While the daily quests in open space “INVASION” are rewarding, and working toward gathering enough alien crystals and other resource elements to craft special modules, weapons, or ammunition makes it all quite enjoyable, the idea of ‘criminals’ using their knowledge of those daily quest goals to set up ambush sites for attack/assassination of PvE players is NOT enjoyable.
Heading out to a R7 sector of space to complete a PvE quest, knowing that I will likely be repeatedly gunned down by ‘criminal’ fliers while pursuing those daily quests has become a significantly negative experience. While I understand the whole PvP element associated with the various R10 space regions, I find absolutely no reasonable justification for allowing “griefers” to lurk at/near the gates in R7 space, gunning down those who are chasing their PvE daily quests. Sadly there seem to be absolutely no negative repercussions for ‘criminal’ fliers (except a brief period of time when they cannot use a jump gate or dock). They are listed on their own leaderboard and have their own ‘bragging rights’ for the amount of grief they’ve caused other players.
The goal for these birds seems to be killing as many unsuspecting, law-abiding PvE fliers as possible, in as short a time as possible, in order to earn the highest possible placement on the Negative Karma Leaderboard… and nothing more. Working singly or in wolf packs, they are a serious negative experience in the game and there is nothing in the current configuration to ameliorate such conduct.
If this situation still exists when open space goes public, I predict the game will start losing players quickly! Nobody wants to play a game where they must stay in the beginner’s play area where there are almost no resource elements, or venture into R7 space where the main element is their own repeated assassination by stronger, heavier, bullying players!
I would propose that some sort of bounty payment be made to anyone who participates in destroying ‘criminals’. Though I willingly defend myself from attack, I personally find no great joy in gunning down other fliers in free space. I fully expect, and I look forward to participating in such gunning exercises in the PvP skirmishes, and if I ever venture into R10 free space, I fully expect the faction wars will result in aggressive PvP fighting… and that is totally understandable. I did NOT expect to find it tolerated in the R1 and R7 regions of space.
By the way, I anticipate there will be rampant aggressive gun battles between fliers over thinly scattered resource elements once “INVASION” goes public and those small regions are overflowing with fliers looking for scarce crafting resources. Either resource re-spawns will need to be speeded up, or the number of resource spawn sites will need to be increased.
To deal with aggressive, bullying ‘criminal’ fliers, some sort of bounty reward for shooting down ‘criminals’ seems like the only way to prevent the game from devolving into a gank-fest as soon as it goes live… with ‘newbs’ making their first hesitant ventures into R7 and R10 space and being slaughtered wholesale by ‘criminals’ waiting just on the other side of the jump gates to rack up their negative karma scores for their Negative Karma Leaderboard.
I’ve been repeatedly killed just inside the jump gates for Rank 7 zones by individuals seeking to gain that top listing on that Negative Karma Leaderboard. Flying a premium ship, I get one ‘reconstruct’, and on several occasions have been killed twice in very short order by the same ‘criminal’ who simply waited after killing me to see if I reconstructed on the spot as an opportunity to achieve a “two-for”. In point of fact those ‘criminal’ fliers were simply waiting for all those who were pursuing the daily quests, and gunning them just after they emerged from the gate and their brief ‘invincible’ time period had expired.
Again, as far as I can determine, there are currently no negative consequences for such actions, and I can honestly say that such blatant “griefing” and bullying is very likely to turn a lot of players away from the game entirely. While the fliers who are gunning down the ‘newbs’ might think it’s great fun, the folks on the receiving end are going to tire of it very quickly. It won’t take a lot of that sort of experience for a victimized player to throw up his hands, offer a few choice words about immature, childish players acting like thugs, and walk away from the game for good. The negative feedback for the entire game could be significant.
I propose the DEVs create BOUNTY credits to be awarded to those who participate in gunning down ‘criminals’. Awards would be based on fractional proportion of damage, in exactly the same way as they are already calculated for the purpose of awarding points/credits for kills and assists in PvP skirmishes. Awarding fliers a substantial BOUNTY payment for shooting down ‘criminals’ would encourage those law-abiding fliers to enter dangerous space and deal out ‘justice’ to those engaged in ‘criminal’ conduct.
In association with those ‘criminal hunting’ efforts, I propose the creation of a BOUNTY HUNTER Leaderboard, where those who have been successful in destroying ‘criminals’ can be listed according to their success in such activities.
I would also propose that some methodology be created whereby players could post their own BOUNTY for specific individuals. The total sum offered in such a personal bounty would be added (as additional incentive) to any automatic bounty reward which might be awarded for killing of a ‘criminal’. The lawful flier, concerned over having been “shot up” by a particularly egregious ‘criminal’, could encourage other lawful fliers to aid in curtailing the ‘criminal’ activities by specifically seeking to neutralize a particularly egregious flier. The total private bounty amount offered for any particular ‘criminal’ would be posted on the Negative Karma Leaderboard beside the ‘criminal’s’ name. Lawful fliers could consult the Negative Karma Leaderboard to learn if bounties were offered for specific criminals.
This concept of automatic bounty awards for gunning ‘criminals’ and an added ‘personal bounty’ incentives (all of which would be shown on the Negative Karma Leaderboard), would contribute to balancing the currently very unbalanced game play, and would restore a great amount of order to a portion of the game which is likely to otherwise become a tangle of unmanageable thuggery and ‘ganking’/griefing. The addition of bounty as an incentive to hunt ‘criminals’ would more accurately reflect the manner in which all societies down through history have dealt with unlawful elements when formal law enforcement is lacking.
I’m tired of being savagely gunned down by ‘griefer’ bullies while chasing the daily quests, with no recourse at all except to RETURN TO HANGAR and repeat the whole process over. Please strongly consider adding BOUNTY rewards for those who curtail ‘criminal’ activities. Make it worth my time to venture into areas where ‘criminals’ are constantly sitting in ambush, waiting for me and other ‘lawful’ fliers to wander into their field of fire.
Thank you in advance for considering this action.
