My worry about planetary scan jobs..

[howmanymexicans]

There is something that is really itching at me of late, a thorn in the side of my mind, so to speak, and that is planetary scan jobs.

Sometimes the mission requires you to scan a public data beacon and other times it is a private data beacon. usually the latter
scanning a private data beacon is considered trespassing, a full on crime with a bounty of 400 Cr on your head.

This would all be fine only the quest does not tell you if it is going to be a public or private data beacon. you have no way of knowing if you are about to go and commit a crime.
this is due to the nature of the quest, the data beacon randomly spawns on the planet you are going to, it is quite literally pot luck if it will be private or public, the quest does not know this information beforehand so it cannot tell you.

THIS would ALSO all be well and good only the crime and punishment system is going to change soon and you cant just wait ten minutes for the 400 Cr bounty to wear off.

So, with all that in mind, let me propose a hypothetical situation; I SAY hypothetical, but it has in fact happened to me on several occasions.

I get a quest in my home system from my own faction, (the owning faction). the quest is to scan a data beacon in the same system I am in. the quest text looks a little like this:

"heeey, howmanymexicans! one of our data beacons has gone a little funky in system and we need you to go take a look at it please, nice one, cheers"
+++ influence, 3 million credits.

I, of course take this quest,
only to find that the data beacon is private... hmm they really should have given me a pass or something for that....
scanning the beacon results in my being wanted in my own system, by the faction that gave me the quest in the first place.

this does not seem right FDEV!! I love you but this situation is just too crazy!

and just to put a nice fat cherry on the top of that big cake, there is no way to tell if taking a scan quest will pan out that way... does this mean that I will have to avoid scan quests altogether in future times? I really.. really like doing scan quests... good rewards and fun (despite the bugs).

please tell me everything is going to be alright FDEV, that these quests will only result in a fine once the crime and punishment system changes, or that the quests will be tweaked to warn you beforehand about possible criminal activities, or if you have already commented on this somewhere then someone please point me in the direction of it.


thank you

 

[NATESOR]

I recently had to sidewinder suicide in my home system because I incurred a FIVE DAY KOS BOUNTY for, as far as I can tell, daring to scan a private node (my first time doing it, and having absolutely no warning or explanation of the consequences).

Is it true that there is actually no way at all of knowing if the beacon will incur a KOS bounty outside of the last 10 seconds of the job? That it's totally random? that seems completely insane!

Do you know of ANY srv missions where you can tell if they will result in a KOS bounty being issued or not before you actually accept them? I kinda like getting in the SRV as it breaks the monotony a bit, but it seems to be clearly completely broken.. D:

 

[Iskariot]

This would all be fine only the quest does not tell you if it is going to be a public or private data beacon. you have no way of knowing if you are about to go and commit a crime.

This is why I just skip missions like these if it is not clear what the consequences are going to be.
I have done missions that involve illegal stuff, but I only do them if I can make a good estimate of what the consequences for me personally might be.
With the new crime system I will be even more careful.

 

[howmanymexicans]

Do you know of ANY srv missions where you can tell if they will result in a KOS bounty being issued or not before you actually accept them? I kinda like getting in the SRV as it breaks the monotony a bit, but it seems to be clearly completely broken.. D:

As fa as I know it is only these types of quests that are ambiguous about if they are legal or not.. It is due to the mechanics of the quest... the location that you must go to only gets spawned once you get there.

Other SRV related quests are much more obvious about if they are going to result in fines/bounties

I really love doing these quests, If you haven't tried them then you should! they are great money and the bounty is only small and lasts 10 mins (for now!)