Friendly Fire Warning

[Stormprooter]

So there you are, taking on a Python or Anaconda pirate, and they take a while to wear down, then the system authority vessels turn up and join in - not a problem, nice to have a bit of help.

So you're about 1.5km from the target, multi-cannons and pulse lasers blazing away, and one of the cops strays through your line of fire - you are immediately wanted in that system - which is a real annoynace.

Would it be possible, that when you hit a neutral or friendly target, they issue a warning to watch your fire, and only if you hit them again after that (within a certain time period) will they become hostile, and you (the player) become wanted. In the cases where the neutral or friendly craft is on 1% hull, and you destroy them (accidentally), well, no chance for a warning so you would have to accept the consequences as they are in the game right now.

I understand this is not a high priority, and you probably already have some kind of plans or ideas along similar lines.

 

[Cyda]

+10 to this. Nothing worse than suddenly having everything turn red in a second because of a stray shot.

 

[shoXx]

I like this idea but I think it should only apply to NPC's, players could (should) settle friendly fire incidents between themselves.

 

[Robert Maynard]

If a player can hit an NPC without necessarily being considered to be hostile, what about an NPC "accidentally" hitting a player?

The simple answer (i.e. one which does not require a complex rule-set to determine the outcome - especially as the game cannot possibly determine player intent) is for players to take more care when firing.

This topic has come up a number of times before and Frontier have made no moves to change the consequences for stray shots.

 

[Stormprooter]

If a player can hit an NPC without necessarily being considered to be hostile, what about an NPC "accidentally" hitting a player?

The simple answer (i.e. one which does not require a complex rule-set to determine the outcome - especially as the game cannot possibly determine player intent) is for players to take more care when firing.

This topic has come up a number of times before and Frontier have made no moves to change the consequences for stray shots.

This is a very good point - how many hits before the NPC is considered hostile? And with all the different firing rates and damage levels of various weapons it is not a simple problem to solve.
Perhaps someway towards an answer is that it only applies when dealing with NPC system authority or military faction ships in a warzone, but then perhaps that opens up a can of worms for folk to complain about it not applying for other scenarios.
Some leeway would be nice - if possible. If not, then as you say, we will have to learn to live with taking much more care when firing.

 

[rayssoft]

+1 This would be a great feature!! Please add...

 

[pjrm1470]

I never had this issue before. Even now it continues not to be one.
My opnion:
You are an Elite! You must know about every object around you. If you see a Anaconda firing an Wanted ship and it's bounty is huge, you'll straight between then just because you want to shot the wanted while you in the middle cross-fire!? To me this is nonsense.

I always manage to avoid shooting other ships while in combat. You can see the ship coming through your front panel and your window. When that happen, I just stop shooting.

Just a note: Do you know you can force "Clean" ships to become "Wanted" !? it's so nice, but you take damage to do it. hehehe.

 

[Ttaskmaster]

It is possible and has been mentioned many times.
Other games have done it, usually as a set number of milliseconds worth of fire, regardless of damage caused, which typically works out as 5 definite hits over about 0.75 seconds.

You can see the ship coming through your front panel and your window.

Not always - Had a couple where the cockpit view is quite restricted and my target is right up against the limit of my vision, while the 'innocent ' was coming in from the opposite direction. Radar was exceptionally crowded, even at max zoom and the target was quite probably bored of life.
No chance of avoiding that one.

I also get annoyed when the cops show up to 'rescue' me after someone has shot me and go on to steal my kill, all while calling ME the Freebooter - I'm a bounty hunter. It's my JOB!!
I can't even turn off crime reporting, as I need that to turn the targets Wanted and avoid getting a bounty my own self.

 

[Hexcaliber]

Yes why not add crutches so poor players can have an easier time of it.

Pay attention to the world around you, do not fight blinkered focusing on your target to the exclusion of all else. If you are waiting and relying on seeing other ships passing through your field of view, you are as they say, doing it wrong. It only takes a momentary glance at the radar to establish where everything is in relation to your ship. If I hit a ship that was not wanted and assuming it was not on purpose it was my own fault.

Oh and stop jamming the fire button as hard as you can until your weapons run out of ammo or energy, use some self-control, then disciplined fire control becomes second nature.

I can't even turn off crime reporting, as I need that to turn the targets Wanted and avoid getting a bounty my own self.

Of course you can, stop making excuses for being a lazy gamer and force yourself to be more active in combat. You only need crime reporting on until they hit you, it takes no more than a second to toggle it.

 

[Zeeman]

If a player can hit an NPC without necessarily being considered to be hostile, what about an NPC "accidentally" hitting a player?

First of all, I have been having Feds land shots on me to kingdom come, and with my status clean - they don't turn wanted. I'm pretty sure it was intentional after the 50th laser blast.

2nd... It's easy. The "Cone of Stupid" would solve this.

If a player or NPC is firing at a target that is locked, an invisible cone is projected - if someone flies through this cone, they are stupid, and no offense is recorded. In the same way that no one in their righ tmind would walk between a soldier shooting at a target...

Z...

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

I never had this issue before. Even now it continues not to be one.
My opnion:
You are an Elite! You must know about every object around you. If you see a Anaconda firing an Wanted ship and it's bounty is huge, you'll straight between then just because you want to shot the wanted while you in the middle cross-fire!? To me this is nonsense.

