Accidentally shooting friendly ships once shouldn't warrant a bounty.

[Ransurias]

Seriously -- I just lost over 110k credits in collected bounties, along with a good amount of Federation rep, because I accidentally shot a Federation-affiliated pilot *one time* during a bounty hunt. I left the area to find a Federation station to pay my bounty like the (supposedly) good, law-abiding citizen I'm trying to be, and I'm interdicted and destroyed by a large band of Federation security ships.

That's ridiculous, and it needs to be addressed. At the very, VERY least, don't make it so that every NPC in the Federation wants to murder me, my family, and my dog because I accidentally shoot one of their own (and barely nick their shields) with one measly pulse laser burst while trying to help them deal with wanted criminals.

 

[Executive]

The current system is lackluster and has nothing to do with "living dangerous" (as some elitist say) it is just flat out silly.
As long as you just hit shields and not cause damage, fines in 200cr steps should stack, up to a certain limit maybe (just brain storming here).

Like
Hit 1: 200cr
Hit 2: 400cr
Hit 3: 600cr
...

So you've got enough time to
a) realize whats going on (stupid fed fighter flying through the line of fire, let's face it...)
b)to cease fire - without terminal consequences.

If you, however, hit a ship that has no shields active and you cause real physical damage, you should instantly get a bounty like it is now - or excessive fines.
Most ships do have shields activated and together with some caution, it should prevent most of these silly friendly fire cases.

While this might not be the perfect solution, it may represent a work around. If this would happen in reality, you could simply state the fact that it was unintended etc.
We can not communicate with NPCs at all, so it would only be fair if they not go instant-gung-ho on us cause they cross the line of fire.

Talking about self-responsibility...

 

[styx850]

I have to agree, I had a similar incident while mining, a pirate jumps in scans me and demands my stuff. I responded by lighting him up. Now the system authority ships in the area were buzzing around taking pot shots at the pirate but in general being useless. I have the scum bag in my sights and in the process of giving a laser colonic when one of system authority pilots apparently on loan from the boys at Reno 911 flies right between me and the pirate catching a few shots in the process. Is that my fault? No but now I'm wanted and they start coming after me and you know what? Suddenly their aim is a whole lot F'ing better! They need to put a warning system in at least wait before I actually destroy a friendly ship before tagging me a bad guy sheesh!

 

[Ransurias]

The current system is lackluster and has nothing to do with "living dangerous" (as some elitist say) it is just flat out silly.
As long as you just hit shields and not cause damage, fines in 200cr steps should stack, up to a certain limit maybe (just brain storming here).

Like
Hit 1: 200cr
Hit 2: 400cr
Hit 3: 600cr
...

So you've got enough time to
a) realize whats going on (stupid fed fighter flying through the line of fire, let's face it...)
b)to cease fire - without terminal consequences.

If you, however, hit a ship that has no shields active and you cause real physical damage, you should instantly get a bounty like it is now - or excessive fines.
Most ships do have shields activated and together with some caution, it should prevent most of these silly friendly fire cases.

While this might not be the perfect solution, it may represent a work around. If this would happen in reality, you could simply state the fact that it was unintended etc.
We can not communicate with NPCs at all, so it would only be fair if they not go instant-gung-ho on us cause they cross the line of fire.

Talking about self-responsibility...

Reasonable points. I'll take fines over a ridiculous bounty over my head any day.

 

[bitstorm]

I want to see friendly fire have big repercussions. I do not want to see combat where you can just keep the trigger held when you risk hitting a friendly because it doesn't matter.

I agree though, that being kill on sight for the sake of a few hundred creds fine seems a bit over the top.

 

[XMadMarkX]

I agree the current system is flawed. I don't believe there should even be a fine for one hit just a warning. After all most of the time the idiot npc's regularly fly straight across live fire and thats even if your taking care not to hit anyone but the intended target.
* One hit a warning
* Two hits a 200cr fine
* Three hits 800cr fine
* Four hits 2000cr
* Five hits bounty

I do not want to see combat where you can just keep the trigger held when you risk hitting a friendly because it doesn't matter.

I don't want to see this either, and I do take care not to hit other craft by only burst firing when I'm sure to only hit the target but how do you not hit craft when just as you fire some twit flies up across your bow perilously close as you do fire.

 

[Greyson]

I support the OP

 

[Studders86]

Agree +1

Already being talked about here

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81438

 

[Ki-Natas]

One hit is to less... because multicannons for example has a high firerate and some single bullets will cause a bounty then.
Otherwise one missile can kill a damaged ship immediately. So it would be better if damage counts.
This needs to be good balanced.

