I do see the point of both sides here, but it cannot be one rule for one situation and one rule for another. It is getting to the point now that there are just too many rules for newer people to take in at once.
To you, Axe, I would say, have a person on duty watching the chat screen. If someone watches the chat screen, it greatly diminishes the chance of being ambushed. Granted, it isn't a one hundred percent solution, but it works better than others. I can see your point, about docking to switch characters as they are the same, with role play reasons you described, but I would rather take a loss like that on the chin, learn from it, and be ready next time.
However there is one thing that this rule can really stop. When I read the battle reports of the SF, I see that some have been in small craft, attacked by lots of people, engaged then disengaged, and "called" in backup, which is their battleship or larger craft.
In my opinion, the pros outweigh the cons in this case.
I think that we need a blanket rule on this, and other things to make the rule book we have less like a book and more like a page of one.
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It isn't clear, now that I see, that Korrd is talking about traders only or not. If he clarifies that it is for traders only, then the above is mostly void.
