>What incentive do you propose?
>
>(Bearing in mind that I still believe that the one thing that
>truly creates immersion is fear ... )

The carrot and the stick BOTH create fear, o wise Shapenaji:

One is either afraid they won't get the carrot or one is affraid they'll get hit with the stick.

i personaly (and this is my interpretation of Boelach's opinion as well) believe there should be more missions. now while random conflics will not be affected by this addition, anyone taking one of the perposed combat missions would frear the consequences of failing the mission (standing loss, monetary loss, or posably even XP or badge losses).
obvious choices for missions include:
convoy protection / raids
attacks on enemy teratory
organaised strikes against the hive
defencive tours of friendly teratory
quest-like missions (similar to the lost and found mission but more meaningfull)
transporting valuble cargo throug a blocade
reconosince missions (ie: evade the SF missions)

there could also be missions that mimic duels, or tornament-like events.

However if you realy think that fear is what creates imersion i have to ask you why you chose VO? i mean it doesn't look scary, the backstory doesn't inspire fear either. In this game i'd say that immersion comes more from liking your character than anything else (this can cause fear on the behalf of your charcter but doesn't have to).

fear is your body telling you that you're still alive, and that you'd better stay that way.

I think when people have a real feeling that they have to live with the choices they make, they start putting a lot more thought into it.

All of the losses you speak of are pretty irrelevant. I don't really care about any of them anymore. I generally have about 100-200k (haven't done a trade mission in months).

I might still do the missions, for the sake of the story, as it would be fun. But really, those incentives aren't going to keep me in line.

Fear is the mind killer...

Love the gom jabbar, where'd you get it?

Shapenaji,
if none of the incentives i mentioned are heavy enough to add fear for you then i expect nothing short of single life characters will. i personaly hate xp grinds so even as little as a -1000 combat xp would keep me from retreating. but that's just me

Well, there are certainly more than one (or four) players who have no problem with
running. I am another, and there are others. It will remain their choice to identify
themselves. I do not PvP. Period. PvP does not figure in to any of the characters
that I have been developing over the past three years. Running, as mentioned
before, is a tactic. One contributor to this thread stated that running is pointless
because there was no winner and no loser. I contend that that statement is false,
because in another sense there are two winners. But my real point is that there is
no real need for there to be "winners" and "losers," unless you have a personality
that requires constant reassurance of your superiority. Try to remember that VO is
also a role-playing game. The roles some of us choose do not include killing other
players. Up to this point VO has allowed almost everyone to persue their own way
in the game. These changes limiting the ability to run away from PvP and pirates
is a potentially serious restriction of those freedoms to choose our way in-game.
I do not force my methods or choices upon other players. Why should others have
the "right" to force unwanted choices on me? Judging by the number of people that
bemoan the lack of PvP, there is a multitude of PvPers out there. Why don't you fight amongst yourselves? There should be no shortage of opponents....

We're not forcing any choices on you, the choice you make is when you enter Grey(Designed for PvP) space.

And if you enter grey, then the environment there should be designed for the furtherment of PvP.

All other areas can be designed however the non-pvp'ers want it.