Rule Discussion: Smugglers and Lawful interaction, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4,

[R.I.P.]

I agree even if a smuggler docks sells off cargo and undocks with an empty hold or legit cargo, fines should still be enforced if they were scanned with contraband. I personally would not speed dock after being caught, would stop have an interaction and pay the fines, dump cargo etc. But i can understand were sindroms is coming from, unless you have proof to back up your claims of spotting them with contraband things could get messy in some situations. For example if the lawful did not manage to get a screenshot of the illegal cargo, and tries to fine a player after they undock without the cargo and no proof they even had anything illegal. If an officer tries to fine them, or they run and an officer/navy/military ship opens fire on the fleeing smuggler, then said smuggler tries to report them for attacking them for the wrong, or no legit reasons. They might not have proof they seen them smuggling, which in turn makes a mess for the admins, and would get the lawful player an unwarranted sanction. Not sure if admins can sift through game files to see what the smuggler has recently dropped on the planet or not. And well if you get a runner that speed docks in time, it is very hard to catch a guncam of the illegal cargo. Many probably fear getting caught due to a possible fr5 from getting caught too much, then get rep hacked on a rep sheet they may have spent many hours building, not to mention on a ship that has maybe been fully mapped as well. I know many feel well if you get an fr5 just delete and start a new character. Not a desirable thing to do when you have spent hours/days/weeks building a character, and like my main smuggling ship would never want to change the name. Especially if it is a name you have carried on a ship for many years. It's a very hard balance between hour far smugglers can be punished and being too easy on them. I know most players would just ask for simple fines paid, cargo dropped. But some officials do like to push for fr5 to be put on ships sometimes. And yes i know that is usually done to ships who repeatedly break laws way too much. But it does scare a lot of smugglers into not wanting to be caught at all so they do not lose the time they have spent on their ship. Not to mention to intentionally fly up to a lawful player "Hey scan me i have contraband!" makes absolutely no sense at all in RP if you are a smuggler. I know i have seen so many players complain about smuggling and smugglers because they feel smugglers intentionally avoid interaction. Well duh that is why it is called smuggling. Smuggling does not mean you want to get caught and try and pvp with a transport against fighters/bombers/cruisers/battleships. That would make no sense at all in an RP environment anyways. But with so many "make bottlenecks" and "remove this and that" like jumpholes and alternate routes so you can force interaction would not work. Would kill off smuggling and probably cause some to stop playing at all. Rules need tweaking for sure like sindroms is suggesting. Some other changes could be nice too, like what was mentioned about people abusing the player list to avoid, or log out seeing lawfuls in an area. One solution i think for that would be to remove the systems from the player list. You can see who is one, but no one anywhere could tell what systems players are in. Would put a stop to many aspects that are abused by it. Examples, smugglers logging to not get caught, they would have to take their chances with the gates or jumpholes. No crappy RP from players claiming "I seen you in our system and you are not supposed to be there" even though the player was cloaked. Then they claim i seen you on long range scanners which is crap RP in my opinion. Your ship's scanner is the only range you should see in RP. It would also prevent those who abuse the player list for shadow logging to go after certain players they like to harass. I know many will complain they cannot tell where all the action is so they can log on a ship in that area. But i think it would make people get off their butts and fly around more, maybe do patrols like lawfuls should be. Meh i know went a little off the main topic, but came to mind as i was typing the first part. So sue me. : )