I just had what I think is a good idea without processing it too much, just came to me now, so don't be too critical please, I may well have not thought it through!
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synopsis:
This means that a griefer if destroyed while wanted, will have no insurance options, ship lost. It also ensures that even playing in solo to avoid being bounty hunted during that time, there will still be a high level of risk. Plus, even if they do choose to hide-out in solo during that period, well that's win for us legit players too, as they aren't in open play! So bounty timeouts need to be a decent deterrent, say a real life week for each player ship destroyed, stacking both bounties and weeks with each clean player ship destroyed.
Unaltered, I am not unaware that this leaves the state that in the case two players legitimately want to have a duel and face the consequences, that if both ships were clean, whoever fired first would be considered a murderer and even if it was an epic battle and they survived by the skin of their teeth, they'd be branded a murderer, have a huge bounty and lose their ship insurance temporarily. The way to mitigate this is to say that if a player attacks another player, and the attacked player turns and fights and does, let's say 10% damage to the attacking ships overall integrity taking into account shields and hull (so lets say a 300mj shield represents 300 integrity, plus another 700 from the hull, if the attacked player returned fire and did 100 damage), at that point, it would be considered a fair duel and only the normal bounty as seen in the current system would apply to the player who fired first and subsequently destroyed a 'clean' ship, no matter how epic the battle, non global wanted level, no loss of insurance. Because nobody should be penalised for defending themselves from wanton attack and there should still be 'some' penalty for the brazen unreasonable attack. So, players can't turn and fight, then complain when they lose, either. Basically, if you try to run and they destroy you, the consequences for the griefer are harsh, whereas if you turn and fight, well, that's your lookout.
This also means that insurance payments can be anticipated by players and unexpected death isn't the sudden financial handicap it can be sometimes currently. It's win, win, win, isn't it?
Now, if I've missed some glaringly obvious reason why this won't work or is open to abuse, feel free to let me know, but please be nice, it is a genuine attempt to solve the problem that keeps me and many others out of open, and it ties up a weird mechanic (ship insurance) neatly.
