Question about illegal passengers

[gfc1963]

How do I tell if a passenger is illegal BEFORE I select the mission?? Twice recently I have selected missions where the passenger is illegal and i get the warning on my cockpit display but NOT before I have selected the cabins and accepted the mission. Having been blown up twice recently as I leave a station, fining out if a passenger is illegal before hand would be nice!!

[LuckyVanDine]

Just before you assign them to a cabin, down the bottom right of the interface is a book with a question mark on it. If you click on that it tells you if they're wanted anywhere.

[Devilish Dave]

As far as I know, sometimes they don't reveal that to you, so it's a gamble.
I've avoided such missions, because I didn't quite understand how the scans work in the game, but I've experimented with it and this is what I have concluded:

• The scans last from 5-10 seconds.
  
• The station itself does not scan, but the Security Vessels do.
  
• If you are allied with the station, the Security Vessels show up as green triangles on your dashboard, which can help navigate your way to the station without getting caught.
  
• Once you are through the mail-slot, the scan "should" be unsuccessful and you can land in peace.
  
• It is possible to fly behind the ship that is scanning you, and have them restart the scan, however this is very tedious and often a waste of time.
  
• The ships can scan up to 5km away, so another way to get away is to boost.
  
• Alternatively, you can try to eject a heatsink or deploying your hardpoints, nevertheless, these were a hit and miss for me.
  
• Silent-Running is a last resort, but then you have to be careful how you land as you will not have a shield right after.
  
• Planetary Stations are tougher in this regard, and I would avoid delivering illegal goods/passengers there. I have yet to figure out how it works, because I always get scanned right before I land...

When you are approaching a station, you can already align the hologram, so that when you arrive, you boost ahead once, request landing and fly through the mail-slot. This could be done in under 10 seconds when done correctly and in my attempts 100% of the time the scans were unsuccessful. Meaning, I got away without any fines/bounties.

There are claims which state that going fast through the mail-slot helps, but it makes no difference if you're slow or fast, if the ship has you in sight, it will try to scan you. The point is to get through before:

• the ship even has a chance to start scanning
  
• the ship finishes the scan it has started

If you enter a station from behind, or another inconvenient side, then distance yourself from the station and loop around, but your safest bet would be to just super-cruise out of there and re-enter the area aligned correctly.

There are rumours that the Krait Phantom has super powers regarding "stealth" but take this with a grain of salt.

Long story short, although I avoided the illegal passengers and even took a break from passenger carrying because I was tired of dealing with this, I've eventually come to conclude that it is rather easy to complete without any problems and I just utilize the same information I just wrote here and it's a piece of cake.

So if you are like me and don't like the risks of carrying these illegals, fret no more and utilize these tips. If you do it correctly, you should never have an issue with this again. Keep in mind however, that planetary bases for some reason seem to work differently, for me at least so I have avoided them for the time being.

[Agony_Aunt]

Isn't there a passenger description info window on the mission screen? Pretty sure there was. It tells you if they are wanted, demanding, etc.

[Devilish Dave]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Isn't there a passenger description info window on the mission screen? Pretty sure there was. It tells you if they are wanted, demanding, etc.

There is, but sometimes it will say something like "undisclosed" and they either are illegal or not.

There's not 100% way to make sure, unless you only take passengers who state they are unwanted. However, most of my passenger missions don't make that clear at all anymore, especially the good paying ones and just because they pay a lot doesn't mean they are illegal, therefore even that is not something to go by.

[frumple]

Originally posted by Devilish Dave:

There are claims which state that going fast through the mail-slot helps, but it makes no difference if you're slow or fast, if the ship has you in sight, it will try to scan you. The point is to get through before:

• the ship even has a chance to start scanning
  
• the ship finishes the scan it has started

Have you tried to interrupt their scans by deploying hardpoints?

I have tried this, but i cannot confirm it's successful. Each time i have tried to stop a scan by deploying hardpoints, the "scan finished" type of message did NOT appear.
BUT, i did not waste any time getting into the station either.

So was i successfull in subverting the attempted scan, or was i just quick enough?

The reported trick is that deploying hardpoints makes system security automatically deploy their hardpoints in response. This interrupts any scan they were trying to do.

Of course, i got warnings from traffic control that flying with knives out is a no-no and an order to retract weapons. And i duly obeyed each time.
And maybe i got away with smugling something.

Wish i could 100% confirm it though.

[Devilish Dave]

Originally posted by frumple:

Originally posted by Devilish Dave:

There are claims which state that going fast through the mail-slot helps, but it makes no difference if you're slow or fast, if the ship has you in sight, it will try to scan you. The point is to get through before:

• the ship even has a chance to start scanning
  
• the ship finishes the scan it has started

Have you tried to interrupt their scans by deploying hardpoints?

