Without wanting to trigger a flamewar, I'd like to get some thoughts on what I've observed as the evolving etiquette of the game with regards to disables on the battle tab. I'm going to preface this with the statement that I have my 2 year medal and am the head of a small (about 2 dozen) legion.

What I see (and yes indulge in) is that with the range of levels displayed on the player segment of the battle tab people usually go for solo badges with the expectation of no hard feelings. Yes, you're bigger - probably a lot bigger - than the guy you just nailed, but after all it's just part of the game and there's no harm done. They lose some credits or maybe a nanobot for the repair. Done.

OK - basically this is harvesting among the lower levels than you. This seems to be universally accepted.

The thing that genuinely puzzles me is when the little guy finds a mechanism to hit back with efficiently - basically drop a bunch of artifacts or do a group response in the legion. Then the irritated fur flies... using a stack of EMPs is written off as "spamming", doing a legion alert is an incitement to a war between legions.

There have got to be folks besides me who see the flaw in this.

I've spent time involved in different elements of games industries through my life (long long ago I used to playtest for various boardgames, and play fairly successfully at tournament level play for miscellaneous games built around strategy and tactics) and the idea of somebody taking offense because the "little guy" wouldn't simply man up and take it and found the simplest, most effective way to counter an assault would have been laughed out of a tournament... typically the guy who would make such protests was the person who flat out was outplayed and outmaneuvered tactically, thinking himself safe.

Do people really expect that the mode of standing toe to toe in a slugging match is the only acceptable mode of exchange here? Should somebody reasonably expect to be safe from reprisal because their attack and defense numbers are half again what they just took on?

Discuss.

I do not consider debuff spam to be offensive if there is a visible attempt of counter action(that is the little guy disabled me or hacked me back)
Otherwise, it is simply an attempt to annoy and IMO rude action, I will take actions accordingly.
Same logic to CM, I will counter act if there is no visible attempt of attacks/hack toward me.

I personally do not respond to alerts unless one of the following conditions is true:
1. I need the ship type for medals~
2. It's within my badge range, and so I will badge him back.
3. A clear reason was given for the alert and the reason is deemed sufficent by me (i.e. multiple badgeless actions, planet steal etc) i will then take any action to try and make that person stop.

I consider players that alert over a badge hit and players that respond to alerts when no conditions of the above listed kind are met to be in lack of etiquette themselves. Thus there is no reason for me to be nice to them whatsoever; they deserve the full fury of whatever they are going to recieve.

A action without a purpose is nothing short of childish tantrum and an annoyance, there is every reason to teach people to behave like an adult (which facebook users alls should be)

Yeah I'm fine with it when someone disables me because I disabled them, but not when they take it personally and spam me with artifacts. Or when they harass me for days.

Oh, the GL community is worse than that: wait until someone several hundreds of levels higher spams you with debuffs while doing a random BT hit... The only etiquette in the game is how you choose to conduct yourself. Don't expect anyone else to play your way, and you won't be disappointed.

The problem with comparing GL to other competitive games is that in most other games all the players are involved from beginning through the end. If the "little guy" screws you over, it's your own fault.

In GL, it's just that you weren't online. Most of the competitive aspect of GL is in how you build your ship and manage your incomes. When you use debuffing arties, you're essentially saying you don't care if that other guy is better than you, all you want is to get back at him.

Then again, I understand that the BT usually returns lower ranks and that the gap only grows over time. I don't force anyone to do that, but my personnal etiquette is to avoid badging below 20% of my own rank, I bump most of those lower than that... if my BT isn't collaborating, I might hit some low ranks, but I will do my best not to do it often. I don't use debuffs either.

Now, I do expect to be hit back, but artifact usage will usually result in me returning the favor with a ten ton hammer unless the retaliation is coming from someone much lower ranked and then again, some arties are ok, but spam is bad. Might sound crazy, but I wouldn't mind someone stronger using debuffs. Best way to get me to zero/alert someone is a much higher ranked using debuffs to badge because their ship is too weak. It's your fault if your ship is no match.

My whole idea of GL etiquette is to respect the strenght of a ship and the effort and thought put into building it.

True, and I will also add the following points:

1. Rank is not as important as seems in these types of discussions. There are slow rankers, those who spend GP on refills to rank up quickly and everything in between. Last time I checked, the results of an attack are a function of each players' attack and defense points, NOT rank. What I don't understand is a complaint of the form "some guy this many hundred ranks above me ...". The real complaint there is "some guy that is this much more powerful than me did this ..." which is an easy way to say "I'm butt-hurt because I lost" but without exactly sounding like a sore loser.

