A Way to Fix Ganking Forever

[RellTyr]

Problem: Gankers (higher ranking players attacking defenseless noobs) are let off too easy.

Solution:

- Incremental fine of 10% to 50% of the offending CMDR's total equity, by taking into account the disparity value of the players's equities (the total value of each CMDR's credits, ships, Engineered Modules, time played etc) and between the player's ranks. The greater the disparity, the greater the fine that the offending CMDR must pay to authorities.

- Implementation of a faction-wide or galaxy-wide (depending on severity of crime) CMDR Bounty Board - issued by system authorities where CMDRs can hunt other Wanted CMDRs, maybe apart of a faction or power mission. Greater the severity of crime, the higher the bounty.

- Incidents are considered resolved once both the fine as well as the bounty is paid - meaning the Ganker doesn't get away with murder if he pays a few thousand credits' fine - he must also be destroyed as penance. Each bounty hunter that is killed by the offending CMDR has their bounty raised accordingly.

- This would cause the player base itself to become a loose well-incentivised security force and would make anarchy or pirate systems something even greater to fear, adding to realism.

 

[Caramel Clown]

I don't really think ganking is something that needs to be fixed. After all, game promises you ability to "blaze your own trail".

 

[Viscera]

100% fix already exists. It is impossible to be ganked in solo.

 

[SCiARA]

I also don't think it's something that needs fixing but there should be harsher consequences

Problem: Gankers (higher ranking players attacking defenseless noobs) are let off too easy.

Solution:
- Implementation of a faction-wide or galaxy-wide (depending on severity of crime) CMDR Bounty Board - issued by system authorities where CMDRs can hunt other Wanted CMDRs, maybe apart of a faction or power mission. Greater the severity of crime, the higher the bounty.

this right here would be a great way, no fines for the murderers so they can't pay out of trouble
a huge bounty on their heads and a more public awareness of them with info on where they might be

 

[PRORABBIT67]

 

[Morbad]

100% fix already exists. It is impossible to be ganked in solo.

Bring back gold traps!

 

[Bigmaec]

I wonder if there is a correlation between restarted CGs and new numbers of ganking threads

 

[Ian Doncaster]

- Incremental fine of 10% to 50% of the offending CMDR's total equity, by taking into account the disparity value of the players's equities (the total value of each CMDR's credits, ships, Engineered Modules, time played etc) and between the player's ranks. The greater the disparity, the greater the fine that the offending CMDR must pay to authorities.

So ... ganker gets a free alt in the current sale, moves the Harmless Freewinder to a popular system, hangs around the HazRES silent running until people in nice expensive combat ships accidentally clip them ... then boosts into a rock to give them a multi-billion bounty? (which their main account with the actual PvP murderboat can then claim...) Sure, it serves them right for having no target discipline, but the amount they already complain about accidentally handing themselves into the prison ship over a 200 credit NPC assault bounty, they're clearly not going to solve it by getting that.

Or station ramming with the same Freewinder, for that matter. Sure, the game warns you not to speed, but half your net assets as a punishment for doing it once seems a big much.

It would indeed solve ganking forever ... by giving gankers an even easier and more effective way to cost their victims even larger amounts of money.


(I would agree with not allowing murder bounties to be paid off at Interstellar Factors, and making players with very large bounties easier to find, though.)

 

[Danieros]

I also don't think it's something that needs fixing but there should be harsher consequences

this right here would be a great way, no fines for the murderers so they can't pay out of trouble
a huge bounty on their heads and a more public awareness of them with info on where they might be

It even makes sense. We all come from the pilots federation. Would be understandable if it had an extra layer of consequences on deviant commanders since those folks do put a stain on it, as long as anarchies remain lawless.

 

[RellTyr]

100% fix already exists. It is impossible to be ganked in solo.

That's the coward's way out

So ... ganker gets a free alt in the current sale, moves the Harmless Freewinder to a popular system, hangs around the HazRES silent running until people in nice expensive combat ships accidentally clip them ... then boosts into a rock to give them a multi-billion bounty? (which their main account with the actual PvP murderboat can then claim...) Sure, it serves them right for having no target discipline, but the amount they already complain about accidentally handing themselves into the prison ship over a 200 credit NPC assault bounty, they're clearly not going to solve it by getting that.

Or station ramming with the same Freewinder, for that matter. Sure, the game warns you not to speed, but half your net assets as a punishment for doing it once seems a big much.

It would indeed solve ganking forever ... by giving gankers an even easier and more effective way to cost their victims even larger amounts of money.


(I would agree with not allowing murder bounties to be paid off at Interstellar Factors, and making players with very large bounties easier to find, though.)

A simple zap wouldn't warrant a multibillion bounty... that would be dumb.

Everything would be relative, for example killing CMDRs (not NPCs) would get you fined relative to the ships that were being used as well as a starting 10% bounty which increases over time to 50%... by that time most matters would be resolved and the vast majority of people don't even have 100 mil to rub together - so bounties that large would be very rare.

 

[Bottom Hat]

I wonder if there is a correlation between restarted CGs and new numbers of ganking threads

The force is strong in this one....

 

[Ian Doncaster]

A simple zap wouldn't warrant a multibillion bounty... that would be dumb.

