Smugglers and Mooring Rings

[shutbug29]

Every LPI, LN, LSF etc member knows what its' like to be sitting outside Manhatten, idly scanning cargos, when all of a sudden you see some Adv. Train or Pirate transporter hauling a huge shipment of Cadamine or artifacts, or some such.
Immediately you scream for them to halt, but they don't listen. They're too close to the planet for you to blow them up in your poor Liberator, what can you do? It's very OORP for a smuggler to dock with a lawful base after being sprung for contraband goods. I've been an LPI officer for about a week or so now, and I see it nearly every day.
(By they way, saying "what cardi?" is the oldest, and most used excuse ever, try coming up with something original.)
So once the persons docked, there's nothing we can do, they won't pay the fine, they're safe, and just log out and wait for all the lawmen to go away.

So here's my suggestion, I believe it would have benefits not just in Liberty, but right across Sirius. Make Mooring Rings able to be temporarily disabled, like tradelanes. This will give lawfuls an actual chance to stop Smugglers from docking with their bases. If your not slippery enough to get by unseen, then you should get caught and have your cargo destroyed. Hell, my smuggler ain't been sprung yet, and I've shipped hundreds of millions of credits worth of Cardamine into Liberty.

Now, every smuggler and his dog is going to jump on this and try to shut the idea down, but lets not listen to them, they ain't looking for RP, they're just looking to make cash. There are smugglers out there who do it for the fun and the RP, like me. But they're vastly outnumbered by all these other oorp smugglers. As an LPI recruit, I just have to wonder sometimes, whats even the point of telling a smuggler to stop, you know they ain't gonna, might as well just make Cardi, Artifacts, etc legal.

Again, these oorp smugglers are ruining the point in RPing contraband within systems. This modification won't make it impossible to smuggle, it will just make it more of a challenge. Give you more RP oppurtinities than just "What cardamine? What artifacts?"
If you're only smuggling for the money then you're in the wrong route. This isn't about making our jobs easy, this is about making our jobs possible. At present the only real way to stop a smuggler flying in and speed docking with Manhatten is to park a big ol' battlecruiser in front of the mooring ring and shoot anything carrying contraband. Its nearly impossible to give a smuggler fair warning before blowing them up, without them docking before you can finish, in all my time as an LPI officer, I have never seen an inbound contraband shipment stopped outside of Manhatten.

Once again, I believe making Mooring rings able to be temporarily disabled will be a great asset to RP right across Sirius.

~Joseph L. "Sky_Jocky" Truman of the Liberty Police Inc.
Who's with me?!

Actually, You would catch more smugglers if you moved away from the planet and started hunting them rather than just sitting in one place saying, whoops, he docked. You have to go where the criminals are rather than sit at the coffee shop yelling as they speed past.

[Kell]

Guys....

Game mechanics to catch smugglers, not needed. Simply record names and post in a big post the LPI runs. Put the character name and a warrant. Have a set amount of money for the cargo hold size of the ship...if he's hauling 5K of contraband, Theres what, a five hundred thousand bounty? Bounty hunters aren't in it to get rich from one job (they aren't assasins. They're basically specialized mercs) so they should accept all contracts. And yes, I also want to keep inflation at a minimum. (sorry, battleship dreamers)

So utilize what a bounty hunter is there for. All to often now I just see bounty hunter ships "assisting" and orbiting. THey aren't given enough to do. its that, or go harass the Order in Omicron Minor.

You will NEVEr catch all smugglers. YES, some smugglers are just doing it for money and are out of character tards. YES, being a lawful, you WILL get griefed. (lets face it, some people play for the "Go bone yourself" hardon)

Lastly, patrol the lanes. Learn to set up disruption choke points. It isn't LANE HACKING when you're merely scanning for contraband. And as I said in a different post...Don't do it alone. In Vanilla FL, the patrols were in 3 or 5....so...specialize your loadouts. Shield killers on one person, hull blasters on another, etc. Worst comes to worst, you ALL have CD'S and can keep that person from cruising away.

