+1 In- or Very close to Station ramming ~ griefing..This is an interesting question because the answer is possibly not as black and white as we would probably like.
Now, to be fair I have rammed players and NpCs alike in my time so I am as guilty as anyone.
There seems to be different 'types' of ramming that I've come across so far.
Station Ramming. We all know this is griefing. FD have said so and have put in fixes for it. Not saying whther these work as havent seen the fix in actuon myself.
Fair fight Ramming. Middle of combat ramming is utterly fairgame if your ship can take it. Nothing wrong here and its a viable strategy.
Ramming while other person is fighting npcs etc. This is sketchy because ramming doesnt count as an attack so incurs no bounty. It is also a means to get the opponen to accidentally shoot you. I would say this is griefin personally since tou are just trying to annoy the other person.
So in short I think the problem here is that ramming does not trigger a fine or bounty so you can safely ram another player to your hearts content without fear of reprisal.
Its an interesting problem though since fetting fined for every little accidental bump would be utterly horrible and not aomething we would want!
IMHO ramming should still not get you a fine, unless you cause damage to the hull.
Ramming causes damage to hull = assault = bounty
Ramming causes death = kill = bounty
Close to or inside Stations this should look different.
Why?
Now let's imagine you are 'CMDR uberlethal':
Buy a sidey, disable the shield and ram that fat Anaconda. The Anaconda CMDR will receive a bounty as the sidey would disintegrate. Station detects bounty -> disintegrates Anaconda.
Possible way around this:
Introduce speed limit close to (~500m) and inside Station. Let's say 50 is our speed limit.
If you follow the speed limit, all good.
If you do not follow the speed limit, you receive no fine but a warning (fat red in the middle of the screen message).
Let's play through a few scenarios:
If 'CMDR uberlethal' is OVER the speed limit and rams 'CMDR Bob' who follows the speed limit = assault = bounty for 'CMDR uberlethal'
If 'CMDR uberlethal' is OVER the speed limit and rams 'CMDR Bob' who is OVER the speed limit = 'CMDR uberlethal' and 'CMDR Bob' will pay for their repairs / insurance
If 'CMDR uberlethal' follows the speed limit and rams 'CMDR Bob' who is OVER the speed limit = 'CMDR Bob' is too fast = assault = bounty for 'CMDR Bob'
If 'CMDR uberlethal' follows the speed limit and rams 'CMDR Bob' who follows the speed limit = 'CMDR uberlethal' and 'CMDR Bob' will pay for their repairs / insurance
The actual speed limit should allow smaller accidents but if an Anaconda faces a Sidey, well life is hard sometimes.
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