A question from Tsume Eiranus in episode 67 of Wingman's Hangar. Hit on an interesting subject for discussion surrounding crimes in depth of space and the UEE's burden of proof against pirates.



Question from Tsume Eiranus: When you say an attack or raid is "legal" as long as no one else witnesses it and thus informs local authorities, it makes sense regarding NPCs.  Kill or capture them, take the haul, make sure no one cat rat you out.  How would that work with a PC?  Even if I kill them, would they not e able to report the attack after being revived?

Answer (from Rob Irving): So, I think we can see how this person is leaning from the way the question is worded.  It's like "It's not illegal if no one saw it!" *laughter*.  No, you're still breaking the law, but what we're doing with that is that you need proof is sort of the idea.  If you kill somebody in space that has more patrolled, that is toward the center of the UEE, then are probably going to be little pigeon satellites there to convey the data back and forth and your ship is saying "Oh gosh this guy's attacking me!" (It probably doesn't say gosh) and starts broadcasting that out and that information is immediately transmitted. If you're killed somewhere that is not available or someone is jamming those or whatever the case, then what happens is sure you can come back and go "Hey, so and so killed me!", but they're probably not going to believe you.  So, there might be possible mission play there where you send a friend out or you go out to try and recover your transponder from your ship to prove who done you wrong.

For those that are surprised, this is answer isn't wholly new.  Rob and others have mentioned the "no see, no tell" policy on crime for a while.  What is new is the addition mechanics around it.  Let's break down the implications:

• There are "pigeon" satellites for conveying distress signals.  UEE space has lots of these and frontier / lawless space has fewer / none.  
• These satellites likely convey any transmissions, so this may have implications for communications beyond just the distress signal.
• The satellites can be jammed.  They may even be able to be destroyed.  At this point, I wonder if jamming (or repeated destroying) of satellites for long periods would draw unwanted attention by itself.  My guess is that either will need to be used sparingly.
• Regardless, this means that there are direct gameplay mechanics for PvP (or piracy in general) within the UEE.  My guess is that the requirements around jamming, time, etc. will force this to be a group effort (e.g. a specialized jamming ship, enough firepower to get the booty before the cops investigate the jam, etc.) 
• Even if you block and attack successfully, there is the 'transponder' / black box to worry about.  The focus of the question was the additional gameplay for the victim, but there is more here for pirates?  How do we insure the incriminating evidence is destroyed?  Do we need higher end scanners to pick up the box?  Do we need to keep as much of the ship intact as possible to more easily locate it?  Or, perhaps, it is more of a time tradeoff.  Spend that extra 5 minutes scanning for the box or take your chances that the victim isn't coming back.
• Both the box and the pigeons encourage the piracy be pushed toward the frontier, especially for smaller pirate groups or solo players.  The harder it is to get back to the box from friendly space, the less likely the victim will spend the time to go on the revenge (or justice , depending on your point of view) mission.  If someone is attacked in an area you haunt, there are chances for repeated attacks of people trying to get their box back.
• Lastly, what would happen if you could find and hack the black box?  Could you blame someone else for your crime?

Interesting times ahead.

-Kinshadow

The most recent Spectrum Dispatch doesn't have a lot of information, but the implications of the tidbits are fairly impactful to the pirating community.



Hacking

• The security of digital systems, satellites, etc. are highlighted as things that players can circumvent.  The mechanics are not mentioned, but border monitor satellites (see below) are the primary focus of this hacking.  Hopefully, we'll see other areas this will apply.
  
• We don't know a lot of things, but here's my wish list:
  

1. I'd like to see your ship's computer as the key to this.  Faster computer, faster/easier hacks
2. I'm a bit torn on whether I think this should be a minigame vs. % chance.  I guess it depends on the quality of the execution.  I'd hate to play a poor reflex game over and over.
3. I'd like to see illegal malware and hacking scripts you can buy (perhaps on Spider)
4. I'd like to see aggressive defenses that put the attacker in danger
5. Despite the wishes of others on the forum, I think hacking would be a cool combat mechanic.  You could image 'hacks' that are fired like weapons (maybe requiing physical tags) that disrupt / control automated systems.  Drones, IFF missles, AI controlled turrets, etc. could be disrupted with 'hacks'.

Border Jumping

• Listed as a big security issue for the UEE. 

1. The borders are protected by sentry drones that can be hacked by pirates / smugglers.
   
2. Criminals flee over the Banu border to get away from Advocacy forces.  The Banu have no central government and do not respond to extraditions.
   

• This all sounds awesome to me.  The thrill of subjacating systems to sneak into / out of alien territory or to make a 'run for the border' sounds like CIG is treating the criminal element as key members of the community.

