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As far as i know, the correct nautic term would be "hijacking" a ship.
If people use that word, the Dev's might be in mood to think about it
"'Commandeer'. Nautical term"
Monday Madness: Stealing ships
- Thread starter Bran Tse Mallory
- Start date
"'Commandeer'. Nautical term"
As far as i know, the correct nautic term would be "hijacking" a ship.
If people use that word, the Dev's might be in mood to think about it
Remember than Ten Year Plan?
This is 11th year material.
So...a player might steal my engineered Cutter and the Insurance company issues me with another one with the same Engineered upgrades...
So I decide to track down the toerag...am I the only commander who find's the prospect of fighting another CMDR in an exact duplicate of my ship rather...exciting?
So I decide to track down the toerag...am I the only commander who find's the prospect of fighting another CMDR in an exact duplicate of my ship rather...exciting?
Impossible you say? I love a challenge. I wouldn't say there are 50 ways to steal your space ship but there are a few variations. So let's start with the low tech basic ship jacking and work up to something more sophisticated.
Scenario 1. After dealing with some unsavoury characters in an anarchy outpost, you head back to the safety of you ship. You tap in your passcode and run the biometrics. Just as your ship's computer welcomes you back you may or may not become aware of a presence behind you. Suddenly everything goes black...
Scenario 2. Similar to 1 but at some stage the hijacker alerts you to their presence, their blacked out helmet obscures their identity. It's clear that they are armed. Non compliance with their perfectly reasonable request is discouraged by the implied threat of violence. Maybe if you co-operate they'll let you live? Maybe...
Scenario 3. The honey trap. You are in a bar when you meet someone. You find them attractive. You flirt and have a few drinks. The evening is going well. At least that's what you think. Perhaps you start to feel woozy or maybe you're eager to move the relationship to the next level of intimacy. Your new friend suggests going back to your ship. Eagerly you agree. Back on you ship you head to the bathroom to freshen up, Suddenly everything goes black...
If you are lucky you wake up on the station floor where you ship once was. Or maybe you can persuade Big Dave to let you go free rather than being sold into slavery. That's if you ever wake up...
I can see that you aren't convinced. You think you can handle yourself and you won't fall prey to anything like that, and anyway you don't frequent those less salubrious establishments. So let's break down the elements of your security system. It might be enough to dissuade the casual opportunist but a professional with time will find a way.
Passcodes aren't enough by themselves. Maybe you'll reveal them unintentionally, maybe the thief will guess correctly. Potentially they could hack the system or just manage to observe you entering the code.
Biometrics are trickier and much depends on the sophistication of the system. Early finger print systems could be fooled by the 'gummi bear attack'. Voice can be recorded. Iris scanning might get fooled by contact lenses. retinal scans may be harder to fool but I'm sure someone could figure out a way, though there is the crude alternative that they just carry your severed head or eyeballs to fool the scanner.
RFID chips are relatively easy to clone. If someone has trailed you long enough to observe your passcode and got close enough to gather your biometrics , they'll have copied your RFID. Or in the crude version where they just take bits of you, they'll just use a chip scanner to locate the chip and cut it out of you.
Scenario 1: passcode would be required for engine start up.
Scenario 2: see above, and if this ever becomes a thing, the "victim" could be armed too.
Scenario 3: see 1.
Additionally, a biometric system would be able to tell who is in the pilot seat and if something is wrong with the owner. Like distress or unconsciousness. Biometrics can check for a pulse and compare that to a baseline. And the RFID chip would likely kill itself upon separation from you or in the event of your death.
Finally, the ship would likely be able to detect if the wrong person is in the pilot seat and refuse to start. Cars today can tell if a keyfob is inside or outside the vehicle, even if it is just barely outside. I have checked. Would it be hard to imagine that something of that sort would be far more sophisticated in 1300 years? I use RFID and passcodes just because I don't have psychic abilities. No lore has been given on this either. Lastly, this is a huge "what if." Players stealing another player's major items has long been a no-go of multiplayer games. This is an academic discussion at best.
Double entry of the passcode might stop scenario 1, but maybe the hijacker was close enough to see what you entered or perhaps planted a small camera before you arrived. In scenario 2 it's even less of an issue, as for the victim being armed, sure they might be, but the hijacker has the jump on them. In scenario 3 the victim is loved up, drunk and possibly drugged so won't necessarily be thinking straight, maybe the hijacker suggests going for a little trip so completely bypassing the second entry. By that stage the ship would no longer consider them to be a 'wrong person'.
There would most likely be ways of completely bypassing the biometrics system. If there was a second hand ship market there would have to be some way to transfer ownership. There might also be a need for some kind of 'master key' for repair crews or law enforcement operatives. If such things existed some of them would surely fall into the hands of criminals.
In the end no security system will ever be 100% secure. There will always be an evolutionary arms race between criminals and security. There is also the compromise that has to be made between security and convenience. It may be entirely academic vis a vis player on player theft, but that doesn't rule out interactions between players and NPCs. It is also a matter of interest to the lore of the game.
David Braben has been looking forward to a lot of things, he then doesn't like at all after the fact. Like having a living breathing universe where people can shoot at each other, in a meaningful way of course, until that happens and then suddenly it's not cool. I'm sure it's very interesting to have one's ride stolen. Probably until it happens. Then maybe not.
David tends to look at things through rose tinted glasses. Which is awesome, because creatively speaking that optimism can be highly infectious and leads to a lot of output. But that doesn't always automatically translate to enjoyable content.
Bran, if you can best me at a game of rock paper shotgun then you can steal my ride. Just be mindful, I might steal yours. Depending on whom is driving what, that may work out better for me, than you.
Steal safe, m8!
This.
Unless I can rig my ship with a very large thermonuclear device, set to go off the moment they leave the station... oh, and if they die in a stolen ship, they pay a fine equal to the price of that ship combined with the total cost of the modules fitted.
An additional deterrent would be the cost of replacing a station which has just been vaporised by a very large thermonuclear device
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Here's me dealing with station security:
[video=youtube_share;sft3VHxru2s]https://youtu.be/sft3VHxru2s[/video]
erm ... what happens when your alarms go off exactly? :O
ship stealing sounds fun. i see a small problem when doing it outside stations as you can't actually survive there without one ... unless we learn how to crack those escape pods open!
imagine the cathartic gameplay 'floating in a tin can' (hope they have at least a bulls eye!) waiting for rescue. or that some cmdr nudges it and makes it spin ... what a view! or maybe even falling on a planet, then waiting there stuck in the ground for some srv to pick you up and ferry you back to station (if it's a landable planet, that is!) ...
Doors.
My ship being in orbit seems to work reasonably effectively.
Deleted member 115407
D
I want to steal/hijack/commandeer ships.