Real time crime feed?

babelfisch

babelfisch
What do you think about a real time crime feed? It could be similar to a chat channel that gets spammed whenever anyone commits a crime. It's basically your personal access to the "report crimes function". I haven't figured out the details though:

  • Should only clean CMDRs have access to it?
  • Maybe you should even need to be friendly with the jurisdiction where the crime occured?
  • Should it only be functional when report crimes is on?
  • It probably only makes sense if it's restricted to your current mode (PG or Open)?
  • Should it only state where a crime occured or should it also include more information like offending player, current bounty, etc.?
  • Should it be crimes against players only or NPCs as well?
  • Likewise, should it also include crimes committed by NPCs so you can rush out to help?
  • Does it even make sense?
  • Maybe there could be lots of filters like mode, system state, system allegiance, bounty size of the offending player, NPCs or players, Powerplay, etc.

Considering Elite's architecture I guess it wouldn't be impossible to implement.

Phisto's comment in another thread made me think of it and I have to say that sounds like pretty good engaging gameplay!

Phisto Sobanii said:
Ooo! It's super great. Link: https://inara.cz/galaxy/

Look on the right side of the page. Should be pretty clear what it's saying. This information is collected via programs like EDMC. Artie, purveyor of Inara, could give you more information.

I love using it for bounty hunting and keeping my squaddies in the know (for example, seeing MEDIUM THREAT for Colonia warrants a warning). One time, after seeing a murder update on Inara, I was able to rush to a system and grab the likely culprit before he made it back to the station. Didn't get the kill, sadly, but was still pretty cool.
Click to expand...

I'd like to see something similar for the 'other side' as well. Criminal career options and gameplay are missing since day one. If, for example, you are a pretty good criminal (I hope that's not an oxymoron) you could get access to market data (maybe only if a black market is present) and it notifies you whenever a CMDR buys lots of tasty cargo.
 

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
But sir... such powers would be almost... god-like!
ddf.jpg
🤔
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Seriously, that thing on INARA is kinda cool and it would be nice to see FD integrate something like that into the game, ideally as a map overlay of some sort but also maybe as a HUD element when jumping into a system?

I don't think it should go as far as transmitting the names of specific aggressors (although maybe Station Services could do that?) but a warning that n CMDR deaths or attempted murders had occurred in a given system before jumping might encourage some players to be more on their guard, others to find an alternative route, still others to return with a more powerful ship for some bounty hunting etc. Aside from the small risk of it pushing some players from Open to Solo before a shot is even fired (and I suspect many risk-averse or asocial players are there already) it's hard to see an immediate downside. It might even encourage some players back into Open if they could get an almost-real-time gauge of just how large a threat or reward was likely to be at a given time.
 

Chaparral

Chaparral
I'm going to tweak this idea a bit...

A news-ticker with different channels.

The crime band with a stream of local bounties - real time selectable assassination missions.
The taxi/passenger band - a stream of real time uber jobs where you drop into an SS and pick up a high value passenger. Types and risks with commensurate payouts.
The mark band (access achieved only through criminal network ranking) - a stream of high-paying illegal assassination jobs.
The smuggler band (access achieved only through criminal network ranking) - a stream of high-value illegal smuggling missions (SS etc.).
The pirate band (access achieved only through criminal network ranking) - a stream of high value cargo-carrying targets.
The breaker-breaker convoy band - a stream of urgent cargo missions (SS etc. )

Imagine the emergent gameplay when you drop in on other player's wakes as they engage in these missions.
 

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
CMDR Cosmic Spacehead said:
Our discord gets an alert when basically anything happens involving EDR.
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That's very cool. I take it this is based on parsing aggregated log/journal data, possibly via EDDB/EDSM or similar? It's fascinating.

Elsewhere in DD there are a few discussions about how flat and lifeless the game can often feel, and this is the sort of thing that would add a whole bunch of flavour for what seems to me to be relatively little effort on FD's part. If presented directly in game, not only would it be a useful tool for players looking for activity hotspots but even those thousands of light years from the bubble could tune in and get a sense of what was going on back home. About the only downside I can think of is the bandwidth requirements, but since reports would only be generated by players who were already in the game and using some bandwidth anyway, perhaps the overhead wouldn't be excessive in proportion.

It's the perfect example of where FD are sitting on (or at least adjacent to) all this useful data and not really doing anything with it, while the game itself often feels like an empty shell. They should be using one thing to help solve the other.
 

babelfisch

babelfisch
Jack Schitt said:
That's very cool. I take it this is based on parsing aggregated log/journal data, possibly via EDDB/EDSM or similar? It's fascinating.

Elsewhere in DD there are a few discussions about how flat and lifeless the game can often feel, and this is the sort of thing that would add a whole bunch of flavour for what seems to me to be relatively little effort on FD's part. If presented directly in game, not only would it be a useful tool for players looking for activity hotspots but even those thousands of light years from the bubble could tune in and get a sense of what was going on back home. About the only downside I can think of is the bandwidth requirements, but since reports would only be generated by players who were already in the game and using some bandwidth anyway, perhaps the overhead wouldn't be excessive in proportion.

