Oracle
Elite
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
- Posts
- 4,505
- Location
- Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK
- Society
- Scorpio
- Avatar Name
- Oracle Kev FountofWisdom
On the Run is a story I first wrote in April, 2005 (and published on the Entropia Pioneers Fan Fiction forum) when revive killing was possible and people were debating how to stop this...npc police and prisons were one option suggested but obviously not implemented by M.A.
Although the story has lost its topicality it's necessary to post it here to make sense of subsequent chapters in this story (only second part written so far and opening chapter of third part).
Another reason is that the EP site was down recently and I was worried that my story might be lost forever
On the Run [Part I 'Breaking the Law']
It was the year 2006 and I was on the run. It seemed like everyone on Calypso was after me. Not just the new npc police force (npcp) but also dozens of specialised man hunting teams that had sprung up since the new bounty system had been introduced.
But I was innocent I kept reminding myself. Not guilty of any crime as such just a series of stupid blunders. That was no excuse though in the eyes of the new laws here. I knew I had to accept my fate, however things turned out. My only chance was to evade capture or death for the next 72 hours of in-game time. If you are clever and lucky enough to evade capture for this length of time your crimes are forgiven and your criminal points are wiped. This meant finding some quiet place out in the wilderness where I'd be unlikely to be found either by the npcp or bounty hunters.
Since MA had introduced the new criminal system at the end of 2005 one had to be careful not to get trigger happy anywhere in the formerly pvp Ametheran cities. Now they were full of closed circuit cameras that whirred into life whenever a gun was fired in anger. If you took a shot at someone in a city now consequences soon followed.
Firstly you'd see the camera flash and you knew you'd be for it. Depending upon the severity of the offence a warning box would spring up showing the criminal points incurred: 3 points for a standard city shoot on a passer by; 6 points for a hit on someone in an apartment building; 10 points for a tp killing; 12 points for each revival killing.
But that's just the start of it. If it was just about points the lawlessness on the new continent would have continued indefinitely.
If you gain 10 or more points then a bounty is automatically set-up - there is a price on your head. Whoever kills you gets 10 peds for each point you have racked up and the money is drawn directly from your account and transferred into your killer's account. If you don't have enough deposited you have the chance to deposit to pay the fine, failing that your items will be automatically tt'd until an amount sufficient to pay the penalty has been raised.
The CCTV cameras automatically send your image to be printed onto bounty posters which will appear in every city, town and outpost.
You are constantly looking over your shoulder. There is no-one you can trust any more. Teams of noobs desperate for money will make suicide attacks on you. Even if they fail the attention they draw can be very bad news. You start to wonder about your friends, your society mates even. 'Now I'll find out who my real friends are' I thought!
As if the bounty hunters weren't enough to worry about the real problem was trying to avoid the NPCP. If I could evade them for 72 hours ingame time then at least I'd avoid the dreariness of a prison sentence.
The NPCP respond directly to their vast array of cctv and mobile cctv cameras and alarms, springing up in increasing numbers all over the place. If they got you before you were killed by mobs or hunters then you faced 24 hours of online time or more in the new Island Prison off of Northern Amethera. People had nicknamed it Alcatraz because nobody had ever escaped. And those who tried were quickly re-captured or were eaten by the ferocious sea mobs in that area. Escapees had to re-start their sentence from scratch so that was another factor that made you think twice about trying an escape bid. Prison life was grim....but more on this later in our story.
But, I hear you ask, how did such an honourable person as Oracle get into such trouble with the law? Well, it all started one bright, sunny day when I decided to visit my apartment in Omegaton West Habitat. I had looted some furniture and was just dropping it off there before doing a little hunting in the area.
Just as I was about to exit my apartment block I heard a shot whistle past my ear. Instinctively I span around and blasted a nearby guy holding a rifle who had accidentally discharged his gun. As he dropped to the ground my heart sank as a box appeared in front of my eyes informing me I had incurred a 6 criminal points penalty. This in itself wasn't a major problem because I was still under 10 points and therefore had incurred no material penalty as such. I looked on it as a warning though and promised myself I'd be more careful in future.
At this point in our story I should mention that I'd been fortunate enough to loot the magnficently powerful unique blp rifle in July 2005. In my view it was better than the unique laser rifle, unique axe, swords and daggers put together. It had awesome firepower with its new rapid pulse system enabling 10 pulses per second each pulse giving a potential 50 max damage! Not only that you can stick a Dante on it and then the numbers just get silly!
Well, in my trials with the gun I'd added it to a little used menu. And foolishly I'd added it to the F8 key, the one I use for the 'add to friends list' command on all the other menus. You've probably guessed what happened next my friend. But the outcome is far worse than you are imagining I'm sure.
