There is a contradiction going through the minds of some around here that really makes my brain hurt.
Before I delve into it, I will be clear that I am primarily a Solo/Private Group Pilot. It's unlikely that you will ever see me in open or even Mobius for that matter.
So take everything that I say with a grain of salt.
I voted NO to a Open PvE flag, I do not think it is an ideal solution.
I believe players have the right to be psychotic. I believe players should be able to kill defenseless explorers and traders.
However, It's not fun to be the defenseless trader or explorer. So these players start asking for protection.
The contradiction though, is when the killer replies, "It's called Elite Dangerous it's supposed to be Dangerous. Why do you want the game less dangerous?"
The problem here, Mr. Killer, is that the game isn't "Dangerous" for you. Where, pray tell, is the danger in killing a defenseless ship? You want the game to be dangerous, but you don't seem to want the game to be dangerous for you.
System security is a joke, even in high security systems. They drop in and have to scan everyone first, and usually it ends up being the victim they scan first. Additionally, it takes about 10 seconds to complete a scan, which is too long in a combat scenario.
Concord, in EVE, is instantaneous, and they come in guns blazing.(At least since the last time I played) I left EVE because I don't really enjoy PvP(at least in the way EVE does it) all that much, but it NEVER felt unfair like it does in Elite.
Now, I haven't flown a Corvette or Anaconda, but I have flown the Fer Del Lance. NPCs are a joke in a FDL, pre buffs, pre engineers. With all the buffs that FDLs get every other update and the engineer upgrades. NPCs become really really really sad joke. So sad, that the joke became funny then sad again.
It's so bad, that I only fly the smaller combat ships.
Other players, player policing? Instancing get's in the way the majority of the time. There is no player to player bounties. No player bounty board. No way to track wanted players.
The pilots federation insures the majority of your ships cost on death. So it is not unreasonable to remove a large portion or all of the insurance for killing(NOT ATTACKING) a fellow Pilots federation member who was not a legal target. This could be a percentage that scales based on how "unfair" the murder was. This would push gankers/greifers into smaller ships, and diminish the ridiculously unbalanced scenarios. This penalty would last about a week or as long as it takes for the initial bounty to go dormant. The week resets when the player kills an illegal target again, with the penalty for that added on to the first up to the full cost of the ship.
This would ensure that CMDR Voldemort( not any specific player just picked a random name) would have to hide our a week before he is safe to kill another newbie in a sidewinder with his Corvette.
This would have to be compounded with better player bounty tools and better system security.
Now legal targets can be defined as a Player in an opposing Powerplay faction that doesn't share the same major faction. So the Empire Powerplay factions can't murder each other etc. Players in an opposing faction in a combat zone. Players with a bounty, provided that they are kill warrant scanned in the scenarios it applies. Players with "Report Crimes Against Me" turned off(for the purpose of dueling). Players who fire first(in case the duel was a trick).
TL : DR Psychotic behavior or griefing should be severely punished, but not restricted.
