Anybody know?

The transports and containers belong to a faction; and if you attack them, that faction turns hostile to you in that system. The allies of that faction can turn hostile to you, too, but this seem to only happen they're around members of the faction you attacked... I guess they get a "hey, a little help here?" call.

It's usually the houses that own the transports and containers, and they are protected by the police and the militaries, so you can draw a lot of heat. This hostility is temporary, though, and will reset to your rep status when you leave and re-enter the system... or maybe if you save and restore your game, but I'm not sure about that. If you decide to go cargo-jacking, be sure you've got a jumphole available, so you can leave the system and let things cool down; because the police and houses usually own the jump gates, and you'll be denied access to them if they turn hostile.

Not true. You still have access to trade lanes/jumpgates. Bases on the other hand.. not. Best place to Pirate? Near pirate bases. Try Raidens Bend in Galileo. Only thing there near the tradelanes to go hostile, is other ships.

OK... but I just used the jumpholes, not relishing the thought of trying to get through a jumpgate with all those "law abiding" types trying to waste me.

I am talking about long before a faction goes hostile on you. If you are full positive with a faction you can do tons of damage (12+ storage containers or more than 100 ships) to them before they get into hostile territory.

In MP you just have to land somewhere else in the same system, then all is forgiven when you come back (except the hit on the faction meter).

But they don't seem to forgive you in SP regardless of your standing with them... I don't know if it is a time delay thing or for the rest of the game or what.

If it is for the rest of the game, that would be pretty weak and make it hard to improve your standing with criminal factions. You could still kill patrols but that takes a lot longer and you don't really make any money.

If it's just until you leave the sytem I could deal with that (I can't test it yet, not that far in SP), but that would be totally different from how it works in MP. If you leave the system in MP without docking somewhere inside first, they will still be hostile when you come back.

Edited by - zuiko on 25-03-2003 22:20:32

I'm very sure that leaving and re-entering the system removes the temporary hostility... I've done it quite a few times.

FYI, this is not the case. I tried it and the sectors that are hostile do not reset when you leave. They will eventually reset, but it might be related to levelling up or doing missions.

Of course at the point I am at now in SP everybody in the universe seems to hate me so I guess I dont have to worry about that any more.