PK/TK Deterrence
I think that you should have the choice of whether there should be deterrence of anti-social behaviour in games.
If you want anti-TK/anti-PK behaviour to be allowed, then you should have that choice. Just as others should be allowed to have draconian penalties for the same. Its up to you and the people you play with.
The problems is that 'realism' is a flexible concept with - one that you must trade off against playability and other factors.
Let's consider a real hostage-rescue taking place in a friendly country. If you kill or wound team members, you might have two countries' police forces investigating why, say, three bullets from your M9 were found in the back of one of your team members. Even if you were not jailed for this, it is unlikely you would ever be on such a team again. And would you trust another team member with such as history anyway? In Real Lifeâ„¢, killing or injuring team members has huge penalty.
In other Real Lifeâ„¢ situations, killing or injuring team members might not be such a problem. Consider a modern version of the Belgian Congo with mercenaries, or mercenaries in ex-Yugoslavia - some of them were totally out of control with a law-of-the-jungle command structure. If you want to 'frag' your team leader in the heat of battle, then as long as you weren't caught, then you may get away with it.
In game 'reality', after a mission everyone 'gets up' and probably starts a new games mission. Any traitorous behaviour may be forgiven - or might not be - but regardless of this there are people left to tell tales. In Real Lifeâ„¢, the dead are telling no tales and only forensic science and witnesses can provide the accusatory finger. Guilt is not so easily forgiven and the consequences to the Real Lifeâ„¢ team member are usually infinitely worse.
Can you imagine playing a game of INF where if you were found to have shot a team member, you were never allowed to play INF with those players again? Pretty much that is the normal Real Lifeâ„¢ consequences of PK/TK behaviour.
So - which reality do you want for TK/PK behaviour:
1) No 'penalty' during the game, but after the game you might be forever banned from playing (Real Lifeâ„¢),
or,
2) PK/TK behaviour is punished immediately with mirror damage, freezes, etc,
or,
3) All behaviour is allowed, no server-enforced consequences, no long term penalty except for having others refusing to play you based on your previous behaviour.
All of these are possible, and I wouldn't expect that everyone would agree on the same reality of game play. After all, it is just a game.
I have been practicing with FriendlyFire Punishment set to 100%, on the basis that a some time when INF goes online you are going to have human team members running into your line of fire. They may not be amused that you have have decided that your math calculations go something like if you drop a grenade in the window:
2 enemy - 1 team member = 2 good kills,
or,
2 enemy - 1 team member = 1 kill ahead,
instead of
2 enemy - 1 team member = 1 team member out of the game.
If you set the number of lives to a maximum of one (like the TacOps mod), it is extremely frustrating to be killed early in a round and have to sit around twiddling your thumbs until the next round.
Most of us consider that in order to achieve its ob jectives the math of (2 enemy - 1 team member = 1 kill ahead) is usually the operational one during a game. With mirror damage, you can sacrifice yourself if this is what is needed instead of making the choice for another team member.
Bill Lee
p.s. Sorry for the long posting - I think its an important topic.