 

[rparker1866]

I agree the current system is flawed. I don't believe there should even be a fine for one hit just a warning. After all most of the time the idiot npc's regularly fly straight across live fire and thats even if your taking care not to hit anyone but the intended target.
* One hit a warning
* Two hits a 200cr fine
* Three hits 800cr fine
* Four hits 2000cr
* Five hits bounty


I don't want to see this either, and I do take care not to hit other craft by only burst firing when I'm sure to only hit the target but how do you not hit craft when just as you fire some twit flies up across your bow perilously close as you do fire.

something needs to change. its getting to were its a deal breaker for me

 

[Nemesis109]

It would be pretty easy to implement a system without it being able to be exploited. Say if certain conditions were met, such as:
- minuscule damage (1 or 2 hits) to shields only
- you retract your hard points within 5 seconds of the incident

 

[Bennet]

This is a real game breaker, especially because others like to fly into my shoots...
I would prefer only getting a fine for hiting someones shield and only a bounty if I do real damage..

 

[Crimson Fury]

In freelancer, you receive two warnings before NPCs turn hostile on you. In EVE, you receive a caution message before you engage that your actions would result in dangerous consequences. It's ridiculous that Feds will got nuts even if it's just a single gattling bullet hitting them when they flew right across your view.

 

[Terrahawk]

I've been on the fence with this for a while, but I've been forced to abandon too many fun bounty hunting sessions to run off to an outpost, pay my bounty and get back out again because of this. It's not fun, it's frustrating, it's a time waster and it's something other games solved a long time ago (most FPSs have your team mates shout "hey, watch your fire" or something, and the most immersive will have them turn on you if it's more than a few stray shots in a short space of time).

I like the idea of there being consequences, but a simple stacking fine for the first handful before it turns into a bounty and rep loss would be perfect.

 

[Seigaku]

Yes, you can disable the option to auto-report crimes against you, but it would be better to only report crimes automatically against people that aren't in your friendlist.

 

[war4peace]

I'm a new player (2 days old). I generally don't fire my guns unless provoked, so this particular thing never happened to me. But on a more general note, I have noticed the exact thing someone already mentioned in this thread: pretty much every mistake you do results in annihilation.
I tried docking to the wrong place by mistake, that timer for loitering showed up, I got some controls mixed up (playing with keyboard and mouse ain't that easy) and reversed when I should have risen, got stuck in something, wasn't able to pull up immediately. To my shame, I thought the timer reaching zero meant I'd be safe (silly me). So by the time I was able to pull up with some maneuvering, everyone and their dog were shooting at me.
Now the really funny thing started...
I was able to pull away from the station with 50% HP left, and after maybe 30 seconds I received a message saying something like "crime timer expired, you can re-dock now" (don't remember the exact text). Anyway, I thought I'd be safe, so I went back only to find myself blasted into oblivion because everyone and their dog started shooting me again. Obviously, I died, failed my petty transport mission and was left with this nagging feeling that I was scammed into dying, by NPCs of all things!

I understand E is a harsh universe and I don't ask for pampered gameplay, but there's a difference between "harsh" (e.g. fly too close to a ship and you're toast) and "unnecesarily harsh" ("push a button one second too long and you're dead").

How about getting a basic fine which increases by X credits per second for Y seconds until it reaches a threshold and then you're free game?

 

[Heltik]

Okay, this seriously ruined the game for me. Bounty hunting session at a resource site. 1 stray shot gets me wanted. This has happened a couple of times in the last day, except this time, I got chased by a federation security viper. I did not want my bounty to stack so tried outrunning it, however his weapon load out kept disabling my FSD. Eventually I got destroyed without loosing a single shot in anger. Cost to me was well over 1 million credits in buy back fee and lost bounties. That's totally         . Frontier really needs to sort this, or allow for payment of bounties whilst in space, within a reasonable window. Alternatively, just look at my stacked vouchers, and if I have more than 1000 times as much owed to me as the 200 for the accidental shot, classify it as such. Too        off to play now.

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And while I'm at it - if one's status is Allied or Friendly with a faction - shouldn't this be taken into account before a kill order is issued... The last thing I want to have to do is destroy allies because one strays into the path of my shots, or I accidentally mis-target. It's completely wrong and stupid.

 

[DanaM]

Okay, this seriously ruined the game for me Too off to play now.

And while I'm at it - if one's status is Allied or Friendly with a faction - shouldn't this be taken into account before a kill order is issued... The last thing I want to have to do is destroy allies because one strays into the path of my shots, or I accidentally mis-target. It's completely wrong and stupid.

I understand your frustration. Feels like the game is playing "Gotcha." But then, that's how cops in the game "Sol, 2016" are to. Had one pointing his little radar gun at me as I drove down the street today (where's my Plasma Accelerator when I need it?). Just how cops usually are.

FWIW, I usually bounty hunt in Haz Res sites, so if I get wanted due to a stray shot or friendly flying into my beam I usually just keep hunting and keep a little distance from the friendlies until I'm ready to rearm, then it's just a jump out of system and back and done. Fine? What fine? I don't pay fines......

 

[Velixar]

Don't spay and pray. Use your radar and sound.

 

[SirGirard]

I bounty hunt in HazRes, CNB'S and NB'S all the time and I treat the occasional friendly fire mistake I make as an occupational hazard? You pick up a 200/400cr bounty but most NCP'S, will ignore you for a while. If they start coming after you just Hot Wake out, let your timer run out then return back and your wanted tag has gone. You can then pay your legacy fine at your convenience! No big deal?