Station Warning Before Destruction

Jonnakar · Jan 5, 2015

So I just logged in after a day or two break and loaded up my Type - 6 transport and spent nearly all of my 750k of credits. I left the station and was immediately destroyed as a criminal. I lost all of my credits I've been working on for a few days and was given no warning... just destroyed. The only thing I can think is I had a 400 credit fine or something in the station. I lost 750k for a 400 credit fine???? Really... not a single warning. Now I realize I will probably get a ton of responses telling me how stupid I am for not "checking" my status or my fines. Perhaps I should have, but this was seriously overkill as far as I'm concerned.

Well I guess I will go back to bounty hunting to regain a few credits so I can start trading again.

MrGambler · Jan 5, 2015

When you have a fine, it will turn into a bounty after 24hours, allowing for any system that flags you as wanted to open fire on you regardless of the price.

Sorry to hear about the loss though, look at guys however that have lost ships worth over 20 million and reset back to square 1, even guys who were flying Pythons and other various big ships

, should make you feel better

GerminVermin · Jan 5, 2015

When you gain a fine, you have X-number of hours to pay off the fine, no matter how small it is.

Even a 1 credit fine must be paid off before the timer runs out or main stations will be aggressively hostile toward you until you pay it off.

This is a game mechanic that you must not overlook.

The station or the game doesn't care what you're flying or how much cargo you have. If you are going to ignore your fines then you get what you deserve. It's happened to me and I learned to pay off my fines. I lost a hell of a lot more than you did, though. I lost a Type 7 with 3.5 million credits in cargo. I got the ship back but obviously not the cargo.

It's an expensive lesson to learn. Welcome to Elite.

P.S. This is the SUGGESTIONS forum, not the whine and complain and offer no suggestions forum.

Cmdr Andy B · Jan 5, 2015

imagine you are wanted but not aware of it, you're sat in your ship just about to launch, look to the right just above the fuel gauge - see where it says 'WANTED' in red? there is your warning.

GerminVermin · Jan 5, 2015

AndyB(EDB50) said:
imagine you are wanted but not aware of it, you're sat in your ship just about to launch, look to the right just above the fuel gauge - see where it says 'WANTED' in red? there is your warning.

You can also check the left-side panel under Transactions to see if you're wanted and for how much. You can also check the right-hand panel, first tab, to see if you're wanted and how much.

There's really no reason not to know if you're wanted or not. Just people being careless.

Skanvak · Jan 5, 2015

I had the a simillar experience. I got a small fine for a friendly fire, arrive at the station and got destroyed before I have the occassion to pay the fine. I remind that fine for friendly fire are immedite "wanted", you don't have time to pay.

So my suggestion is to have the station offer to surrender if the fine is low or the palyer have a good standing. Use of tractor beam could be usefull. The idea is not to shoot someone who is comming to pay it's 200 Credits fine... Of course if the player have 1 000 000 credit fine, the station authority might actually want to kill him wihtout warning.

I will add that if you land on a station where you are wanted you should not be able to leave without a warning (actually I think that paying the fine would be mandatory on landing as they know you and are looking for you.

The problem come from the sensibility of the fine system for friendly fire. We should have the 24h if the damage is only limited to a couple of hit and shield. I am for the fine to prevent exploit but not for a punishing destruction for a friendly fire. A way to tell the authority and the victim AI that you are sorry (obviously should only work if it is not done again or if harrd point are retracted).

This could be improved for a better experience for every one.

GerminVermin · Jan 5, 2015

Skanvak said:
I had the a simillar experience. I got a small fine for a friendly fire, arrive at the station and got destroyed before I have the occassion to pay the fine. I remind that fine for friendly fire are immedite "wanted", you don't have time to pay.

No, I'm sorry, this never happened.

You're only shot if you have a BOUNTY. A FINE is not a BOUNTY. If you accidentally shoot someone, you get a fine. That fine doesn't turn into a bounty until 24 h ours have passed, giving you plenty of time to pay it.

You most certainly did not get a fine and then get shot by the first station you tried to dock at for having that fine. That's not how the game works and couldn't have happened. If a station shot and killed you, then you did something else to warrant that kill and the fine had nothing to do with it.

Maybe you were firing within the station's no-fire zone? Maybe you slammed into an authority ship hard enough to do damage, triggering the station's defensive response? There's got to be more to the story than you simply getting a fine and then being shot by a station.

Getsufune · Jan 5, 2015

I had the same problem many times, during combat with an "legal" enemy vessel with bounty, a "federal police vessel" crossed my fireline - i got a bounty instantly - i broke up the fight and to get to the next station - before i was able to dock - i got scanned and the station shot me "clean"

they should change this - it would be better when u get a bounty after killing / destroying someone / something ...

