hmm... what if we had a special low-availablilty high-price cargo widget that exploded like a mine when someone else picks it up after you jettisoned it? Call it "Booby-Trapped Ore" and have it report itself as exactly that if it's targeted... that way, it only works if you jettison it as part of a large group of legitimate cargo...

"Drop your cargo, this is a stick-up!"

"Uh-okay.." *snigger*

"Thanks, n00..." *BOOM*

**n00b101 has destroyed Icarus**

[stamp of approval]

thats one way to fight piracy and also make that cargo scanner thing mainstream.

I like

Agreed. Too much fun to object to its potential abuse. =)

Great idea

I think it is a good idea, but I'm not fond of things which don't possess a countermeasure.

In this case, we would need to have the ability to target and scan cargo in order to determine its contents before a special mine that looked like cargo was fair.

...and we do already... since the most recent update, targeted cargo crates reveal what's inside....

....now it just needs to be kill-able.....

*steals Rogue's stamp and uses it*

oh-oh!!!

brainstorm:: all we'd need to do is call this an "unstable element" ..sorta like a nitroglycerin-ite. Then, maybe you could even make it a premium ore you can only get through mining??

*Ditto Tyrdium*

This would be cool, and just a few hours ago I suggested that all cargo explode when its timer runs out instead of just dissappearing. You should also be able to detonate crates, with Volatile chemicals making a big boom.

"This would be cool, and just a few hours ago I suggested that all cargo explode when its timer runs out instead of just dissappearing. You should also be able to detonate crates, with Volatile chemicals making a big boom."

This suggestion doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I think that the dummy cargo should pretend to be something innocuous, like normal ore, and would need to be actually scanned to report its true nature.

This way pirates would have to either gamble on their ability to guess what was legit cargo, or they'd have to scan the stuff before grabbing it.

I also think there should be a limit to how many a trader could have at once, maybe 2 or 3, so one couldn't make a cloud of evil crates outside a station launch bay. They should also be destructable, maybe have the scanner detonate them once scanned, so that people wouldn't have to wait for them to disappear to get them out of the way.

Be cool to have better models, too, which would need better scanners to detect...

i dont know if i'm into the idea, but i sure LOVE your example :D

"**n00b101 has destroyed Icarus**"
every n00b's dream, once in a while ;)

I want to elaborate on my take on this.

I think the 'boobie trapped cargo' should be an actual cargo item, with a script attached to detonate itself(and the ship picking it up) if picked up again after being jettisoned. If there's a way to check item owners, it'd be nice to have the owner(or others in their group/guild) be able to handle them safely, but the base idea is that as a cargo item, such mines would not be conventionally destructable, so pirates could not just shoot at cargo groups before picking them up to clear out any bombs.

The scanner would "trick" the boobie trapped cargo into thinking it'd been picked up, and so it would detonate on the spot. Might be good to make the scanner area effect, if possible, so one does not have to scan EVERY cargo pod, and hope they not miss two on top of each other(Which I have seen often).

I also think that it might be a good idea to equip station AIs with cargo scanners, so they could detonate any boobie trapped cargo placed within a certain radius of the station they're protecting, which would prevent most or all methods of abuse.

I think the cargo bombs should have an attack power similar to a concussion mine when detonated externally, but be able to destroy any(non capital) ship immediately, with the explanation that since it's inside the ship when it detonates, the ships armor actually concentrates the blast, as well as failing to protect the ship at all.

for those of you who haven't played for a while, the mining update added a small indicator on your HUD that gives you more information about your target.... if you target a ship, it tells you what type of ship; if you target a crate, it tells you what type of cargo is inside it...

I don't know about remote detonation, but my original idea was to create a new type of cargo buyable at stations in the normal cargo area of the "Buy" station tab.. "Booby-Trapped Ore" would be very expensive, available at very few stations, and probably have medium-to-high trading/commerce license requirements...

Once a crate of it was jettisoned, it would label itself normally, as "Booby-Trapped Ore" ... a pirate would now need to scan each individual crate of cargo before collecting them, or run the risk of instant death/debilitation (if he's piloting a hefty vessel like a prom, then maybe it would be okay to take him down to 3-5% hull.... I'd have to think on it)

Now, a means of detonating the bomb remotely was not a part of my original concept, but bears discussion.. I do NOT, however, feel that it should be contingent on any special scanners, etc.... ideally, the cargo-bomb would be added along with an update that allowed crates to suffer weapons-fire... that way, a pirate would have a choice: he could shoot at the crate to detonate it, with the cost of taking the rest of the cargo with it; or he could try capturing the rest of the cargo without disturbing the bomb

Cargo is not currently destructable, and frankly making it so is prolly a bad idea, for a number of reasons.

Having it be required to have a scanner would make things a lot more interesting, since it would make pirates have to give concern to things other than how much damage their ships can do.

Targeting the boobie trapped cargo should not tell you just what it is, mostly because the idea of having it be so easy to detect kind of ruins the point; as stated above, a pirate can just throw some neutron-3 fire through a bunch of cargo and assume it clean if nothing blows up.

What if -all- cargo was destructable? Firing his N3 into the cargo cloud would test it for bombs, but would also destroy the valuable profits that he was looking for...,

I like this idea... but on a different level... Lets say volatile chemicals and similar hostile ores are destructable. This way it works like this:

"Drop your cargo, this is a stick-up!"

"Uh, no... this cargo is potentially dangerous" *shivers*

"Okay, yeah right, eat these potentially dangerous missles" *BOOM* *Big BOOM*

**Ikarus has destroyed noob101**
**n00b101 has destroyed Icarus**

Or like this more interesting method...

** Itani Nationlist ship enters serco territory **
** 4 Serco ships act agressively towards "peaceful" Itani
"Eat it Itani scum.. lets get em!"
"To the revolution now! Long live the Order of Akan!"
** Booom ** Boom dee boom boom boom **