It's the perfect example of where FD are sitting on (or at least adjacent to) all this useful data and not really doing anything with it, while the game itself often feels like an empty shell. They should be using one thing to help solve the other.
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Bandwidth shouldn't be a problem, it's just text after all.
'Hello Jack Schitt' requires something like 18 byte.
With 100mbit I can send you that message 700.000 times per second.
 

Backelaer

Backelaer
babelfisch said:
Bandwidth shouldn't be a problem, it's just text after all.
'Hello Jack Schitt' requires something like 18 byte.
With 100mbit I can send you that message 700.000 times per second.
Click to expand...

Then you can really say you know Jack Schitt.

Seriously though, some fantastic ideas in this thread! That would really make the game feel more alive.
 

Miczi

Miczi
I've been recently thinking about something similiar (but not exactly) and I will probably start scripting it soon. By analysing live data sent to EDDN and comparing with historical data, it's possible to recognise events which might be worth broadcasting in the news. Events I'm talking about:
  • state changed in a system (war, civil war, famine, boom etc.)
  • big price changes
  • big influence changes
  • change of station control
  • maybe some powerplay updates and Thargoid updates (if that's possible)

Might also add crime info if that's possible.

First step would be to recognise such events and create a live database with those events. It would contain records such as:
event typesystemobject 1 (faction, commodity etc.)object 2 (faction, commodity etc.)value
Influence changeDeciatDemocrats of Deciat--15%
Price changeDeciatGold-+137%
Civil War startedDeciatDemocrats of DeciatSocialists of Deciat-

Etc. Such data could later be used by journalists (such as Sagittarius Eye) or consumed by tools. For example auto news generators could produce something like this:
"Tension between the Democrats of Deciat and Socialists of Deciat has reached its peak today, evolving into a bloody civil war in Deciat system. People of Some Station have been preparing for days to resist an assault of the Democrats of Deciat forces, which is expected to start any minute. Deciat is populated by over 30 million people and is currently governed by Democrats of Deciat, alleged to the Federation".

Etc. I think it would be pretty cool to start getting such news read by EDDI while jumping through systems.
 

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
babelfisch said:
Bandwidth shouldn't be a problem, it's just text after all.
'Hello Jack Schitt' requires something like 18 byte.
With 100mbit I can send you that message 700.000 times per second.
Click to expand...
True. I was thinking more about policy, and FD's historical drive toward keeping network traffic to an absolute minimum (the infamous "play Solo on a mobile on the train" quote). From a practical perspective we know players' connections can handle it because it's already being moved around by third-party apps and services.

Miczi said:
Etc. Such data could later be used by journalists (such as Sagittarius Eye) or consumed by tools. For example auto news generators could produce something like this:
"Tension between the Democrats of Deciat and Socialists of Deciat has reached its peak today, evolving into a bloody civil war in Deciat system. People of Some Station have been preparing for days to resist an assault of the Democrats of Deciat forces, which is expected to start any minute. Deciat is populated by over 30 million people and is currently governed by Democrats of Deciat, alleged to the Federation".
Click to expand...
Hell yes. And fed into the Galnet News text-to-speech engine. By allowing the user to filter based on location, it would allow for a sort of "local news for local people" and give individual systems a bit of... well, individuality.

Just as long as the job of writing the code for generating the text doesn't fall to the same person or persons responsible for the NPC chatter. "And remember, this local news station is in the top 1% of all local news stations out there."
 

Phisto Sobanii

Phisto Sobanii
Good thread, Babel. Been thinking a lot this morning about it. Hope to have something later based on my experiences on both sides of the fence.

Where I'm starting is how I want the players to feel. The movie Tombstone is dominating my brain at the moment. I mean, we got lots of Wyatt Earps out there but do you know who we really all want to be?

Doc Holiday.

And why shouldn't the bandits feel like Johnny Ringo? 😏
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Jack Schitt said:
That's very cool. I take it this is based on parsing aggregated log/journal data, possibly via EDDB/EDSM or similar? It's fascinating.

Elsewhere in DD there are a few discussions about how flat and lifeless the game can often feel, and this is the sort of thing that would add a whole bunch of flavour for what seems to me to be relatively little effort on FD's part. If presented directly in game, not only would it be a useful tool for players looking for activity hotspots but even those thousands of light years from the bubble could tune in and get a sense of what was going on back home. About the only downside I can think of is the bandwidth requirements, but since reports would only be generated by players who were already in the game and using some bandwidth anyway, perhaps the overhead wouldn't be excessive in proportion.

It's the perfect example of where FD are sitting on (or at least adjacent to) all this useful data and not really doing anything with it, while the game itself often feels like an empty shell. They should be using one thing to help solve the other.
Click to expand...
I'm not entirely sure how it works, but it runs off EDR, which is an add-on for EDMC. Very handy for finding hotspots, and the more people who use EDMC and EDR, the more accurate it becomes.
It would be awesome if this was just in game though.

777Driver said:
Only just noticed this popping up on my feed, is this new for the Squadron? Never noticed it before. Very handy for hunting.
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Yup, swift added it to our discord last week. It can be handy for hunting, or avoiding dangers. I love it!
Just remember to mute it on discord, or you'll be getting spammed with messages ever few seconds. :ROFLMAO:
 
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