Pirate Feature Additions and Cargo Trading immersion

[Vision1776]

Pirate Feature Additions and Cargo Trading immersion


Preface:
I will be adding a few posts over the next week to the forums with some ideas that I feel will improve the overall purpose of the game making it more enjoyable for all. I understand that this is all my humble opinion and in no way do I feel entitled or that my way is better than everyone else. I just hope that you can give it some attention and that perhaps I can spark some ideas or even that my ideas or similar ones are adapted into the game.

Main proposal:
Simple (I know that in programming nothing is really “simple”) addition to the game for those players who would enjoy pirating NPCs but find the current system to be lacking just a little bit. It is almost there but it just needs a little touch and a few tweaks to make it enjoyable to pirate the NPCs. Starting with a large increase in the chances of there being valuable cargo on all NPCs that are cargo types as incentive and making it worthwhile for the players to take the risk with a chance of high reward.

New Feature:
When the player interdicts an NPC cargo ship or any ship, they would be able to go to the Contacts section, and much like requesting Docking permission, they would be able to Request Cargo from that contact (There would be a confirmation box to prevent accidental pirating). Now, the NPC would react in a manner of a few ways based on chance and some basic rules. Depending on the players Ship threat, ranking and big bounty on their head (all of these combined), there would be a chance that the NPC would perform one of the following actions in order from hardest chance to greatest chance:

1. Drop all cargo as abandoned and wait until you are done picking up your share and then pick up the leftovers.
2. Drop all cargo as illegal salvage and flee.
3. Drop some cargo as illegal salvage and flee.
4. Flee immediately
5. If the NPC is on a ship that has any chance of fighting yours, it would defend itself but with a potential of giving in later if it is losing badly.
6. Cargo ships will now start using mines more often especially in dangerous systems.

All of these actions would display a text response from the NPC based on what they are doing. For example if they drop all cargo as abandoned they would say something like “I surrender Please take it! Don’t kill me.” If they drop all cargo and flee, they would say something like “This stuff isn’t worth it” and take off. Just some examples.
If the NPC is in a wing with escorts then you have no chance that they will drop anything and you will need to take out the escorts. Best to have a pirate wing for that.

Pirate Tools:

1. Transmission jammer (new, sold only in shady stations) – Similar to the Warrant scanner, the Transmission scanner would charge, and then hit the target ship with a jammer or limpet, not allowing them to report crimes against you for a period of time. The timer would show somewhere in the user’s interface. This device would give pirates a chance to get away clean if they are efficient at what they do and act quickly. Once the timer runs out, the NPC would immediately send a distress call that will bring security within a short time and you would immediately be identified, gain fines and a reputation hit. The device doesn’t shut down any modules, it only prevents them from broadcasting or identifying your ship for a "balanced" amount of time. The device would also jam all wing members allowing you to try to pirate a convoy. This jamming device would not be needed when in anarchy space. Destroying a ship would nullify this effect and evidence of your weapon signatures would be left in the crime scene. Destroying a life pod would be murder and immediately grant a huge bounty (destroyed ships would now always leave a lifepod behind (see my bounty hunting idea, all ships when destroyed eject the pilot(s)). These penalties would also prevent player vs player abuses. Real pirates don’t destroy ships, they just want the valuables.

NPCs pirates against players:
NPCs who want your cargo now do something similar. They will first hit you with the jamming device and a jammed timer will appear on your screen. Then they will request that you stop your ship. If you dont comply within "time" they will attack you and when your shields are down they will open your hatch with limpets. But if you comply and stop your ship then they give you a request for cargo and if you comply they will leave you alone. The NPC would text you and tell you to drop, for example (6 units of platinum) or whatever you have in your cargo. If you attack them with any weapon or drop mines, they will engage you in combat. This gives a player a chance to avoid losing their ship and all their cargo by just giving them what they wanted. There would be less frequency of pirates in secured systems and more chances of pirates in shady systems. Sometimes pirates would now come at you in a wing. All of this would be in a "balanced" nature because too many pirates and too many interdiction does break immersion. But at least this will keep a cargo transporter interested and successfully delivering cargo would give them a sense of satisfaction.

Conclusion:
This concept will give players the feeling that they are actually pirating and, because cargo ship NPCs will now be carrying more expensive stuff more frequently, it would increase the sense of purpose and satisfaction of being an actual pirate and having a possible chance of getting away clean greatly increasing a sense of satisfaction for the player. For cargo traders who enjoy trading, this would slow down the amount of interdiction and also grant the player some options when faced with a situation. Giving the player a sense of satisfaction for delivering his cargo successfully.

 

[Vitamin Arrr]

+1

I really like all these ideas. I like how you fit them into the existing game interface without requiring changes.

The only problem I see is that as an explorer I am often going into gal map, system map, etc. for long spans of time to enter data in spreadsheets, plot routes, compare worlds, etc. It takes a long time to load up the map and also to exit. More than once, some jerkwad NPC pirate yells at me about my tasty cargo and scans me while I'm in the map or just as I'm loading it. I have to wait a million years while the system map loads so I can then exist the system map and by then, my shields are already down.

So my suggestion is that:
- the game caches the system map using background processing so it can be quickly entered and exited from
- add some way to respond to pirates from those map screens
- pirates should give you a reasonable amount of time, as in, not 20 seconds, more like 3 to 5 minutes, to comply with demands, but they attack if you deviate from the agreement

I would also think it would be good to also have:
- an engineer upgrade should be available for cargo bays to make them impenetrable to cargo scanners, but hold fewer items
- players should be able to pirate each other using the same easy interface
- make a ship-tracking item you can drop with your cargo that if they pick it up you can track them, and/or a tracking device limpet
- NPC pirates should not do stupid things like an Eagle coming up to my Anaconda and demanding cargo
- NPCs should not be psychic and harass players who have cargo without first scanning them and finding out if they have it
- pirates should not appear randomly in remote uninhabited systems because they magically knew you were there

I hope Frontier refines these features, it would make the game much more enjoyable if I knew that these random interdictions by Deadly rating ships was not a death sentence but more like just a loss of some cargo.

 

[Vision1776]

I agree with everything you said. Though 3-5 minutes could be a long time. But I know what you mean. Enough time within reason.

 

[Vitamin Arrr]

"the game caches the system map using background processing so it can be quickly entered and exited from"

Hey, at least they put this in the game. It loads so much faster now, especially the subsequent times!!