I like, lemming likes.

Here is an idea, have it so you can play offline with bots, have a few sectors, 1 sector you learn the basics, flying and junk, second sector will learn how to shoot stuff, then moving stuff, then you learn to dodge in s3, then in s4 you learn to dodge and shoot dodgeing bots, then you learn how to trade, then other junk. Like the tutorial that you get with Ever Quest (evil game)

A1kon, all the player has to do to get round these barriers is to create a new account and complete the missions _beforehand_, they then have a nice new demining player ready to go when they need it.
On the plus side. this requires pre-meditated actions so any player using this tactic would obviously deserve the abuse they would get. Trouble is, we would still not know who their main character is.
Sorry to play devils-advocate on this but if I can think of loopholes then others can as well.

We could have a system where you could have multiple characters and nationalities, but (here's the tricky bit) they would **ALL HAVE THE SAME NAME**
Sounds dumb, ok. What I'm thinking is that you limit people to only one account. This account would have one main name, but any further characters in that account have to include the main account name.

Example: Main Account name "Derek"
Gold characters - Derek, Derek1, Derekdeminer
Red characters - DerekTheRed, Derek2
Blue characters - DerekDiehard, Derekessa

This way we'd know who was who and no-one would be able to hide from their actions by being anonymous. You would also have to find a way of limiting everyone to one account, which is quite a fundamental thing in itself.

Anyway, time to get online and play the game insead of talking about it.........8-)

One other solution is to have a 15/30 minute delay between loging on so people cant quickly switch between characters.

There's an easy solution to this - without crippling multiple characters:

Implement a switch which enables friendly fire (if on, you're vulnerable too).

Someone spying/demining could be shot by people of the same team, so he/she's easily stoppable.

Regards,
Mark (Commander Jameson)

But that just opens up crazy possibilities for griefers, and anti-nationalistic peoples.

Yeah, as Asp suggested, would you really want a Phoenix/Icarus/Janelle character shooting you in _your_ home sector, buying ships at _your_ home sector, repairing at _your_ home sector? I didn't think so.

A1k0n's idea is a good one, as is Stinger1's. However, I don't think that will stop newbie-killing, as characters like Janelle/Spongebob Squarepant's grief on their main character, and don't care if the universe knows, but that's another topic.

A1k0n, as an added safety, when the universe expends to a commercial size (say, 100 sectors, maybe 150), players spawn within a certain "safe-sector" random pattern. Obviously this would be different if you can choose your allegiance before you start.

Quick-fix: a newbie sector everyone spawns in that you're not allowed to leave until you have an =/> 5000 score. Cruel, yes, but it would definitely stop the demining.

What we need is limiting an account to one nation. As it is nationaliasm suffers, people change allegiances at the bat of an eye and deminers/spies threaten all three nations. Why would we simply put in a half measure of friendly-fire in, or a 15 min login delay. Those'll stop the ff-deminers, but that does nothing for the other facets of the problem.

PS: In case you haven't noticed, FF would make minefields in home sectors really hard, since the mines would kill the hometeam.