Critique to House Police and military forces

[SimonBlack]

I was flying around as an indie for some time now and I've noticed a thing or two how interactions between traders and house forces work out in usual cases. At first I wanted to post in BAF feedback thread, but soon I noticed that this trend repeats itself in both Kusari and Rheinland. So there you go, instead posting in BAF, BPA, RM, RFP, KNF, KSP feedback forums I will voice my constructive criticism here.

In no way I am saying that you are doing a bad job, quite the opposite actually. I love interacting with all of these factions, but there's always room for improvement. Please take this as feedback and a push to improve yourselves.

Flying as Freelancer I am always dieing to get into interactions with the house forces, especially the police, patrols in House space. The problem is - as a (mostly) lawful independent freelancer with legal cargo, I often get ignored. It is very hard to get any attention from, say BAF, unless you are a pirate or a smuggler and I am always dieing to talk to them about the trends of the universe.

I am rather lawful, sure, but that doesn't mean you have to leave me alone. I do get ignored, because I am not that very interesting to police and it hurts inside so bad:PI try to shout out my intentions in system chat too. Every time I get in contact range with a lawful pilot I introduce myself in group chat. Such as in the example:

-This is Freelancer "Humpback" Freighter Adolf Lehner.
-I am carrying Consumer Goods from Planet New Berlin.
-I am heading to Leipzig Station in Dresden system.
-Requesting klearance. Over.

What I got from some guys was:

-I didn't ask;
-Move on; (one of the fairer answers)
-Why are you telling me this?; --and of course my whole time favourite:
*silence*

Now, guys, I know you scan me all the time! If you wouldn't you wouldn't get close and drop out of cruise engines for a second to check my cargo, but once you do, a lot of them simply fly away. Well sometimes I ask them in OOC to stop by and RP with me a bit.

Please invest more time into the common folk, even if it won't usually end in pvp or catching a smuggler, we can always discuss politics and share our fictional views.

Here are some preset messages I had when I was in LPI:

-when a trader reaches your scanner range-
1. This is Liberty Police patrol Paul Dennis.
2. Unidentified vessel, cut your engines and stand down for inspection.

-get close, fire a cruise disruptor if he doesn't stop-

3. Your papers are in order. You may proceed.
-that's when you talk about where your cargo is from and where are you going-
You can ask him what nationality he is, what is it like working for Ageira, did he pass Independent Worlds safely, talk about recent news.

-So what do you think about current situation in Stuttgart?
or
-What do you think should be done about gaijin in Shikoku?

I'm not asking you stop and RP with me for an hour, but a cargo scan done not under radar but in local chat and with some RP would do wonders. Have a small chit-chat after you scan a trader about weather and let him go.

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Character background summaries:
Red Hessians Major Matthias Schwarz
Golden Chrysanthemums Chusa Fumiko Shimazu

[beunt]

BAFie here. I understand what you mean. It's true we rarely RP with traders but there are reasons.

Mainly, not all traders are open to RP -that is, powertrading-, and RL few people actually like to be questioned by a grunt. Sometimes we just cant handle them all. Sometime we're busy because the captain is shouting order in the group channel while already dealing with a distress call. Or simply because RPing the same protocol with several dozens of traders per hour is boring on the long run.

So we just do what you noticed : flying by, scaning on the fly and leave the trader alone. But if the trader initiate a conversation we usually jump on it. Just orbit Leeds and talk, it always works. And if you really want attention try to run the Stokes lane hauling military vehicles, this is rarely left unresponded:)

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[Malexa]

I interact with nearly every ship coming into my scanner range.
The main problem is, when it gets busy I have to ignore certain ships.

I also do not run around and scan ships, I ask them at first who they are, where they are from and what they haul.
Regarding to their answer I check their cargo for myself then.

Its really depending on stuff on my hands.
And I can only talk for myself. I encourage the RM to interact with people around them as much as possible.
Depending who their characters are, they can be harsh, verry friendly or what they like.
If it takes 5mins to check a single ship, well then it takes so long. Roleplay is everything.
And if traders are impatient because you ruin their Credits/hour ratio, just check something else to annoy them further. "Hey your right back light is broken....." :lol:

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[<span style="color:#FFCC00">The Mandalore's Office</span>]

[mwerte]

One thing I do is say (in system chat, makes for a more interactive atmosphere) "This is xxx heading to xxx" and I directly ask any lawful forces (using the chat screen *gasp*) (and again in system chat) if there are any pirates sighted in-system. It sometimes help.

I think lawfuls are so inundated with pirates and silent traders, that many just assume that all traders are going to ignore them so they don't bother. Tis sad.

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[ravenrage]

Recently i've been doing trade runs through rheinland and i have had a few interactions with the RM stopping me and asking me about where i am going etc. and even the RHA who stopped me and wanted me to drop some luxury food because they were hungry:DSaved me some credits atleast!

Good RP in rheinland so far. But i can see how being ignored by the police and military can be bad if you enjoy conversations. I don't mind being checked but knowing my luxury food is rotting in the cargo i don't want it to last long. I haven't been pirated for credits in rheinland yet so i guess the military and police are doing a good job to keep the trade lanes safe:)

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What is a group of cats called?

[Sturmwind]

When on my [RM], I always nag traders moving around Rheinland, Junkers and Hamburg passers-by in prority. However, I get only 1 out 100 encounters such as this resulting in proper RP, most common replies are "time is money leave me alone", "tax?", "i don speak eng" and silence followed by quick docking.

That creates a stereotype about traders, I understand that certain people loose faith in a good RP with traders because of that. As for me, I think we could seriously use some traders in Rheinland who actually bother RPing and are not driven strictly by credits. I hate the fact that everyone takes cargo scanning as a personal offence. Meh, at least uncooperative lolwuts get you free kills.