Singulis Pacifica wrote:TLDR: at bottom.
With all the Hulkageddon kills going around, you will end up with compaints regarding unfair ganking and whatnot. And truth be told, ganking is never "fair". It's a dirty fight where the outcome is more or less pre-determined. Both the ganker and victim will lose their ship. The victim as a result of the ganker, and the ganker gets his/her ship turned into a floating scrapheap by Concord.
If a hauler is the victim, then he/she will lose ISK: the value of the of ship (full insurance only partially covers it) and the value of the cargo, where as the ganker can still generate a profit from said encounter: value of the cargo gained exceeds the loss incurred by the destroyed ship.
Now, this is all standard and we all have learned to live with it. But the biggest complaint of the victims is that high-sec, the area that is introduced as the safest space in the game, is not really that safe at all. Not for them at least.
These players are "at the mercy" of the gankers. Because it's that simple. A player, be it a miner, a hauler or anyone else always has to watch out for gankers operating in high-sec. The gankers themselves have to watch out for... nothing. Well, juicy rich targets that can be plucked. That's what they need to look out for. But even if they do have a bounty on their heads, most players will simply ignore the "yellows" hoping that they will not be targeted.
No one is interested in hunting down these players with a sec. status between -2.0 and 0, because if they would attack them, then Concord will see it as an unwarranted assault and attack the player that opened fire on the "yellow". So the "yellows" are the ones living in safety in high-sec, If they lose their rating due to a succesful kill, they just go ratting for a week and continue back to the role of the ganker.
And that's not a problem. It's how a sandbox should be. A ganker is a valid way to play the game. But... It lacks balance. As said before, there is no one stopping a ganker. He or she is playing pre-determined encounters. And that is what could change.
But not by CCP. Well, not directly.
What if players that have a sec. standing of 3.5 or higher acquire a "sherrif's badge". This allows them to attack players with a a negative security rating in high-sec systems without Concord seeing it as an unwarranted attack. This will lead to one thing: sherrifs vs. gankers. Whereby both sides are players with minimal interference from the game itself (Concord).
That is what a sandbox is all about. Make sure gankers can exist, but also make sure that they can be hunted by some players. Perhaps "sherrif players" that receive this ability are henceforth limited to only high-sec systems to make sure gankers can still operate in low-sec if they wish. Or perhaps "sherrif players" can only receive this badge if they are not part of a red vs. blue or factional warfare. So that only the "true neutrals" can acquire this rank and thus become the hunters of the ones that can now hunt freely in high-sec systems.
TLDR: Players that achieve a sec. status of 3.5 or higher can, under certain circumstances, become "sherrifs", which allows them to attack players with a negative security rating in High-Sec systems (without Concord interference) to balance the odds of ganker vs. victim.