The only reason we keep having this discussion is because the game is not balanced. Fix the balance, and the game will no longer be a PvP griefer vs. Solo mode proposition.
I've played a bit of star citizen recently. Hear me out. That game is still an alpha with tons of bugs and certainly not even close to complete or polished as ED. But those developers seem to be aware of ED's issues and are avoiding them. Most notably:
So in that game, yes you can be a ganker, but you won't get away with it for too long. Groups of lawful players are encouraged to hunt gankers co-op style, and they can do it without having to spend hours grinding out fully G5 combat ships. And forget about landing at most stations with criminal status (the equivalent of ED's notoriety).
- Griefing and ganking have practically no penalty (the police are weak, having notoriety doesn't actually do anything meaningful)
- Even when NPC police are sent after gankers (which they are), the gankers just evade the interdiction (making it completely pointless)
- High security systems are indistinguishable from low security - what's the point of high security then?
- Gankers with notoriety can still land at any station ("anonymous protocols" is a joke). They should be confined to lower and lower security depending on the notoriety leve.
- Engineered combat ships are overpowered compared to other types of ships, making engagements pointless
- Running missions in open or solo has the same effect on the BGS, so there is no incentive to play in open
- Powerplay is supposed to be the PvP feature, but it seems like the developers abandoned it
I've played a bit of star citizen recently. Hear me out. That game is still an alpha with tons of bugs and certainly not even close to complete or polished as ED. But those developers seem to be aware of ED's issues and are avoiding them. Most notably:
- Combat ships are not grossly overpowered and their shields can be taken down by anyone with weapons who knows how to pilot a ship
- The crime and punishment system actually puts you in jail for a set amount of time, and the only way to lessen your sentence is to go mining (yes, you read that right)
- You can't pay space lawyers to delete your bounty.
- Station guns will destroy any criminal's ship in a few shots.
- Bounty alerts against criminal players are sent to all other players including location, encouraging lawful players to hunt down the criminals.
- If you are a criminal and you get killed, destroyed or shot down, you lose the gear and cargo you have with you.
So in that game, yes you can be a ganker, but you won't get away with it for too long. Groups of lawful players are encouraged to hunt gankers co-op style, and they can do it without having to spend hours grinding out fully G5 combat ships. And forget about landing at most stations with criminal status (the equivalent of ED's notoriety).