There is an alternative to the Killshooter. Like Tails pointed out, AW's Persona Non Grata system worked very well. If you killed two friendlies within a 24 hour period you were unable to up any plane with any type of ordinance for 24 hours. An additional 24 hour penalty was tacked on for additional kills beyond the 2nd. You were still able to take off in any plane you wanted but you just couldn't carry any ammo or ordnance.
But this is only a deterent to those that intend to grief other players and it worked very well. Not many found the fun in shooting down friendlies in AW if it meant you were basically forced to become a Gooney driver afterwards.
And on the other hand, killshooter does work how it's intended and HiTech unfortunately has ruled any possibility of the PNG system as he didn't like the system. Wish though he would rethink his position.
It could work.
However, it does not address the possibility that a genuine mistake can happen twice, within a period of 24 hours. Imagine this scenario;
There are 3~4 friendlies chasing after one enemy plane. I try to keep my cool, watch my shooting. I think it's safe to open fire.. but at that moment, a friendly jumps in the way. I'm in a cannon-armed plane, and my burst damages a friendly plane critically.
Now, in this kind of situation, the kill shooter will remove myself from the fight. It is a frustrating experience, but since techincally I did make the mistake, despite the reckless behavior of the friendly pilot who jumped in front of me, I swallow my anger and just up another plane. Perhaps, I'll have a talk with the guy who jumped in front of me.
- Hey, I just got KS'd from you.
- Did I cause that? Gee, sorry.
- That's okay. Technically I did shoot you.
Let's both try to be more careful next time.
- Okay. Sorry, man.
- No problem.
But sometimes, bad luck will make the worst happen. I may get KS'd twice in the same day.
Now, according to the
persona non grata, the mistakes I made twice, unintentional and accidental, will take away my ability to fly and fight for 24 hours.
Frankly, I think the KS better addresses all types of situations concerning friendly fire incidents. Mistakes are immediately reprimanded by taking the guy who shot at a friendly out of the fight, but in case of unintentional and truly accidental happenings, the penalty is not so severe as to totally take away my game for 24 hours.
Persona non grata seems like a very powerful system, and even more so strict than the KS. But sometimes, that can be an overkill to truly unintentional accidents. No doubt it'll make people think twice, thrice, and even four times before shooting around frdly planes... but still mistakes and accidents do happen.