EVE Search - griefing, a simple fix

honest harrington wrote:

I propose a simple solution to the problem of griefing of noobs in high-sec space.
As things stand the griefer incurs no penalty for stealing jetisoned ores or salvaging other peoples' mission killed ships. They only thing stopping them is the threat of the stolen propeties owner attacking them. Since that's what they are hoping for, it's not much of a deterent. Why is this bad? See the post 'why griefing is bad for all of us'. How do we fix it? Easily.
Make the theft of someone else's property an act which lowers your security status. Make the penalty dependent on the sec status of the player doing the stealing, the sec status of player being stolen from, and the sec status of the system where the theft occured, with an increase of penalties for each additional theft from the same player by the same stealing player.
How does this game out in different situations?

Basic theft=.01 loss in sec status
Stealing low sec player multiplies loss by a number based on his current sec status Lower the number, higher the multiplier
High sec victim multiplies loss by a number based on his sec status. Higher the number, higher the multiplier
Location multipies the number based on system sec status. Higher the number, higher the multiplier
Multiple thefts multipies the number based on a to be determined scale (+50% each time? +75% each time? Double the previous each time?)
So, some examples.

Low-sec thief steals from high-sec player in high sec system. First time he take a small to medium status hit because all mutipliers are high, second theft from same player he takes a worse one (in addition to the one he already got for the first theft), third theft he takes an even worse one (in addition to the first two) Etc. etc. ad infinitum. Practical effect? If he does this on a regular basis he runs his sec status down so low that Concord shows up and shoots him down, no matter how fancy a tech 3 ship he's got, thus costing him so much cash that the joy of griefing noobs goes way down. If he runs a inexpensive ship to avoid the cost of losses to Concord the noobs at least have a chance of fighting back.

Low-sec thief steals from low-sec player in low-sec system. The thief takes almost no penalty, because all multipliers are low, and the same game dynamic as exists today applies, ie: defend it or loose it.

So, how does this affect griefing of noobs as it happens now? If the penalty for the first theft from each player is set low enough, but multiplies fast enough (doubling each time for example) the griefing players can still rob each player once or twice and get their jollies tormenting the little guys, but eventually get low enough sec-status, even picking on each guy once or twice, that they get run out of high-sec space, thus leaving a safe zone for new players and those who just want to PvE. If they insist on getting their jollies beating up little guys they have to do it (for purely economic reasons-replacing the ships that concord destroys) in small (read low tech, cheap) ships thus giving the noob at least some hope of fighting back. Or do it with alts that have low enough trained skills that it gives the noob at least some chance to fight back.

How does this affect the run of PvP in low sec space? Basically not at all. They take almost no penalty and are already in low sec to PvP in the first place and don't expect the benefits of high-sec status.

How does this affect the noobs and PvE'ers? They have a safe zone where they can build their cash and trained skills with some assurance of being able to advance in the game, knowing that if some troll comes to grief them they are going to loose a small number of salvage ships, not ALL of them, time after time. Thus they have incentive to keep playing, knowing that someday they too can aspire to being a shark in the pond.

How does this effect free-will PvP? For anyone in a declared war or with kill-rights for some reason the penalties go away completely.

Thus the only people harmed by this are bullies who like to beat up little kids/the helpless.