Limit contraband scanning ability

javier · Post by **javier** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:03 pm

This is one thing I find annoying. Seems everybody and his mother could scan you, so if you're not cloaked there is no realistic way to do contraband runs without a lot of combat, of course screwing your relations, that in turn drives you to more combat and... I think you can get the idea

So, I'd like to see this scans limited to militia forces, maybe capital ships and military bases also, and only when in a somehow reasonable range of you. IMO, a merchant ship have no business scanning you and, even worse, attacking you in case your hold keeps some illegal stuff.

Another related problem is there is only one contraband category, but it will be preferable to have it attached to factions. It makes no sense to be attacked by ISO or aera ships because you're transporting ISO propaganda.

This kind of changes may allow to follow the smuggler's path now is not realistic to take by any player.

Cheapshooter · Post by **Cheapshooter** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:39 pm

I can agree with this - does everyone in the universe have a tool to tell exactly what cargo other people are carrying, at any distance, but you? I've had people nail me for contraband at ranges beyond 300,000 kilometers. I can't even tell what faction they are but some twit in a Koala knows I've got two crates of the Colonels Special Spices in my hold and a half finished bottle of Jack Daniels in my glove compartment.

mortaneous · Post by **mortaneous** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 8:45 pm

Actually, the issue has already been brought up. It's not exactly top priority for now, but there is more discussion of desirable solutions over in this thread:
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... aband+scan

Miramor · Post by **Miramor** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:14 pm

I would argue that pirates should have the ability to detect contraband. If someone was carrying it, they'd want to steal it.

(Actually, it would be kind of interesting to have pirate ships sometimes masquerade as homeland-security or military. A corvette might approach your ship, scan you, notice that you were carrying something expensive, and then lie that you have contraband and try to take your cargo...)

Post by **loki1950** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:30 pm

BTW you can scan any ship yourself

the right VDU one of it's functions is manifest does tend to be not very useful it scrolls to fast

Enjoy the Choice

javier · Post by **javier** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:38 pm

The main problem with pirates is the AI should take into account the relative strength of their target against their flight group. They should be like hyenas, attacking only when they feel they have advantage, retreating if not. In that scenario, what you're transporting is more or less irrelevant. But this is another different question.

To keep things as simple as possible, a first step could be making the scanning ability a new attribute of a unit. Then, make only militia have ships of that kind. Next, make more populated/core systems have more militia presence, so smuggling were more difficult on that systems.

The economic system, if evolved to something more elaborated, could then increase the reward on that kind of systems, making worth the risk, this could be seen as a bonus.

I see this only as a first step in fixing the whole thing, but I feel that it will increase playability and should be not too complicated. I even include some factor of uncertainty into the scanning, so not all scans result in your contraband detected. That should be simple to program as well.

The issue about linking contraband categories to factions, I see more difficult to solve, but it's as needed as the previous one if we want to see some kind of logic about contraband.

Keller · Post by **Keller** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:09 pm

Just make a cargo scanner upgrade. It could also be a contraband item for some factions, as using one if not part of the military or militia would be considered an act of piracy.

javier · Post by **javier** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 6:43 pm

This could come later. First, there should be a new boolean attribute in units.cvs to control the scan cargo ability. Then, we could make that kind of upgrade or put it as one of the scanners capabilities, if preferred. After all, right now there is no need of such upgrade to the player.
Let's put the foundations before the floor.

Post by **loki1950** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 9:27 pm

After all, right now there is no need of such upgrade to the player.

As they already have the ability glad you picked up on that

Enjoy the Choice

Coragem · Post by **Coragem** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:45 am

The main problem with pirates is the AI should take into account the relative strength of their target against their flight group. They should be like hyenas, attacking only when they feel they have advantage, retreating if not.

This should be implemented to every ship AI controls. Dodos and Koalas following my pacifier around is annoying. but extemely fun to see how many i can kill in a single Beam Sweep

As for the contraband issue.
i dont know if its my luck. but i never got scanned. maybe once. Note: i only take contraband in cargo missions, never buy them myself. maybe its a bug?

javier · Post by **javier** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:15 am

It would be fun if only your relations didn't go to hell after that.

Coragem · Post by **Coragem** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:06 pm

It would be fun if only your relations didn't go to hell after that.

Im friendly with the Aera in this savegame so, i blast almost all other factions to pieces.