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General Discussion / Transponders, pirates and independents
« on: June 09, 2023, 10:16:25 PM »
TLDR: The transponder policies (at least for pirates and independents) do not make sense lorewise as criminals and independent entities would also be very interested in who enters their planets/stations for a variety of reasons.
The current implementation of transponder policies for pirates and independents are relatively strange. Why would they not care about who enters their planets/stations? There are very real concerns such as foreign agents trying to conduct unfavorable operations on your soil, smugglers providing dissidents with heavy weapons or simply a large amount of drugs being released to the populace at large. I would argue that every faction in starsector would care about who you are given that having completely open 'borders' or so to speak, would leave them vulnerable to infiltration - which is a self solving problem, their successors will not make the same mistake.
This issue also ties in to another oddity - black markets. Take for instance, Kanta's Den. The infamous pirate warlord that other pirates respect and fear. For those of you who have done a certain questline, the implications of her power are clear to see - the other pirates do not risk confrontation. And yet, you as the player, can easily waltz into Kanta's home turf with your transponder off and offload as much as you wish without paying any tariffs to the sector's most feared mob boss. In addition to the loss in revenue, Kanta would undoubtedly see it as a challenge to her authority warranting a strong response. But nothing happens, and it is indeed profitable to trade on these black markets who apparently have pirates (without combat capable ships, I might add) that are willing to risk Kanta's wrath. I have no doubt that perhaps some independent worlds may look the other way when it comes to black market trade, but I do think it's a stretch that all of them do. Even tiny entities have a vested interesting in safeguarding their autonomy, lest they lose it to someone else. To give a real world example, look a Singapore - a country notorious for its strict drug laws. If we were to transfer a government with this stance over to an independent world in starsector, would it make sense that they would allow you to go in with your transponder off and offload your atlas filled with drugs? Independents are supposed to represent a variety of polities with different outlooks but as it stands, they are absolutely unified in their policies (please do come in with your transponder off) and will happily roll over and let you trade anything you want on the black market with no consequence. You might argue that there is certainly a reputation hit that comes with trading on the black market with your transponder on. However, independent fleets or their planets/stations don't bat an eye if you turn your transponder off right in front of them before docking to trade - such a 'punishment' mechanic has no deterrence effect.
I'm not sure how to fix this without it being overly complicated or cumbersome for the player. Perhaps doing away with the transponder off as something that is acceptable anywhere other than deep hyperspace might be a step in the right direction. Black markets could also have limited capacities (measured in credits or units bought) to represent the difficulty of avoiding tariffs from an entity that is no doubt trying to crack down on tariff avoidance. Either way, I think the current implementation feels 'gamey' and doesn't represent the lore / concerns of the polities in question.
The current implementation of transponder policies for pirates and independents are relatively strange. Why would they not care about who enters their planets/stations? There are very real concerns such as foreign agents trying to conduct unfavorable operations on your soil, smugglers providing dissidents with heavy weapons or simply a large amount of drugs being released to the populace at large. I would argue that every faction in starsector would care about who you are given that having completely open 'borders' or so to speak, would leave them vulnerable to infiltration - which is a self solving problem, their successors will not make the same mistake.
This issue also ties in to another oddity - black markets. Take for instance, Kanta's Den. The infamous pirate warlord that other pirates respect and fear. For those of you who have done a certain questline, the implications of her power are clear to see - the other pirates do not risk confrontation. And yet, you as the player, can easily waltz into Kanta's home turf with your transponder off and offload as much as you wish without paying any tariffs to the sector's most feared mob boss. In addition to the loss in revenue, Kanta would undoubtedly see it as a challenge to her authority warranting a strong response. But nothing happens, and it is indeed profitable to trade on these black markets who apparently have pirates (without combat capable ships, I might add) that are willing to risk Kanta's wrath. I have no doubt that perhaps some independent worlds may look the other way when it comes to black market trade, but I do think it's a stretch that all of them do. Even tiny entities have a vested interesting in safeguarding their autonomy, lest they lose it to someone else. To give a real world example, look a Singapore - a country notorious for its strict drug laws. If we were to transfer a government with this stance over to an independent world in starsector, would it make sense that they would allow you to go in with your transponder off and offload your atlas filled with drugs? Independents are supposed to represent a variety of polities with different outlooks but as it stands, they are absolutely unified in their policies (please do come in with your transponder off) and will happily roll over and let you trade anything you want on the black market with no consequence. You might argue that there is certainly a reputation hit that comes with trading on the black market with your transponder on. However, independent fleets or their planets/stations don't bat an eye if you turn your transponder off right in front of them before docking to trade - such a 'punishment' mechanic has no deterrence effect.
I'm not sure how to fix this without it being overly complicated or cumbersome for the player. Perhaps doing away with the transponder off as something that is acceptable anywhere other than deep hyperspace might be a step in the right direction. Black markets could also have limited capacities (measured in credits or units bought) to represent the difficulty of avoiding tariffs from an entity that is no doubt trying to crack down on tariff avoidance. Either way, I think the current implementation feels 'gamey' and doesn't represent the lore / concerns of the polities in question.