[The Realist]

Hey rag, A solution to the bandit problem is buffing the police with slightly more power as a counter to the bandits. Right now, bandits are a huge part of the server, and do their actions unchecked, with the occasional ban by mods from incorrect raid procedure, while the police cower, since they are unorganized and powerless. This should not be the case, police should be the law enforcement, not the mods. Seriously, some change has to involve the police to make this work...

[RagnarosPower]

I'll think on how to buff the police

[Mr. Lost Sympathy]

+1, 90% of all cops are naiive noobs that quickly gets mauled over by bandits and they soon wanna change roles. (I'm a bandit myself).

[RagnarosPower]

I'm working on nerfing bandits, but unsure on how atm.

[The Realist]

I'm working on nerfing bandits, but unsure on how atm.

Bandits start off with a pistol right? And the only other class that does this is police. To counter, give the civilians (chefs, farmers, maybe doctors?) a colt, or some weak pistol, that will be able to give those classes some strength.

[Arashi_tlk]

Giving a pistol isn't gonna help in the long run. Everyone goes looking for weapons, and if they get a balance going they can buy a weapon from a weaponsmith. So how would that help out in the end?

I will admit, Bandits are in high demand purely because they can rob people and usually get away with it. Most the time you catch two bandits robbing every solo person they find; most have to comply or die. I don't always rob people I see, but a good bit that have good gear I might try it out while with a partner in crime.

No one should be walking around alone if they can help it.

To buff the police, I'd say they should rally together, not just have random people roaming around saying they are a cop because they have the role. They should have to meet up with one of the higher up Police Officers; Caption, or one of the Chiefs. Their duty is to keep order with the police. If one of the police officers are breaking they law themselves they should be stripped of rank, maybe a 12/24 hour ban so they have time to think about what they did wrong and amble time to read over the rules. I did make a suggestion on how to give more force to the police. By making them enforce the roles a bit more. (http://pandahut.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1007) Sure it would give Police a bit more power, but if they are actually doing the role properly as a respectable Police Officer, I don't see what the problem would be. It wouldn't be a robbery, but they could still take the items the offender were trying to pawn off without a permit. If someone was robbed, they would go investigate.

There was an incident a while back that I was online to witness through world chat. A couple Police Officers taking away any Bandits weapon's "because they are known criminals and they can't have weapons." (which is robbery with a cause, a bit on the OP side) Basically they were taking every seen Bandit's weapon, even without cause, claiming because they had the role Bandit that they were up to no good and didn't deserve the right to own a weapon. Even if they just chose the role, they probably would have stripped the guy of his weapon. But I will admit, other than that thieving they were doing, they would actively seek down bandits. If someone was robbed and the person reported that in the world chat, they would step in and ask where so they could go hunt down the Bandit. Hell, they even chased me down once because someone reported to them my whereabouts xD. I did have words with these "Cops" through world chat, and I might of been one of the Bandits they really wanted to get near lol. I watched them from afar and they kept pursuing for a bit, I eventually lost them or they gave up. Either way, it had me, a Bandit, on the run and that was a bit of fun as well. Gave a whole new aspect to the RP server as a Bandit.

I'd also like to add are Raids, if there are Police online, they could go to the raid to help defend, or fight off the bandits. That would help against Raids. You could make it so the Police are the only ones that can take the Raiders gear, or they can choose to give it to the home owner. This would help fight off Raids so it's not just a solo person OR even someone offline. For this to be clear to the Police, maybe instead of Bandits just saying "RAID INCOMING" or whatever in World Chat, that they have to state where it is, like the nearest Town/City/Farm/Raceway, this way it's a bit more clear what is being raided. It doesn't have to be exact location, but like "Raid near Kent Raceway!" Something like that.

[The Realist]

Giving a pistol isn't gonna help in the long run. Everyone goes looking for weapons, and if they get a balance going they can buy a weapon from a weaponsmith. So how would that help out in the end?

I will admit, Bandits are in high demand purely because they can rob people and usually get away with it. Most the time you catch two bandits robbing every solo person they find; most have to comply or die. I don't always rob people I see, but a good bit that have good gear I might try it out while with a partner in crime.

No one should be walking around alone if they can help it.

To buff the police, I'd say they should rally together, not just have random people roaming around saying they are a cop because they have the role. They should have to meet up with one of the higher up Police Officers; Caption, or one of the Chiefs. Their duty is to keep order with the police. If one of the police officers are breaking they law themselves they should be stripped of rank, maybe a 12/24 hour ban so they have time to think about what they did wrong and amble time to read over the rules. I did make a suggestion on how to give more force to the police. By making them enforce the roles a bit more. (http://pandahut.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1007) Sure it would give Police a bit more power, but if they are actually doing the role properly as a respectable Police Officer, I don't see what the problem would be. It wouldn't be a robbery, but they could still take the items the offender were trying to pawn off without a permit. If someone was robbed, they would go investigate.

