Can't let this dead horse be dragged by again without giving it another kick of my own, for Hate's sake. Damn thing didn't die hard enough
So, those of you who've closed your minds to the truth, feel free to tune out at this point. For the rest.....
Killshooter sucks compared to every plausible alternative. This is because the penalties of killshooter usually fall hardest on the least deserving of punishment, and fear of these penalties cramps the style of all the honest pilots while doing absolutely nothing to discourage the problem children. As such, killshooter is not fair by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it even a reasonable solution.
Friendly fire usually doesn't come into play except when somebody is trying to steal a kill. Who's the badguy in that situation? The honest guy who did all the work bleeding the nme down and is now somewhat slow himself, or the fast jerk swooping in to steal the easy kill? But Killshooter allows the interloper complete freedom to steal the kill, while denying the guy who did all the work his just reward. Or say you've braved the defensive fire and have slowed a buff formation by crippling the leader, and then some jerk swoops in and kills them all while you're dodging bullets.
It is thus obvious that Killshooter actually ENCOURAGES kill-stealing behavior. Why blow your E, risk damage, or otherwise inconvenience yourself when there's such a good chance of it being all for nothing? Rather, if you want kills, you should play the jerk, letting other guys do the work, then snap up the spoils yourself.
If the real world used the same logic as Killshooter in its laws, the following things would happen:
- You spend a lot of time and effort writing a book. The night before you mail the manuscript to the publisher, somebody steals it off your desk and publishes it himself, and the courts think this is perfectly OK.
- You're stopped at an intersection and your light turns green. You start across and get broadsided by some jerk running the red light. But he gets off scot-free because he had more E, which gives him the right to bowl you over, and you're stuck with the damage.
Granted, there needs to be something in place to discourage the grief fragging of friendlies. However, I am of the firm opinion that the threat posed by grief fragging is FAR less than enough to warrant the heavy-handed coercion of Killshooter. As was proved by DOS AW, grief fragging can be controlled by a PNG system, something rather like what MuckMAW found in A'sA. Such as system lays a much lighter burden on the honest pilots who make up the vast bulk of the population, while reserving its punishments almost exclusively for the guilty.
Killshooter sucks.