1. My big lingering question revolves on where the borders exist.  We know there will be checkpoint stations, but does this mean some jumps will not have stations?  Or does the border exist mid-system and we need to use different way points to approach the border outside of the checkpoint?

Drones

• Drones are casually mentioned as monitoring the border.  This is the first confirmation we've had that non-human piloted craft will exit in game.

1. Drones can be 'hacked' and have their sensors disabled.
2. Previous fiction (Lost Generation) has hinted that AI are not allowed in UEE combat roles.  So, perhaps we'll only see human-less ships without weaponry
   
3. I think Black Market armed drones would be awesome addition to the game.  Perhaps as a snub fighter replacement on the Constellation?

-Kinshadow

The last Spectrum Dispatch had a little hard data on equipment and some nice pirate role playing flair.  It will be very interesting to see how consistent some of these role playing elements play out in the game and whether we’ll see a ‘deep’ pirate culture.


Here's the Dissection:

• The article is set like a pirate radio hacked broadcast.  It will be interesting to see if such things (illegal broadcasts or some form of equivalent) exist in game.
• Gangs- Several distinct pirate gangs (and lone wolves) mentioned in antagonizing relationships.  As mentioned before, I hope these are accessible to players and we can build rep with each.  Ideally, each would give their own benefits and allow their passage / perks.

1. Some mentioned: Makarel Marauders (Hammer Phelps the leader?) and Clown
2. Kid Crimson is name dropped.  Good to see links back to the stories.'
3. Jester is the pirate behind the B0otycall broadcast
4. Other possible characters mentioned: Arno Vacch and AtmoScope

• Slang - Lots of new slang, specific to the underworld / pirates / Spider
  

1. Scurrows - uncertain if this is a derogatory pirate name or a specific pirate gang
   
2. Threatdown - the "lowdown"?
   
3. Fringers - underworld types?  Social fringes?

• TRS-1 Ennervator (Joker) - A weapon that allows you to ‘tag’ someone once their shields are down and significantly slow down shield regeneration.  This seems like a must have for many pirates for several reasons
  

1. Ship boarding /. capture - disabling thrusters requires the shields to be down for extended periods. Similarly, the Grappler (mentioned in the Bounty Hunting post) could be an ideal 1-2 punch with the Ennervator for captures.
2. Shipping / mining hulls - We don’t know relative values, but I can imagine thick hulls on some prime targets.  Wearing down some might require the hull to be down for extending periods. 
3. Threats - The Ennervator gives the pirate one last chance to threaten a victim into dropping cargo before going for the kill and sacrificing part of the cargo in the blast.

• Seatow Armor plating (Joker) - Basically stealth plating that cuts down your energy signature, which can affect both detection and missile locks.
  
• Minor note on stealing these upgrades from other people.  Perhaps this is a hint that upgrades themselves will be salvageable from wrecks / captures?

-Kinshadow

In a recent Spectrum Dispatch from RSI, we got a brief look at assassination contracts: 

There isn't a whole lot of meat here, but we can glean a couple of nuggets:

• There will be a way to pick up underground, illegal contracts
• The implication from the recent WM Hanger is that these will work similar to bounties and that players will be able to place contract hits on other players.
• Obviously, the story hints you will have to go to seedy places to take contracts.  TO the point of drop points, etc.  This may hint at some potential UEE legal / reputation risk in taking the job or just venturing to these seedy places.
• Hits / underground bounties may be available in multiple levels: ambush / attacking the mark,  total ship destruction, or actual kill (called an 'empty casket job' ... presumably a pod-kill)
• Combat logs are sited as proof, which likely just means that you get automatic credit for the kills.
• Payment is mentioned as 1/2 up front.  I'm not sure if that is just color or something we could expect on really jobs to balance out the legal risks.

On a totally separate side note, I asked one of the devs in the live chat about pirate rep:

• Feb 21 2013, 11:49 AM Kinshadow: @Rob Any word on non-Citizenship / non-UEE reputation? Can we gain with pirate clans to the point the NPCs won't attack us?
• Designopotamus: @Kin: that's where I'm leaning.