I have tried this, but i cannot confirm it's successful. Each time i have tried to stop a scan by deploying hardpoints, the "scan finished" type of message did NOT appear.
BUT, i did not waste any time getting into the station either.

So was i successfull in subverting the attempted scan, or was i just quick enough?

The reported trick is that deploying hardpoints makes system security automatically deploy their hardpoints in response. This interrupts any scan they were trying to do.

Of course, i got warnings from traffic control that flying with knives out is a no-no and an order to retract weapons. And i duly obeyed each time.
And maybe i got away with smugling something.

Wish i could 100% confirm it though.

Oh true, I forgot to mention that, heatsinks and silent running.
Yea, I did, but it's a hit or miss.
I stopped relying on those things, but I will elaborate on it later.

Thanks!

[Chaka (FR)]

You can use stealth flying to avoid scan before enter the stations.

[frumple]

Originally posted by Chaka (FR):

You can use stealth flying to avoid scan before enter the stations.

You cannot avoid the scan, only reduce the range the other ship has to be in order to scan you.

[spam]

I treat them like I do a combat rescue evacuation mission. Line up the approach, spam heat sinks, land as quickly as possible. This greatly reduces the time available to security forces for scanning. Silent running helps too, but passengers sometimes get mad if ship starts taking damage, so that's only good for smuggling IMO.

[Angry Antz]

You can click on passenger profile in the passenger mission summary screen. It will tell you if they are criminal. (i.e. wanted I assume). However I still end up with wanted passengers sometimes. I have no idea how else you can check.

I find it really annoying when I discover I have a wanted passenger, despite checking first. Not all my ships are equipped for sneaking around. If there was a way to identify them definitively, I would either not take the mission or make sure I am using a ship that can sneak around.

[neock]

Originally posted by Devilish Dave:

As far as I know, sometimes they don't reveal that to you, so it's a gamble.
I've avoided such missions, because I didn't quite understand how the scans work in the game, but I've experimented with it and this is what I have concluded:

this. every time i try and do passenger missions, i spend over 20 minutes reviewing the whole mission listing to see if the passanger is illigal... and im still shot down by system security for "illigal passangers" when it wasnt shown as illigal. hell, a few times i got shot LEAVING the station i picked the mission from. like, i get close to the hanger portal and everything goes to ♥♥♥♥.

[Devilish Dave]

Originally posted by neock:

Originally posted by Devilish Dave:

As far as I know, sometimes they don't reveal that to you, so it's a gamble.
I've avoided such missions, because I didn't quite understand how the scans work in the game, but I've experimented with it and this is what I have concluded:

this. every time i try and do passenger missions, i spend over 20 minutes reviewing the whole mission listing to see if the passanger is illigal... and im still shot down by system security for "illigal passangers" when it wasnt shown as illigal. hell, a few times i got shot LEAVING the station i picked the mission from. like, i get close to the hanger portal and everything goes to ♥♥♥♥.

Yup, I quickly bail out of there and try again, but then I need to find an Interstellar Factor and pay the fines, fix the ship, some passengers just run for their lives the moment I dock at another station.

So I took the time to figure out how it all works with these illegals and now it's not a problem at all. I still don't like it though, that they can not disclose their status and then you risk taking criminals, when in reality I don't think that would ever happen.

You can't even board an airplane today without a thorough ID check if you depart from a civilized country.

[frumple]

Originally posted by Devilish Dave:

Originally posted by neock:

this. every time i try and do passenger missions, i spend over 20 minutes reviewing the whole mission listing to see if the passanger is illigal... and im still shot down by system security for "illigal passangers" when it wasnt shown as illigal. hell, a few times i got shot LEAVING the station i picked the mission from. like, i get close to the hanger portal and everything goes to ♥♥♥♥.

Yup, I quickly bail out of there and try again, but then I need to find an Interstellar Factor and pay the fines, fix the ship, some passengers just run for their lives the moment I dock at another station.

If the passenger is wanted, you should not be hacked to death by heavy laser fire. They're the fugitive.
At worst, you should cop a hefty fine not an immediate execution.

Of course, that's ED for you.
I got fugitive status after an NPC bumped into me during docking. :/

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by frumple:

Originally posted by Devilish Dave:

Yup, I quickly bail out of there and try again, but then I need to find an Interstellar Factor and pay the fines, fix the ship, some passengers just run for their lives the moment I dock at another station.

If the passenger is wanted, you should not be hacked to death by heavy laser fire. They're the fugitive.
At worst, you should cop a hefty fine not an immediate execution.

Of course, that's ED for you.
I got fugitive status after an NPC bumped into me during docking. :/

Penalty for murder? Death.
Penalty for smuggling? Death.
Penalty for littering? Believe it or not, death!