Cmdr Andy B · Jan 5, 2015

Getsufune said:
I had the same problem many times, during combat with an "legal" enemy vessel with bounty, a "federal police vessel" crossed my fireline - i got a bounty instantly - i broke up the fight and to get to the next station - before i was able to dock - i got scanned and the station shot me "clean" they should change this - it would be better when u get a bounty after killing / destroying someone / something ...

if i shot you in the chest it would be attempted murder regardless of if you were wearing body armor or not, when you shoot a ship you are not targeting you have no way of knowing if they have shields, or the state of their hull and depending on the weapon one shot could kill them.

this is the reason you get a wanted status instead of a fine and i don't see it changing. if this happens to you there are several options: in a smaller ship you can land on an outpost to pay off the bounty as they have no security patrol.

in a larger vessel that cannot dock at an outpost you can either try and sneak in without getting scanned or you can hyperspace away to a system of a different faction/independent and pay it off in a jurisdiction where they won't try to kill you on sight.

Getsufune · Jan 5, 2015

@ AndyB

I found a way to get docked anytime - its called silent running

But i cant agree with you at 100% - when someone is crossing my fireline - it is not my fault ...

bitstorm · Jan 5, 2015

Pay your fines, or risk losing your ship.

Cmdr Andy B · Jan 5, 2015

Getsufune said:
@ AndyB

I found a way to get docked anytime - its called silent running

But i cant agree with you at 100% - when someone is crossing my fireline - it is not my fault ...

yup, i use it myself on occasion, here is an example:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=89956

MrPrise · Jan 5, 2015

I wonder, because I was wanted several times (because of friendly fire) and I had no problem docking (eg I did not get destroyed) and I was also able to pay out my bounties.
Actually I did not even think I could be destroyed by the station itself because of my wanted status. I thought I only need to fear from others who wanted to collect the bounty.
What would be the point of the ability to pay out your bounties if you could not dock in to pay out? Or does that work differently on different stations? Eg some destroy wanted ships on sight other does not?

Getsufune · Jan 5, 2015

thx nice story !!

Seboss · Jan 5, 2015

Maybe fines should reach a certain threshold to actually turn into a bounty. E.g a 400cr turns to a 800cr fine after 24hrs and fines > 1000cr turn to bounty. Just an idea. It does feel kinda silly to become wanted dead for a parking fine, but that's how the game works for now and like GerminV and AndyB said, the game makes it abundantly clear when you're wanted if you pay a bit of attention to the UI.

Bounties can be paid anywhere btw. Just find an outpost in the system or go to another jurisdiction to pay off your bounty and you'll be fine. No need to pull risky silent running maneuvers if you don't feel like it.

Cmdr Andy B · Jan 5, 2015

MrPrise said:
I wonder, because I was wanted several times (because of friendly fire) and I had no problem docking (eg I did not get destroyed) and I was also able to pay out my bounties.
Actually I did not even think I could be destroyed by the station itself because of my wanted status. I thought I only need to fear from others who wanted to collect the bounty.
What would be the point of the ability to pay out your bounties if you could not dock in to pay out? Or does that work differently on different stations? Eg some destroy wanted ships on sight other does not?

sometimes you get scanned and then die, other times you don't get scanned and so you live. the scan is the important thing. this along with faction determines if you can dock without incident or not. as an example a station controlled by the empire will not kill you if you are wanted by the federation.

Zak Gordon · Jan 5, 2015

Maybe there could be a way to stop your undocking to remind you of any fine that might see you destroyed?

I mean the info is in your ships computer, and if it is easy to miss, then maybe you can have the ships computer give you the warning when you go to launch/undock:

"Cmdr, you have an outstanding fine that needs paying. If you proceed now you risk destruction. Do you wish to proceed now. (select) Yes. (select) No."

kind of thing?

I imagine after long trade runs late into the night, flyer fatigue could make you forget to keep checking your fines status?

Seboss · Jan 5, 2015

Zak Gordon said:
"Cmdr, you have an outstanding fine that needs paying. If you proceed now you risk destruction. Do you wish to proceed now. (select) Yes. (select) No."

kind of thing?

Why not? It doesn't sound any less important than the "unbound weapon groups" or "no ammo" notification we currently get after changing the weapon loadout.

bitstorm · Jan 5, 2015

Zak Gordon said:
Maybe there could be a way to stop your undocking to remind you of any fine that might see you destroyed?

I mean the info is in your ships computer, and if it is easy to miss, then maybe you can have the ships computer give you the warning when you go to launch/undock:

"Cmdr, you have an outstanding fine that needs paying. If you proceed now you risk destruction. Do you wish to proceed now. (select) Yes. (select) No."

kind of thing?

But it's there in red right in front of you on your HUD, just glance at it rather than having the game manage that for you.

Seboss · Jan 5, 2015

I kinda agree. But then the notification messages I mentioned above are equally silly.