*fingers crossed*    :)

-Kinshadow

So, many of you have seen the fire-storm on the SC forums over the off-hand perma-death comments that Chris Roberts.  This week, Chris posted an article to assuage (or validate in some cases) the fears of some community segments.  I'm not going to do a full Spectrum Dissection on this as it is all pretty straight forward (instead of fiction-wrapped), but, as always, lets point out some gems:

• Slavery of players is possible!  It is mentioned that you can pick up unwilling ejected players and shuttle them to the confines of prison or sell them into slavery.  My 'guess' is that this would be treated as just a minor 'death' (no character damage incurred) with a different cost (slavery buy-out) and that you won't be sitting in someones hold until they get to a slaver base.  This also gives more insight into how 'live' bounties will work.
• Reduced reputation upon character death.  My guess is that this is truly the most painful part of death.  Since characters have no 'stats' that affect combat, reputation will be the main character building mechanic outside of ship upgrades.  I can imagine many hours going into rep points o get perks, safe passage, etc.  
• Pirate reset?  Some people are pointing out the rep reduction as a way to get out of pirate status.  My guess is that the other costs of death will outweigh the 'cost' (running missions) to counter negative reputation.  Killing yourself over and over seems like an easy thing to balance if it is a major concern.
• Bounties?  Not really mentioned.  It wouldn't make 'sense' for bounties to carry over to offspring, but it could be a way to absolve yourself of them.  Whether this is an exploit depends on the role of the bounty system itself.  Will bounties be absolvable other ways (bribes/ payoffs)?  Can you have more than a handful of bounties?  Will bounties restrict players in real play?
• Pod-killing:  Ejected players can be killed by others, but severe penalties (rep, bounties, etc.) are the deterrent.  Whether this is a problem for scallywags is TBD, depending on how rep-skirting works for the majority of pirates.  On a related note, the 'ease' at which a player dies is a big factor.  Tight dogfights seem ripe for collisions, so I hope that pod-kills require explicit targeting.  One side benefit of this system for pirates: Major-deaths (deaths that incur body damage) for pirates may actually be less likely than major-deaths for other combat-oriented careers.  A pirate with negative rep may occasionally or frequently kill his ejected victim as he has less to lose (lost slave income if he has the hold space).  A player who kills a pirate will get negative rep for killing him (rather than taking him to prison).  Thus, pirates may end up paying, but they may end up with significantly more minor-deaths (no body damage) in a given character life.
• Boarding:  Head shots can cause a major-death.  Thus, the fewer major-deaths that pirates might see during ship-to-ship combat may be balanced out by increased mortality from boarding (assuming boarding ends up being common).

As always, did you see any other interesting conclusions in the article?  How do you like the new mechanism?

-Kinshadow

Spectrum Dissection is a new feature type on Dread Citizen where we take RSI’s fiction releases (Spectrum Dispatch) and distil the nuggets of game information from them.   RSI uses these posts to release game information in a unique and fun way, but I’ve noticed many members glossing over the details and not connecting the same dots.  Each post also has implications outside of the primary subject.   So, let's collaborate and see what these posts and really saying

Smugglers (http://robertsspaceindustries.com/advocacy-case-file-twor-wynton-smuggler/)

• Forged reg-tags -  The fiction outlays that the smuggler being interviewed was caught using fake tags.  Bad black market deals on stolen IDs or shoddy work on repurposing a stolen hull could make each landing a gamble.
• Disengaged cargo hold - This ‘sounds’ different than simply jettisoning cargo (see hardpoints below), but the mechanic of getting rid of your cargo to move faster has been long suspected on the forums.  This provides confirmation that this will be a usable tactic and may be useful to many beyond smugglers.
• Breakaway Hardpoints - The name of this upgrade / mod class is a bit ambiguous   On one hand, this may be what the disengaged cargo hold is actually referring to where mods can be ejected.  The concept sounds very interesting for all criminals, especially if there are black-market / banned weapons you’d need to ditch in a hurry.  The lingering questions are: What is the tradeoff to make the point breakable (e.g. just cost or weaker upgrades) and what are the insurance implications?  That said, the 'breakaway hardpoint' is mentioned in the same paragraph as disguises.  So, this could be referring to mod disguises themselves that 'break away' (see the Hidden Upgrades below).
• Sentient Transports - People as cargo.  Hinted in Kid Crimson (and Privateer if you’re looking way back), slaves will likely be a black-market trade item (probably high value).  Now, other people-smuggling also sounds possible.  You may be smuggling diplomats or the like across borders for profit or criminals out of systems.  It would be interesting if dump a sentient transport has harsher penalties or if you could sell passengers into slavery.  Perhaps that is too dark..
• Criminal Syndicates - It sounds like there will be multiple organizations of crime to can ally with.  There is some trade offs mentioned in contrast to lone-wolfing it, but it is heartening to hear the depth of the criminal enterprises.  I would like to hear if there is reputation associated with these syndicates and if positive rep in one means negative rep in another.  The benefits of these reps would also be interesting.  Failing at a smuggling job could incur bounties, but it would be good if there is more to it.
• Specialized Holds - Cargo holds that trade space for stealth (of cargo).  There doesn’t seem to be much use for this outside of the smuggling profession, but the concept of masquerading could be applied to things beyond cargo in the hold.  Combined with the jettison mechanics, perhaps certain weapons could be stored and then launched from the hold?  Hidden mines perhaps?
• Hidden upgrades - Also mentioned are hidden upgrades (thrusters).  Again, probably useful to many professions.  Traders fleeing pirates or the pirates themselves are other obvious customers of such stealth mods.  Q-Ships (war vessels disguised as trade vessels) are the other obvious implication.
• Underground Shops - Shops with legitimate fronts that specialize in underground tech and illegal operations.  Combined with criminal syndicates, these posts sounds like multiple criminal professions will be able to find ports of safe harbor across the game.
• Job boards - Both ‘unconnected’ and syndicate sponsored, the smuggling profession sounds like some depth has been put into the missions smugglers can take.  It would not suprise me if there is a similar system for targeted piracy or assassinations.  See the Bounty Hunter board below for more possibilities.

