How do you feel about ganckers?

[husky of snow]

A simple question that can have a complicated answer regarding it.

How do you feel about ganckers? Are they people just playing the game? Are they bullies? Should there be a punishment for gancking? If so, what should it be? Are you a gancker yourself? If so, why? Does anyone have any stories to share regarding ganckers?

 

[SteveWW57]

Need a definition or several, as the word means different things to different people. However you define the term, there will be disagreement.

Steve

 

[xKristina]

I feel only pity, most of them just lost in space boys and girls with lack of social life. Punishment? No, till they play fair without cheats. And there are also anti-ganker groups, so some kind of punishment they get time to time
Met some in Vaka long ago, was sent to rebuy screen very fast. End of story

 

[HappyMoonMonkey]

It's as simple as "Ha ha, ship goes boom." It's not more complicated than that. Ships explode. Pixels fly. Someone pays a rebuy. The cost of death in this game is so minimal unless you make a conscious decision to fly your first anaconda without rebuy or cash in your months of exploration data in Shinrarta Dezra. Although the near constant stream of Reddit posts would tell us that plenty of CMDRs are always ready to do both those things.

 

[husky of snow]

Need a definition or several, as the word means different things to different people. However you define the term, there will be disagreement.

Steve

I'm a newer player. For me, gancker is defined as someone who kills other players for no reason or just for the kill. This is different then pirates who just want the cargo

Example of gancking that seems common, sitting outside starting systems and killing new players. They don't have anything, can't defend themselves

 

[Screemonster]

The cost of death in this game is so minimal unless you make a conscious decision to fly your first anaconda without rebuy or cash in your months of exploration data in Shinrarta Dezra.

This is one of the reasons why I think calls for punishing gankers (especially with the crime and punishment system!) are pointless.

It doesn't matter how harsh the punishment is if the person getting ganked still lost their stuff, punishing the killer doesn't bring it back.

Even if the devs were to enact the most draconian punishments that have been suggested in the past, like killers losing their insurance and engineered modules or even outright having their saves reset "because their cmdr is in jail" or whatever, at best you'd get people in throwaway ships/accounts going out ganking and just getting a new one - it's not like you need more than a stock sidewinder to kill another stock sidewinder - and at worst we'd see situations like the suicidewinder phenomenon where people would deliberately trick others into falling foul of the punishment system and losing their ships/saves.

And it still wouldn't bring back the months of exploration data being carried by that lightweight exploration ship that just got blown up in shin by some dude flying an unengineered vulture or other equally disposable ship.

 

[husky of snow]

But you admit that the victims lose valuable exploration data, lose the time they spend to get it, lose credits they may have worked hard to grind up...and the gancker loses nothing. How is this system fair?

Or maybe they were running missions or trade runs. They lose unique items or whatever they were hauling, again losing materials and time

 

[angusmadmac1]

You could always lay the cost of new ship , mission loss and data loss entirely on the person who blows up a ship for no reason ? They lose engineer access and if they jump into a system are hounded by the security. Caveat is that the victim has at least a defensive capability. Run round in shieldless ships then it's down to you rather than the attacker .

 

[Jack Winter]

This topic has been covered to death on the forums already, some searching would bring up an endless supply of opinions..

 

[Morbad]

They don't have anything, can't defend themselves

All CMDRs have the means to contribute influence to the BGS and, as a practical matter, a target not being able to defend themselves is more of an argument for attacking them than otherwise.

How is this system fair?

Barring a handful of trivial benefits that some pre-order accounts may have, everyone has access to the same mechanisms. One may consciously avoid entanglements and liabilities, but unless one side or the other is cheating, they are playing by the same overarching set of rules.

 

[SteveWW57]

I'm a newer player. For me, gancker is defined as someone who kills other players for no reason or just for the kill. This is different then pirates who just want the cargo

Example of gancking that seems common, sitting outside starting systems and killing new players. They don't have anything, can't defend themselves

One of the reasons giving for destroying other players' ships is to educate them about flying aware of surroundings, building a ship that can survive an attack, developing evasion skills. As Jack has said, this topic has been done to death.

