As long as it applies to everything in a weapons slot I'm all for it.

To be perfectly honest, Inc, the pcb doesn't really threaten newbs. The only real threat of a pcb in an NFZ is to vets who park their capships in a station sector to avoid conflict. Which is fair. They get to shoot back. In the NFZ even. The problem is then they have to contend with hoping their capswarms don't hit a voy or the SF. These capship-owning, conflict-avoiding vets have hubris, you see. And it will not let them not shoot back. So they end up killing themselves. Some just feel that in a game built on conflict, they're still owed the privilege of avoiding conflict by the sheer fact of being in a capship. Even though they also enjoy the privilege of shooting greyhounds of simple businessmen from the comfort and safety of their capships.

+1 pcbs should set off the SF. I just saw an advantage to this I hadn't thought of previously.

To be perfectly honest, Inc, the pcb doesn't really threaten newbs.

We have definitely seen newbies being baited into firing back in the NFZ, by griefers using PCBs and rep guns.

It's not something the community will necessarily "see", because the newbies rage-quit, and no one knows them yet anyway.

+1 to this. You don't walk into a club and drink another dudes drink without getting thrown out or something negative happening. Repairs are fine, but PCBs take power away from a ship, this is a form of attack.

That is sad to hear. From playing with a lot of the pirates, combative players , and even griefers over the past few years shooting newbies is looked down upon whether it is with blasters or pcbs. That being said my personal experience is much less telling than the data that you would have.

However, in the current state of the game if you are flying around in a capship then space is relatively super safe. From what I can see the people complaining are vets where the only time they are vulnerable is when they leave their ship cap ship unattended. I guess this suggestion was made after their ship was in danger while they weren't even in the sector due to how the awesome new capship commands will make your dent/goli jump and follow through sectors no matter how far away you are.

Keeping up with the forum we are in I would suggest looking up the metrics in these types of situations before making any changes. Are new players really getting griefed this way? Is it mainly vet players just wanting their capships to be safe anywhere in space within one hop from anywhere in the galaxy?

I'm betting on the latter, but it if it is the former then something needs to change.

So, i've DEFINITELY seen new pilots get griefed in this manner, a while back. I still hold that an NFZ should be a literal "No fire zone" - do not fire within this region or the SF WILL go after you. if someone wants to crawl into an NFZ for safety, sure - eagle-eyes them so they can't escape.

In the case of capital ship protection... ehh? I'm not super sure THIS is how we want to make them more vulnerable. If PCBs didn't *appear* like normal damage on the HUD, in a way that would be obviously "I'm not in danger" to even the most braindead of new pilots, then i could be convinced otherwise, but right now, new pilots would see a flash of bright red as though they'd taken damage, and want to retaliate thinking they're clear to do so.

To be clear, I'm not in favor of a magic zone where weapons can't be fired. That would suck.

I've witnessed it, but I have no proof and without the data to back it up so it is just that, an observation. Baiting people to fire isn't something new and I certainly have taken part in that, although personally I've never done it to someone because they were new, in fact an old fun thing to do was shoot people down to 5% then repair them as they freak out and run away (or fire back). Historically it gave the victim no protection, and I never did care much about strike forces or faction loss, but with that said.

Although I would +1 the NFZ being a magic NFZ (and I'm not exactly known as a nice player), I am starting to think the original "sf should launch" be enough for this particular situation. If it was just about baiting newbs to fire back then this should largely solve that. The NFZ being a magic field probably does warrant its own thread.

-1 to the magic NFZ that disables weapons.

As biretak stated, no magic zones. I wasn't suggesting magic zones, I'm opposed to magic zones. The magic zones we have should go away but that's for another thread.

Rep gun is not an offensive weapon, I'm not suggesting any change regarding rep guns.

To get back on track...

The PCB is an offensive weapon. My suggestion is that it should trigger the SF, same as other offensive weapons.

Rep gun is not an offensive weapon, I'm not suggesting any change regarding rep guns.

You mentioned earlier in this thread that this is bad for noobs. Rep guns being spamed at a noob, and them shooting back is also bad for noobs. So rep guns should be included if we are protecting noobs. Making the NFZ just disable all fire would solve this whole problem. That way there would not be a rule that would need to be learned.

WAF would that disablement also include mining beams?

We all float: If Inc said the rep and the PCB MUST be treated the same then I'd say make them both trigger the SF.

Also, I'm against magic zones where suddenly our weapons just don't work. But that could be a feature of the rep gun that it just won't fire in the NFZ for safety reasons. But I think the rep gun should be left alone.