FR5 only using TLAGSNET?

[Tigger]

G'day all!

I've read this topic with quite a bit of interest, especially with me being a newer player and having a character with a smuggler ID. I started on the server first for about 5 days, found the forums on day 3 and joined on roughly day 5. I'd also been using the wiki but quickly realized it was the *wrong* wiki (disco USA). :P But hey, I'm a newb trying not to be a n00b.

Started out with an independent trader ID. Being level 36 and carrying a load worth about 2 mil and being stopped 5 times being told "giv" or "5milrdai" got tiring fast. By the 5th stop on a 2 mil run I was like...go ahead and blow me...up.

Then I chose a smuggler ID and mixed lawful and unlawful equipment. (Would have been nice to know that the info cards about non-scanability of the civie freighter and firefly are bogus in regards to player characters.):) I also had the misperception that if I got the rep up to green to the unlawfuls I wouldn't be pirated. Obviously that's not the case, but at least there's some real RP in there, and in doing the RP the 3 mil taxes have sometimes been reduced to 150K (which is great since I had like 5 mil in the hold and about 450K in the pocket).

So, to the relevance to this thread...I had never heard of TLAGSNET before a few days ago. I had dropped off a legal load at Los Angeles and picked up another heading for Cambridge (opti chips I think), to meet a friend in that area. [I never go empty if I can help it]. I came out of the lane heading towards the Cortez gate and got a green private comm that is paraphrased as "I see you smuggler, you're on my list now, beware if you transport contraband in Liberty." I was like WTF?? I checked my scanners, nothing. I checked the player list...I was just about the only person in Cali at the time and no navy or police. I didn't reply and didn't do a screen shot...I was that confused.

On another trip I had stopped to have a chat with some LR folks and they were very much doing an "LMAO he's using lanes". They gave me some good RP about how the police could track you if you used the trade lanes, but I had no idea of the detail that could be gained until I found this thread and then the handbook on TLAGSNET.

I've had fun playing the smuggler part, crossing systems on cruise, and alternating legal and illegal loads to confuse the cops, and occasionally assisting the unlawfuls with carrying loot in too large of quantity for their own ships. What bothers me is that while carrying a legal cargo I got messaged just because I had a smuggler's ID. Between that and a couple of other issues I've temporarily gone back to a Freelancer ID, which I suppose means I can do pretty much the same thing I'd been doing cargo-wise, but without the hassle of being pegged two systems away just for an ID scan and not the contents of the ship.

Meh, until I get back to a better connection my PvP inclined ships shall stay in dry dock, my transport wil likely do the same, and I'll try my hand at mining. At least in the message from the cop there was a teensy bit of RP, but I would have thought that I shouldn't have been contacted unless I had something illegal in the scan.

-Jeni


EDIT: Just saw, using a link from another thread, that water, food rations & oxygen require a special license in Bretonia. M'kay, ummm...yeah...my transport ship is gonna stay in dry dock, not going to pay millions in fines for a load that will net me a few hundred K, if that much.

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