Bounty System

Overview

The bounty system in the core game of Oolite is somewhat primitive, a product of its 8-bit roots. If you commit a crime, regardless of the seriousness of that crime, your bounty is halved with each witchspace jump. So you can shoot down a flotilla of police ships in one system, but 8 to 10 jumps later you're clean again. Also, if you want to quickly erase your bounty you can purchase and use an escape pod, or do a galactic jump.

This OXP aims to add depth and meaning to the bounty system by making your crimes persistent. So, if you commit a crime in system A, and then come back to system A later, your bounty will be remembered. It will not degrade over time, nor will it vanish by using an escape pod or a galactic jump, or when buying a new ship.

Also, different crimes have a varying degree of severity, meaning there is a distinction between smuggling illegal goods to murdering a pilot by destroying their ship. The following table describes the different severities and levels of applicability:

Level	Example of crime	Applicability
Severity 1	Smuggling illegal goods	Local systems only (within 5ly)
Severity 2	Shooting main station	Across the current chart
Severity 3	Destroying another ship	Across all charts

Local systems only: This means the crime only applies to systems within 5LY of the system where the crime was committed. So if you are caught smuggling goods in system A, then jump to system B (which is less than 5ly from system A), your crime is still applicable. Jump to system C, more than 5 LY from system A, then your crime is no longer applicable.

Across the current chart: This means the crime will apply to all systems in the current chart. So if you shoot the main station in system A, your crime is applicable in system B and system C and all systems in the current chart. But if you use a galactic jump and go to the next chart, those crimes will not be applicable.

Across all charts: This means the crime will apply to all systems in all charts. No matter where you go, your crime will be applicable and you will potentially be labelled a "Fugitive".

The F7 System Data screen can help you in assessing your potential bounty in a given system. When you select a system on the F6 screen and then visit the F7 System Data screen the computer will scan your warrant list and determine how the system will likely view your presence. If you have committed crimes in that system one of the following things will be displayed:

 This system considers you [a criminal/an] offender

This text will be displayed if your overall bounty in the system is less than 50cr.

 This system considers you a [criminal] fugitive

This text will be displayed if your overall bounty in the system in greater than or equal to 50cr.

The "criminal" part of the text will be added if you committed crimes in that system in particular. If the "criminal" element is not present you haven't committed crimes in that system, but your crimes in other systems have become known and you will be considered an offender or fugitive if you visit that system.

Warrant Scanner

While your crimes might be applicable in multiple systems, that doesn't necessarily mean your crimes will be visible in all systems automatically. If you shoot at the main station in system A, and jump to system B, your status will initially be "Clean". This means that this system currently doesn't have a record of your crimes.

However, all police and most bounty hunters can be equipped with a "Warrant Scanner", a device that will scan your ship and perform a GalCop Criminal Database lookup based on the specifications of your ship and pilot registration. Should any criminal records be found they will become visible in this system. All GalCop police ships have this device installed and they will actively try to use it on all ships visible to them. Once your crimes have been revealed to system authorities, you will be wanted in that system whenever you visit.

You can purchase and install the Warrant Scanner yourself, and do the same thing on other ships. You must be within 15km of the target (police ships can scan from 20km), and when activated you must stay within that distance for 10 seconds (8 seconds for police) and keep the target locked for the scanner to work. The scanner won't work when your cloaking device is engaged, or if you're traveling at injector or torus speeds. If the target engages a cloak the scanning will stop.

The scanner can be operated in two modes: MFD Mode (which will use a spare MFD slot to display scanning messages), or Non-MFD mode (which will output scanning messages to the message log). To switch between modes, prime the equipment and press the "b" (mode) key. If MFD mode is selected, but there are no MFD slots available when a scan starts, the Warrant Scanner will automatically switch to Non-MFD mode.

Pilots will consider use of this scanner as hostile, and so their response may be hostile as well, particularly when not in the main station aegis.

Warrant Scanner Availability

Techlevel: 7
Price: 2570 cr. 

Paying For Fines

While bounties will not degrade over time, it is still possible to remove those fines from your record by paying a requisite fine. Fines can be paid in one of two places: the system where the fine was committed, or at the GalCop HQ system in each sector. See below for the locations of GalCop HQ. You can only pay fines collected in other sectors at the GalCop HQ system in your current sector. If you choose to pay your fine at GalCop HQ, a 10% fine processing charge will be added to the total amount.

The amount of fine you pay will be based on the amount of bounty, the type of system where the offence was committed, and the amount of time since the offence was committed.

The calculation is:

• For Anarchy, Feudal, Democracy and Corporate States

 100 * (Bounty Amount - (days since offence * severity degrade rate))

• For other government types

 50 * (Bounty Amount - (days since offence * severity degrade rate))

Example 1: A bounty of 30 (severity 1), collected in Lave (a Dictatorship), 15 days ago:

 Fine amount = 50 * (30 - (15 * 0.8))	= 900 cr

Example 2: A bounty of 75 (severity 3), collected in Qube (a Corporate State), 90 days ago:

 Fine amount = 100 * (75 - (90 * 0.1))	= 6600 cr

The longer you leave the payment, the more the fine will reduce, but the more likely it is you will be discovered.

Depending on the severity of your offence, there will also be a delay before you will be able to pay. The following table lists the delay periods for each severity level, and how fast the fine will degrade over time:

Level	Delay period	Degrade rate
Severity 1	1 day	0.8cr per day
Severity 2	14 days	0.5cr per day
Severity 3	60 days	0.1cr per day

Special note: If a police vessel flags your ship to pay fines upon docking, the fine you pay will be the full amount and will not be reduced by a degrading component. This will only happen if your bounty is small, however. If you have a large bounty, police ships are more likely to attack you. If, after paying your fine, you are scanned again, the bounty may reappear in the current system.

GalCop HQ systems

Sector	Planet
1	Lave (ID 7, TL 5, Dictatorship)
2	Diti (ID 33, TL 9, Democracy)
3	Rigebi (ID 26, TL 12, Corporate State)
4	Beesed (ID 49, TL 9, Multi-Government)
5	Bisoge (ID 102, TL 12, Corporate State)
6	Celaan (ID 85, TL 11, Corporate State)
7	Ceraxete (ID 202, TL 6, Dictatorship)
8	Maarabi (ID 184, TL 5, Multi-Government)

Download

Download BountySystem.oxz v0.1.0 BountySystem.oxz (downloaded unknown times).
Download BountySystem.zip (OXP to extract to AddOns) v0.1.0 BountySystem.zip

License

This OXP is released under the Creative Commons Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share Alike 3.0 license. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Shield image from https://www.iconfinder.com/icons/175318/shield_icon#size=512
Gavel image from http://www.freepik.com and http://www.flaticon.com, licensed by CC BY 3.0

Special thanks to Wildeblood for all his suggestions and input. Hopefully this OXP will restore something of his "lost" Criminal Record OXP! And yes, I have backups!
Thanks also to rustem, Cody, smivs, Day, Imaginos, and UK_Eliter for all their encouragement and input.

Version History

0.1.0

• Initial release.

Version	Released	License	Features	Category	Author(s)	Feedback
0.1.0	2016-02-05	CC BY-NC-SA 3.0	Bounty changes	Mechanics OXPs	phkb	Oolite BB