I recently came back to the game after a few years and I have slowly been getting back into it.
Being an alpha clone I had a confusing interaction that I think would’ve made me drop the game as a new players and I want to ask if this is the intended behavior?
The following happened:
I was in high sec (0.8) system looting rats shot down by miners in the asteroid belts. This gave me a suspect timer allowing players to attack me without loss of status.
A player flew in and started to attack me, my ship was blown up but I docked my pod at the station. I didn’t lose much and I didn’t fly what I can’t afford to lose so no problem.
Since I didn’t like to be killed like that I refitted to an old pvp ship that I can use as alpha and went back out.
Arriving at the asteroid belt again I was ready to attempt my revenge, only to find out that alpha’s can’t disable the security settings below suspect and therefore I could not enable my weapons. A short panic later I docked at the station in one piece.
So If I understand correctly as an alpha clone if you are a suspect in high sec you can’t shoot back.
I find this strange and confusing as this significantly increases the risk for alpha clones with suspect timers turning them into sitting ducks that can be shot without repercussions.
I understand CCP doesn’t want to give free players access to the full game but I think you would want players to be able to stand up for themselves.
You understand incorrectly. If you’re a suspect and someone shoots you, you get a Limited Engagement timer that allows you to shoot back at that person. Red safety is for doing criminal acts which get you CONCORDed.
I see, but I checked and I had the yellow safety on all the time.
In that case It did save me from Concord, wouldn’t have minded Concord response if I was able to shoot him down.
I did not see the Limited Engagement Timer in the top left of the screen therefore I probably couldn’t cycle my weapons at the offender.
Strange since I would assume the Limited Engagement Timer triggers the moment he started shooting at me and especially after my ship was blown up.
How long does this timer usually last?
Does the Limited engagement timer reset after Docking or with other conditions?
I have been here about 3 years or more, it has always been pinatas or clay pigeons in space for alphas. Not that I am complaining. I don’t pay to play, I am sure losing ships feels like a gut punch for those omega whales who buy them. If you visit the kill board, some of them have values into the hundreds of dollars. If they ain’t mining or building stuff from scratch, then you know they must be paying to get their ship.
No they want more of us clay pigeons to keep the paying customers happy. Again I don’t mind. I don’t get blown up all that often. I lived around 6 to 8 months inside a wormhole without much contact with the gankers. The NPC rats are the only threat and company in there. Got ISK rich and bored with the life so I moved back out. It helps, if you think of the gankers as being slightly better NPCs.
If you are suspect and somebody shoots at you, it will create a limited engagement between you two and you can shoot them back, since that doesn’t involve a red timer. If you let that limited flag expire and go back out trying to catch the guys after the fact, then yeah, you can’t shoot them anymore. Which sounds like what happened. You didn’t notice the timer in the heat of the moment, and by the time you had refitted to a new ship, that timer was gone.
This mechanic does not make sitting ducks out of Alphas nor does it increase their risk compared to Omega clones, since other players have no way of knowing who is and who isn’t an Alpha clone. You are only attacked if your opponent believes they can outpower/outnumber you and kill you.