Ol'Grumpy

[Adam Peacecraft]

OK, I was the other party involved here, and I am also very interested on the ruling for this, for future reference. For the record, Ol' Grumps' RP is much more amusing than most and should get props for that.

I will do my best to present all the information on this case.

I'm patrolling around in New York looking for bad guys. I run into Grumps. He orders me to stop. A bit taken aback by his pretentiousness, I perform a quick scan of his vessel, determine he's not a threat, basically tell him to go away and I continue about my business.

I dock with a trade lane. He runs to dock before I do, gets ahead, and disrupts the lane really fast somehow. (Do CD disrupt lanes now?)

I get a bit more annoyed at him, tell him he is obstructing justice and that next time I will arrest him. I engage cruise engines to return to my patrol. HE DISRUPTS ME FROM CRUISE.

5.3 Characters that are level 29 and below may only be attacked if at least one of the following conditions is met:

b) They attack you first by draining your shields to 50% or disrupt your cruise engines.

"OR disrupt your cruise engines."

I turn around, tell him that he is now in violation of the law (Server Rules) and "I am now authorized to engage you. Are you sure you wish to continue with this course of action?"

His buddy intercedes via system-comms with a, "He's just a drunk, don't mind him" or something along those lines. So I leave him again and continue to patrol.

Several minutes later I'm around Manhatten with a few others, and Ol' Grumps shows up again. He starts spamming me with Cruise Disruptors and preventing me from catching up to my Navy wingmate, who has continued on ahead of me. I tell him to stop. He doesn't listen. I inform him of my immanent attack, and after playing peek a boo around a battleship for a few seconds. Get a clean shot off and destroy his vessel. I tractor his pod and get ready to "arrest him" by docking with Manhatten, but get caught up in a rule-argument before I can RP any arresting. Then the server goes down for maintenance. Brilliant timing.

Anyway, I would like to know exactly who is wrong and right in this scenario, or is it all shades of fuzzy gray?

Before this turns into a forum trial of any sort, let me make it clear that I have nothing personal against Marshal here, and do my best to uphold the rules as I interpret them. His Ol' Grumpy got in my way thrice in a row after I warned him of the consequences very politely, and I believe the ruling on disrupting-cruise-engines = green-light-for-engagement is specifically directed at dealing with these types of repeated frustrations. I can't have Ol' Grumpy dropping me out of warp when I'm trying to chase a pirate down or trying to catch up to a wingman.

Opinions?

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*puts on fedora and trenchcoat* Now I know what sort of community you really are. *walks off into the rain*