Law enforcement and smugglers.

[Derkylos]

well, think about it in real life.. Some cought smugglers run.. some give up..

u think u can stop adv. train with your 100k $ fighter just because u are police?

camp the jumpoholes... u will be alot better chanse to stop speed docking..

if this is a rule by admin that all must stop by an officer command.. its totaly kills the smuggling.

First off, camping jump holes is severely frowned upon. According to Agiera, jump holes are very dangerous and should not be used for transports. In the eyes of the law, this includes smugglers. Sure, they know that people are supplying the populace with cardi, but they can't tell where it's coming from.

Second, as Jammi said, transports never actually land, they moor to the mooring fixture and heavy lifters and other atmospheric craft unload them. It is a simple task for the law to inform these ground crews that ship callsign "x" is a smuggler and is not to be unloaded.

However, I would say that it is totally in RP for a freighter, or any small craft that can use the docking ring to dock when hailed by the law. Smaller craft are what should be supplying the planets, people in Dromedaries, CSVs and the like, even hauling 5-10 units in on a VHF.

Larger transport ships, pirate trains and the like, should be landing on the nearby Junker/pirate bases to offload and allowing the smaller freighters to do the riskier part. My smuggler has never touched a lawful base (the character is even hostile to most), and yet I have probably made enough cash on it to fund a battleship or 2 by now (I really don't trade much at all, as I find exceptionally boring).

Thing is, if you are flying a larger ship, the law does not need to stop you landing on a base, as, in RP, you do not "land" on the base, but rather attach to the mooring fixture (this is even true on non planetary bases...notice how they all have little mooring points modeled), so you would still be vulnerable to their guns and unable to unload cargo until clearance was given.

One thing I would advocate would be the (re)introduction of smuggled goods on the unlawful bases near to the destination planet(s) (Buffalo, Trafalgar, Beaumont, Rochester, Kreuzburg spring to mind). This would allow small-time smuggler RP so that players could introduce this layer of RP that is hopelessly lacking at the moment.

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