Despite the unfortunate incident at my apartment block I had decided to carry on with my planned hunt. Nearing the edge of the city I saw a lone figure I had never met before. He looked an experienced citizen who might know the area better than me. I asked him if he knew a good hunting spot nearby. He sounded extremely well informed and gave me some directions for decent hunting. He was also very friendly, but I got the impression he was in some way being a little evasive and holding something back from me. He sounded familiar and his name rang a bell, but from where?
I thanked him and said goodbye. But before I did I decided to add him to my friends list. I hit the F8 key a few times, the key I always use for this. To my horror my new toy appeared in front of my eyes whirred into life and peppered my new friend in an amazing onslaught of blp pulses.
As he fell I realised in horror who it was....'Marco, I've killed Marco!' I cried aloud. 'This isn't good' I thought 'killing MA's reprsentative'. 'It will sure cause me problems'.
As I was pondering my fate another penalty box appeared in front of me....'3 points added, you now have 9 penatly points.'
Enough is enough, I'm out of here now. I had been inside the prison once to visit a friend and it's not a place I want to return to in a hurry. Also I could do with the inevitable 100 ped fine if I offend again in Amethera in the near future. So it was back to Troy for me now and bye-bye to the excitement of the new continent.
En route to the teleport I passed a revival terminal. A guy in orange revived as I passed, he was very low on health as you might imagine. *Thinks* 'I'll do this noob a favour and heal him, maybe this will redeem me a little and MA and my fellow citizens will realise the previous shootings were mistakes?'. I double-clicked F2, the key I always use for my best Fap kit. WHOOOOOMPH!!! A loud exposion and the orange guy was now a ghost. Unbelievably I was still using the dodgy menu and I'd put my Adjusted Cannon on the F2 key.
What followed next was a bit of a blur. Message comes up announcing a further 12 points making a total of 21 points (210 peds fine I'm thinking to myself and a possible long spell in prison), a whirr and a flash from a nearby cctv camera....by now my heart was racing and sweat dripping beneath my Ghost mask falling on to the front of my Nemesis harness....the sound of laughter.....four guys next to the teleport......they will kill me for the 210 peds bounty I thought in panic so I quickly blasted them with my new blp gun (they were probably just chatting but I wasn't thinking straight)......Message comes up........a further 40 points now......bounty of 610 peds, this is getting way too serious.....a siren sounded.......the npcp are closing in...I couldn't go back to Troy because the npcp can still get you there, so I hit the teleport chip key and tp'd as far out of town that I could, praying that I wouldn't revive next to a pack of uber mobs!
I was on the run and I was desperate. Could I and would I survive?
(To be continued soon)
Although the story has lost its topicality it's necessary to post it here to make sense of subsequent chapters in this story (only second part written so far and opening chapter of third part).
Another reason is that the EP site was down recently and I was worried that my story might be lost forever
On the Run [Part I 'Breaking the Law']
It was the year 2006 and I was on the run. It seemed like everyone on Calypso was after me. Not just the new npc police force (npcp) but also dozens of specialised man hunting teams that had sprung up since the new bounty system had been introduced.
But I was innocent I kept reminding myself. Not guilty of any crime as such just a series of stupid blunders. That was no excuse though in the eyes of the new laws here. I knew I had to accept my fate, however things turned out. My only chance was to evade capture or death for the next 72 hours of in-game time. If you are clever and lucky enough to evade capture for this length of time your crimes are forgiven and your criminal points are wiped. This meant finding some quiet place out in the wilderness where I'd be unlikely to be found either by the npcp or bounty hunters.
Since MA had introduced the new criminal system at the end of 2005 one had to be careful not to get trigger happy anywhere in the formerly pvp Ametheran cities. Now they were full of closed circuit cameras that whirred into life whenever a gun was fired in anger. If you took a shot at someone in a city now consequences soon followed.
Firstly you'd see the camera flash and you knew you'd be for it. Depending upon the severity of the offence a warning box would spring up showing the criminal points incurred: 3 points for a standard city shoot on a passer by; 6 points for a hit on someone in an apartment building; 10 points for a tp killing; 12 points for each revival killing.
But that's just the start of it. If it was just about points the lawlessness on the new continent would have continued indefinitely.
If you gain 10 or more points then a bounty is automatically set-up - there is a price on your head. Whoever kills you gets 10 peds for each point you have racked up and the money is drawn directly from your account and transferred into your killer's account. If you don't have enough deposited you have the chance to deposit to pay the fine, failing that your items will be automatically tt'd until an amount sufficient to pay the penalty has been raised.
The CCTV cameras automatically send your image to be printed onto bounty posters which will appear in every city, town and outpost.
You are constantly looking over your shoulder. There is no-one you can trust any more. Teams of noobs desperate for money will make suicide attacks on you. Even if they fail the attention they draw can be very bad news. You start to wonder about your friends, your society mates even. 'Now I'll find out who my real friends are' I thought!
