*cues old style educational video*

Here's Astronaut Jim. Wave to the nice people, Astronaut Jim

Astronaut Jim: *waves*

Ata boy. He's your down to earth, honest kind of guy that everyone likes, with a killer sense of humor. And he has a strong moral backbone, like a true American! Astronaut Jim would never buy anything on the black market, would you Astronaut Jim?

Astronaut Jim: *shakes his head*

Ata boy. But sadly, the world is not made up of just these fine standing American boys. Oh look, here comes Cosmonaut Vladimir!

Cosmonaut Vladimir: *walks in and stands in his dirty, haggard clothes next to the pristine and sharply dressed Astronaut Jim*

These Soviets are NOT like us Americans. They:

*Are not honest
*Don't have a sense of humor
*Are not as sharply dressed

Cosmonaut Vladimir would stop at nothing to get what he wants. Since he is NOT like Americans, he does not stand tall and turn down the vagaries of black market deals. He caves and buys something ILLEGALY *echoes*.

But we, as Americans, do not discriminate against Cosmonaut Vladimir because he is a Soviet, nor dishonest, nor humorless nor poorly dressed. We welcome him with open arms! Show them Astronaut Jim!

Astronaut Jim: *opens his arms wide and hugs Cosmonaut Vladimir with that big stupid smile*

Cosmonaut Vladimir: *grunts*

But what if Cosmonaut Vladimir were to land his spaceship at our top of the line American facilities with his ILLEGAL *echoes* ship? Should we service his ILLEGAL *echoes* ship out of fellowship for mankind? *YOU* decide!

*fade out*

</humor>

Hrm, yes. Anyway. I would go to suggest that ships or ships equipped witth weapons/equipment/batteries they cannot purchase with the levels they have at a certain faction should be denied repair oppurtunities as well as reloads.

Excellent idea.

Who is Cosmonaut Jim?

Hush commie :P

Fixed the mistake

I miss the USSR.

(Good idea)

Maybe good idea later. There is no point doing this right now, exept forcing noobs to fly grey space. Later on when player owned bases/capships appear we can implement this. But right now it would be too restrictive.

Also the SERCO are commies, and therefore it would be unfair for the noob Itani pilots :P

As always the government covers it up. "Cosmonaut Jim? There was never anyone with the name Cosmonaut Jim....ever."

And then they call you a communist ofcourse.

I don't think that illegal mods should automatically be denied service. For one thing, it's not always obvious when something's illegal. When I buy an illegal mod for my ship, the first thing I always do is scrape off the bright orange "ILLEGAL" sticker.

Also, to a point, most people won't care. I think that illegal ships and mods should have a "legality rating" (for things that are known to be illegal). If the legality rating of your stuff is below the tolerance of the station you're at, then not only do they not service your ship, they confiscate everything illegal and give you a fine, which you must pay to be able to launch or buy anything legal.

For anything illegal, there should be a certain probability it would be discovered to be illegal. This probability would depend on what exactly the illegal item is, and would also be higher at higher-tech stations and government stations. Also, expensive parts and all ships should be registered at the station where they are bought. This plays into the idea of giving your ship a name, which is a popular suggestion. If you are a pirate and capture a ship or steal a registered part (assuming ships are capturable in the future), you must take it to a station that offers certain illegal services. These stations would forge new registration for the ship/part. If you're stupid enough to steal a nice shiny new ship and fly it straight to a capital station, then you're totally busted.

Also, if tractor beams are implemented, then station guards or whatever enforcement is around, should be able to request that certain players (based on a wanted rating) stop for a scan. If they are found carrying anything illegal, then they are tractor beamed to the station, illegal stuff is confiscated, and they are fined.

No to any sort of probabilities please!

Okay that's not exactly true, mining is based on probabilities. But not for discovering "Illegalities"

Most of the discovering of illegal stuff would not be based on probabilities. The small part that would is similar to reality. There's just that small chance that the person working on your ship today recognizes the workmanship of your ship modifications. Most of the time, if you've taken the proper precautions, you won't be discovered.

In Soviet Russia, illegal ship fixes You.

Is it just me, or did moldymonk forget to begin the <humor> tag? I kept waiting for the funny part, but my brain crashed when it encountered the </humor> tag.

Obviously reboot was successful.

Back on topic: Good Idea, Man.

It's more obvious to me that the reboot failed miserably, Lever.

I really don't understand why is this a good idea? It only targets low leve chars, so why ???

We hate you Zed, that's why.

I don't understand what you mean, Zed. What targets low level characters?

This whole legality thing.

High level players can legally weild high level items.

It is illegal for low level players to weild high level items.

Therefore the proposition targets low level players weilding high level equipment.

I also don't see why this is a good idea. If they managed to weild an item, someone somewhere must have rated them to be good enough.

I also don't see why this is a good idea. If they managed to weild an item, someone somewhere must have rated them to be good enough.

Yeah, Corvus. Who are the essence of illegality, corruption, vileness, filth, et. al. This makes perfect sense. There's a set of rules for those who live under these governments, and if individuals wish to flout those rules, they had best be prepared to avoid the authorities whom they have challenged.

And if/when the universe expands and different stations around the universe have different requirements and station owners are able to set their own levels for items? What would then be considered legal? Would there be any way of making sure you are not a criminal apart from flying in a noob bus? I think this could get a tad too confusing.

See Antz get's it. As for hating me, go ahead make my day :).

And I don't think that just for some RP reasons you would want to implement something like that. Plus if you REALLY REALLY need an RP explanation, the other nations/factions don't want to upset Corvus, so they turn a blind eye to obviously Corvus equipped ships.

Happy?