Are you certain they were deliberately trying to take fire from you? I find this to be a very uncertain proposition, since most people can just stop shooting when they see someone else in close proximity.
Did they feel you were depriving them of their bonds?
Why were you even fighting in such close proximity to non-wingmates anyway?
I do my very best to stay away from other CMDRs in CZ unless they are hostile or specifically ask for assistance. Doing otherwise is sure to step on someone's toes.
If someone is deliberately trying to provoke me, I take initiative and I destroy them. Anyone fool enough to try to get me to accidentally turn red before being willing to open up on me has already given up their best shot at doing me any harm and I do not bring weak vessels to Conflict Zones.
Take the current Quivira CG...last I countered there were eleven conflict zones, and at least a few of them are nearly empty at any given time. Most people are just too damn lazy for more than 30 seconds of super cruise.
In regards to why I was fighting near other CMDR's: The CZs I checked (and I checked quite a few) all had CMDR's so I just settled for one. In that CZ I found a Python to kill at the other end of the zone from the other CMDRs. Of course it takes a while for a Viper to kill a Python so they came to me instead.
Why I didn't release the mouse button in time: partially my fault maybe. I was busy moving around while firing gimballed beams at quite close proximity. While doing so while being less-than-completely-alert I realized a bit too late that that clipper popped infront of me.
I'm quite sure he did it on purpose because there was only enough space between me and the python for 1 or 2 clippers and he gently placed his infront of me. I was not flying around. I was moving around the Python using vertical thrusters and a bit of FA Off mouse action because my Plasma Accelerator requires me to be very close to hit modules.
There is just no way he ended up infront of me by accident.
After posting this thread I did notice something weird though. I've been rammed by clippers before (among others a clipper boosting out of a station while I was exiting at 80m/s) and I survived all those bumps with only shield damage. This Clipper rammed me to death in one go though. He looked at me, hit the throttle from about 3 clipper lengths away and hit me. boom. dead. 100% shields and hull gone instantly. I'm not sure thats supposed to happen like that. (full A spec viper)
I could have tried to run away, but by the time I had written "nice blocking my beams there clipper" he was already on his ramming course. So running would not have helped at all. (FSD charges slow in the middle of a CZ especially with a clipper nearby like that)
