Aged Code Studio

This topic will be dedicated to game mechanics. Surely you captains would like to know how certain aspects of the game are handled.
Let's start with...

Police Control: At Sea

Each city has a security level (which can be checked in the city info data). Some cities launch police patrols at sea. Such a patrol has its fixed route and once they spot the player, that is, he's in their sonar range (which is about 30 nautical miles) they "decide" whether to approach him or let him continue the voyage.
Now, what determines when they "decide" to chase him? A couple of factors. To make it more interesting and non-schematic, first, "dice are rolled" to determine their base level of security effectiveness (taken from the city to where they belong). Next, from the remaining points, another dice roll is performed and added to the base points (the sum never exceeds the security level). Then the result is compared to the player's navigation attribute (if this attribute is at level 0 then the police will always chase the player).
Let's take a close look:
Paris Security Level is 89, which means their Police is as effective as 89 points.
The player's submarine enters their sonar range. The police security level points are split into two and the first part forms their fixed base. From the second is taken another part (according to the dice roll). The sum (which changes each time the player enters their sonar range) makes their present effectiveness against the player's navigation skill.
Let's see it in numbers:
89 is split into two but not equal parts, that depends on the dice roll! It could be 60%/40%, 30%/70%, 86%/14%, etc.
In this example, the split is 43%/57%. 89 * 0.43 = 38 base points (it's always rounded). 89 * 0.57 = 50 possible additional points. That 50 is now randomized and the result is 35. So 38 + 35 = 73. When the Paris police saw the player on their sonar they decided with 73 points of effectiveness that they will check on the player. Let's see how the player does with his navigation level 1. This part is quite simple and is always a constant:
NAVIGATION

Level	Points
1	24
2	35
3	42
4	49
5	55
6	60
7	65
8	69
9	73
10	77
11	84

Does it mean the player with navigation level 1 can't avoid a police patrol? Not necessarily. The police, even with a high-security level, can still roll a low effectiveness score. Although not very often, it can be lower than 24 points so the player with navigation level 1 can still avoid their control. But that's not all. Regardless of police and player performance, one more attribute is taken into account — luck.
If the player is lucky, this overrides all previous results. Even the luck attribute at level 0 gives the player a chance (this is the only attribute at level 0 that has a positive numerical value). After all, everyone deserves at least a tiny bit of luck, right?
Here's a log from a couple of encounters with the police from Paris (player's navigation level 5):
Log Encounter

Player	Police
55	81
55	88
55	50	avoided
55	85
55	87
55	25	avoided
55	63
55	86
55	61
55	23	avoided
55	77

One thing worth mentioning is that there might be situations where the police will be forced to check on the player no matter what. That can be raised security awareness. In such a scenario, the maximum security level is taken into account and no dice roll is performed.

But even if the player is controlled by the police, he can still avoid thorough inspection with the help of the smuggling attribute.

Once again the police effectiveness is being determined. This time, the result is compared to the player's smuggling attribute. (If you have no points assigned to this attribute then the control will always take place.)
Let's see it again in numbers:
Paris Security Level = 89.
Let's take the player who spent 3 points on the smuggling attribute and check on the table how many base points it gives him:
SMUGGLING

Level	Points
1	30
2	43
3	52
4	60
5	68
6	74
7	80
8	86
9	91
10	96
11	100

It's 52. However, this number can be affected by the player's penalty points. For each one of them, 5 points are deducted from the base number. A player with 1 penalty point will get 47 base points (52-5).
Now, the police. We repeat the same dice roll as it was to determine the interest in the player chase but this time, during a personal confrontation, their base points are also affected by the player's reputation. A positive reputation will deduct some points from their base number — a negative reputation will increase it making the control more effective.
Once again, luck can help avoid a thorough control completely overriding all previous results.
But let's check how did the player go in this confrontation:
Log Patrol Control

Player	Police
47	51
47	27	avoided
47	75
47	56
47	81
47	61
47	79
47	53
47	65
47	38	avoided

As we can see, all 10 encounters were pretty tough. But that was one of the best police patrols. There are cities with less effective police as well as ... more effective ones
Well, at least this thorough analysis should help you decide on which attributes to spend your precious points

Police Control: City

Will be updated.