The definition of bullying is when an individual or a group of people with more power, repeatedly and intentionally cause hurt or harm to another person or group of people who feel helpless to respond. (National Centre Against Bullying)
This describes the behaviour of the gankers and griefers at the Delivery type Community Goal destinations. Bullies in highly engineered PvP ships interdict and kill lightly armed Traders and, because they often operate in wings, their targets have no chance of escape. Then they boast about their exploits on the local comms.
Almost universally, bullying is condemned and action taken against bullies, however Elite Dangerous at the least tolerates if not condones ganking and griefing. The issue has been discussed numerous times in the past but, as far as I know, no effective action has ever been taken.
As I understand it, one of the intentions of the Community Goals is to bring together Commanders all working towards the common objective. That intention is nullified if pilots fly in Solo or Private Group to avoid the bullies.
I have a suggestion that, I think, would curb such behaviour and make Open a much more attractive option.
For the duration of a Delivery CG, and only in the destination System, any interdiction should immediately result in an overwhelming response by the ATR (Advanced Tactical Responders) who instantly attack any ship that fires its weapons. For this to be effective two conditions should be met:
1. The ATR should be present immediately when the ships drop into normal space not, as is the present case, some minutes after the attack starts. It only takes between 5 and 15 seconds for a griefer to kill his target, so the ATR must be present to deal with the hostile ship(s) instantly.
2. The ATR should immediately engage any ship, that fires its weapons, with overwhelming force and kill it in the same way that Space Stations kill ships who fire inside the perimeter.
I understand that this might affect the Bounty type Community Goals, but that could easily be dealt with by establishing zones, similar to Compromised Navigation Beacons, where there would be no ATR response.
I do not believe that this would be difficult to implement and, in my opinion, would greatly improved the participation in and enjoyment of the Community Goals
Thank you.
So have you thought about how the game rules works? because there are several options for you to take to deal with this kind of situation... and some of these, are very much disliked by the "other side".... their version of getting bullied...
1. This game have several mode of play, solo, private groups, and open. you are freely to choose whatever mode you like for almost any activity, obviously joining a wing with friends of do multicrew while in solo is not possible, other than that, you can do any task in any mode. You have the choice. If open is to "awful", seek out Private groups like Mobius, that acts like Open but without PvP.
2. There is a powerful blocking option in the game, when you block someone, they get removed from being instanced with you in open. you can still be instanced with blocked people, but in most cases, you do not see people you have blocked. This is your option if you feel you are getting bullied into meaning PvP by certain other players.
3. Having a ship that survive the exit to menu, and the login in a different mode, is an approved FDev gameplay. Basically, Enter menu, select exit to menu, wait the timelimit and select exit. and if you are still alive you shipo is saved and you can log back in another game mode. If you select to block the player, you should in theory be able to login back into the open and not be in the same instance as the other player (I have not tested this myself).
So there you have a few powerful options to get rid of the unwanted players that YOU control. Because FDev have been pretty clear that it is working as intended.
Of course FDev can change the game rules/mechanics, but what you are suggesting is not a viable solution to this kind of problem. Because, if ganker can destroy your ship faster than the suggested ATR can destroy the ganker, then you would still die and the ganker escapes. Not exactly what you was hoping for.... and there is no magic in creating something that can destroy a ship within seconds, especially weaker tradeships that might run with no shields etc to maximize cargo capacity... I have ship that according to Coriolis will take out a stock Type 9 in FIVE seconds... compare that to my hardened, but "expensive" type 9, that will survive atleast 23 seconds (enough to menu log)... choices options, etc... Now I do not use my killing machine on other players, I hunt pirate lords with that one.. and depending on how evasive they are, I can kill them within 10-20 seconds, depending on good I am at aiming.
This is not a problem that unique to Community Goals, so we are not really solving anything here by doing this, we would just move the problem around. So while FDev is considering what they want todo, use the available options to your advantage, that is what your "bullies" do...
