It should cost a fair bit though, i assume EEM officials would be corruptable in the same way govermenets are need a large cash flow for that kinda thing.

Possibly it should involve a special action in setting up a contact to talk to in the EEM as well? once you have a conctact you could then use the custom order to re-badge as many ships as you like.

Would be nice if there was a way people could still find out though, say if you get an operative near the ship he can do some investigating to see if it matches a previous ship spec, assuming of course no two ships are identical (minor material differences and radiation signitures and the like)

Shouldn't easy, but should always be possible.

It currently is now because you can't change the ID and you can find out which ship goes where. But it would be almost impossbile otherwise.

Besides there *should* be a risk in using dodgy contacts to retag a ship

There should be risk but putting any risk in means that the order is not used and it saves time not to bother writing it in the first place. The ID change should cost cash and be definate and then it becomes useful.

I would have still thought that even with the possibilty an operative (perfroming a speical action of some kind) finding out that it was orginally under different ID is still less risky that trying to use the ship as a pir tagged vessel.

The zero risk approche would be the chop shop in the other thread.

Although i can understand loathing to write something if noone is gonna use it.

I think the point Steve was making is that patches tech manual says it uses nano-tech to rebuild damaged parts of the ship. And while scrapping to patches would be more useful than scrapping to hulls it just doesn't make sense in the game world.

I think the chop-shop forumla David posted on the forum a couple of days ago makes the most sense.

(note sorry i keep wondering off topic whenever i post my brain links weirdly, need a MKII model)

I don't see why. Patches are made from metal, ships are made from metal. Not to mention that self replicating machines have been a staple of science fiction for decades.

If this is allowed, what balancing operation would be required to correct this issue would be available. Re-flagging ships is technically a crime. What criminal procedures will exist to punish parties identified as executing such deeds. I see no point in allowing something if a game balance operation is not available to provide some sort of recompense to all affected parties.

Futher, it is becoming clearer by the week that it is easier to make profits by outright theft than any other means. It is far cheaper than trade, and infinitately cheaper than warfare.

So much so, that notwithstanding all of the excitement around each and every pirate action (which I must admit I enjoy, even though I have now been taken out twice by pirates), current game mechanics mean that anyone with 1 IQ point above brain dead can be a pirate and reasonably successful as well.

Note to Pirate Large... this last remark does not suggest that you (or any other pirate) have an IQ quotient of 1. I think that you are very able indeed in this role and deserve to be treated with respect. But it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that all you need to do is wait in ambush mode in ring 10 since the game code always move ships to ring 10 prior to jumping.

I am therefore opposed to providing mechanisms that increase the ability of pirates to operate with impunity without clear mechanics to balance the scales.

Archangel

Ship A cannot be boarded by Ship P if Ship B is defending A.

A heavy hulled warship can take a lot of incoming fire and without large odds against it will not be neutralised/destroyed on day 1 of a battle.

If someone chooses to operate in dangerous areas without escorts, then they're also choosing to take risks.

So allow us to melt the ship down and get metals from it. You can then use the metals to make patches, or hulls or paperweights for the Acropolis market.

The point I'm making is partly the nano-tech yes, but also that ship hull to ship hulls (if you see what I mean) is a more direct reclaimation than ship hull to patches. Getting hulls out involves reversing the process that joins the hulls together (e.g. cutting them apart), while getting patches would involve first breaking the hull up, then melting the metal down, then making patches from the reclaimed metal - free production?.

So patches that produce other patches? Just feed them metal... The more patches you have more the patches you get... Even more free production.

Hardly. Patches are production intensive to produce. Converting a ship to patches should produce an appropriate amount of patches, taking into account the production required for patches, and an appropriate modifier to take a finished product and convert it into a rawer form. This is no more and no less free production than converting a ship into hulls.

I have no preference for a ship being converted to hulls or patches, only that the conversion rate is appropriate.

I guess that was before the integrity was calculated into convert to debris. You get no hulls back for an integrity break down at 0% integrity.

That's the bit I'm concerned about. To convert a ship to patches requires production (to keep it "fair" and in keeping with game mechanics as they are now).

It would really have to be a production task, i.e. insert production *convert ship to patches*. Or otherwise you have to have a "non-production" order taking some of your production capacity. This seems a complicated way to do it to me.

If there was, on the other hand, a command to scrap ship, you could have a choice of scrap to hulls (maybe 50% reclaimed or probably less) or scrap to metals (90%+ mass converted to metals). This would only take some man hours, not production hours.

If you scrap to metals you can use them to build patches (or more hulls than you would reclaim directly) but that would need to be added to your production as normal.

Both "sides" are catered to but it holds better with the mechanics (as I see them).

Since I have a midget fleet (start up player u c), and a member of an AFF that does not maintain a war fleet, I would be grateful for a donation of a few war ships. If can spare at least on for each of my freighters I would be most grateful.

It will not cost you too much I am sure as my fleet is really midget.

If you are unable, then I hope that plying my trade as is will eventually garner me enough stellars to buy some.

So you see... risks are not taken necessarily by choice, but because no other option is currently available.