The big (apparent) hole in the 2.4 karma thing, is that people can take a sidewinder, get shot, and then suicide. This makes the person who shot them technically a murderer.
This raises a question. How do you tell if a person is someone who shoots sidewinders intentionally, or just someone who got rammed by a suicidal shieldless, damaged sidewinder, who wanted to boost the bigger ships rebuy?
I think the game should track more actions than it actually acts on.
Red marks would be given for interdicting players, or accidental shooting of players, or "accidental" shooting of players (since the latter 2 are indistinguishable by an automated system).
Black marks would be given for actually killing players, doing more than 20% damage to them. Perhaps even more % damage for smaller ships, or just raw damage for larger ships. This information should not be made public. It could also track rebuy cost of damage done, as smashing small ships does minimum damage, but smashing large ships can drive people out of open so they don't go bankrupt from rebuys.
No additional marks are given for merely stealing cargo- a successful or non-bloodthirsty pirate will only rack up red marks from interdicts and PVP damage.
Players should be given the option of paying off the rebuy of their kills. This changes black mark to red marks. (***Subject to LOTS of change and balancing, since players are really good at gaming systems.)
And kills should be tracked- finishing off someone, or taking off more than 25% of their health should be most penalized. Shooting someone very little, and having them afterburn into a solid object (or commit suicide some other way) should be ineffective. Sitting in a CG and smashing all comers would accumulate black marks quite fast, and none of them would probably forgive the attacks. And if they want to sit there, smash people, and pay off the rebuys, that's annoying, but less bad.
Throw PVPers a bone as well- allow a wing of players to chip in to pay off rebuys of targets, if they pay off the rebuy at 100%, they only receive red marks.
Then- you can compare the history of players. A more pacifistic player might accumulate a few marks of either type. Someone who gets into PVP moods would accumulate a few. And a PVP-centric player would accumulate a lot. This could be used to weight systems, so that it is FAR less effective for them to try that maneuver of flying into someone's lasers, and then burning into an asteroid.
And I should be able to voluntarily remove any PVP penalty from someone when I accidentally fly into their line of fire. Forgive bounties/fines issued for shooting me, if I so choose. Remove marks as well, if I know they were just goofing, or it was my own fault, and *I* know it, but the game does not.
So if a player has few marks, and accidentally tags the wrong target and the police go aggressive, the player can stow hardpoints, and MAYBE the cops decide to commute the active bounty to a fine. Where an aggressive PVPer with lots of marks would not get this option- consequences of their past actions. Karma.
This does not address alt accounts. Nothing can effectively address alt accounts, besides a person sitting there comparing IP address, actions, and play times of each person suspected.
This raises a question. How do you tell if a person is someone who shoots sidewinders intentionally, or just someone who got rammed by a suicidal shieldless, damaged sidewinder, who wanted to boost the bigger ships rebuy?
I think the game should track more actions than it actually acts on.
Red marks would be given for interdicting players, or accidental shooting of players, or "accidental" shooting of players (since the latter 2 are indistinguishable by an automated system).
Black marks would be given for actually killing players, doing more than 20% damage to them. Perhaps even more % damage for smaller ships, or just raw damage for larger ships. This information should not be made public. It could also track rebuy cost of damage done, as smashing small ships does minimum damage, but smashing large ships can drive people out of open so they don't go bankrupt from rebuys.
No additional marks are given for merely stealing cargo- a successful or non-bloodthirsty pirate will only rack up red marks from interdicts and PVP damage.
Players should be given the option of paying off the rebuy of their kills. This changes black mark to red marks. (***Subject to LOTS of change and balancing, since players are really good at gaming systems.)
And kills should be tracked- finishing off someone, or taking off more than 25% of their health should be most penalized. Shooting someone very little, and having them afterburn into a solid object (or commit suicide some other way) should be ineffective. Sitting in a CG and smashing all comers would accumulate black marks quite fast, and none of them would probably forgive the attacks. And if they want to sit there, smash people, and pay off the rebuys, that's annoying, but less bad.
Throw PVPers a bone as well- allow a wing of players to chip in to pay off rebuys of targets, if they pay off the rebuy at 100%, they only receive red marks.
Then- you can compare the history of players. A more pacifistic player might accumulate a few marks of either type. Someone who gets into PVP moods would accumulate a few. And a PVP-centric player would accumulate a lot. This could be used to weight systems, so that it is FAR less effective for them to try that maneuver of flying into someone's lasers, and then burning into an asteroid.
And I should be able to voluntarily remove any PVP penalty from someone when I accidentally fly into their line of fire. Forgive bounties/fines issued for shooting me, if I so choose. Remove marks as well, if I know they were just goofing, or it was my own fault, and *I* know it, but the game does not.
So if a player has few marks, and accidentally tags the wrong target and the police go aggressive, the player can stow hardpoints, and MAYBE the cops decide to commute the active bounty to a fine. Where an aggressive PVPer with lots of marks would not get this option- consequences of their past actions. Karma.
This does not address alt accounts. Nothing can effectively address alt accounts, besides a person sitting there comparing IP address, actions, and play times of each person suspected.