I've been thinking about the flag idea and how it's functionally identical to a new mode.. except you have to create rules around when someone can/cannot alter their flag setting and I think you basically come back to wanting to limit it to a login/logout scenario, so perhaps simply making it a mode is easier/simpler to understand and actually a little better as you can leverage the existing in-combat logout timer to prevent a flag switch in combat.
But, I do like the players appear as NPCs idea, it would have to tie in with instancing tho as the PvP player (or wing) would have to see the real player signature disappear as it is being replaced by the NPC (rather then it splitting in two). I think you'd also have to ensure you never instance PvP on and PvP off players in the same realspace instance because performing the same switcheroo there might be problematic from a technical standpoint, I know Frontier have said they cannot spawn in an NPC when someone combat logs, for example.
I was thinking of another off the wall idea.
After watching this video where David Braben effectively said he would like a OpenPVE mode but the big issue was how to deal with the ramming and other potentially accidental "kills" without making players effectively invulnerable and breaking immersion.
I thought...
Imagine a Co-op mode which is identical to Open, with one change. Players in this mode are never instanced with Open players. Of course, this doesn't solve anything, right.. the PvP player will simply enter that mode and engage players. Ok, agreed, but now imagine if Sandro has implemented his Karma system in Open, in all it's glory, such that it tracks player behaviour and can confidently apply mode bans for bad behaviour like ramming, logging, etc. Now, apply Karma to the Co-op mode but increase it's reactiveness 10x so that it applies a mode ban for Co-op for a relatively small number of infractions, next we include a few extra infraction specific to Co-Op and not Open, and PvP action we want to avoid in the mode, like attacking another player outside a CZ, for example.
This idea avoids the issues David was worried about, by not actually removing them altogether but relying on the fact that serial offenders will be mode banned in relatively short order. This mode ban can be thought of, from the perspective of other players in Co-op as being a bit like a prison sentence for crimes committed, except the terms (length of mode ban) would be much shorter.. something like a couple of weeks or so. Sure, some players might accidentally trigger the mode ban, reckless flying causing deaths being the most likely, but the price they pay is perhaps 2 weeks ban from one mode and they still have Open, PG and solo to play in so it's not the end of the world for them.
It's crazy, but it just might work. And.. it doesn't appear to me to require a lot of extra work over and above the already proposed Karma system and a small (hopefully) tweak to instancing. It doesn't break immersion, and yet it still manages to strongly discourage PvP behaviours.
The point is, however, that I suspect (I don't know) that there is a technical limitation which will prevent them ever being as good as a Co-op mode would be.
