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

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Another question for Wingman!  This week I ask about whether there will be any restrictions on the types of ships that NPC wingmen could fly.  We know there is currently a limit of 2 NPC wingmen and there was some assumption in the forums that these could only be small fighters.

The answer was a resounding 'no'.  There are no such restrictions and if you want to fly a fighter craft and have 2 cargo haulers as your wingmen then good for you.  You could even fly a formation of 3 Constellations or, presumably, Corvettes.   Due to the way they reference the larger ship piloting, I would hesitate to assume higher.

So, what does this mean?  It means that we'll see more flexible game play and some of the discussions mentioned in the Pirate Boxing Theory article could be accomplished without multiboxing at all.  Do you know a route that is really safe?  Fly a formation of 3 tankers!  Have slow reflexes, but still want to do a lot of damage?  How about 3 Retaliators!  This all rides on the strength of the AI so we'll have to see how they balance this, but the combinations can get really fun.

This week's question for Wingman:  Will pilots have some way of protecting themselves from their own crew.

A: Yes, but it probably won't be a door that pops down.

Some disappointment was mentioned in chat to this answer.  Some people feel the idea of quick mutiny should be encouraged and not restricted.  So, here's my take:

• Wingman's answer doesn't mean that mutiny won't be possible.  It just means that pilots will have 'some' protection.  So, it will be more effort, but we'll have to wait to see how much.  Personally, I'd like to see it rare and a somewhat special effort.
• If pilots don't have something to protect themselves from their crew while flying, then you'd see an entire class of players focused on this game element.  Why bother going through the time and danger of a boarding action when capturing is as easy as talking some newbie into letting you help him man a turret?
• Without some protection, guilds would likely have to be super selective of players.  Pirates will already have this problem during boarding actions (the first to sit gets the ship mechanic), but having this issue all the time would just be nerve wracking and not much fun.

-Kinshadow

Another question for Wingman this last week.  This time I asked about asteroid bases!  To sum it up:

Q: When we find an asteroid base in the persistent universe, can we install mods on it to hide it from other players?

Wingman's Answer (paraphrased):  No, we want as much player conflict as possible. So, you can't install stealth mods, but you can install weapons, etc. to defend it.

Despite it being a 'no', Wingman's answer is still very encouraging for the game.  The team is obviously focused on encouraging player interaction in the persistent universe and thinking along those lines when planning these elements.  The re-confirmation that we will be able to take over and install mods on asteroid bases is encouraging as we know this crowdfunding stretch goal hasn't been defeatured and is in the dev consciousness.

Does the answer tell us anything else?  Actually, yes, it means that solo players are now less likely to hold asteroid bases since they will have to be actively protected and visible targets to other players and guilds.

I think we need a lot more info on things like base weapon lethality, defense effectiveness, and repair features before we'll know the real effort needed to hold the installations.  Those kind of things will likely need to be balanced in the PU Beta next year.  

Also, some other items to ponder will be access control and 'friend or foe' determination   How do you grant friends / guild members permission to use and defend your base?  Such dynamics will be pivotal for how used the base will be and how easy it is to defend when the owner is offline.

-Kinshadow

A couple weeks back, I got pretty sick and was laid up for a bit (I'm still a spot under the weather)  so the DC updates have been a lax.  I even missed posting my last Hanger question here.  So, to rectify this,  without further ado, here's the video.  WM's answer was basically 'no' so I'll just post the question.  If you have a chance, check out Logante's video in the same theme.  

By the way, Dr. Hawk's question was actually meant for the week before, which is the reason is seemed out of place next to my earlier video.

Another question for wingman this week.  I asked about Spider pass-codes and, according to Chris, these will be automatically tracked by your computer.  Thanks Chris!

If you've got a pirate question for me to ask, just let me know in the comments and I'll see if I can work it in.