Steve

 

[husky of snow]

One of the reasons giving for destroying other players' ships is to educate them about flying aware of surroundings, building a ship that can survive an attack, developing evasion skills. As Jack has said, this topic has been done to death.

Steve

I'm new to the community, so I'm just poking around.

But if it's for education, how will the victim know that. You get killed, sent to a station...and can't contact the person who killed you.....so how do you learn anything? The don't know why they died. All they know is they got killed for what seems to be no reason

 

[HappyMoonMonkey]

lose valuable exploration data, lose the time they spend to get it, lose credits they may have worked hard to grind

No. They've not lost the time. If they didn't enjoy the exploration then that's their time wasted. If they enjoyed it then they've lost nothing.
Yes, they'll lose credits but credits are cheap in this game. But perhaps don't risk too many at once.

maybe they were running missions or trade runs. They lose unique items or whatever they were hauling,

There are no unique items to lose apart from mission items. Just do another mission.
Hauling, the same. You're choosing to risk your load in a thin hull low shield ship, or protect it with a better shield and better armour but haul less. Again, credits are cheap so it just becomes a risk equation.

 

[Screemonster]

But you admit that the victims lose valuable exploration data, lose the time they spend to get it, lose credits they may have worked hard to grind up...and the gancker loses nothing. How is this system fair?

what do you mean "admit"
I'm saying the system is flawed because the victim loses all their stuff and there's nothing you can do to the ganker that brings that back.

"the victim loses all their stuff on death" is the problem here.
It was a thing that was decided on way way way back in the early design discussions on the grounds that "death should have consequences like the old games". One of the ideas that was mooted back then by people who were completely 100% serious about their immersion in the game was that death should result in starting over.
"just like the old games" neglecting that the old games had a save system so unless you just didn't save there wasn't all that much consequence for dying at all.

The problem with ganking isn't that the ganker gets away with it, it's that the consequences for the victim are harsher than anything that could possibly be inflicted on the ganker.

 

[HappyMoonMonkey]

can't contact the person who killed you.

Friend request them and direct message them. Salt might be laughed at but sensible questions are often answered sensibly.

 

[husky of snow]

what do you mean "admit"
I'm saying the system is flawed because the victim loses all their stuff and there's nothing you can do to the ganker that brings that back.

"the victim loses all their stuff on death" is the problem here.
It was a thing that was decided on way way way back in the early design discussions on the grounds that "death should have consequences like the old games". One of the ideas that was mooted back then by people who were completely 100% serious about their immersion in the game was that death should result in starting over.
"just like the old games" neglecting that the old games had a save system so unless you just didn't save there wasn't all that much consequence for dying at all.

The problem with ganking isn't that the ganker gets away with it, it's that the consequences for the victim are harsher than anything that could possibly be inflicted on the ganker.

I apologize for miss reading what you said, sorry

 

[husky of snow]

No. They've not lost the time. If they didn't enjoy the exploration then that's their time wasted. If they enjoyed it then they've lost nothing.
Yes, they'll lose credits but credits are cheap in this game. But perhaps don't risk too many at once.

There are no unique items to lose apart from mission items. Just do another mission.
Hauling, the same. You're choosing to risk your load in a thin hull low shield ship, or protect it with a better shield and better armour but haul less. Again, credits are cheap so it just becomes a risk equation.

You have a fair point. But is it fair for a super hight their player to go after a lower powered player who is trying to get credits, materials, grind for ranks. They have no it being able to defend themselves. People grind missions for money and ranks. Ganking causes you to lose both. So you took a step backwards, sound like a waste of time to me

 

[HappyMoonMonkey]

People grind missions for money and ranks.

Please don't grind this game. That's the way to madness and quitting. Just enjoy it.

 

[husky of snow]

Please don't grind this game. That's the way to madness and quitting. Just enjoy it.

Two things

You need to grind to get anything, ships credits engineering materials.

Two

Grinding for me is fun,

 

[SteveWW57]

Two things

You need to grind to get anything, ships credits engineering materials.

Two

Grinding for me is fun,

The game can be enjoyed without grinding. Take the time to enjoy what you do. You can never go back to that first time feel.

Some people do enjoy grinding, but aiming for billion credit ship in days could lead to burnout.

Steve (who farms SDPs as it is profitable!)