There has been a lot of discussion recently with the coming C&P changes about how effective ATR will be at deterring ganking in High Security space. The consensus seems to be "not very," as they will not respond until a crime has already been committed, and even with a very fast response time they will generally not be able to prevent a kill after the assault has already begun. With that in mind, I'd like to present my idea for a new Friend or Foe system:
Under this system, all ships would come stock with a Friend or Foe beacon and fire control systems. The fire control system would prevent the ship's weapons from firing without a valid target; if you target a clean ship and pull the trigger, nothing happens. (I know this sounds like it's disabling most PvP, it won't be. Stick with me.) It's already established that our ships' computers are responsible for enforcing maximum speeds, permit locked systems, etc. so in that same vein it makes sense for them to restrict weapons fire to valid targets. A valid target would be a ship (or rock/skimmer/turret/whatever) that is one of:
Note that these are slightly different rules from what gets you a bounty; that seems ok as these would be the Pilot's Federation's rules rather than the laws of the local system.
The Report Crimes toggle would become Friend or Foe Beacon On/Off. With the beacon off, you will appear Lawless to all other ships. Turning it off now means you can be freely attacked, which adds risk to switching it off for clandestine activities. It also helps the issue with players turning on report crimes during arranged PvP, since you will be able to see that your opponent has gone from Lawless to Clean. Possibly firing on Clean ships that have attacked you could be disabled in the settings panel, causing your ship to immediately stop firing if your opponent turns his FoF beacon back on mid-fight and saving you from getting a bounty.
Of course, many commanders out there won't accept these kinds of restrictions on their ship, which is why we also introduce a new module, the Friend or Foe Jammer. This would be a utility option (or size 1 module, whichever makes more sense for balancing) which overrides the fire control system and allows you to fire weapons freely at any target. These would be highly illegal, so they would only be purchasable in Anarchy systems and would not be storable/transferable in other systems. System security response to having an FoF Jammer would vary by security level, something like this:
These are just general ideas for security behavior, the specifics can be tweaked to produce the right feel for each security level.
The main benefit of this system is that it requires players who intend to attack clean ships to flag themselves in a persistent way, through outfitting. That in turn allows both other players and game mechanics/NPCs to respond proactively instead of waiting for an assault to happen. As a start I like the idea that it can make different security levels feel very different, and I think having that extra bit of information can enable a lot more interesting ideas down the road.
TL;DR:
Under this system, all ships would come stock with a Friend or Foe beacon and fire control systems. The fire control system would prevent the ship's weapons from firing without a valid target; if you target a clean ship and pull the trigger, nothing happens. (I know this sounds like it's disabling most PvP, it won't be. Stick with me.) It's already established that our ships' computers are responsible for enforcing maximum speeds, permit locked systems, etc. so in that same vein it makes sense for them to restrict weapons fire to valid targets. A valid target would be a ship (or rock/skimmer/turret/whatever) that is one of:
- Wanted
- Lawless
- Mission Target
- Pledged to a hostile Power play faction
- Alien
- Has already fired on you
Note that these are slightly different rules from what gets you a bounty; that seems ok as these would be the Pilot's Federation's rules rather than the laws of the local system.
The Report Crimes toggle would become Friend or Foe Beacon On/Off. With the beacon off, you will appear Lawless to all other ships. Turning it off now means you can be freely attacked, which adds risk to switching it off for clandestine activities. It also helps the issue with players turning on report crimes during arranged PvP, since you will be able to see that your opponent has gone from Lawless to Clean. Possibly firing on Clean ships that have attacked you could be disabled in the settings panel, causing your ship to immediately stop firing if your opponent turns his FoF beacon back on mid-fight and saving you from getting a bounty.
Of course, many commanders out there won't accept these kinds of restrictions on their ship, which is why we also introduce a new module, the Friend or Foe Jammer. This would be a utility option (or size 1 module, whichever makes more sense for balancing) which overrides the fire control system and allows you to fire weapons freely at any target. These would be highly illegal, so they would only be purchasable in Anarchy systems and would not be storable/transferable in other systems. System security response to having an FoF Jammer would vary by security level, something like this:
- High Security: Immediate bounty on jumping in, immediate pursuit/interdiction by ATR. (It should be extremely difficult to act as an aggressor in HighSec. We want the noobs to be safe somewhere.)
- Medium Security: Bounty received as soon as another ship (player or NPC) resolves your module list; after that, security response countdown begins immediately when dropping from super cruise rather than waiting for a further crime. (Attacks in these systems should be difficult but still possible.)
- Low Security: Bounty received when module list is resolved; security response is not otherwise elevated. (Easy to commit attacks here.)
- Anarchy: Anything goes, as always.
These are just general ideas for security behavior, the specifics can be tweaked to produce the right feel for each security level.
The main benefit of this system is that it requires players who intend to attack clean ships to flag themselves in a persistent way, through outfitting. That in turn allows both other players and game mechanics/NPCs to respond proactively instead of waiting for an assault to happen. As a start I like the idea that it can make different security levels feel very different, and I think having that extra bit of information can enable a lot more interesting ideas down the road.
TL;DR:
- Stock ships can't attack clean targets
- Friend or Foe Beacon Off makes you appear Lawless
- FoF Jammer allows attacking anyone, but illegal to have
- Presence of FoF Jammer identifies threats before they actually attack
