Actually i would go for something completely different: a notority system. It just would add up all player kills you do. The higher the count, the more the police would be out there for you and stations will disallow you to dock. Of course this would only apply to systems which have any significant law enforcement. Empty systems and anarchy systems would still be nice homes for those people, but anything other system would be troublesome.
To also make things matter, player on the polices list won't just be chased by mall cops on segways. Once the counter reaches a certain level, the equivalent of a SWAT should be out there for them.
To go into more details, i would build the system like this:
- You have a counter for players you have killed. This counter goes up whenever you kill a player unless certain circumstances are met.
- The counter does not go up if the kill player has the option "report crimes" switched off. If this is switched off, the player has agreed to PvP and is fair game.
- The counter does not up if both involved players were in the same wing.
- The counter does not go up if both involved players were members of different factions in powerplay.
- The counter does not go up if the killed player also is above the threshold (see below) and thus also is marked as criminal. Killing a criminal never should be a crime.
- The system has a save threshold of three kills. If you are below that, you still are considered "clean". It is a game, accidents do happen, but if you rack up five player kills quickly, it must be intentional. If it is not, you are a terrible pilot and still a threat to everybody around, so it's still a good idea to contain you.
- As accidents happen and in a long career you still might rack up more accidental player kills, the count is reduced by one for every passing week. The combination of the first two aspects should give more than enough freedom for accidents, as i think that most players have not even killed one other player by accident yet. At the same time, a griefer who can do one kill a week without being punished can't really grief that much.
- Deaths do not reduce the counter. Just because you switched to your sidewinder and suicided doesn't make you less of a threat to the public, so the counter stays.
- Bonus: the counter is for your account. Even if you wipe your save, your new commander will start with a criminal record. You are a griefer, deal with it.
- The higher the counter is, the stronger the police response will be. If you just barely are over it, you might just regularily be interdicted by police in eagles and vipers, which you can survive and outrun. But if you reach really high numbers, you should expect to be interdicted by the equivalent of a SWAT team, which could consist of half a dozen Anacondas, along with another 20 ships of different kinds. You either are very good, or stay outside of non-anarchistic systems then. [A good pilot will still survive this, even if the NPCs will be gods of interdicting. But being constantly harassed by the police should get annoying and drive those players out of "secure" systems. ]
Playing as a criminal would not only still be possible, it suddenly also would feel like that. The necessary anarchistic systems to hide, repair and upgrade exist, you'd just have to pick your location and routes more carefully than the average player. You would have a very hard time in and around traditional beginner systems, while still having enough space to do stuff. You still could be the tough criminal you want to be, you just would also have to play that way. So it would weed out the wannabe-criminals, while the competent ones could even take pride in being able to overcome this challenge and survive under these conditions.
For those who can't handle the system: You can wait a few weeks till your counter is low enough, or you can buy a new account where the counter is still zero. Thank you for your financial donation for the game, i hope you have learned your lesson and play appropriately now. [And no, if we won't shed a tear if you leave. Griefing has already cost the game a number of players, who else could've been paying customers for paintjobs, horizon and future expansions. From a financial point of view, loosing a griefer is a gain for the game. Good riddance. ]
On a PS: Yes, i am very well aware that this suggestion is very much based on the fact that we are playing a game. But i also dare to point out that there is a history of suggestions which would very well suit the world of this game, the original of this thread included, which still are rejected due to this game actually being a game.
