All of you making suggestion about how to fix this are assuming the code FDev have written is complicated enough to be able to make multiple "if / then" calculations.
Far as I can tell the only ones they have set are : "Bounty - true / false" and "scanned - true / false" and both have to be "true" for you to not get the fine, everything else = fine (or death)
- bumped by a larger ship into a ANY other ship - wanted or not = fine or death
- pinging a few rounds - that are ALREADY TRAVELLING before that ship flies into the line of fire - off another clean NPC tha't clearly isnt using any combat awareness of any kind = fine or death (basically once you've fired there's fk all you can do about it - and there's only so much combat awareness anyone can have at any one time)
NPC's not involved with the combat that take absolutely ZERO avoiding action. " s'cuse me... ho hum, imma just slip between you guys..... HELP I'VE BEEN SHOT!! !!- POLICE!!! KIIIILL HIIIIM !!!!!!!!". PUULEASE.
The NPC's AI may be OK for combat in so far as shooting at stuff - but the rest of it is as intelligent as a rock.
As for NPC's flying in a blind spot underneath a large ship and directly into the path of belly mounted turrets - well - you deserve to get 'sploded.
I played a game recently called "Rebel Galaxy" and you can be a pirate if you want or just "something in between" and when I wanted (or needed by quests) to shoot a friendly, it took a concerted effort to get their attention - and I mean dropping their shield COMPLETELY before they got the idea that I was actually trying to kill them, they had to turn RED before my autoguns would even target them, let alone shoot.
Intelligent NPC combat awareness AI has been done plenty of times in space sim games - just not by FDev.
Instead of an instant fine a "three strikes" situation might be better - NOT THREE HITS - three separate occasions of being hit by freindly fire within a time limit with a counter. If it's deliberate you'll breach that in a heartbeat - if not, it'll be that buffer we need to give less experienced players (younger maybe) a chance to let go the trigger.
The game is rated TEEN - after all.
AI needs to be altered so that there is an invisible "no fly zone" around the large ships so that this cannot happen.
Friendly fire is always the player's fault. It's always my fault when I do it. Just the other night I was shooting a Viper Mk4 off the tail of a T-9, saw that he was going to fly across the back of the T-9, timed my shots to end just as he drifted across the back of him, mistimed it and clipped the T-9. 10 minute timeout, totally my fault - I should have stopped shooting earlier.
I guess that makes me what, not as gud as myself? Carry on absolving yourself of responsibility though.
REALLY?? *sigh*.... clearly your combat experience has been.... sedentary at best. If you've only get one target to watch and track - you're fine, try 10, or in some games I've played, 40.
This discussion is about the abilty to keep track of all combatantes both friendly and not, and the ability to time your shots according to all the varieties of combat manouvres being performed at any one time and being forced to take into account a "dumb as " AI with apparently zero self preservation or awareness, that it expects YOU to to make sure you don't fire at IT, rather than IT not place itself in YOUR firing line, which it continues to do.
It's like a motorcyclist smashing into your parked car then blaming YOU for parking there, and then doing his level best to kill you for it.
