1) A smuggler is being fired upon by lawful officers following their identification of contraband in his hold and his refusal to drop it.
2) Smuggler then proceeds to run, under thrust, to New Berlin.
3) Smuggler then proceeds to dock on New Berlin, having taken advantage of a game mechanic to circumnavigate what would be considered the role play environment.
A. If those RM pilots had been NPCs, the way would have been barred through hostile flagging.
B. Large vessels do not land on the planet, they tether to a mooring point whereafter their goods are moved planetside via shuttle. This interaction would not have taken place with two pilots firing upon him and customs notified of his intent
C. Small vessels that do land on the planet can only access the lower atmosphere through one channel, this channel doubtless now full of planetside law forces waiting to intercept.
This sanction represents an abuse of game mechanics to avoid suffering for a perfectly valid RP interaction. While being fired upon by lawful forces, he docked with -their- base to avoid punishment.
As of the moment that shots are fired it becomes exactly the same as an Outcast landing on Crete, a Corsair landing on Manhattan, a pilot farming Xenos landing on Ouray. All of which would have been causes for outcry.
A game mechanic should be put in place to prevent such things from happening, I agree. When that happens the regulation will no longer be in play. See for example the rule concerning bumping into capships, not an issue next mod when that worry has been corrected.
RP rules exist to re-enforce lacking game mechanics to maintain a realistic game environment that follows roleplay conventions.
This player was sanctioned for performing a quickdock on a hostile base while under pursuit by pilots of the same hostile faction. Now you know not to do it.
