This part of the behaviour really needs a serious re-think I feel.
You're essentially outlining a system where crew can commit all the crimes they want on non-reward granting targets and then just walk away wiping the crimes with the only deterrent being they don't gain any of the credits they never gained in killing civilians/unwanted in the first place.
It simply doesn't work as a counter rule, and just sets up a grief-centric reward system.
I agree entirely. The crime system in ED, in my humble opinion, needs a massive overhaul and this change will only increase the problems.
Also the whole magical space unicorn transportation stuff really doesn't seem to fit into the existing rules of the game.... unless Frontier have plans to re-invent the entire premise of players in the Elite universe and make us some god-grade immortal EVE-clones that can just jump between bodies at will.
Otherwise, having people whisking themselves to the other side of the galaxy in the blink of an eye just to see the latest discovery of someone who actually took the time to travel, or to get involved in conflicts hundreds of thousands of light years away without any risk or investment is just going to be nothing but a negative influence on the game and bring the game closer to a market that frankly will get bored and stop playing a couple of week after each major update or popular reveal anyway no matter what you do.
I strongly disagree. I believe this kind of abstraction is exactly what the game needs: right now, ED has a lot of QoL issues. Another one is not the answer. To elaborate a little bit: games in general have to abstract to some measure. It's impossible to be entirely realistic and, honestly, a true to life simulation would be boring as hell. I was against the transfer time and I'm utterly against a pilot transfer time. A lot of activities in the game would take a lot of time IRL - like repair or outfitting - but their are instant, so why is module transfer not?
However, how do you balance it? Because instant everything is also boring. Clicker games are the bane of the industry right now and, frankly, balanced challenge is what makes gaming fun. IMO, this could be achieved by not allowing certain actions under some circumstances, period. For example, I was against module transfer time
because I was against module transfer in any case. I was all up for module storage, however. It would be nice to pick up a bunch of stuff in discount systems and store it for later use.
So, in the case of multicrew, I have a similar instance: no pilot transfer time, because there should be no pilot transfer. Pilots should be able to board any ship in the same station/outpost/etc, but not teleport across the galaxy. "But my buddy is far away from me!": the one with the largest jump range can go pick him up. I doubt both are piloting sidewinders and, if they are, they're not likely very far apart.