I was flying as MFD-Viking, a Dunlin Retrofit Explorer with Freelancer IFF, smuggling xeno relics to Planet Manhattan. (Against the Law? absolutely, that's why I was smuggling).
As I saw two Navy vessels, one (1st|LNS-Enterprise) battleship and one (46th|LNS-Attrition) Gunboat (gunship? I actually don't know what the Attrition is flying as it's not a navy ship) I was told to halt, CD'd and cut to run. (again, I know, this is not what you would like as Navy) I kept telling them that I couldn't stop as "it wasn't in the contract". They engaged, which was within their rights and cool to try and deal with as a Transport of my size.
I tried running to Colorado, was cut off by the enterprise as they jumped to Colorado before me. Attrition stayed behind to kill me. Which makes sense.
BUT, here is where the RP fails and it simply turns into "I want to destroy some ships".
In Local chat, I typed out "wait!" "Stop Shooting!" "I give up" but it was all ignored. There was no chance to surrender and limp away with a broken dignity. Attrition just wanted the kill at this point. Probably seeing my death as a better financial gain than engaging me in further RP. This is where the current mentality fails.
A ship that starts to surrender, should be able to do so. not ignored simply because the other ship doesn't want to stop shooting. Give another player the opportunity to do some Roleplay as a damaged ship that MAYBE will end in something fun for the both of you.
TLDR; Stop ignoring attempts to Roleplay something different during combat. Give players an opportunity to do better in-game, or simply give up and limp away with nothing in their holds. Otherwise, continue as is, and risk driving away new players due to Binary RP options.
