Bumping is an exploit and it is griefing. It is not how the game is intended to be played.
Imagine you’re walking down the street in New York City. It’s crowded- it is to be expected that people may bump into you. That’s just life in the big city.
But as you’re walking, carrying your purse, you notice a guy following you. He has on a coat and his hands are in the coat pockets. He suddenly runs up to you and collides with you! You are shaken, but you hold on to your purse and try to run away, but it’s crowded and it’s difficult to find a path away from this idiot. He bumps you again, and again, still with his hands in his pockets. Finally, he bumps you hard enough that you drop your purse. You run away finally, and he picks up your purse.
The police come and detain and question the man. He says, “I never touched her! My hands were in my pockets the whole time! I didn’t make her drop her purse! She dropped it, and I just found it.” The police let him go, with the purse, because he’s right, he didn’t TECHNICALLY touch her.
If that was you, wouldn’t you be angry? Wouldn’t you feel violated? Wouldn’t you disagree with the actions of the police? Weren’t the actions of the man obviously hostile?
This is EXACTLY what is happening now in high-sec mining. Griefers are bumping Orcas and other mining ships, which are playing and enjoying the game within the rules, and then stealing mining drones separated from the ship- or not, they are griefing other players because they can enjoy doing it without incurring ANY RISK. They are stealing, just like the guy in the coat stole the purse. They are profiting without incurring any risk. This is NOT Eve. Eve is risk = reward. To bumpers, there is ZERO risk, and yet they are rewarded by stealing and selling drones, or enjoying griefing other players while incurring ZERO risk.
Also, the game is structured such that if a player wants to incur MORE risk, they can do so. They can move to a lower-sec system, or a null-sec system or engage in risky actions to earn greater rewards. And if a player wants to incur LESS risk, they can do so- they can move to a higher-sec system, or move to a different system, away from risk, or chose to not undertake risky actions.
BUT- in this case, there is no way to make this risk smaller! High-sec mining, which is done within game mechanics and according to game rules, is by definition ALREADY in the safest areas. Bumpers have discovered an exploit in game mechanics where they can grief other players, profit while incurring ZERO risk, and there is no way for the player to improve their situation.
GM’s have told me to “wait it out”, or “move to another system”, or “increase your orbital speed and drone speed!” or “log off”. Really, the solution offered by the game is to “log off”? Please pay for and play our game, log off!
Why should I move to another high-sec system, where the game mechanics are the same, the bumpers are the same, and the exploit is the same? What does that solve? Why should I move to another high-sec system, away from my fleet, away from my corps-mates, away from my friends? Really, that’s the solution offered by the game?
Why should I pay for Omega to play within the rules, while someone else hampers my enjoyment of my paid-for gaming, while he incurs ZERO RISK and REAPS REWARDS for his hostile actions that grief my game play? Why should I pay to enjoy a game, then log-off because another player is stopping me from enjoying playing the game within the rules while that player incurs ZERO RISK for their hostile actions?
SOLUTION:
Make ship-to-ship contact a hostile act, according to these rules:
-the ship with the greater velocity is the aggressor, and bumping occurs more than once in a 10 minute timer in open space,
-no aggression between fleet-mates, corps-mates, and high-standing mates,
-no aggression within docking perimeters.
I ask that the Council considers backing changing the rules similar to the above that protect high-sec players from obvious actions that in any same world are considered hostile.
This is not what Eve is about.
Thank you for reading my wall of text!
TL;DR- Change bumping rules to protect game enjoyment of players in high-sec space while griefing players actually incur risk for their hostile behavior.
Bong!!