As if the bounty hunters weren't enough to worry about the real problem was trying to avoid the NPCP. If I could evade them for 72 hours ingame time then at least I'd avoid the dreariness of a prison sentence.
The NPCP respond directly to their vast array of cctv and mobile cctv cameras and alarms, springing up in increasing numbers all over the place. If they got you before you were killed by mobs or hunters then you faced 24 hours of online time or more in the new Island Prison off of Northern Amethera. People had nicknamed it Alcatraz because nobody had ever escaped. And those who tried were quickly re-captured or were eaten by the ferocious sea mobs in that area. Escapees had to re-start their sentence from scratch so that was another factor that made you think twice about trying an escape bid. Prison life was grim....but more on this later in our story.
But, I hear you ask, how did such an honourable person as Oracle get into such trouble with the law? Well, it all started one bright, sunny day when I decided to visit my apartment in Omegaton West Habitat. I had looted some furniture and was just dropping it off there before doing a little hunting in the area.
Just as I was about to exit my apartment block I heard a shot whistle past my ear. Instinctively I span around and blasted a nearby guy holding a rifle who had accidentally discharged his gun. As he dropped to the ground my heart sank as a box appeared in front of my eyes informing me I had incurred a 6 criminal points penalty. This in itself wasn't a major problem because I was still under 10 points and therefore had incurred no material penalty as such. I looked on it as a warning though and promised myself I'd be more careful in future.
At this point in our story I should mention that I'd been fortunate enough to loot the magnficently powerful unique blp rifle in July 2005. In my view it was better than the unique laser rifle, unique axe, swords and daggers put together. It had awesome firepower with its new rapid pulse system enabling 10 pulses per second each pulse giving a potential 50 max damage! Not only that you can stick a Dante on it and then the numbers just get silly!
Well, in my trials with the gun I'd added it to a little used menu. And foolishly I'd added it to the F8 key, the one I use for the 'add to friends list' command on all the other menus. You've probably guessed what happened next my friend. But the outcome is far worse than you are imagining I'm sure.
Despite the unfortunate incident at my apartment block I had decided to carry on with my planned hunt. Nearing the edge of the city I saw a lone figure I had never met before. He looked an experienced citizen who might know the area better than me. I asked him if he knew a good hunting spot nearby. He sounded extremely well informed and gave me some directions for decent hunting. He was also very friendly, but I got the impression he was in some way being a little evasive and holding something back from me. He sounded familiar and his name rang a bell, but from where?
I thanked him and said goodbye. But before I did I decided to add him to my friends list. I hit the F8 key a few times, the key I always use for this. To my horror my new toy appeared in front of my eyes whirred into life and peppered my new friend in an amazing onslaught of blp pulses.
As he fell I realised in horror who it was....'Marco, I've killed Marco!' I cried aloud. 'This isn't good' I thought 'killing MA's reprsentative'. 'It will sure cause me problems'.
As I was pondering my fate another penalty box appeared in front of me....'3 points added, you now have 9 penatly points.'
Enough is enough, I'm out of here now. I had been inside the prison once to visit a friend and it's not a place I want to return to in a hurry. Also I could do with the inevitable 100 ped fine if I offend again in Amethera in the near future. So it was back to Troy for me now and bye-bye to the excitement of the new continent.
En route to the teleport I passed a revival terminal. A guy in orange revived as I passed, he was very low on health as you might imagine. *Thinks* 'I'll do this noob a favour and heal him, maybe this will redeem me a little and MA and my fellow citizens will realise the previous shootings were mistakes?'. I double-clicked F2, the key I always use for my best Fap kit. WHOOOOOMPH!!! A loud exposion and the orange guy was now a ghost. Unbelievably I was still using the dodgy menu and I'd put my Adjusted Cannon on the F2 key.
What followed next was a bit of a blur. Message comes up announcing a further 12 points making a total of 21 points (210 peds fine I'm thinking to myself and a possible long spell in prison), a whirr and a flash from a nearby cctv camera....by now my heart was racing and sweat dripping beneath my Ghost mask falling on to the front of my Nemesis harness....the sound of laughter.....four guys next to the teleport......they will kill me for the 210 peds bounty I thought in panic so I quickly blasted them with my new blp gun (they were probably just chatting but I wasn't thinking straight)......Message comes up........a further 40 points now......bounty of 610 peds, this is getting way too serious.....a siren sounded.......the npcp are closing in...I couldn't go back to Troy because the npcp can still get you there, so I hit the teleport chip key and tp'd as far out of town that I could, praying that I wouldn't revive next to a pack of uber mobs!
I was on the run and I was desperate. Could I and would I survive?
(To be continued soon)