There was an incident a while back that I was online to witness through world chat. A couple Police Officers taking away any Bandits weapon's "because they are known criminals and they can't have weapons." (which is robbery with a cause, a bit on the OP side) Basically they were taking every seen Bandit's weapon, even without cause, claiming because they had the role Bandit that they were up to no good and didn't deserve the right to own a weapon. Even if they just chose the role, they probably would have stripped the guy of his weapon. But I will admit, other than that thieving they were doing, they would actively seek down bandits. If someone was robbed and the person reported that in the world chat, they would step in and ask where so they could go hunt down the Bandit. Hell, they even chased me down once because someone reported to them my whereabouts xD. I did have words with these "Cops" through world chat, and I might of been one of the Bandits they really wanted to get near lol. I watched them from afar and they kept pursuing for a bit, I eventually lost them or they gave up. Either way, it had me, a Bandit, on the run and that was a bit of fun as well. Gave a whole new aspect to the RP server as a Bandit.

I'd also like to add are Raids, if there are Police online, they could go to the raid to help defend, or fight off the bandits. That would help against Raids. You could make it so the Police are the only ones that can take the Raiders gear, or they can choose to give it to the home owner. This would help fight off Raids so it's not just a solo person OR even someone offline. For this to be clear to the Police, maybe instead of Bandits just saying "RAID INCOMING" or whatever in World Chat, that they have to state where it is, like the nearest Town/City/Farm/Raceway, this way it's a bit more clear what is being raided. It doesn't have to be exact location, but like "Raid near Kent Raceway!" Something like that.

+1

[danzeman00]

Honestly a lot of these changes can't be implemented until the whitelist. IF that ever happens. If we could get the white list it would ensure that A. Our bandits are more likely to follow the rules and most would generally rob less as they aren't going to be robbed every 30 seconds also and B. It will let cops group up making them harder targets and then they would have some power. Recently I have seen Ex Rud, he is applying for deputy, he set up a highway patrol base. Of course I didn't know it was his till after me and my group raised it but it was a nice change to only bandits bases. That is a huge step towards cops being powerful. The organization of bandits is crazy, most groups you look at are bandit focused. My own group is almost all bandits with some others sprinkled in. If cops were given a major role with some sort of actual power/way to make money I would be one but it's just not worth it.

[The Realist]

Honestly a lot of these changes can't be implemented until the whitelist. IF that ever happens. If we could get the white list it would ensure that A. Our bandits are more likely to follow the rules and most would generally rob less as they aren't going to be robbed every 30 seconds also and B. It will let cops group up making them harder targets and then they would have some power. Recently I have seen Ex Rud, he is applying for deputy, he set up a highway patrol base. Of course I didn't know it was his till after me and my group raised it but it was a nice change to only bandits bases. That is a huge step towards cops being powerful. The organization of bandits is crazy, most groups you look at are bandit focused. My own group is almost all bandits with some others sprinkled in. If cops were given a major role with some sort of actual power/way to make money I would be one but it's just not worth it.

Im not sure about the groups being bandit based, ARK is relatively bandit free...

[Arashi_tlk]

I would say a lot are bandits because of the fact that the bandit role is closest to what most player's play style while playing on any of the non-RP servers. Killing and looting, but a spin of being able to rob people instead of just killing them for their loot.

I think if Police Officers had more power, then there might be more Cops running the server. With more Cops on, the more the Bandits would have to evade them. Even with the time limits for robbing (15 mins) and raiding (30 mins) they are still running around doing whatever they want. As in the cops aren't really stopping them, not even hindering their illegal activities (robbing/raiding).

It's true, giving the Police power means that there might be more corruption, which would mean mods might have to put a stop to that, kicking, stripping rank, whatever.

Like some later down the road idea would be Cops actually start off as a Police Recruit, meaning they don't have the ability to pick the Police Officer role right away until they finish their recruitment training. This is where higher up ranks (Chiefs, Depute Chiefs) could step in. Any Recruit could talk to one of the higher ups to learn the ropes of being a Police Officer, teach them the rules so to speak. Let them know what they should be doing. They could have some shooting range or shoot zombies as a test. Go on a ride along. Answer some simple questions of what they learned to finish it off. This would bring a whole new element to the Police Officer RP. It would also encourage Police Officers to work together, which is something they really need to do seeing as Bandits just run free all day long. There could also be a sub channel on the TS for the Police Officers. So if someone is on patrol, they could talk to the other Police Officers for back up or what have you.