QM Trader Shuttles?

[Amuys]

Could the merchants who appear on the QM consoles be given physical shuttles on a seperate z-level? I was disappointed when I tried to mail myself to Buford Tenin but ended up only in deep space.

[QP Evergrande]

Now THAT is an interesting idea. Buford's a pretty chill dude, so he'd probably be okay with someone showing up in a crate, but Pianzi? Vurdalak? There's a lot of potential for dying horribly in this.

So, a crate with a barcode on it normally just disappears when it reaches the sell point, right? Instead of that, if a person is in the crate it gets teleported to the shuttle or depot in question. But, if the destination is NT, they just fly off into space, so we can still dispose of bodies that way. Once you arrive, an NPC (either the trader, an employee of the trader, or some inhuman monstrocity) automatically comes over and opens the crate, meaning to unload the delivery. At first the trader crew will only try to repack you and send you back to the station, but if you resist they will become more hostile over time, until they finally try to use lethal force (in the case of Vurdalak, that time should be about 1e-10 seconds). While this is happening, the trader will be unavailable for making sales in the cargo bay. It should be difficult for one player to accomplish much, but if they bring along a GPS so telescience can lock on and send them reinforcements...

The trader shuttles should be fairly large, and exist in their own z-level, the holding pattern level, maybe except for Gragg, who could be on the mining layer instead. That means they should be attackable by pods, but they should also be able to defend themselves with varying degrees of aggressiveness. Also, they should be equipped with some kind of "jump drive" which they'll use to leave after a certain point if they feel threatened. Like, a minute after they reach their highest state of alert for an invasion, or thirty seconds after they come under attack from the outside. This jump drive shouldn't be an external engine, but an internal device, so it isn't too easy to disable it with pod weapons. If players do manage to disable it, the shuttle will still leave, but it'll take much longer to limp away.

That will give time for players to take care of or evade the crew, and break into the shuttle's cargo hold, where a decent amount of goodies will be stored. But, not as many as you could get through legitimate trading over the course of a round. There should also be the chance for retaliation even if a successful heist is pulled off. For example, piss off Vurdalak enough, and his shuttle appears near the station, and an artifact bomb inside is set off (though Vurdalak himself cannot be killed in such a way). Raid one of the generic traders, and if they manage to see any of your ID cards, those players will automatically have an arrest warrant put out on the security computer and an NPC security team from some trader association will spawn in the arrival shuttle, and proceed to patrol the station like security bots until they find their target and robust them (or are robusted themselves. Stealing their equipment could be part two of the scheme). Gragg could just be a stone-cold badass (so to speak) who attacks the station by spitting flechettes made of mauxite, erebite or cerenkite.

Now, I suspect most QMs would be happy to help out these space pirates, but for those who would rather not (because it would mean losing access to the trader), perhaps the barcode computer could be connected to the station network, so people could access it remotely and print barcodes at a printer? Of course, they're futuristic space printers, so they're perfectly capable of adding the adhesive to the sticker.

[Amuys]

Huh, I was just meaning a mini enclosed area with some loot and a teleporter back, similar to the Solarium. But your idea is cool as well.

[Chike101]

Large amount of good, fun, and well thought out shit

I await the day this is a ~thing~

[Amuys]

So what sort of guy is Pianzi? Just sells odds and ends?

[QP Evergrande]

So what sort of guy is Pianzi? Just sells odds and ends?

How can I best put this?

"I have some wonderful gloves here. Very black and substantial. Your miners will get good use out of them, I'm sure. Price: 2000."

Expect: Concussive gauntlets. Get: Black gloves.