Should Pirates/Unlawfuls in RP, use Trade Lanes?

[Fletcher]

This is a poll on your opinion about roleplay, forget PvP for a moment.

Would, or should unlawful pilots be able to utilize the House Trade lanes when roleplaying? I can accept certain hacking from the Lane Hackers and The Order, maybe a few other factions I am forgetting.

But for now, what do you think?

This is not a bash, this is not a trail by forum. This is simply an opinion thread.

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"Oh chuffing blimey, another day, another person being whiney!"
Fletcher's Feedback and Stories Thread

[BaconSoda]

Well, in RP, there is no reason for a pirate to ever actually use a lane. In RP, the lane goes down, they wait. They wait a long time. Either a convoy comes through in a couple of hours, or in a bit of time an Ageira Repair Crew comes through. Either way, the pirates just wait.

Also, Houses can track who goes through lanes and what they're carrying, so, going through lanes as a smuggler, pirate, haberdasher, big no-no.

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[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:49:19 AM] Elgatodiablo: You know its nice that you have all that proof and all, Bacon... but I just don't believe you.

[Eppy]

This question has two answers.

The first answer exists in my perfect little Simulationist world and this weren't a computer game; that would necessitate me voting 'Only certain factions,' since, obviously, it would be very difficult to do anything to a tradelane at all unless you were a) authorized in its use b) a very skilled hacker c) flying something with a huge wad of firepower.

My second answer, and the one I voted, is the first poll choice, everybody can do whatever they want with the tradelanes because tradelanes are completely mediocre. If you can drop a TL by firing a couple of rounds into it from a fighter than it's probably easy as all sin to bend over and have your way with. I'd honestly expect something as important as a TL to be heavily, heavily guarded, nearly impossible to disrupt without a Battleship's firepower and something only practiced hackers could manipulate, but, since this is a game (yet all the traders are regarded as fresh meat) and we have to give the pirates something to do everybody can do whatever they want.

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Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen

Which Dreadnought was that?

One of your nine.

[dark177]

I voted No, though I agree Lane Hackers could pull it off, they have the technology.

A ship can't dock with a Hostile Planet/Station, but can dock with hostile Trade Lanes/Jump Gate. I've always wondered why Trade Lanes (and Jump Gates) are the exception to the docking mechanics. I suppose because in Vanilla there weren't all that many jump holes... And traveling across systems takes a long time without trade lanes.

But in Discovery, we don't have the jump hole problem. There are jump holes all over the place. We still have the long travel time problem, but we're supposed to role play. And in role play, we shouldn't dock with anything that is hostile, right? IMO it's the price for being unlawful.

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Taylor.Davis - Zoner - Osprey MkII based off Ames Research station
Dekishima-Maru - Zoner - 'Pelican' Armored Transport co-owned by Taylor Davis and Fumiko Kimura, based off Ames Research
Alex.Reed - OS&C - Firefly based off Planet Curacao

[JakeSG]

inRP, no, I don't think any of them should. Not even Lane Hackers. Why? Technology evolves at an astounding rate. The speed of the average marketted CPU roughly doubles every 18 months. Sure, every now and then they may find an exploit, but exploits are often patched up within days, hours in many cases.

Game mechanics though, cruising everywhere is a pain. On my unlawfuls I often take short trips down a lane, jumping out before coming in sight of a base.

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For the Core.

[Agmen of Eladesor]

This is not a bash, this is not a trail by forum. This is simply an opinion thread.

So what are you trailing through the forum, then? :P

Okay, seriously (or as much as I can take your psychotic pilots seriously) - it seems that the trade lanes primarily only RECORD who travels down them, similar to a Pike Pass. That information is sent up to Aegiera, who then bills the ship owner for the trade lane usage. Quite frankly, I doubt that they honestly care WHO uses their lanes, as long as they get their payment for using them. (And that's how I see the lanes operating - they take a certain sum from your account for using them, which is outside of the status of our little game here. Sort of like the IRS - they really don't care how you make your money, as long as you pay taxes on it.)

Now - the reason why Hackers are so bad is that they don't pay to use the lanes. And that's what makes what the Junkers have done in Gallia so bad as far as Aegiera is concerned, because they're not getting paid for using their lanes. (Oh, and I figure same thing for the Jump Gates, too. They get a little payment everytime someone uses them. That's why they hate jump holes so much.)

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.

[Fletcher]

Game mechanics though, cruising everywhere is a pain. On my unlawfuls I often take short trips down a lane, jumping out before coming in sight of a base.

Thats why I've always been so passive with pirates using them, this is a game, and a mediocre engine.

