A bug? A feature? Its very annoying either way. Noobs can interfer in fights in a stock bus and there is nothing we can do about. I suggest disabling the negative XP penalty as soon the noob hits a target (and goes red on the radar).

Well, it's not ideal, but it's not a bug either. If n00bs lost the XP penalty protection whenever they damaged another player, then all higher level griefers would have to do is hold off on the killing blow until the n00b shoots back. And "who shoots/damages first" has tons of problems in determining, too.

Currently, n00bs do lose the XP penalty protection if they participate in CtC, by carrying cargo (and maybe by damaging/killing CtC transports, although I'm not sure on that). Once the NPC Capital Ship gets introduced & we start to see a lot of PvP action around it, I hope we'll also see the XP penalty taken away from n00bs who participate in that battle as well. But other than participants in in-game competitions like that, I don't think there's much that can be done to improve the XP penalty system over what we have now.

Just my 2 credits worth.