Admin Notice: Changes to server rule 4.1 and 4.3

[Karst]

#Escorts4Life

<3

Doesn't address this problem for like....so many reasons.
One, the primary point of escorts is to scout for potential danger, since it's essentially impossible for any individual escort ship to fully counter potential pirates. A fighter escort won't touch a pirate gunboat or cruiser, a gunboat escort will struggle to ward off bombers, etc.
Under previous rules, if you got the heads-up that there was a pirate in the way, you could still choose to fight them with your escort. But since you now have to rely on your escort not only assisting you in reaching the next base but actually completely getting rid of the pirate, that's pretty much not an option anymore. Even if you have a perfect situation where your escort is, say, a light bomber and you're facing a heavy bomber, you're still taking a risk because even if you know you can make it to the next base, now you also need to make it to the next base and have the pirate not be in the vicinity anymore.

So, guess what that'll encourage? People see a pirate or a potential pirate, whether it's through an escort or through vigilant player list watching, and will simply avoid the interaction.
Why would anybody risk interacting with a pirate when they have an incredibly high chance of ending up pvp dead even if they win the encounter?

And what does that in turn encourage? Well, if you're going to try your hardest to never interact with the pirate anyway, you may as well ditch your battletransport and Cau armor and fly around in Gallia on an unarmored 5k.

The behavior that this change rewards is exactly the behavior we want less of. Congratulations, you really thought this one through.

Or not get engaged in the first place.

Edit: I should also point out the deep, deep irony of Spazzy pointing out exactly this issue, probably without realizing that he's pretty much saying "well don't encounter pirates then".

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