For those that never played Star Wars Galaxies before it got "Smedley'd" to death in the NGE patch... The PVP/PVE system the game had allowed player to flag themselves as engaging in PVP or not. You could flag yourself as either NEUTRAL, COVERT or OVERT player. - Neutral was a PVE player. PVP players could not attack them nor could they attack PVP players. Likewise, trading or healing was not allowed between these. - Covert was a PVP player that showed up as PVE on anyone's screen... but the Covert player could trade, heal or attack PVP players. Whenever he would do so however, his status would be changed to PVP 'Overt' status. A Covert player could not attack another Covert since in his screen he would show as Neutral. He could trade with him or heal him however. - Overt was an openly PVP player. Both PVP and Covert players could attack him. - You could only wear faction equipment if you were Overt. These rules applied to NPCs as well based on their faction. Aka a Rebel Covert could attack Imperial NPCs and by doing so it would switch him to Overt. Players could change their status by going to a physical location and changing it. Once changed you were locked out of changing it again for a period of time (I think it was one hour IRL if memory serves me right). This timer was critical to prevent exploits such as a large group mustering quickly, striking then switching out and traveling elsewhere unimpeded and repeating it. As you gained 'reputation' in factions you could accept ranks in that faction... and once you accepted a certain rank you would be permanently flagged as overt for that faction. Faction rank had perks that made it well worth it to many. This system was perfect because it allowed PVP between factions without allowing griefing. You could switch status or dedicate yourself to a faction using the rank system. Why not use this in Star Citizen? It could easily be adapted. - We have a reputation system that will include many factions. That would be the basis for the rank system. --- Factions would be Non-Aligned (not belonging to any faction) and 'Insert Faction Name Here' (Hurston Dynamics, UEE, Nine Tails,etc). - Make the physical location to change status be factional HQs to switch to and from faction Overt status ...and use Admin offices anywhere to switch to non-faction overt/neutral as well as faction neutral/covert. --- This means that if you want to go overt as your own faction you have to go to a faction HQ. Non-Aligned can use Admin Offices. --- This means in admin offices anywhere you can become Non-Aligned Neutral (pve player) or Overt (open PVP player) or switch from factional covert to neutral and back. --- A Non-Aligned Overt player is open to attack by ANY overt player (faction aligned or not) and viceversa... but some factions might frown upon that. - The timer lockout from changing status can be set to 2 hours given the travel time in the game to and from HQs would be significant anyways. - Rank in factions could have the benefits of lowered prices on faction equipment or hiring NPC crews/ fighter escorts of said faction as well as access to better missions. --- This means you can have your ship crewed by faction aligned NPCs that will be under COVERT status. Any time you switch from Overt to Covert so will your crew. - Have the game's mission system offer significantly higher rewards if completing mission while Overt, including reputation points on certain factions. --- Significantly higher rewards means payout is over 400% of what it would be completing it as non-overt. --- Missions will have the option to select whether you are accepting them as Overt/Covert or Neutral. Mission will not spawn objectives unless you are under that status flag. Mission will fail and despawn if player changes his status once mission is accepted. Missions can only shared if other members have same status/faction requirements. --- Being part of a team doing a faction mission and you did not accept the share (if youre not in that faction you cant accept it) means you will not get any rewards and will instead earn negative reputation with that faction and the faction the target belonged to. - When a player is flagged as Neutral or Covert his ship becomes invulnerable to Overt weapons and rammings. Weapons will strike his ship but do no damage nor knock it off course and rammings has the overt player ship bouncing off. Neutral/Covert ships cannot be pulled out of QT by interdiction fields operated by players. Think of it as a portable no-weapons-no-ramming zone around the ship that applies to players only. A few examples: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Player A wants to be a pirate. He starts game as Neutral. He starts with some low level crimes doing smuggling runs, drug running, stealing stuff from NPCs, etc. Nothing high-crimestat gaining (like murder or destroying ships) because being in the top 10 wanted criminal list does not make you a pirate..it makes you a target for everyone, even pirates. To join pirate faction you have to run missions for their faction...and they will assign said smuggling/drug running/stealing missions. Once there is enough reputation to join, he can travel to the pirate HQ after being invited and is able to switch to covert or overt. Once part of pirate faction, he gets access to piracy missions against NPCs. Player A sees that his payout in both mission reward and loot amount found on prey is significantly higher if he takes the mission as Overt. However, player ships are likely to have juicier freight to steal so by being Overt he can attack any overt player ships out there. Like Player B. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Player B is a Merchant player. He has the option of free-trading (using his own money to buy cargo and selling it elsewhere for profit) or he can do Merchant Missions. So far Player B has been running Merchant Missions and thanks to his Neutral flag and not belonging to any faction he can only be attacked by NPCs. He does not have much reputation earned up yet to join any of the mercantile-oriented factions nor does he have enough cash to do free-trading. (Free Trading does not gain any price per unit cost/sell benefit from being overt or neutral but being a faction overt would allow you to buy more items from that faction's reserves that non-faction or covert/neutrals can). However these Merchant Missions aren't making as much profit as he would like... and the rewards for completing them as an overt player are significant. So today, he decided the risk was worth it and took a trading run mission as a non-aligned Overt. He's a cautious player though so for his first run he decides to hire a player escort. He posts a mission for it and Player C accepts it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Player C is a combat oriented player and he has been running militia missions and Advocacy missions for a while now. His reputation is high in Militia and he has gladly accepted Rank. This rank has allowed him to equip his ship with Militia's military surplus weaponry, use the paint scheme of that militia and he can hire militia faction wingmen and crew at reduced prices. Seeing he is the sole escort of Player B he decides to bring some back up and hires 2 NPC wingmen. The cost of which is passed to Player B. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...and somewhere outside a planet's orbit, Player A sees Player B's trading ship, fat and juicy with very expensive cargo...and Player C's escort team. All 3 are overt. Player A knows if he attacks and wins then he would get bad rep with the Militia Player C belongs to and more criminal stat for hitting the merchant. Decisions, Decisions. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This method of PVE/PVP flagging allows PVP in the game without the griefing or forcing of PVP upon other players. It provides strong incentives for players to be open to PVP but not making it mandatory.