The game currently considers assaulting a player who dies shortly thereafter to be murder, and gives bounties accordingly. It might just be a "simple zap" but Sidewinders don't have much hull to start with, especially if they've strategically knocked it down to 5% on some rocks first.

Removing that rule would be a big drop in the existing C&P severity.

Everything would be relative, for example killing CMDRs (not NPCs) would get you fined relative to the ships that were being used as well as a starting 10% bounty which increases over time to 50%... by that time most matters would be resolved and the vast majority of people don't even have 100 mil to rub together - so bounties that large would be very rare.

If they're flying a big-3 in the RES, they have at least 300 million in total assets and probably an extra zero on top of that.

10% of total assets is a big hit regardless of how many you have, unless you've been mining so much you literally don't need to care - it wasn't until I'd been playing for a few years that my total cash was reliably high enough to have 10% of assets (+a rebuy) in cash at all.

Equally a ganker who knows this rule is in place can run a cheap ship on an alt, and keep most of their actual assets safe on another account, transferring a bit of cash over (with a carrier) when the attack alt needs its funds topping up.

 

[Caydran]

My two cents worth.

I would like to see Fdev label those who gank as "gankers" with that tag on their ship or commander name.

Then we could just block "gankers" in open and they are gone from the game.

Anyone with the label "ganker" gets assigned to a private group called "gankers" and they can then play with each other.

But FDev sees ganking as fair play, which is sad in an of itself.

 

[Morbad]

I wonder if there is a correlation between restarted CGs and new numbers of ganking threads

A quick forum search suggests this is so.'

That's the coward's way out

As opposed to having someone else fine those who have offended you?

Not that I want to appear to care the least bit about anyone's meaninglessly subjective interpretation of the courage-cowardice spectrum, of course.

dies

And by 'who dies' Ian really means, 'who is recovered without so much as a scratch, given ~95% of what they lost, and returned to the nearest station with a three minute turnaround".

 

[CMDR Harada]

This is a very old idea..

The reason it won't work is that the ganker runs up a huge score and bounty, along with his buddies. Once he's had his fun, he swaps to a sidewinder and lets his buddie kills him for the credits. Next, he swaps back to his murder boat, while his buddy swaps to a sidey, and "poof" they both got double pay to murder n00bs.

So the next step is to lock it to the ship, right ? OK, instead of a sidey, they strip the murder boat and let the buddy kill that. No big deal, a new hull is cheap. It's the modules and engineering that are the PIT-A to get back.

Or maybe jail time ? Or banning to a ganker server/instance ? They all have their work arounds.

And so it goes, each 'fix' has a 'cheat'. In the end we have a convoluted mess that doesn't work any better than the original. The same thing happens in every MMO type game that involves the ability for players to level up or otherwise improve their effectiveness. Nothing to see here, move along. You can't legislate good behavior.

The best option is to block the player. Next is to go PG, and finally SOLO.

Or "git gud" and fly a murder boat yourself. I rarely get interdicted when I'm flying a decked out ship, with HRP/MRP modules fitted and maybe a packhound rack..

 

[Morbad]

You can't legislate good behavior.

Perhaps not, but with plausible consequences you can make implausible behavior very difficult to sustain.

Only problem with fairness and plausibility is that they don't conform to many people's delusions of morality. Everyone thinks they are in the right, no matter how scummy or hypocritical they are, and most of them, in their magical thinking, equate righteousness with power and cannot stand to see the subjective 'good guy' ever lose.

 

[PRORABBIT67]

 

[RellTyr]

This is a very old idea..

The reason it won't work is that the ganker runs up a huge score and bounty, along with his buddies. Once he's had his fun, he swaps to a sidewinder and lets his buddie kills him for the credits. Next, he swaps back to his murder boat, while his buddy swaps to a sidey, and "poof" they both got double pay to murder n00bs.

So the next step is to lock it to the ship, right ? OK, instead of a sidey, they strip the murder boat and let the buddy kill that. No big deal, a new hull is cheap. It's the modules and engineering that are the PIT-A to get back.

You're forgetting the millions they'd have to pay to Systems Authority as a stacked fine - in my OP I clearly state that with every kill the fine gets bigger and the bounty is not considered "fulfilled" unless they pay off the massive fine too, costing them money and time.

This would render your little "cheat" pointless.

 

[gorankar]

PG/Solo, or quiting via the menu and blocking everyone that looks at you funny, is the current answer to this "problem". A PvE only mode is about the only other way to offer non PvP players a better solution to playing alone.
It's not actually a problem. It's a legitimate play style. They are every bit as allowed to gank as other people are allowed to mode switch, block, or quit the game via the menu.

 

[Screemonster]

Perhaps not, but with plausible consequences you can make implausible behavior very difficult to sustain.

Only problem with fairness and plausibility is that they don't conform to many people's delusions of morality. Everyone thinks they are in the right, no matter how scummy or hypocritical they are, and most of them, in their magical thinking, equate righteousness with power and cannot stand to see the subjective 'good guy' ever lose.

Hear hear.

And they can never consider the rule of unintended consequences, to the point of blaming victims if they fall foul of their "perfect" solution.