That's a fairly long winded way of saying that the ganker takes basically no risk.
Stop obsessing over how unfair life is, its not healthy in the game. If you are prepared and plan, the ganker has to work harder to find and kill you.
This what you envision PvP to be? Do you envision it to be a turkey shoot where fully kitted out engineered meta build vessels find the weakest prey and attack them relentlessly? I don't want to be on either side of that equation.
I gather a lot of other people don't want to be on either side of that equation either which is basically my point. It's why you are flying around in open staring at a star field.
Not passing judgment on either play style, it's your game you can play however you want obviously. The rest of the community is going to react how they do and that's how the votes have gone so far.
Votes? Really? Where are they? Is this the silent vocal majority again?
PvP in ED is opportunistic, you have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time flying the wrong ship. Remove one or more of those variables and the problem stops- and its all within your power to do. So stop being so wet and take control.
I already covered that. If you relog to get favorable circumstances then you're basically cherry-picking to say re-logging during a fight is somehow breaks a game ethics code while the other re-logging for favorable circumstances are okay.
So if you log holding merits that could win a cycle of Powerplay, thats OK then? If a win / lose condition is dependent on it, I'd say you are talking cobblers.
Either you play the game straight up and you don't relog to change your circumstances or you think re-logging is okay. If you think relogging is okay then combat logging isn't very far away. It all comes down to exiting the game and restarting to change the circumstances you are dealt by the game.
Granted I don't combat log, I don't even play in open but the concept seems the same basically. To an extent the griefer is being griefed. There are some exceptions though and I believe I covered those already with consensual PVP.
If someone logs at Davs Hope, a) its dull b) shows FDs poor design choices and c) does not affect a game loop between people fighting in space. There is no equivalence because one is gathering an item, the other is player v player interaction.
But it's not about being a pirate. That role role is covered already. It's about the person being pirated wanting to play along with that entire scenario. That's why I said I will decide what I need. I'm not going to be the pirate. So if I'm going to be pirated I would like at least to have some type of roleplay where I understand this individual who is pirating me is indeed playing this role and doing so with a code of conduct even if it doesn't match mine completely. This is why I enjoyed playing alongside the Code because even though I was destroyed a few times by them they always introduced themselves to me and asked me what I was doing there and it was up to me how I wanted to deal with that. Just saying give me your stuff makes you no better than an NPC so why should I honor anything you want?
You can't make consent of a crime consensual beyond clicking Open, which according to how ED market the game means other commanders might be hostile towards you.
Again, what is wrong saying "stop, drop cargo or die?" thats a pirate, and if you don't stop they make you stop. The problem arises in ED from being able to log out even when the pirate is doing the right thing, and that for ages trader ship hulls were made of cardboard (meaning they were weaker than the thrusters you try to disable).
I don't think anyone here has asked for that one hundred percent cast-iron way of never being destroyed. I'm not worried about being destroyed - I've got billions upon billions of credits to fall back on. I just want something out of the exchange other than a rebuy screen. Otherwise I do not feel in the least bit compelled to offer gameplay to a group of players who aren't offering any gameplay back.
The problem in ED is that there is no ecosystem- its totally dysfunctional. With credit scarcity and high running costs traders and miners have the money to pay for protection from mercs (who rely on danger money) while pirates have to be as good as possible- and that gankers soon run out of cash. In reality we have too many credits, leading to gankers who can eat rebuy after rebuy.
Thats the problem.
I understand all the nuances in the ins-and-outs of pirating and being pirated - I've been playing this game for a long time. I'm telling you why most of the bubble is going to be empty in Open and why people are going to combat log against you much of the time.
And shows why they don't understand what Open is, which is sad.
Besides, I wouldn't be against a "you win" flag where the loser can limp off and lick their wounds somewhere and not actually lose their ship. This would mean you get something out of it for winning other than a moral victory. It would certainly be better than looking at a combat log empty space with a vapor trail.
Then what is left is a long line of broken game loops and unsatisfying interactions, fuelling more bored gankers rather than via design encourage fully formed outcomes.