What I've done so far...

[Quarto]

From the fiction side I can see a few problems. If you tow someone in and are informed you will be scanned, you can let him out and get past it. But what if it's a kilrathi you have towed in? Fiction wise, letting him into the cabin would be pretty bad.. If we wanted to complicate things, not being able to release enemies would solve the issue of simulating a mad kilrathi in your cockpit. But would confed get mad if you had a kilrathi in your hold? Slavery is illegal, but could you convince them he is a "prisoner?" What if you are enemies with a faction that confed is friendly with? Can't let your prisoner out, and confed will be mad. I guess that's what you get for not being aligned perfectly with confed.. blargh

Well, there's all sorts of issues here that need thinking about. I think this is an important enough thing that it's worth spending the extra time on it (not just for the sake of freedom of choice, but also because it's people we're talking about rather than cattle - it's one thing to let the player sell them as slaves, it's entirely another to force him to).

I'm afraid, however, I'm gonna have to take the easy way out on this one, and tell you that I don't have enough time to provide solutions to all these issues . Like I said, this whole thing is important enough that it deserves a solution of some kind... but there won't be an easy solution, and I'm kinda busy with other things, such as Standoff.

Still, there are three things I'll point out, to both make things easier for you and to complicate things further .

1. The player character is armed and dangerous, and most likely smart enough to disarm and bind his enemies even when he's not keeping them in the cargo hold. So really, the "they might attack you and take over your ship" thing only applies in two cases - the Kilrathi (arguably, a hostile Kilrathi might be a difficult challenge for a single person), and the Retros (but do Retros even eject?).

2. Even a friendly Kilrathi would be something of a hot potato. I don't think there's any indication that Confed has scanners sophisticated enough to distinguish between a cat and a human, so that's not the problem - what is a problem, is the fact that you obviously can't release a cat on just any old planet.

3. If I capture a pirate, Retro or cat with no intention of freeing them, and I let Confed know about it before they scan me and detect 'slaves' in my hold, will they take offense? Quite the contrary, they'll probably congratulate me, ask me to dump him (so that they can pick him up - which doesn't need to be shown), and probably even give me a reward.

 

[Unregistered]

IIRC, in the original Privateer game, the pilots weren't 'Slaves' until you landed and launched again. So, just have 'pilots' be regular cargo that sells for a nominal fee. Then have slaves as contraband. I see no quandary.

-Chemus, Overlord of Skunks

 

[hellcatv]

well for now when you tractor in a pilot he's contraband...however you can free him with alt-f (this is for 009) this will turn him into a hitchhiker--but you'll get hardly any reward for selling him--maybe a 10 credit tip if you're lucky--to help cover landing expenses (feed the meter, buddy!)
fair enough?

However if you take a rescue mission to pick him up--that's when the reward is nice and hefty...

it's like if you take a hurtin' pal off the street to the hospital--there's little chance he'll give you much money... maybe 10 bucks--not 1000

 

[Chemus]

well, why not hav him cover the entire cost of landing; cr50? Hmm?

 

[hellcatv]

he was a slave--what credits could he possible have

 

[Chemus]

No, he was a pilot, and he should have credits to buy junk. Slaves are slaves and can be freed to be passengers as per your script. just my cr.02

 

[Wendy]

Pilots have credits, but they have to be able to access a comm. sta. to pay for much of anything, unless they're pirates or hunters. Think about it, why load your pockets if you're planning on going back to base at the end of the day and the boss picks up your tab where-ever you go? (Confed/millitia)

So as soon as you land, your landing COULD be paid IF you have a hitch-hiker. But how are you going to code that? Is it something that you add to the mission computer centre? As soon as you go into the commodities exchange and sell, s/he's cargo, not super cargo. i.e. slave.

It would have to be set to lowest paying of all missions, just like any at-sea rescue today. Usually it's a pat on the back and a warm feeling all over, similar to the dark suit syndrome, only less localised. You do it because it's right, not for the reward. So, your alt-f changes it to mission and upon landing you get free landing/docking and security fees.

Which is why I said that the ejection seat could be added, assuming there's room in the hold, so that it becomes Space Salvage, QTY 1. Else you would have to expel cargo to make room for it. Let's say you had some grain on board. Value, 16 to 35 cr. Space Salvage, value 175 to 225 cr. Hrm, a no brainer.