2. When I look at the battle tab in search of a badge, I see some who look like easier targets and some who look more difficult. I'm not going to lie about how I take the high road and only attack comparable enemies - what I do and what ALL OF US do is go for the path of least resistance or the action that provides the greatest return on my investment. I'm not looking for a glorious, drawn out battle - I just want the badge. Now, it goes both ways, because there are players who see me as an easy target on the their BT and act accordingly. I can't ethically complain about the bigger guns going after me when I do the same thing to those I perceive as weaker than me.

3. Galaxy Legion is a game that simulates WAR scenarios and related themes. If you can't stomach that, then go play Farmville. I don't know about the demographic of players and how many are minor-aged dweebs in their mom's basement, but if that is you, let me explain the following: in a war (the type of environment this game's strategy is rooted in), the goal is to be bigger, more powerful, and more resourceful than your enemie(s) - the goal is to kill the other guy, plain and simple; if you have an advantage, take it. If you are allied with a particular group (in this case a legion) and want to remain their allegiance, then you follow their rules of engagement. If you are not particularly concerned about it, then do what must be done to obtain victory.

4. So-called "spamming" and "harassment" is not an offense, it is a strategy - a way to demoralize enemies or obtain a victory through attrition - a way to intentionally incite retaliation (to get more available targets or information on resources), etc.

It makes me laugh to see people compare a time based game like GL to some hardcore competitive games which usually require both players to be actively playing the game for anything to happen.

In the end, I guess Vyger has the right idea, there is no such thing as etiquette beyond what you choose for yourself, nobody has to follow the rules you subject yourself to.

That said, wether or not you will be retaliated against or things escalating usually depends on who you pick on and being conscious of things that tend to tick people off... proper target selection is key.

As far as I'm concerned, my strategy was to build a strong ship for its rank and therefore my strategy to avoid getting farmed is to use that strenght to tear apart anyone who relies on artifacts to take me down. Stronger ships are left alone. Works decently I'd say.

WAR, WAR, WAR!!!!!!!!!!

*laughter* I was trying to be more diplomatic than that, but yeah, the image of a teen kid with a massive virtual chip on his shoulder comes to mind sometimes.

Small point, but GL really does not simulate in any way War.

In theory, every country in the world has had the same amount of time to prepare for a war, and to build their technology and army accordingly. (That is with the understanding there will be at least 1 war in any 10 year window, and that technology redefines warfare at least every 20 years if not much faster).

GL is instead much more one-sided and anarchical then a formal war (of course not as much as gorilla or terrorist warfare which won't stop for an action counter). You get to do what you want because of the way the PvP system is built in this game which is an outlier from most that I have player personally (which is admittedly limited but in starcraft or everquest you get some choice in your opponents, in marvel avengers you suffer no consequence for loosing to someone that attacked you).

So the reality is: people get to do what they want in this game and some choose to take it much farther simply because they can. There is no justification for that but neither is one required under the current rules of the game.

In response to point 1; stating that someone of a much higher rank is a valid point. Albeit, people rank at different rates but the point is going to be that a rank 200 is going to have more decks to install more modules and thus be more powerful. Sometimes someone of a much higher rank will not even get a badge for hitting you; something they should recognise before hand but don't do on occasion. Also, generally people of a much higher rank (Say a rank 200 vs a rank 130) will have much better research and is naturally going to be more powerful. Yeah, they are essentially saying "Someone more powerful disabled me" but it's not generally out of being butt-hurt just because you lost, it's because they had what could be considered an unfair advantage.

Points two and three are fair enough, though spamming can be annoying when it's quite clear than someone you disabled took far too much offense and is trying their best to disable you just because of a sense of revenge. You might spend 50-100 energy to disable one, but you can get hit by someone expending that sort of energy just of debuffing artifacts and an obvious waste of energy.

I hope this doesn't start an argument or anything.. Just throwing in my two cents and I know how some things can come across when you're just reading text on a screen.

I call it "Badging" and you will find it along with badging etiquette in the wiki. http://galaxylegion.com/wiki/index.php/Badging ... it's been there quite a while.

The wiki entry doesn't include the use of artifacts. Either offensive or traps. Will have to work that in.

Big fish / small fish is part of the game. I know that when I get hit for badges from someone 200+ ranks above me I think of their 1000+ rank points and 500,000+ energy points more than I've gotten that were spent on something. Probably along with NPC and mission prizes I haven't unlocked yet. Hit the big fish back? Sure I could. But once we figure out the game advantage is skewed, it doesn't make much sense, does it? Legion alert them? Escalation rarely works out well. Generally just leads to wasted resources, bad feelings and trash talking. We all benefit from badges and GL makes it easy to target a range of lower rank players. Frustrating, but the way it is.

Everybody's ship comes up on the battle tab. Get used to it. If you don't have a Halcyon trap active you'll get disabled. Don't like getting hacked? Add scan. And nothing says "hit me for easy badges" like a low reputation.

The last time I was attacked by someone even close to my rank I left them a comm. A rare event in my experience.