heres what this game needs.

LAWS

Laws bring a whole host of items that make this game fun and challenging.
we now create a 4th group..SpaceCops...whos job is enforcement, whos income is achieved through fines, bail bonds, bribes and payoffs.

Laws open up black markets where spaceDope can be manufatured, distributed and controlled in a sector by a single group(i envision 2 different sectors). The strongest group will eventually control the sector and distribute the spacedope for income. But they must buy/trade raw materials that exist in far reaching sectors with the main ingredients in order to produce the SpaceDope. With the production of spacedope there will be the need to move it to other sectors hense the need for traders. There will be a co-dependence between traders(yellow) and the spacedope sector doninator(blues or reds). Traders buy 50,000 worth of raw materials , give it to the manufacturer at a loss of 50,000(this ensures the trader is serious and can be trusted) but in return are allowed to buy and equal amount of final product spacedope for resell. Traders can get 8x return on their money. 50,000 down plus 50,000 for spacedope profits 300,000. Sector spacedope distributors can see 15x return on their money yet will have to pay off the cops and spend some money to create a legitimate front for their operation. Spacedope traders will see intense profits as well as high risk if a cop stops them in transit they can..Go to a. spacejail, b. pay a bail bond of lets say 150,000 or c. bribe the cop for 100,000. The honest cop gets 20,000 and huge points and the corrupt cops takes the 100,000 bribe and gets no points of course and you can easily distinguish the corrupt cops and the legit cops by their points. Now we have a Jail!!! Jails need ppl to guard them. Jails can be broken into and blown up by team mates to release the prisoner.

Spacecops will have different ships with different weaponry..like a web that can catch criminal ships..and a cargo detector that can see through hulls from 1500m to detect what type of cargo.

im gunna stop here cause i have plenty more ideas but who knows if the developers even read this

btw great ideas cosurgi!!!! you nailed it on the head and inspired me to input ideas.

c-rok

Thanks for your suggestions. The developers DO read them, even if they don't respond.

There's actually many things that this game needs. It is not being offered as a finished product yet.

Many of your suggestions have been brought up before, although you have brought them together in a different manner.

I think the problem with this idea is that it requires an entire government infrastructure. You can't just have a police force acting alone, they're not cops, they're pirates with a uniform. You need order, so you need an international government, and i don't think that's going to happen.

I think a better way of doing it would be for each nation to have a government and a police force, kinda like the INC and the INM. That way each individual nation can profit from the drug industry.
It also might be good if one nation produces the raw plant, another refines it, and another uses it. We could even have drug dealers selling finished drugs to normal players, at higher prices than they sell at the station, if you're really into your roleplaying. Then all the nation's dope smugglers would be forced to create a mutually-beneficial underground network, and trade cargo amongst themselves, not just with the stations.
It should be illegal, so police forces are not allowed to be involved in the trade, and there should be a cargo shredder or something for the disposal of product.

How about this...

S1 station - sells hemp at 223c - 546c each
S3 station buys hemp at 170c - 377c, and sells dope at 350c - 700c.
S2 buys dope at 2200c - 10400c
The normal dynamic economy ules apply, and whether or not S3 sells dope depends on whether or not it's been sold and hemp.


EDIT: sorry, looked at the thread after i posted, and realized i'm suggesting crime instead of laws.

I'm really struggling to follow this thread. Why is it that people are suggesting that the primary purpose of having laws is that it allows them to be drug dealers? Is it me or are real world slang drug references inappropriate language? If we must talk about drugs, can we use more adult language like 'narcotics' or 'contraband'?

Do both of you play GTA or something?

We've discussed contraband before, and also the fencing of stolen goods. Even though the devs have not specifically stated their opinions, I think most game designers are aware that 'crime' is a very attractive feature in a game that is going to have an audience of rebellious teens that (metaphorically) giggle when they hear words like 'dope' and 'sex'.

I suspect however that they aren't trying to make Grand Theft Spaceship: Vice Space Station. (Don't you know, the final product is Dance Space Bass Fishing.)


That said, there are certainly lots of things that can be done with a government structure. If you could be a little less narative and a little more precise, I might could tell you what part of your design needs refinement, and what part sounds like a really good idea. Just from your narrative though, it doesn't sound to me like either that you have a really clear notion of what you want or that you have a really clear notion of how the game would play if your ideas were implemented.

"It should be illegal, so police forces are not allowed to be involved in the trade, and there should be a cargo shredder or something for the disposal of product."

There aren't any crooked police in the real world? In some countries, most of the drugs are run by the police. Don't you think that by allowing 'disposal of the product' you are making things too easy on the crooks? Realistically speaking, just how are you going to dispose of a product in a setting in which the cops can build sensors that are the technical equivalent of blood hounds?

"...you can easily distinguish the corrupt cops and the legit cops by their points."

Can you easily distinguish a corrupt cop from an honest one? If we could easily do that in the real world there wouldn't be any corrupt cops. Why should a persons points be on display in the first place? What real world thing do they relate to? What makes you think that in a final game we are even going to keep 'score' in the since you are talking about?

"Now we have a Jail!!!"

Speaking as someone who has been jailed in not one but two MMORPG's, I got to say that the whole idea of jails is really overrated. Jails are boring. In a game, its a whole lot better for everyone if you just execute the criminals and let everyone get back to playing the game. The game should not be like work, whatever else it is like.

Umm, drugs.. that is like the last thing we need here, i think the first thing the devs need to work on is a morals system, then think about other things like this later. One more thing, i don't think they will be growin ganja in space, a little hard...

~Kyphro~

Lol, forgot about the jails ^.^'! as Celebrim said, they are uber borning, and serve no purpose what so ever... fines would work tho, because it is esay to deduct credits out of someone's account, the government does it all the time...

~Kyphro~

Fines, executions, and penalties (restrictions from sectors/restraining orders/etc) would work best. Jailing just wastes time and energy and doesn't really serve a purpose.

For the record: Yes I do read Suggestions threads.

Don't have any time to make further commentary though.

Okay, I dont get it.

The boat left and I wasnt on the boat!

Here's a problem. The SC is created, the SC functions breifly, but in the end they are all simply mercs and vigilantes that have ships and have the power to tear apart any nation's craft.

They also have the ability to fine, imprison and restrict at will. This sounds like a spawning ground for corrupted government and eventually an entirely corrupted game!

If the SC was created, another form of control over the SC would have to be created or else the SC would have to be handpicked by the Devs but then we approach the idea of the SC operating like the Guides and being ordered away from piracy and greifing (Im still a little bitter about that but this wasnt meant as a jab).
The SC being open would simply create a great ground for people like 01, Serotonin, and IMpartial to gain enormous power over the other players. Even if the SC had it's own interior system of checks and balances, just that could further destablize as the guild was destroyed from the inside out.

Then your very idea of bribes just perpetuates the cycle of the SC becoming mercenaries.

Currently, the best hope we have is the Guides and the National Armed Forces (SDF, INM, SM). Until a form of Guild Control is setup, even a NAF is in danger of becoming seriously corrupt. But if a NAF became corrupt, another NAF could come in and extermintae them. But a Police force would simply fine you and restrict you and be unstoppably powerful.

Wildly off-topic, but I think you're a bit mistaken about Phoenix. He'd make a great guide/space cop/other position of power.
You can trust him.

I used to deal out a lot of frontier justice, as have other pilots. But that was a long time ago.

Asp

I still do, when I'm on.