It can get a bit messy, trying to keep track of who you've already gotten a badge from in each category in the last 12 hours, but there has to already be code keeping track of it, so how about a hover-text spoiler over each of the three counters on a ship, telling you how long until you can badge off that ship again, or if they are outside the rank range, that instead?

well, the red badge and yellow badge counters seem rather pointless, cause this is meant for the battle tab and they disappear after a hit, but i would like a note on blue badges as i often hack people off the battle tab now, and dont remember whos who, and since they dont disappear after a hack this would be a good idea.

But i see where youre going with this. maybe when you target them they have the available badges next to their name, and when you earn a badge from them then the badge would be removed from next to their name.

+1 Great idea.

Keep in mind that you can get a badge off of a legion alert ship too, or one who has gotten himself on your feed. That could be very important to some people, as a deciding factor on who to hit next (which if I'm interpreting Dan's intent correctly, would further his goal by facilitating encouragement to hit a wider variety of ships, rather than solo zero one at a time, as some do).