Traders?

[Quigs]

We need to make them look the same, and add a few subtle differences in on the smuggling version so that people who study hard the person in question will notice a difference. So, if the police are just glancing over the ID, they are more likely going to miss it.

Good thought, but it's not fixing the right problem. Whether a guy's ID says Smuggler or not, it's carrying the goods (bads?) that gives a cop the right to fire on him. Won't matter how much reading he has to do to verify Trader vs Smuggler.

The way I see it, that's the whole problem with the Smuggler ID in the first place. If you're scanned and you're carrying cardamine, you're smuggling and you're guilty as hell. If you're scanned and you're carrying teddy bears, you're not guilty and you can go about your business. And what if you are smuggling that cardamine but a Navy ship spots you in Kepler where there's no jurisdiction? The situation matters far more than the ID itself.

As for whether Traders are allowed to smuggle or not, if that were santionable there would be no game balance at all between the Smugger and Trader ID (or house corp IDs). My Universal and BMM characters would swap out their IDs for Smuggler within the hour, even if I never intended on smuggling, just to get the flexibility to be able to decide what I wanted to do on a whim like a human being. As long as the police players follow the rules there would be no downside to that. None.

The whole value of the ID is that it signals intent regardless of where you are or how badly you've screwed up your tag. That works like a charm for characters who need to announce what they are without ambiguity like military or police. It even works well for pirates (they're flying gang colours) and corporations (advertising), but it's rediculous for a smuggler.

I really like where Skoorb was going with his idea. Everybody is a potential smuggler til they're caught with their hand in the cookie jar and prove it, then they get slapped with a (probationary?) Smuggler ID. Sadly, cops carrying 2 IDs around isn't going to fly. And even if they were allowed, it can't work the way things are now cause the cop would have to land on what's essentially an enemy base to aquire the Smuggler ID.:( Also, it still wouldn't get around the initial problem of having to scan the guy's cargo to see if he's a smuggler in name or in practice. Haha, the whole situation is a mess.

CP