No One Hears You Die In Space

[Roger Wilco Jr]

They say that you don't die in Elite : Dangerous. I don't know about you, but when I get blown up I sure feel like I die, especially in open with some commander getting his jollies. But maybe some people should die? And if they have these escape pods, maybe they should use them?

Imagine that if the first time you had your ship blown out from beneath you, instead of finding yourself at some insurance screen, you found yourself drifting in space inside your escape pod? You'd have some basic thrusters for attitude adjustments, life support, and a window so you could see what was going on outside. The pod would eject you clear of the explosion and wreckage, and you'd have practically zero heat signature, so your attacker would have almost no chance, apart from luck, to see or find you. Once you watch him hyper out, you can activate your emergency beacon. An escape pod certainly couldn't contain an FSD, so super-cruising to a station, or especially jumping to another system, are out of the question. Normally, after a short wait, an NPC system vessel will come and scoop you up and then take you to the nearest station, but you could also be rescued by a commander, or kidnapped by a pirate, either NPC or player. You could pay a fee (based on time and distance), or a reward, or a ransom once at the station, and then deal with insurance about getting a ship and etc. Or maybe the pirate will sell you as a slave? There are several places you can go with this, but that's another subject...

A possible death exception would be if you did something extremely stupid, like flying into a sun (if your ship can't survive, then I doubt your escape pod could survive either). Or maybe you boosted into the side of a station. Hopefully your pod would auto eject in time for it to avoid a full speed crash, so most times you would survive, but if you were in a fast ship going super fast, your chance would be about nil (meaning if you really want to suicide, you can). But even if you die, you wouldn't have to lose all your credits. You could come back as your own next-of-kin (with a different commander name) and inherit most of what you had, minus court costs and taxes.

An exception for pirates would work something like this. Except in anarchy systems, if you blow up someone's ship, or steal their cargo, you will stand a good chance of being caught by system security. If your ship is destroyed, too bad for you, as your illegal activity will nullify your insurance if you had any. You will be forced to pay restitution to your victim (so he doesn't take an insurance hit, assuming he has insurance). After paying any fines, restitution, court costs, and etc, you will be able to keep your remaining ships and what's left of your credits. For a first offense for attempted murder, you will spend 1 day in jail (you can log into the game, but you will be sitting in a jail cell). For a second offense, you will spend 1 week in jail. For a third offense, you will be transferred to a prison planet and spend 1 month in prison. For stealing cargo, maybe make it 1 hour for a first offense, 4 hours for a second offense, 24 hours for a third offense. Anyway, after a fourth offense for attempted murder, you will be spaced and have to start over from scratch (again, with a new commander name). We don't need your kind in the galaxy! And if you do commit your crimes in an anarchy system, you won't have to worry about system security vessels, but you will have to worry about victims seeking revenge (legally) and bounty hunters, because you can still be convicted in another system. If captured, you will pay your fines and serve your time (or you can die in your escape pod if you refuse to surrender).

[Cmdr Ant Kingsmill]

I'm really liking the escape pod stuff, though not sure about jail for cmdr pirates. - sounds like a game barring and aren't they a valid form of gameplay (as much as I dislike them!) ?

[Gorf]

In at least one of the original Elite versions, you could cargo-scoop an escape pod and have one tonne of slaves to your inventory.

Generating another observation. One tonne of slaves is actually just one slave - the weight comes from all the necessary gear to keep them in stasis.