I was flying through Sedina the other day, when I was hailed by a Centurion 1. I replied that I was a friendly trader trying to make a living. The supposed attacker then demanded I pay him 500 credits. I replied with laughter and asked if he was serious. His reply, "Yes, give me the money now!"

I wanted to give him 5,000 just to help the poor guy, but I flew away for fear that I would lose more exp in killing the man, which leads to my question:

Can I attack a low level player who is attempting, through a hail, to instigate a fight without losing the exp? In this case, I should have every right to blast this person away for attempting to pirate me, even without him firing a shot.

Nope you will lose the xp. Next time just give him his 500cr and wait a few, soon one of us big boys will show up and show him the hard side of pirating. (dieing over and over again...)

and this is why i still think that the XP penalty for killing noobs should ONLY apply inside systems claimed by thier nation. It should be possible since the game can recognize that you are inside your nations space for the beginner combat mission.

eh give the n00bs their protection. you should only be able to hurt them penalty-free if they shoot at you.

I'm with Spellcast on this one. Die care bears!

Amen.

/me starts selling bumper stickers that say: Make a care bear cry kill a n00b. Please let us shoot n00bs in grey space without xp loss.

I think this thread is referring to one pilot in particular. He claims he wants to make all his levels killing pilots.(or something to that nature). Anyway, I lost 900 combat exp shooting him simply because he wouldn't stop shooting me. This is all in Sedina BTW. But yes, I agree, unreg is unreg, and there should be no protections out there what so ever. Maybe a warning popup until level 2 or something.

I concur. Grey space should be grey space.

Agreed. I know who you are speaking of. In the meantime, I'll try to keep such players busy when I'm on. The xp loss does not impact my standings.

I realize that it's not worth much following Incarnate's and the FM's opinion, but I agree completely. Grey space is grey space, and the XP loss should not exist in grey space.

What levels does this XP loss occure at? ie. who am I not allowed to shoot... level 0, level 1 ? And how do you know their level. Sorry for the newbie questions.

well,i agree, if someone is trying to pirate, you should be able to kill him if you want without xp loss...but on the other hand, why kill him when you can just laugh and fly away? or pay the money and let a bounty hunter smoke him?

"ahtawa" wrote: "And how do you know their level."

Answer: when the pilot in question is targeted/selected, press the info button (by default, "k"). That'll give you relevant levels.

Thanks LeadFist. Though I'm feeling stupid now because I remember reading that in a FAQ.

I can't find the answer to my other question though. What level player should I not shoot at if I wish to avoid this XP loss?

First, define effective level as the maximum of combat, light weap., and heavy weap. levels. If their effective level is 0, 1, or 2, and your effective level is greater than theirs, then the penalty is the difference in levels * 100xp.

Unless they've participated in CTF (I'm not sure how that is rigidly defined, but there's a flag the code checks for); then you get no penalty.

In short, avoid people ≤ 2/2/2/-/-.

Is the penalty permanently off once they do CTF, wait, you mean CtC? That is to say does it stick to the charactor then through log offs and what not?

He means CtC, and I believe the flag is not persistent.

Only one way to find out!

FM, think you could make a test character and check it out?

I could, but not for another 5 hours or so.

I think it is, n00b still doesn't give penalty when you kill him, and he sure doesn't have the levels.

As for his exposure to CtC... I let him pirate me ;)