IF you're on a cargo mission, s/he (the pilot) has to wait 'til you get to your destination, just like any merchant vessel, today. No need to file exceptions to the game that way.

Kilrathi and pirates and hunters, (oh my) a comm to the local constabulary could be your switch, but now you're adding a lot of headache, I think. But it MIGHT work. Now, will a hand-held blaster separate the bulkhead between the cargo area and the cockpit? Let's face it, YOU'RE armed with a sidearm, you should expect THEM to be armed as well. And depending on the ship you fly, it's a well known fact, there, that the Tarsus is a single seater. The Orion and Galaxy have turrets, so one can assume there is the possibility of one or more additional people aboard and that might give them cause to think it over. But now we're really clouding the issue, aren't we?

Maybe, IF you have another soul aboard, a comm addition of say, "Confed Outpost" where you can opt to say,

"Confed, I've picked up a stranded (add faction here) pilot and am transporting to my next port of call, please advise local militia and confed patrols."

Now THAT might address the faction issue AND the cargo/super-cargo issue all in one swell foop. Is it any easier? Or did I just make it harder?

Hrm. . .

Wendy

 

[MamiyaOtaru]

1. Why would I not be able to use a rescue mission as a way to find out the location of a defenceless pilot that I can pick up and sell into slavery? Sure, the faction to which he belonged would hate me then, but that's my choice, isn't it?

2. Why would I not be able to act in a "good Samaritan" fashion, picking up an ejected pilot and taking him to the nearest base, either just because I felt like it, or because I wanted to score points with his faction (or even just to make them hate me a bit less, if I'm the one that destroyed the poor fella's ship )?

Answer -

Well, there's all sorts of issues here that need thinking about. I think this is an important enough thing that it's worth spending the extra time on it ... I'm afraid, however, I'm gonna have to take the easy way out on this one, and tell you that I don't have enough time to provide solutions to all these issues .

Naturally it isn't your job to think of everything, but if you make a suggestion and don't know how we would implement it, chances are we don't either.

This insignificant feature has now managed to creep into the game and opened up a crap load of fictional inconsistencies. We've replaced some inconsistencies with others, while making things more complex. Time would have been much better spent elsewhere. It's a perfect example of why not to push a feature based on the workings of a fictional universe. This isn't a univers, it's a game. bleh.

 

[hellcatv]

on the other hand--if people complain or something doesn't make sense in 009, then we pull the key binding for doing so...this kind of feature never hurts to have around

kinda like time compression

 

[Unregistered]

yea, as chemus said.. In original privateer, tractored pilots were called "Ejected Pilot", even named that when you targeted them before tractoring in, ONLY after you had docked and kept them in your hold did you then get nailed for having slaves, cause as soon as you docked and checked your cargo, your recently ejected pilot got turned into a slave. Now the rescue idea of the remake sounds cool, and depending on which faction you are turing said "ejected pilot" to, would be interesting.. but the problem would be at least during scanning, clarifying what is ok and not ok to have considering milita/confeds rules. EX: you have ejected kiltrathi (dont remember seeing those in original game, usually just a severed hand or head. no joke, play orig and look carefully) and if you have this kiltrathi pilot and turn him into milita/confed at a base, sure no faction hit by them, but if you go pirate and kill milita/confed and just happen to pass by some kiltrathi (if they had bases, or could accept cargo inflight) (i havnt played this yet), then you get faction hit with militia/confed but then the cats like you more.. etc etc.

 

[Chemus]

I think that we're reading too much into this. Since Privateer Remake 1.0 is intended to have just what was in the original, why not just do what the original did: you let the rescued pilot off at the next base you come to, or you take off again with your slave. The rest is best left for WC Universe, IMHO.

-Chemus, Jumping Bean Eater

 

[Dire Wolf]

IIRC, in the original Privateer game, the pilots weren't 'Slaves' until you landed and launched again. So, just have 'pilots' be regular cargo that sells for a nominal fee. Then have slaves as contraband. I see no quandary.

-Chemus, Overlord of Skunks

Here I was, reading posts and getting ready to note this and it turns out someone beat me to it.

 

[Forlarren]

Couldn't you just land at a place that pays well for slaves. Land take off and land again with no risk of detection then?