a new contact found in Anarchy systems only...obviously bypassing the intended effects of notoriety in ED would come with a hefty pricetag, donuts being as expensive as they are and inflation and police cuts mean that the economics are passed along to those with more to lose.
Not gonna start some sorta debate over how close to real life this is because its sort of a standing joke in many parts of the world just how corrupt the system really is...its accurate enough and whats more, it has the added bonus of becoming another credit sink. Ive suffered the effects of notoriety personally...trust me when I say if the option was there to bribe me way out, I wouldnt even hesitate.
Little emphasis on the cost in that it escalates with how high notoriety actually is...fer the lower end of the scale, couple mil should keep the cogs and gears of justice moving, while high notoriety would need a lot more fer the fiveO to ignore, so lets settle on a nice round figure of 20m...thats 2m fer every 2 hours time saved...Im dumber than ye guys so lets keep it simple fer once.
Course if ye dont have the greens, then the old fashioned way of what we have now...flying in circles while ye make the dinner, walk the dogs, sleep, trivial stuff with half a lollipop stick jamming a key down so the game doesnt just disconnect ye fer idling ^
It would be nice, but it couldn't work all the time, else it's just a tedious game function. You'd have a decent chance that Lester would agree, but at least some chance he'd sell you out. Take your chances.
It's actually a reason for some "Space legs" game play.
I've never really seen a decent reason for that gameplay myself, but this would fit the bill. Escaping space jail sounds fun. Especially if your buddies could help you.
FD seem to still be trying to stop random (unjustified?) player killing using the same mechanics as they (currently) use in game that come about as a result of doing perfectly legitimate gameplay. I doubt it will end well. What they are proposing doesn't seem, at least to me, to give any depth to illicit gameplay, but it's early days yet, so we'll have to see where it all goes.
I don't know how many times I wrote in a post that players don't play games to be punished.
I think a compounding issue is that being wanted is too blunt a mechanic, and it's not doing a good job of having consequences (or punishments) that fit the severity of the crime. I think more could be done using the credit value of bounties to create thresholds where crimes tip over from being minor to serious, but it doesn't look like FD want to go down that route.
The superpower bounty kick in of five crimes against separate factions aligned to a superpower is another example of how badly this is balanced. Destroy 10 clean ships in one system, you have bounties in excess of 50,000 credits, the highest level of notoriety, but no superpower bounty, you're only wanted in that one system. Do five planetary scans in separate superpower jurisdictions, you have bounties amounting to 2,500 credits, no notoriety, but you are wanted superpower wide, public enemy number one!
And yes to adding gameplay! There's no gameplay in being wanted, although listening to the devs, it would seem that they think there is. You can't exactly try to fight off system authority or bounty hunters without digging yourself into an ever deeper hole. Perhaps that's what they think players want to do... That said, it doesn't seem terribly challenging to avoid them, I submitted to interdictions from both with a superpower bounty, boosted away and low waked out, then carried on with my next missions.
Ways to avoid getting bounties in the first place (it would have to be against NPCs only) would be a good start, and sure, for more serious crimes a bit of NPC bribery would be fun. It'd all be RNG, but FD are good at that.
Well, perhaps a fitting punishment for ganking would be finding your ship is now a sidewinder in one of the trailing ends of a spiral band of the Milky Way, probably at least 30,000 ly away with nothing but a 2E fuel scoop, jump range of 20 light years max and no scanners to gather exploration data. Oh, self-destruct puts you right back at the starting point of 30k ly away minus the re-buy cost of your original ship.
<stern voice>
"...and I hope that by the time you get back home you've learned your lesson, young man."
</stern voice>
Christ, I'm turning into an old grouch in my old age...
It would be nice, but it couldn't work all the time, else it's just a tedious game function. You'd have a decent chance that Lester would agree, but at least some chance he'd sell you out. Take your chances.
To be notorious enough to warrant a fleet and a never ending supply of elite bounty hunters? To have the entire server come after ye?
Even odds either way...such is the life of the average criminal, ye just never fully trust other criminals...and fer good reason cos they criminals after all. I actually think thats a good idea and should be added. The sweetest con of all is to con another con after all.
Id be a huge fan of more criminal type gameplay being developed further with the NPC...thats not to dismiss pvp outta hand but the reality is its making profound changes to an already complicated system. I have to keep reminding meself that the crime and punishment is literally still in its first iteration some its conception into the game...one has had had a few tantrums this past month with it and the frontier voodoo doll is now being stabbed with a sledgehammer cos I ran outta needles.
But Im looking forward to what happens next...maybe get lucky with another amnesty next update and finally reset this notoriety counter fer the first time in months...Im weak willed and easily led occifer just ask me doctor...hes the one in the corner chewing the curtains while rocking back and forth to the sound of Abba Dancing queen in the background...
Wouldnt it be funny if we could steal other players ships somehow? Not to sell them or destroy them...well not totally anyway...just take them on a wee joyride before wrapping it around a lampost or asteroid, before taking the stereo out and doin a runner...
No perish the thought, thats childish and immature...at my age its a bad mid life crisis. That being said, apart from the promise of Q4, crime and punishment has been right up there with my list of favourites so far...bad days and all. I got a lotta ideas...but those dont belong on this thread, however I would strongly support much tougher penalties fer career criminals. Dont just have the fiveO waiting fer the perp to commit a crime, have wings of three actively hunt ye down much in the same way all the bloody clean bounty hunters are keeping me in notoriety.
By all means, give them some teeth frontier...Im not goin outta me way to keep me nose clean and so far these super cops have been...a bit too easy to manage truth be told...more superflops as opposed to supercops but perhaps I hope fer too much ^
