Let's see if I can manage to do this without violating a rule and getting this thread locked or deleted. Here goes nothin'.
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First off, a little history. I started playing back near the end of beta, so I've been around for a little bit. When I first started, I played Open Play exclusively. After all, that's one of the major features of this game, the ability to play with other people. I got killed a few times, but everyone was still in crappy, new ships, so it didn't matter. Nothing really mattered, because learning was what was important, and starting over was no big deal.
.
Then I started trading, and after a while, dying would end up costing me hours of work (between rebuy and cost of haul), and knowing how people are, I could not accept this risk, so I went to solo/private group to get some trading done in peace. Well, I became addicted to not dying while flying a defenseless ship, and worked my way all the way up to an okay-ish Anaconda (a little over 200m). Nothing to write home about, but after days and days of flying Type-Xs, it was awesome.
.
So, my brother and I decide to play together. I make the decision to play in Open Play - my first mistake. I jump out to him, we head out for a RES. There are a couple other players in-system, but they're all apparently clean. We're almost to the RES, and I get interdicted by an Orca. I submit, it's a player. He deploys but doesn't fire, so I figure he's scanning me; I have no bounties, so I'm not worried. My brother drops to me just as I'm jumping out; I tell him to jump back out. Dude starts attacking him just before he jumps out - and my brother is only in a basic Cobra. After some running around, I finally get sick of playing, and engage him. He springs the trap (silent running, heat sinks, upgraded hull, ram and guns). I jump out, he catches up, kills me.
.
No cargo. No bounties. He didn't get anything out of the engagement except the enjoyment of killing a "noob" in an Anaconda (for the record, I'm not completely stupid; I had my rebuy cost).
.
But that's not even the issue. It's that the criminal justice system in this game is pathetic. Report crimes against me? Useless. The guy MURDERED me. And what will the cops do about it? "SCAN DETECTED... Just murder, no illegal cargo? Move along." Just... no.
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Ultima Online, the first MMO, had a better justice system than this game. Five kills of innocent players, and you turned Red, meaning you were Killed On Sight by town guards until you turned Blue again - eight hours per kill, making you town-less for FORTY HOURS of playtime. There is nothing even close to that here. Bounties? Please. A bounty is as much of a deterrent to people who get their kicks ruining other people's fun as a piece of paper is to an asteroid.
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"Name of the game, noob. You're dangerous. *whips off Aviators*" Oh yeah? Dangerous to who? Because from what I can see, the game is only dangerous as long as you, yourself, are not part of the danger. The moment you stop seeing your fellow players as potential allies and start seeing them as prey, you minimize their ability to prey on you.
.
But you know what? I don't really want to play a game where I have to assume that everyone is going to kill me just because they can do so with a minimum of consequences, when it has taken me literally days, weeks to get where I am. I mean really. A bounty, for murdering someone, possibly eliminating days or weeks of work in a matter of seconds - and that's IT!?
.
First off, a little history. I started playing back near the end of beta, so I've been around for a little bit. When I first started, I played Open Play exclusively. After all, that's one of the major features of this game, the ability to play with other people. I got killed a few times, but everyone was still in crappy, new ships, so it didn't matter. Nothing really mattered, because learning was what was important, and starting over was no big deal.
.
Then I started trading, and after a while, dying would end up costing me hours of work (between rebuy and cost of haul), and knowing how people are, I could not accept this risk, so I went to solo/private group to get some trading done in peace. Well, I became addicted to not dying while flying a defenseless ship, and worked my way all the way up to an okay-ish Anaconda (a little over 200m). Nothing to write home about, but after days and days of flying Type-Xs, it was awesome.
.
So, my brother and I decide to play together. I make the decision to play in Open Play - my first mistake. I jump out to him, we head out for a RES. There are a couple other players in-system, but they're all apparently clean. We're almost to the RES, and I get interdicted by an Orca. I submit, it's a player. He deploys but doesn't fire, so I figure he's scanning me; I have no bounties, so I'm not worried. My brother drops to me just as I'm jumping out; I tell him to jump back out. Dude starts attacking him just before he jumps out - and my brother is only in a basic Cobra. After some running around, I finally get sick of playing, and engage him. He springs the trap (silent running, heat sinks, upgraded hull, ram and guns). I jump out, he catches up, kills me.
.
No cargo. No bounties. He didn't get anything out of the engagement except the enjoyment of killing a "noob" in an Anaconda (for the record, I'm not completely stupid; I had my rebuy cost).
.
But that's not even the issue. It's that the criminal justice system in this game is pathetic. Report crimes against me? Useless. The guy MURDERED me. And what will the cops do about it? "SCAN DETECTED... Just murder, no illegal cargo? Move along." Just... no.
.
Ultima Online, the first MMO, had a better justice system than this game. Five kills of innocent players, and you turned Red, meaning you were Killed On Sight by town guards until you turned Blue again - eight hours per kill, making you town-less for FORTY HOURS of playtime. There is nothing even close to that here. Bounties? Please. A bounty is as much of a deterrent to people who get their kicks ruining other people's fun as a piece of paper is to an asteroid.
.
"Name of the game, noob. You're dangerous. *whips off Aviators*" Oh yeah? Dangerous to who? Because from what I can see, the game is only dangerous as long as you, yourself, are not part of the danger. The moment you stop seeing your fellow players as potential allies and start seeing them as prey, you minimize their ability to prey on you.
.
But you know what? I don't really want to play a game where I have to assume that everyone is going to kill me just because they can do so with a minimum of consequences, when it has taken me literally days, weeks to get where I am. I mean really. A bounty, for murdering someone, possibly eliminating days or weeks of work in a matter of seconds - and that's IT!?
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