Police

When I first decided to write this page I thought it would be funny and original, like that movie Spaceballs. Instead it's been painful and disturbing, like that movie, Police Academy. Ho-hum. The Police. Here are some insights into their wacky minds.

The Police Academies in Frontier regularly churn out rookies devoid of any skills whatsoever. If you wish to rid an entire system of police, simply attack them outside an orbiter. Watch as in their haste to scramble they explode within the space station. Morons. Think you can do a better job than the Police? Jealous of their fancy blue Viper Defence Crafts? Then download the Police save game.

Smuggling

You can't avoid being fined for smuggling, except by saving and reloading. If you are searched by Customs, you get fined. The unwary smuggler can be fined again for trading in illegal goods because some adverts for "Goods bought and sold" are actually police traps. Police traps change their names at random, whereas genuine dealers keep the same name, so before doing anything illegal, visit the same port at least twice. If you see the same name both times, it's probably a real dealer. Also, if the dealer is female there is a higher chance of it being a police trap, though there are some genuine female dealers. For example, Haynes and Son on Boston Base in Barnards Star (shouldn't that be Haynes and Daughter?). Robert Waldock pointed this out to me after reading Steve Murray's info that all female dealers are police traps. It may be that a certain type of woman represents a police trap.

Fines

If you are caught and fined for something, just head on down to the Police Station and try to bribe them-- if it works you will get away with only paying a small fee. If, however, it fails (and almost always will in the Imperial systems) you will be fined a massive amount for 'attempted bribery'. Not to worry, because no matter how high your fine gets for repeatedly attempting bribery you can just 'claim you haven't done it' and they will 'increase' your fine all the way back down to a mere 500 credits! This is in fact a Bug present in all versions of Frontier.

'A 1,000,500CR fine' Bribery has failed and your fine is very high...	'A 500CR fine' Claim you 'didn't do it' and it's back down to 500!

Combat

'Fly low!' Engines off, calmly observing the enemy from a distance. The Police, as well as destroying many valuable space craft, must cause lots of damage to the surrounding area when they fire their lasers without due care and attention.

All police forces (Federal, Imperial or Corporate and Independent) fly the Viper Defence Craft. This is a highly manoeuvrable ship, so beware. When in combat with the police on a planet with an atmosphere, always fly very low. This way, because the police are such bad pilots, they will crash and burn with comical regularity. In fact, one of the best ways to rid yourself of dozens of police is to land rough and watch as they all fly at speed into the ground. Should the police fire a missile at you, and you lack ECM, target the missile itself and then fire a missile of your own. All the Police Vipers in range will now activate their ECM consoles and destroy their own missile(s), providing it wasn't a Naval one.

If you are really cheeky you can start a fight with the police, pay your fine and then land at the starport officially, repair your ship and take off again, with more police firing at you all the time! Once you pay your fine you are clear as far as the authorities are concerned, but the police continue to be launched against you.