Gogela wrote:Tippia wrote:They probably got snagged on the whole Gǣlimited formal engagementGǥ mechanism, which was kind of key to make the whole thing work without being ridiculously unfair and/or ensuring that a fight wouldn't spread like crazy to anyone who accidentally entered the same system as a criminalGǪ
Got link?
Not really. It was part of the roundtable discussion that took place at fanfest, where we were throwing around ideas for how to make a (semi)legal fight not be completely one-sided.
As the actual presentation showed, the whole idea is to get rid off player-to-player flagging, but this causes the side problem that, if I make myself a legal target by stealing your stuff, I won't be a legal target
to you (because that would require the p2p-flagging they want to remove) but rather to
everyoneGǪ But without the connection between the two of us, there is no way for the system to say that you are also a legal target to me when you attack me. As a result, I can't legally fight back. Without p2p-flagging, there are only really two options: either I can't shoot back as a criminal (which makes all illegal acts a death sentence, even if CONCORD isn't triggered, and that's maybe a bit too harsh), or attacking a criminally flagged player will itself confer a criminal flagging (which means that it's near-suicidal to defend yourself against criminals, so no-one will do it and crime becomes far too easy). Now add in things like neutral reps and it becomes a complete mess.
So the alternative that was spit-balled around was something along the lines of a GÇ£limited engagementGÇ¥ GÇö basically an enclosed context where two sides are defined, and everyone on one side can shoot everyone on the other side. To this, people can be added or removed dynamically and with less difficulty than the old system. A temporary, non-corp-based wardec if you like. Under such a system, I steal your stuff and get one of those GÇ£suspectGÇ¥ flags that CW2.0 introduces. When you attack me back, the game creates a limited engagement context for the two of us so we can start shooting at each other. If someone else comes along to start shooting at me (because I have that suspect flag), they get added to the engagement on your side, and now I can shoot them too (without the need to set up complex networks of player-to-player aggression flags). A log comes to your aid and reps you? Added to the engagement on your side GÇö now a legal target for me. I get logi support of my own? It gets added to my side and thus becomes a legal target for everyone on your side (yes, this could be used to add more combat ships to my side by flying in a gank-BS fleet, each equipped with a small remote rep, but they're still aiding a suspect, which according to CW2.0 makes them suspects as well, and thus flag them as free-for-all targets, so that's a gamble on their part).
GǪor some such. The same system could be used to set up those formal duel contracts people are (occasionally) clamouring for: two parties agree to fight, and enter a ready-made limited engagement. Anyone who interferes with this engagement is flagged GǣsuspectGǥ and gets blown up by your seconds.
Regardless of the actual solution, the fundamental problem of CW2.0 was that position of not being able to defend yourself against attackers if you had a suspect flag, and that this limitation would put too large a damper on criminal activity that they still want to see.