So what are you trailing through the forum, then? :P

Okay, seriously (or as much as I can take your psychotic pilots seriously - it seems that the trade lanes primarily only RECORD who travels down them, similar to a Pike Pass. That information is sent up to Aegiera, who then bills the ship owner for the trade lane usage. Quite frankly, I doubt that they honestly care WHO uses their lanes, as long as they get their payment for using them. (And that's how I see the lanes operating - they take a certain sum from your account for using them, which is outside of the status of our little game here. Sort of like the IRS - they really don't care how you make your money, as long as you pay taxes on it.)

Now - the reason why Hackers are so bad is that they don't pay to use the lanes. And that's what makes what the Junkers have done in Gallia so bad as far as Aegiera is concerned, because they're not getting paid for using their lanes. (Oh, and I figure same thing for the Jump Gates, too. They get a little payment everytime someone uses them. That's why they hate jump holes so much.)

Tolls for using the lanes? Genius, too bad I've never seen it implemented, anywhere. I doubt its possible.

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"Oh chuffing blimey, another day, another person being whiney!"
Fletcher's Feedback and Stories Thread

[Baltar]

This is a poll on your opinion about roleplay, forget PvP for a moment.

Would, or should unlawful pilots be able to utilize the House Trade lanes when roleplaying? I can accept certain hacking from the Lane Hackers and The Order, maybe a few other factions I am forgetting.

But for now, what do you think?

This is not a bash, this is not a trail by forum. This is simply an opinion thread.

Why do you guys gotta start fights? Really ... why? You know this is one of my hot topics and you know that its a ridiculous self-centered request.

Pirates can gain access to hacked lanes by way of the Lane Hackers. If the Lane Hackers can hack into the lanes ... then IN ROLE PLAY ... they can sell those codes to pirates. Not that much of a leap to figure that out.

Fletcher ... why don't you start a poll about whether traders should be allowed (in role play) to use jump holes ... or to even venture away from "trade" lanes? Or how about traders docking on unlawful bases?

Well, in RP, there is no reason for a pirate to ever actually use a lane. In RP, the lane goes down, they wait. They wait a long time. Either a convoy comes through in a couple of hours, or in a bit of time an Ageira Repair Crew comes through. Either way, the pirates just wait.

Also, Houses can track who goes through lanes and what they're carrying, so, going through lanes as a smuggler, pirate, haberdasher, big no-no.

That's right Baconsoda ... kill the role play of a pirate by boring him to death waiting for something that will never come along. How about those traders that venture away from "trade" lanes? Isn't that against "role play?" I mean ... they are supposed to stick to the trade lanes ... that's why they're called "trade" lanes. Heck ... military, police and anyone else that is NOT a "trader" should avoid these "trade" lanes. They are for "trading." Lets also consider traders who trade for Bretonia moving about on Kusari trade lanes shall we? Or how about Liberty traders moving about on Rheinland trade lanes? Traders using their enemy's trade lanes? Don't see that in the options listed above.

Admins / mods ... better lock this one quick ... its a redundant thread ... been cussed and discussed many times. All it does is bring out anger in we pirates. Getting REALLY tired of these anti-pirate-lets-see-how-far-we-can-limit-them-and-call-it-role-pay threads.

EDIT: I vote that we delete all trade lanes from all systems and force everyone to cruise from point to point. Increase cruise speed if you like ... but get rid of these unrealistic things that traders exploit and that traders whine about when pirates and other unlawfuls use them.

[Drake]

I actually support the removal of trade lanes, leave navigation posts/buoys instead, and an increase in cruise speed to go along with it. Some mods have already done this, and I think it's a good thing.

As far as the subject at hand... Speaking from a completely OORP perspective, I'm not going to NOT use trade lanes as my pirate. It just takes too long.

[Gemini893]

Role play wise, if this game were real life; no, pirates would avoid detection. Look at real life pirates, in the here and now: They appear around the trade lane long enough to capture a vessel, kill its crew, take whatever they can of value, then disappear again. That's real life pirating, they don't cruise up and down the trade lanes of our oceans when not attacking.

Realistically, in game, you'll often find pirates in the trade lanes. Even if it were standard for pirates to not use them, there are many who only RP when convenient for them and ignore the rules otherwise. For example, I was fired upon in my Miner while docking at Planet Gran Canaria. I saw the Outcast there (I'm IMG in that character) but thought "it's ok, he's in the No Fire Zone." Not only did he fire at me in the NFZ, he didn't even RP an attack, nothing in chat at all about engaging. So expect the people who pirate to do whatever they wish as long as they can get away with it.

Me, I play my pirate as legit as possible, but I will admit to using a trade lane from time to time when moving to another area of the map; from New York to Coronado, for example. Otherwise I play like I imagined I should and don't use trade lanes. Especially not for local travel. If you think about it, the placement of Battleships along the trade lanes makes using them, by anything smaller than a gunboat, rather hazardous. I imagine that most pirates who use gunboats are being lazy this way as well, besides having a more secure feeling while pirating.

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