Hitting cruise to catch up an afterburnering pilot

[sovereign]

Well, I was the one fleeing with afterburner (a cheetah), and the three guys after me cruised to catch up, at least one hit engine kill and fired, then it was cat and mouse. I finally sun dove (I could have gotten away completely but was heavily damaged and didn't want a server crash to leave me that way), they were still chasing me but were out of gun range.
Here's the issue, if someone flees you can chase to reengage, right? So do they have to wait until I am a certain distance away to hit cruise?

Also, if you are chasing someone to catch and reengage, but are behind them and out of weaps range and they sundive does that count as a pvp death?

If they e-killed and fired at you while you were not in cruise, that's against the rules. If you are moving faster than 200 m/s and fire, your target must also be moving faster than 200 m/s.

If you sundive as they are chasing you, it counts, kind of- you fled a PvP fight and all those rules applied, and you died during a roleplay (hopefully) encounter, so the same rules apply for that too.

As for how long it is before they are fleeing, no closer than 4.2k should EVER be considered fleeing, as the Nova can be flung that far- you are still in weapons range at that point. There is no real consensus (and shouldn't be, otherwise it would be abused) but 4.2k is too close, and 10k (no longer selectable on scanners) is far enough.

---