Bounty Hunters (http://robertsspaceindustries.com/news-update-bounty-hunter-guild-news/)

• Job Boards - Just like smugglers, it seems Bounty Hunters will likely have some form of job board.  The bounties are mentioned as part of a guild newsletter so there may be some dependency on your guild as to what job you can see.  Also, the fact that the bounties are in a letter, I would venture to guess that you’ll be able to see jobs over your ship’s comm (as opposed to landing on a planet to see it).  The jobs are mentioned as only available to members in good standing.  So, in the terms from the smugglers post, these may be similar to syndicate jobs.  It would be interesting to know if there are similarly ‘unconnected’ BH jobs outside of the guild.
• Job Range - The jobs on the board range from tracking to captures to dead or alive (assassinations). Some mention guild permission, special circumstances, etc.  The morality of the jobs on the board seem to be varied, so it would be interesting to know whether all jobs that are guild sponsored are ‘legal’ with the UEE.  Similarly, it would be interesting to know if there are other BH guilds that are less scrupulous.  For instance, bounties being placed on regular citizens, military officials, etc. may only be available to certain BH guilds or, perhaps, those are treated entirely different (e.g. a pirate gang’s assassination / grudge board).
• Intact Cargo - Jobs may require intact cargo.  Since boarding is a fairly intense activity, the big question here is if there is a way to ‘force’ the cargo to be jettisoned (without destroying the ship).  This could have huge implications to piracy tactics.
• Guild Reputation - One job is mentioned to be available to ‘silver-level members and above’.  Is this a rank based on reputation?  Do you buy levels (e.g. is the guild a co-op with shares) or earn them (via jobs)?  Either way, this sounds like good news to those operating outside of the law.  Any levels / rep outside of Citizenship is a boon to those that can’t earn it.
• Auto-lasers - mentioned as rapid fire (high refresh rate) and good for wearing down shields.  Likely also a favorite in piracy if disabling the other ship is the goal.
• Targeting - Also mentioned in the ships doc, etc., the ‘tracking sight’ / targeting computer is another upgrade point.  It would be interesting to know if the upgrades apply to all weapons (obviously Class 2 and above) or are somehow installed per gun.
• Grappler - An energy weapon that stuns the ‘unprotected’ occupants inside a ship (if the shields are down).  This sounds like a perfect boarding tool (rendering no resistance while disabling thrusters and boarding), so it will be interesting how it will be balanced.  The phrasing makes it sound (to me) that the counter may be a part of personal equipment (e.g. personal anti-stun armor), but this is an open question.  How this is balanced in dogfighting is also a question.  If could simply wear down shields and then stun, the physical armor of the hull would be useless.  So, the weapon may have a very short range, very long recharge, an easy counter in normal fights, or some other balance.
• The Veil - a transponder that broadcasts a fake ship ID for a limited time.  IDs have been mentioned in past posts, but the limited time part is new.  The time may be a balance issue and upgrade option, so it will be very interesting how this is handled to many professions.
• System Effects - Shields and scanners could be radiation affected.  This is great info for those in the ambushing business.
• Pirate Planet Protocol - The ‘trashworld’ Spider was mentioned in the 3.75M crowdfunding update.  This post mentions that the ‘planet’ has a unique landing protocol.  The way the system is mentioned (only give ID after 4 requests) makes the system sound manual, which is an excellent bit of flair for pirate immersion.
• Customs Crossings - Not really new info (mentioned in several of the fiction stories), but border crossings are reiterated as problematic for the criminal element.
• Random fiction tidbits - Bounty hunters are also called Shacklers (slang).

Did you see something I missed?  Let me know in the comments. :)

-Kinshadow