I always manage to avoid shooting other ships while in combat. You can see the ship coming through your front panel and your window. When that happen, I just stop shooting.

Lucky you, that you have never had a ship fly across so close that you actually have no time to react at all. Either you snipe from a distance, you are very new, or you are just darn lucky!

Just a note: Do you know you can force "Clean" ships to become "Wanted" !? it's so nice, but you take damage to do it. hehehe.

This seemed to be the case for a while, but for some reason I don't see this anymore. Not with the feds, anyways... They seem to have no problem blasting away at me whilst I'm clean. Very frustrating when chasing a 70k bounty...

Z...

 

[pjrm1470]

Lucky you, that you have never had a ship fly across so close that you actually have no time to react at all. Either you snipe from a distance, you are very new, or you are just darn lucky!

it's not a common situation, but yes, i did fly close to and with other around me... It requires me quite attention to not fire at the wrong ship. I may say that sometimes i get lucky, coz my laser goes so close to them when they pass through, however I can say that i never hit by accident someone else.

 

[Ttaskmaster]

Of course you can, stop making excuses for being a lazy gamer and force yourself to be more active in combat. You only need crime reporting on until they hit you, it takes no more than a second to toggle it.

A second?
Takes about nine or ten key-presses over several seconds, unless they've made that specific function mappable to a key and I've not noticed?
Regardless, I'm still in a ship that, unless I'm very careful, will kark it in just a few hits from the sort of ship sthe bad guys are flying. I don't have the time or the large number of HOTAS controls to calmly scroll through UI interfaces while jigging and juking away from enemies who aren't even on screen at the time!

How active do I have to be, then, bearing in mind I'm already watching about 12 different things and executing at least 8 commands all at the same time?

 

[efb]

it puzzles me why some people think that this game should be hard as possible and dont want to let others have a slightly easier time or introduction say in a small volume of space to get there eye in.

if you want real life I suggest stop playing games

 

[pjrm1470]

A second?
Takes about nine or ten key-presses over several seconds, unless they've made that specific function mappable to a key and I've not noticed?
Regardless, I'm still in a ship that, unless I'm very careful, will kark it in just a few hits from the sort of ship sthe bad guys are flying. I don't have the time or the large number of HOTAS controls to calmly scroll through UI interfaces while jigging and juking away from enemies who aren't even on screen at the time!

How active do I have to be, then, bearing in mind I'm already watching about 12 different things and executing at least 8 commands all at the same time?

you could program one of your buttons to do a sequency of commands... [4][down][down]...[space][4]
I'm using "Mad Catz STRIKE 7 Gaming Keyboard". It take a second to do that. Otherwise, the way is practice to gain speed and control under stress situations...

 

[Ttaskmaster]

you could program one of your buttons to do a sequency of commands

I have a Logitech G19 and a FLY-5, but did already try this for going cold. Seems to have problems recognising in-game commands with context-dependent controls... that, or the game cannot keep up at the speed the macro is running, maybe.

it puzzles me why some people think that this game should be hard as possible and dont want to let others have a slightly easier time or introduction say in a small volume of space to get there eye in.

They're Elitist: Dangerous!

Nah, it's either just people who have been playing so long they no longer find it difficult, or those who are born with gamepads in their hands and don't appreciate/care if others don't have the exact same abilities as they do... kinda like BMW drivers, really!!

 

[Fl3]

Here's an idea, how about the number of friendly fire "accidents" a player is allowed before the shooting starts is tied to their standing with the faction that the ships involved belong to.
No standing "This guy must be part of them because he's attacking us! Kill him!"
Allied "Check your fire commander, that's the 3rd time you've hit me"

 

[Ozric]

What happens if you "accidental" shot hits someone with only 1% hull left?

I'm sorry my stance on this has always been and will always be, it should stay as it is now. Can tell me that when a ship flys past you in the heat of battle and you pitch around 180 degress, you can tell that your not accidentally flying into someone else's line of fire?

*Edit* Also I'm slightly surprised the OP needed to make another thread about this as you've obviously been around long enough to have taken part in all the others

 

[Dean Smith]

I have been up a pirate's exhaust pipe unloading all four multi-cannons into their hull as laser fire from two cops and one keener ablate my rear shields as they try to hit the pirate I have targeted.

Do they get Wanted status? Nope.

 

[Winterwalker]

I have been up a pirate's exhaust pipe unloading all four multi-cannons into their hull as laser fire from two cops and one keener ablate my rear shields as they try to hit the pirate I have targeted.

Do they get Wanted status? Nope.

Way of the World ^^

Authorities have a long held tradition of being harsh in Elite games
(try, even accidentally, discharging your weapons inside a port ...) ~

Solution: Check your targets, and if Police in the area, switch attack angle
... and keep them out of the line of your fire!

Cos you KNOW what will happen ....

Spoiler

 

[pjrm1470]

Here's an idea, how about the number of friendly fire "accidents" a player is allowed before the shooting starts is tied to their standing with the faction that the ships involved belong to.
No standing "This guy must be part of them because he's attacking us! Kill him!"
Allied "Check your fire commander, that's the 3rd time you've hit me"

I approve this!

Even though whos back, have the responsability of avoid shooting the ally in front. But is always nice to get a friendly message warning about our actions...