My suggestion is to introduce a mechanic by way of a profile flag. The profile flag, which would normally be "on" is something like "Player-kill death causes financial loss".
Whilst the flag is on, you can engage in PvP behaviour, and, if you die as a result of another PC destroying your ship, the consequences are exactly as they are now. I.E. you take the insurance hit, lose your collectables, etc..
If the flag is set off, and you are killed by another PC, then your ship still blows up, you go trough the death screen, but there's no financial loss to you as a result. (This may need some balancing, e.g. you may perhaps lose cargo) To the person who defeated your ship, the impact is invisible. They have no knowledge of the flag's setting.
Engaging in PvP behaviour means that this flag cannot be set to "off" (perhaps there could be a mechanic around how long for, etc..) and, if it was off, it automatically sets itself to "on".
What's the point of this flag? It's in order to reduce the impact that is caused on a player by random "griefers" (for lack of a better word) whilst still allowing people to exist in the same game world as more legitimate PvPers. Thus you encourage more global participation in the "open" world.
It's not an invincibility flag, and you can't return fire and still have the no financial loss. So, if you want the benefit of the flag you have to observe PvE rules. So it's not any kind of unfair advantage within the scope of a PvP battle, for example. (There might be exceptions, like in a CZ)
Whilst the flag is on, you can engage in PvP behaviour, and, if you die as a result of another PC destroying your ship, the consequences are exactly as they are now. I.E. you take the insurance hit, lose your collectables, etc..
If the flag is set off, and you are killed by another PC, then your ship still blows up, you go trough the death screen, but there's no financial loss to you as a result. (This may need some balancing, e.g. you may perhaps lose cargo) To the person who defeated your ship, the impact is invisible. They have no knowledge of the flag's setting.
Engaging in PvP behaviour means that this flag cannot be set to "off" (perhaps there could be a mechanic around how long for, etc..) and, if it was off, it automatically sets itself to "on".
What's the point of this flag? It's in order to reduce the impact that is caused on a player by random "griefers" (for lack of a better word) whilst still allowing people to exist in the same game world as more legitimate PvPers. Thus you encourage more global participation in the "open" world.
It's not an invincibility flag, and you can't return fire and still have the no financial loss. So, if you want the benefit of the flag you have to observe PvE rules. So it's not any kind of unfair advantage within the scope of a PvP battle, for example. (There might be exceptions, like in a CZ)