Today I was flying through OS for some tasks, and landed in Imperial Transport Hub. A few seconds after, I heard an explosion and suddenly got a Criminal status on the top of my screen (no Aggressor though), so I checked the combat log, and saw something like Imperial Station Guard destroyed [random player], assisted by DeadFireNL (gravi-scanner, hull coating).
So, because my command fighter’s aura is buffing allied npc’s, once a random player decides to attack those npc’s, the npc’s shoot back and manage to destroy them in range of my auras, I get attributed as killing/assisting in the destruction of the player and therefore receive Criminal status, even with PvE mode enabled in a PvE sector (which should be downright impossible).
In non-PvP areas that’s not a huge issue, since I always fly with PvE mode enabled, but since quite a few sectors are or become PvP sectors (thanks to whoever made Stripped Deposits a PvP sector), that’s going to put a huge target on your back. It also makes all guard turrets hostile to you.
Suggestion: disable npc’s being affected by auras, or otherwise make aura assists not count towards receiving any Criminal status
Update: It happened again. Same situation. Some random new player attacks the local police within my auras, gets annihalated by said police, I get criminal status.
Apparently, this criminal status removes your PvE protection when you move to another system.
Whoever moved this from bugs to suggestions, at least appreciate the 'bug’ness of this situation. It needs a fix, not a balance evaluation
With Station Protection active, NPCs are considered by the game to be “friendly” to you, especially if you have good reputation built up. Thus, since all friendly ships are affected by your buffs, this is why you can assist nearby NPCs. That is a function of the game and is working as intended.
The odd part is that killing a hostile player renders YOU a hostile player. This should not happen, as eliminating a player who is an aggressor or criminal is not supposed to affect your standing, regardless of PVE mode or not. I agree that this is likely a bug or error in the game logic and should be looked at.
(Since this bug was reported several years ago, I will have to test and see if this is still an issue or has been resolved)
As far as I can tell, this doesn’t seem to be a problem. Either this was quietly fixed, or I can’t seem to replicate it. Given that this bug was reported nearly 4 years ago, it’s likely not an issue anymore. Most players who would think of attacking the friendly NPCs nowadays are flying ships that can insta-kill pretty much anything in OS anyways, so the likelihood of this occurring again is extremely rare. An interesting bug regardless.