If they F1ed outside of Pirate's scanner range, they are obviously not a subject to this rule. Though, if the Pirate returned and they F1ed just in front of him to show some disapproval towards the changed rules, that's bad and sad.
Apparently, the interaction when participants don't see each other doesn't count as sufficent for F1ing rule. Otherwise it will be a very troublesome case and the violation reports will come in thousands.
I suppose that the best way is to treat it like the situations when Miner and Merc had docked on the nearby station.
I don't believe so, because the fight was (somewhat) done with. Did A and C know that B was fleeing to restock and come back?
[font=Comic Sans Ms]If pirate B has no green messages to show the admins, nothing illegal happened.
' Wrote:Situation is simple:
Miner A is attacked by a pirate B, but is guarded by a hired merc C.
Now the pirate B has engaged A and C, but fails to kill them and flees to restock. The merc stays with the miner and does not see the pirate dock.
While the pirate restocks, the miner and merc F1.
Are they subjected to the interaction rule?
Actually, you've answered your own question. If B is outside of scanner range such that A & C can't get a picture that he was docking, then A & C would also be out of his scanner range if they F1. For all they know, B is done with the interaction, since he bailed out of the combat and fled more than 15K away to restock.
Because here's the key thing - if B was within range of A & C such that they WOULD see the message that 'B is docking with station X', then B would have been fleeing combat then and considered a combat death under the new rule, and couldn't re-engage them.
The merc should of followed to the base to rule the pirate as dead when he docked, then the situation couldn't exist because the pirate couldn't stay there. 8-|