Smugglers and Mooring Rings

[waddoff]

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?!

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[VincentFerrex]

Actually, I like this idea. This adds better RP as well, for the lawmen, since it kind of lowers the level of metagaming involved when you insta-dock and log.

/Signed.

Thing is, is it even possible to mod the Rings to act like that? (I have no history of modding whatsoever.)

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<span style="font-family:Garamond"><span style="color:#FFFFFF">Saxophile's Signature Workshop

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[AdamantineFist]

I assume this would affect only the mooring fixtures, and not the docking rings? You phrased it somewhat ambiguously, as "mooring rings" seems to reference both the docking rings and the mooring fixture.

As to the concept, I like it. I've had to deal with this often enough, and it would be a great boon to military and police forces.

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[sn!p3r]

I would love to have something like this, if possible ofc. Nice idea

[Colonel Z.e.r.o.]

It seems good, but there's also a downside to it all. If it can be disrupted that means enemy ships can also keep fleeing lawfuls from docking (GB clas or higher).

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[beander2]

This might work, but you'll have to keep in mind all the other traffic that has to sit there and wait while law enforcement deals with the smuggler.

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Sir Alisdair Buchanan, KBE ~ Gateway)Trafalgar

[Capt. Henry Morgan]

And a lawbreaker causing a disruption isn't realistic?

I go shopping all the time while somebody's holding up the store, and it doesn't delay me at all!:P

In addition, I know it's possible to make it so you can disrupt stuff like that. On the Shattered Worlds mod, you can disrupt stations, Jump Gates, Jump Holes, etc.

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[Bjorn]

This wold be possible if all mooring rings have hitpoint value you need to "kill" for them to be disabled (like lanes, or station turrets are now)

Also it should be made neutral aligment, otherwise if cop shoots it, nearby NPC will maul him.

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ISS-Zapotec

[Manni]

How about if you don't camp in front of the planet and take a bit distance?
So you have enough time to blow them up....

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[Bjorn]

That actually fails if smuggler is in perhaps liner? Even if you drop it say, before Trenton, he could still land without problems, unless you are in destroyer or bomber with good aim.

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ISS-Zapotec