Yes, it will take time to take down the transport. Yes, you probably WONT be succesfful all the time....

Refer to the above.

Smugglers in it for the RP, I feel, will use smaller ships. It makes sense...you enter the atmosphere, and bam, you're lost amongst the rest of the traffic. A huge tanker? Not hard to spot, really.

Be realistic, on both sides. Thats all it takes. Play for the fun of both people and don't get steamed. (Also, lowering the time for re-entering from 4 to 1 hour, wouldn't hurt.)

[Zelot]

I have a brillant idea, and honestly, I didnt feel like grinding through the 7 pages before this. How bout instead of Lawfuls sitting on the mooring fixture, they spend some time by the tradelanes. That way, you scan the ship before it even gets out of the lane, and if there is a problem, you have some 5 to 6 k to deal with it. When I am in NY, I tend to see all the lawfuls within 500m of Manhattans mooring fixture.

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[SanjitVignesh]

Why not keep the last lane disabled. It will make 'em cruise to the planet for some 7 to 9k.

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<span style="color:#FFFFFF">Current Characters</span>

<span style="color:#FF0000">BAF|Sanjit.Vignesh : Templar</span>



<span style="color:#FF0000">Bs|TheDragon777 : Nephthys</span>

<span style="color:#FF0000">RepEx-Shipping|777 : Train</span>

<span style="color:#FF0000">TheEternal7 : Avenger</span>

[Dantrithor]

A transport ship can easily sustain damage for 6-7k in thrust unless it's capital ship fire. Bombers can take more time to stop one. Specially if you *try* to roleplay, not only shoot.

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[ryoken]

The law is just upset they might have to leave manhattin to get their PVP fix.
Tenacity said it well. Leave the planet. Go out a hunt for smuggler's.
I smuggle all the time, and i know that LN/LSF will always be at either the Alaska JG, or Manhattin. Any smart smuggler will just cruise up 20 K head to Manhatin and cruise down and dock. And ofcourse you will here that famous line "HALT" No name, no reason just "HALT" . Then after you land the second most used comment. " i got screen's you are now KOS" . I say get off your butt's and go hunt the smuggler's. No new docking ring cut out, or tradelane shut down is needed for the law. The brain's to go out looking for the smuggler is what is needed.

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[JakeSG]

And you are just upset you can't cruise up to innocents and shoot them down.

Cruising and docking to mooring rings after being busted is one of the worst OORP's there is. Think of it like this, in a real life scenario.

You are in a ship carrying a tonne or two of cocaine. You are busted entering a nations waters. You ignore all warnings, turn on your engines and gun it straight for docks. When you land, there are no authorities waiting to intercept you. Hardly a likely scenario, is it?

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For the Core.

[ryoken]

This is RP not real life. Compairing and ocean liner to a space vessal is well... no comparison. Space is vast, and 3 dimensional. Water fairing craft are not. A nation's water's is very small, a galaxy is not.

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[gemini]

I see a major flaw in this...

In order to keep the cop from going red with nearby lawful NPCs the ring must be made neutral.

But if its neutral people who are hostile to the planets controlling faction can now dock and buy and sell commodities they shouldnt have access to and get ships they shouldnt be getting.

That and the ring will no longer shoot at incoming hostiles.

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Saga of the Gemini; http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=24486

[AdamantineFist]

This is RP not real life. Compairing and ocean liner to a space vessal is well... no comparison. Space is vast, and 3 dimensional. Water fairing craft are not. A nation's water's is very small, a galaxy is not.

I would like to point out that the problem here is not that space is big. It's that the port authorities should be stopping smugglers from landing, or, at the very least, arriving at the landing pad with some big guns and asking for all your contraband, then ordering the men with guns to escort you to the nearest detainment centre. This doesn't seem to be happening, but should. In fact, the whole point of a mooring fixture is that the ship MOORS. It doesn't even land. It is sitting there, in space, completely unprotected. You should be able to stop them logically, especially seeing as the NPCs are able to do so by making everything go red and shoot at you if you don't drop your contraband.

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