Id like to offer up a small suggestion with player RP encounters. Quite a few times while crossing XXX star system Ive been hailed along the lines of: What are you doing here? When another player is clearly nowhere close and only found me in that system because they checked the who is online and where are they in game status screen.
For example Corsair pirate player enters Dublin system using the Omega 49 jump hole. And quite suddenly they receive a system hail along the lines of what are you doing here from a Bretonia police/military player who is at the New London Jump gate.
In all fairness I find this form of RP completely unacceptable because in all reality how would the Bretonia police/military player know that the Corsair pirate player is in the Dublin System? Therefore I would like to make a suggestion that police/military players would have to hunt down the pirate players and find them and hail when they are in sight range in the box on the lower left hand of the screen.
In the case of guard systems Factions should automatically waive this rule because they have they have absolute control of their home systems.
Well there is another way to look at it using your example. In theory the Britonia Police/Military would be working with there npc counterparts, so he could be speaking through them. In the house systems the npc are fairly plentiful and you will inevitably run into one. Just another way to look at it. Me and my bud RP Liberty Rogues and throw challenges to lawfuls in system with us even when not in physical contact with them. It is a good buildup to a RP encouter later if you meet, especially if you are on opposites sides of the fence per say rp wise.
I do love those system-wide RADAR and sensor systems...:P
But really, I do think that any respectable House Government would install a mass sensor web across their systems. I mean, it would be even COOLER if the maps showed where the people were (to make hiding and taunting impossible - that really gets annoying!) but that will never happen.
Huh, kinda got off on a tangent. The reason a military person can ask within a House System is the Sensor Web. As for the other systems, it shouldn't really happen, but we can't (I mean we shouldn't, and won't, under penalty of a police state) govern when it happens without making it real picky.
Hailing in system without seeing them is fine to me. As long range scanners pick it up anyway. And it helps when you notice the person you are hailing is docked or such.
RP-wise, it's probably better for the on-sight hail and I usually try and follow that myself. However, in some cases you have the problem of after flying around hunting someone. You finally find them and while you're typing your statements, they fly off. So meh...
Definitely think warnings and such crossing multiple systems is a no no (example SF in tau-31 tells some corsair out of cambridge, the SF should be in the same system not halfway across the universe, guard systems I guess are a type of exception), but inside a single system whether using on-sight or not, at least a player is warned in some fashion before being attacked/encountered which is the main point.
What I have done in the past as a policeman or lawful is use the cruise disruptor while I talk to the pirate...complicated but possible.
I personally wait until my sensors pick up a person before I talk to them. Just because I loose sensor contact after that doesnt mean I can't keep talking to them. Every once in a while though I'll come across someone who uses chat as a weapon: they'll say something to get me typing then do something drastic that I cannot react to while I am typing.
Hey, Yngen, you'd better not do that to me. That can be interpreted as an attack, look at the server rules.:P
I am a long-absent Supreme Commander, Executive Commander, Grand Admiral, Fleet Admiral, and Captain in the mighty Hellfire Legion. I have returned, and am on an urgent mission from Drake Thastus to return the Legion to its former glory, and to claim the galaxy for its own. Only then will I be able to rest.
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