Security Zones & Security Status

Security Zones & Security Status

How does the security status and sector security status affect the gameplay?

Keeping up law and order within the empires is difficult as new solar systems are frequently being discovered and jump gates are being constructed, adding ever increasing numbers of solar systems that can be jumped to on the chart.

Sectors that the empire have found special interest in tend to have the rating of highly secure, with imperial patrols policing those sectors for known criminals and enemies of the state. Unfortunate individuals with low security standing who stumble upon any of those patrols will be attacked by the patrols without questions and without mercy. Imperial police craft also have low tolerance for any aggression within their sector, firing upon anyone who starts a fight. The right to defend oneself is considered absolute, so returning fire once fired upon by an aggressor will not result in the wrath of the police, nor reduce the security status. It must be emphasised that the individual who opens fire first is considered the aggressor. Bear in mind that self-defence only gives you the right to destroy the attacking players ship. Once that has been done he is no longer a threat and thus if you attack his pod, you are committing a crime yourself and will be punished. Attacking a member of a corporation/gang is regarded as an attack on the whole corporation/gang, meaning that gang members can assist each other if they come under attack, without the risk of losing security rating.

As a result of the increasing size and numbers of corporations and alliances the empires have decided to ignore tensions between corporations/alliances and as long war has been declared in an legal manner and the required time has passed for it to become active and no innocent bystanders are hurt during fights, then no action will be taken by the authority. The security rating of corporate/alliance members is unaffected as long as they fire only on players belonging to the enemy organisation.

Sectors have different security ratings. While those with high security rating are swarming with patrol crafts, those with zero security rating are extremely rarely visited by imperial authority. Sectors with low security include for example sectors that the empires have limited interest in, newly discovered sectors and sectors that are "no man's land" between empires. These sectors are often claimed by corporations who govern the sector as they see fit. Empire controlled sectors with low security rating will rely on sentry guns to uphold minimum law and order and these will destroy anyone who attacks other pilots or the sentry guns themselves.

Between those extremes of high and zero secure sectors are a large number of sectors with security standing somewhere between high and low or safe and unsafe as some people choose to call them. High secure sectors are usually a considerable distance from the zero rated ones and in between are sectors that gradually go from high to low security. Systems that are rated 0.5 secure are viewed as the borders between imperial space and lawless space. Once you go into 0.4 or below, you will not be protected by Concord, though sentry guns will still be active around stations and stargates.

Examples of criminal offenses:

• Destroying a law enforcement craft
• Pod Killing civilians
• Destroying civilian craft
• Attacking law enforcement craft
• Attacking civilian craft

It is worth mentioning that the above applies in all Empire space, certain 0.0 systems included. It is only in non-Empire 0.0 space that one can commit a crime and completely get away with it.