Ok...I forgot to mention that I experience this when in a Wing in Open play or In Solo Mode .... and Yes I do choose a side.... It doesn't happen often, but when you work on a Big Ship like the Anaconda...and you don't get the credits....It's very frustrating....
yes it is, which is why many people go solo mode.
In open and group play, last shot that hits always gets the kill. So it doesn't matter if you single opened the shields and whittled the guys hull down to paper, if another player drops in a single bullet from his multi-cannon to set the hull to 0% he gets the kill.
(some people here on the forums actually believe that's "fair...." but that's another argument)
In solo play it is tilted towards the human more. If the human player gets the last shot, he is awarded the kill automatically just like in open mode (he kill steals from NPC), if he didn't land the last shot, then the ship that caused the most damage gets the kill, be it human or NPC.
I personally believe it should be who contributed the most to the kill (most damage inflicted) should get the kill, but then I've been told that newbies in sidewinders would get their panties in a wad because they can't steal 80K anaconda kills with their pulse lasers.