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[Alex]

My take on the bounty hunting mechanic here.

Yeah, this kind of thing makes sense. I just feel like more mechanics need to be in place to support it (like actual people that are a bit more meaningful).

The market condition "Headquarters" increases market power. What is market power, though?

It should say "stability". It was called "market power" for a bit earlier in the dev cycle, and stability was a separate thing.

Hey all! I've just started playing vanilla 0.65 (great so far btw!), and saw a weirdest thing happening. I was after a pirate smuggler fleet (consisting of a single Hound, so not exactly a fleet per se), when it suddenly changed it's allegiance from "pirate" to "neutral", changing both title and fleet circle. This got me baffled: it was clearly pirate when i set course to intercept, but what will happen if I attack now anyway: will I drop my stnding towards neutrals or pirates? Are NPC fleets ever allowed to do this at all? I have senn nothing on the matter in changelog, so any insight on the matter would be welcome

Yeah, I've been wondering about that too. Is that a bug or is that meant to represent pirates broadcasting fake ID codes and posing as legit traders? IIRC they usually change from pirates into smugglers, which doesn't really make a whole lot of sense in that respect. Surely if you're going to use a fake identity to avoid being harassed by the law, you'd pick one that wouldn't also get harassed by the law?

Right, smugglers transmit different identification codes when they're about to dock with pirate bases. In large part this is just necessary so that smugglers *can* make their runs without getting killed on either end of the route. As far as a "fake identity", the "smuggler" label represents more what you think they are than what they're actively broadcasting. I mean, surely, no smuggler would say they're a smuggler, but if all the fleets said "trade fleet" or "trader", that might not communicate what's going on.

[Sordid]

Hey all! I've just started playing vanilla 0.65 (great so far btw!), and saw a weirdest thing happening. I was after a pirate smuggler fleet (consisting of a single Hound, so not exactly a fleet per se), when it suddenly changed it's allegiance from "pirate" to "neutral", changing both title and fleet circle. This got me baffled: it was clearly pirate when i set course to intercept, but what will happen if I attack now anyway: will I drop my stnding towards neutrals or pirates? Are NPC fleets ever allowed to do this at all? I have senn nothing on the matter in changelog, so any insight on the matter would be welcome

Yeah, I've been wondering about that too. Is that a bug or is that meant to represent pirates broadcasting fake ID codes and posing as legit traders? IIRC they usually change from pirates into smugglers, which doesn't really make a whole lot of sense in that respect. Surely if you're going to use a fake identity to avoid being harassed by the law, you'd pick one that wouldn't also get harassed by the law?

Right, smugglers transmit different identification codes when they're about to dock with pirate bases. In large part this is just necessary so that smugglers *can* make their runs without getting killed on either end of the route. As far as a "fake identity", the "smuggler" label represents more what you think they are than what they're actively broadcasting. I mean, surely, no smuggler would say they're a smuggler, but if all the fleets said "trade fleet" or "trader", that might not communicate what's going on.

So your character is able to somehow identify that another ship is smuggling just by looking at it? That doesn't really make a lot of sense either, and it raises the question of why exactly we're privateering instead of selling our services to one of the factions, who would surely pay highly for such an amazing talent and could then dispense with all this tedious customs scanning.

I'd say this should be done pretty much the same way Gothars suggested for bounties, i.e. you should totally just label them as traders. Yes, it would not communicate what's going on, but not communicating what's going on is kinda the whole point of smuggling, isn't it? Let the player himself discover that "hang on, this 'trader' is making runs between factions that are hostile to each other, he's a bloody smuggler!". This kind of hidden depth is something I absolutely love in games, it gives a wonderful feeling that the world is alive, that NPCs have their own lives, and that everything doesn't just revolve around you. Why should the player be in on the smuggling when his character's not involved in the deal?

[Gothars]

So your character is able to somehow identify that another ship is smuggling just by looking at it? That doesn't really make a lot of sense either, and it raises the question of why exactly we're privateering instead of selling our services to one of the factions, who would surely pay highly for such an amazing talent and could then dispense with all this tedious customs scanning.

I'd assumed that the player character, or rather fleet intelligence, is inferring the nature of different fleets based on available data. And, since there is no legal responsibility, he can do so more indiscriminate than faction patrols. As in, just labeling every lone, over-conscientiously in-suspicious ship as a smuggler. Same with pirates.

You got a point about letting players discover these things for himself though, that would be more interesting. Especially if it becomes relevant for gameplay in any way.

[Sundog]

Right, smugglers transmit different identification codes when they're about to dock with pirate bases. In large part this is just necessary so that smugglers *can* make their runs without getting killed on either end of the route.

A new sub-faction could solve that:

Code

id:"independent_smugglers",
"color":[150,150,150,255],
"displayName":"independent",

Smugglers look just like independents, but aren't hostile to pirates. This way blowing up smugglers wouldn't decrease relations with independents... as long as they're actually smugglers.

This could also open up the possibility of giving the black market a more appropriate faction than pirates. Black market trading could increase standing with smugglers, and black markets could refuse to trade with you if you get a reputation for smuggler killin'

[ciago92]

Right, smugglers transmit different identification codes when they're about to dock with pirate bases. In large part this is just necessary so that smugglers *can* make their runs without getting killed on either end of the route.

A new sub-faction could solve that:

Code

id:"independent_smugglers",
"color":[150,150,150,255],
"displayName":"independent",

Smugglers look just like independents, but aren't hostile to pirates. This way blowing up smugglers wouldn't decrease relations with independents... as long as they're actually smugglers.

This could also open up the possibility of giving the black market a more appropriate faction than pirates. Black market trading could increase standing with smugglers, and black markets could refuse to trade with you if you get a reputation for smuggler killin'

Please go put that in a suggestion, I absolutely love the idea. You could only tell the difference based on watching where they actually go, at least at first. I think it might be abusable in that once they're hostile you can tell the difference, but it probably doesn't make a difference at that point anyways

[Sordid]

I'd assumed that the player character, or rather fleet intelligence, is inferring the nature of different fleets based on available data. And, since there is no legal responsibility, he can do so more indiscriminate than faction patrols. As in, just labeling every lone, over-conscientiously in-suspicious ship as a smuggler. Same with pirates.

Fair point, but then you'd expect such a system to misidentify some ships some of the time, whereas the labels as they currently exist in the game are 100% accurate. It pretty much comes down to what these labels are supposed to represent, either objective reality or the player character's perception. I think there's a bit of incongruity in how the game presents information. Prices, for instance, aren't given to you as objective information. You get them through intel reports, and as a result your price map of the sector is incomplete and gradually becomes outdated over time until new reports come in. Yet the fleet labels are always accurate? Seems a bit strange to me, is all.

I think there should totally be fleets that broadcast a fake identity and that you have to identify yourself either through scanning them or just by observing their behavior (i.e. an 'independent trader' going to and from a pirate base without getting attacked by the pirates around it is probably a smuggler or a pirate). Which brings up the possibility of the player himself being able to disguise his fleet's identity and conducting clandestine missions on forest moons using a small Hegemony shuttle with a code clearance that's older but still checks out.

[kingster101]

Can someone please tell me how to find an activation code.I've tried almost every number I've got from this website in my e-mail and none of them worked

[Alex]

Hi - please take a look here:
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=8317.0