Definitely not advocating for a lack of consequence for things which should require "positive" reputation.
My issue, and why I say they have to rationalise/fix the hostile rep state is that, if you are
truly an antagonist of a faction, there is no benefit to seeking open hositility with your target whatsoever; hostile rep is quite literally implemented as an "off" switch to continuing your antagonistic pursuits, under the current game design. It's the biggest steaming pile of trash ever.
Take for example, handing in bonds in a war. Doing so affects the outcome of a war. Currently, there's no implementation of auto-generating megaships when two sides enter a conflict. So if all dockable assets are owned by a faction who you are hostile to, you can no longer hand in bonds. So as an antagonist you have two choices:
- Get hostile rep, and rely purely on clearing CZs; or
- Don't get hostile rep, and be able to clear CZs and hand in bonds.
It's a no-brainer; you want the latter, because it's measurably more effective. This is beyond daft.
Then there's the complete absence of sense around criminal records, anonymity protocols and the "insta aggro" of hostile rep. Anonymity protocols render the pilot by-definition anonymous, so it makes absolutely no sense that a wanted pirate with level 10 notoriety can go through security undetected, but someone with hostile rep and no notoriety is instantly detected. If you have hostile rep, you should be operating under anonimity protocol rules; you can dock, but are unable to access station services, and are kill on sight if scanned.
(and let's not go near how being wanted locks you out of station services when docked, but being hostile and docked does not; further evidence about the absence of thought put into this rep state)
And then there's the infinitely worse impact of Hostile rep on Odyssey. Suddenly, all those covert activities and other antagonistic options against a faction (remembering; covert means you undertake the job undetected) are no longer an option, because for some reason despite literally crawling behind a hill, the enemy 100m away goes "oh that's a bad guy, lets kill him!" yet magically cannot do that for a wanted criminal.
It's utterly absurd. You don't get locked out of bounty hunting because you bounty hunt a lot. You don't get locked out of mining because you've mined a lot. Hell, you don't even get locked out of crime because you've committed a lot of crime. And if you help a faction a lot, you aren't locked out of helping them more. Why the heck do you get locked out from hurting a faction when you hurt it a lot. It's stupid and is years overdue to be fixed.
Right now, there are only consequences, and no benefits for picking a side, and that's rubbish.