I'm drafting a punishment system for those who log during PVP combat framed within the six general forms of punishment. Comments, questions, concerns are welcome and encouraged, whether through comments on this document or in forums this document is posted in.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16UeeC2cMDgLE0RPJB5OFBfNW3X8cahkNJWjgDfVqYVM/edit?usp=sharing
Logging During Combat Punishment
Based on feedback from multiple people, it seems the most popular form of punishment for combat logging and other offenses, would be a combination of banishment, financial burden, and restitution.
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Banishment: the guilty party is prevented from connecting to game modes. The duration of this banning could increase with frequency of combat logging.
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Financial burden: fine (or bounty) the guilty party their rebuy. The ability to clear fines and bounties would need to be reworked for this form to be more
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Restitution: the rebuy of the guilty party added as a collectible bounty to those players engaged in combat with the combat logger. Splitting this bounty among all players could prevent this method being used to create free money. Additionally, if paired with the banishment, the time out of game would get longer and longer, meaning the restitution element would be more difficult to farm.
What this is
A proposal for an Fdev implemented punishment system within the mechanics of the game.
A listing, explanation, and lore justification of punishments for those that exit the game during PVP combat.
What this is NOT
A discussion of exiting the game through game menu functions, it's countdown, or it's validity.
A discussion about how guilt is determined or who is guilty, merely the punishment once guilt is established.
The developers already have methods of determining guilt.
TermsCombat Logger:
- anyone who purposefully exits the game by terminating the game or game connection during PVP combat after interdiction has begun until either high- or low-waked out of the normal space instance, destroyed, or exiting through the game menu
Justification for Punishment
- There should be some consequence to those who exit or logout of the game during combat. I think this is the most aggravating thing to those that put forth time, effort, and credits to PvP. The offender is at risk and must face consequences for engaging in PvP, but the receiver can face no consequences simply by exiting the game.
Methods of Punishment
General Theory of Punishment
- There are generally six methods of punishment: incarceration, banishment/shunning, financial burden, restitution, public humiliation, physical pain.
- The general idea is to apply as many punishment types together because it is difficult to know what punishment provides the best deterrent.
- Players have brought up that being sent to solo or open may not be a punishment, and therefore not act as a deterrent to reduce combat logging (or other activities that break the Terms of Service, EULA, etc). Therefore I have added an additional banishment/shunning method.
Incarceration
- Incarceration: this could be done by locking a player in open and/or in the system they combat logged from for some time (play time and real time). This prevents the combat logger from escaping from pursuing players by going to solo or private and exiting the system.
Banishment
- Banishment/shunning: player kicked from the Bubble into solo for some time. Removes them from repair/restock/refuel as well as other players/NPCs and money making methods. May severely limit movement since many combat ships have low jump range.
Alternative Incarceration/Banishment Systems
- An alternative to, and combination of, the incarceration/banishment punishments would be to banish and incarcerate the offender into a prison system central to the bubble. The offender is placed at dock in the single station (Coriolis) in the prison system.
- Temporary banishment (banning) from the game could act as a viable punishment and deterrent to combat logging. This could be implemented by preventing the player’s account from connecting to open/solo/private groups for some period of time. Disabling the player’s ability to connect to the game would have the additional benefit of preventing players from abusing the financial burden and/or restitution methods.
Financial Burden
- Financial burden: combat logging pilots are fined their rebuy but not reset to station or loss of cargo. Penalizes the combat logger as if their ship was destroyed.
Restitution
- Restitution: the combat logger is fined their rebuy, and that amount is split as a bounty to all hostile players in that instance. Provides a reward for those that engage in PvP and penalizes combat loggers. This punishment would not stack with the financial burden.
Public Humiliation
- Public humiliation: combat logger players are published in a weekly GalNet article "Pilot's Federation Crime Report" as well as in the station news feed of all systems they engaged in hostilities. Ship flagged as "coward" similar to wanted.
Physical Pain
- Physical pain: Not sure how to implement this. /s This is most assuredly unpopular, impractical, and illegal. This method was included for completeness with regards to the six methods of punishment.
Lore Justification
The lore justification for this punishment system would be the Pilot's Federation policing their members. The Pilot's Federation is an apolitical and neutral organization. A code of conduct or uniform code of justice could be created. All members would be subject to the galactic jurisdiction of the PF.
Annexes and Addendums
Increased Bounty Value
- The fundamental problems of the crime and punishment system are not the values of the bounties, but the ease of clearing bounties and the difficulty in collecting bounties.
- Simply increasing the value of bounties put on players wouldn't fix the issue, and might make it worse.
- For example, let's say the bounty given for player destruction is 5% of the OFFENDING player's ship. For decent combat FDL this would be ~300,000. Their friends get in sidewinders and get destroyed, rapidly pushing the offending player's bounty to the cap. Roles and ships swap, instant free money without leaving a system.
- If the bounty were given based on the rebuy of the defender's ship, the scenario would just mean the offenders are attacking other players, instead of each other.
- We must also consider the impact of increased bounties on the BGS. Bounties and fines are directly tied to the lockdown and civil unrest states. Currently a small but dedicated group of players can lockdown a system in a few days. If the bounties increased in value, the time needed to lockdown a system could shorten to the point of locking down a system in one day.
Link to this thread and Reddit thread
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https://www.reddit.com/r/Elite_PVP/comments/5g77oa/logging_during_combat_punishment/
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https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/312685-Logging-During-Combat-Punishment-Proposal
EDIT: Added content to clarify the intent of the proposal is not to determine guilt because the developers already have methods of determining guilt.