2) There is some skill in timing your rocket rush and bringing it to bear. Despite what i may infer in some situations there is some skill involved. But lets just create a hypothetical situation which is not uncommon. Lets say a player (1) enters the zone and chooses a ship, greens up to get a respectable stock of items and a full stat ship. Now, another player (2) enters the zone, sees a decently high bounty and someone doing marginally well defending themselves, and fighting when the situation dictates. They (2) enter zone, have a basically well stocked ship or cycle until they have one. Now they rocket rush player (1) spamming items in attempt to take them out. Player (1) is forced to expend some items to counter. Once player (2) is out of items, the immediately cycle ships and commence the rocket rush before player (1) can recover the items lost.
So the skill set I refer to is choosing when to rocket, and reacquiring the target quickly after a cycle. Its lame to be sure, but someone who is not conditioned to playing that way, such as myself, probably couldn't pull it off without some practice. A skill set which would become largely irrelevant if you had to green some specific toys.
These problems are repairable, but I don't believe moderation is the answer. It was my experience that when you get personally involved in disciplining a player for abusive actions or words it becomes a "personal issue" whether it really is or not. "You just have something against me, and so and so does the same thing all the time"
I don't think ships need to start totally bereft of any items or status. Just like you say, a few tweaks or changes to the way ships start out would be sufficient.
So the skill set I refer to is choosing when to rocket, and reacquiring the target quickly after a cycle. Its lame to be sure, but someone who is not conditioned to playing that way, such as myself, probably couldn't pull it off without some practice. A skill set which would become largely irrelevant if you had to green some specific toys.
These problems are repairable, but I don't believe moderation is the answer. It was my experience that when you get personally involved in disciplining a player for abusive actions or words it becomes a "personal issue" whether it really is or not. "You just have something against me, and so and so does the same thing all the time"
I don't think ships need to start totally bereft of any items or status. Just like you say, a few tweaks or changes to the way ships start out would be sufficient.