STO: Consensual PvP

Another hot topic on the STO forums has been and always will be PvP

My status on the whole thing is this

PvP is a fun sidequest, but it's not a make or break deal for the game.

That being said I can understand that it could be for other people so I'll try keep this as objective as possible.

Craig Zinkievich the producer for STO has gone on record to say that the PvP system in STO is 100% consensual which basically means, if you don't want to do it, you won't even see it. I can see why some of the bigger PvP players out there might have been upset by this because it can be seen as "PvP won't matter at all then" but I don't see this as the case really.

Lets look at World of Warcraft for instance. This is another game which uses the concept of consensual PvP outside of PvP servers of course. If you attack an NPC citizen/guard of the opposite faction, it "flags" you for PvP. Once you are flagged for PvP you can be attacked by other players of the opposing faction and vise versa.

You will be unflagged for PvP in 5 minutes if you don't take part in any PvP activities. You also have the option of flagging/unflagging yourself but the 5 minute rule still applies.

You can also be flagged if you enter a contested zone or opposing factions city/town

I believe this is the perfect system for STO as it is still 100% consensual and to be blunt, it works.

Now lets put this idea into use for STO. From what we know

• PvP will mostly take part in the Neutral Zone between Federation and Klingon space.
• Once you enter this area you should be flagged for PvP.
• This opens you up for attack by the opposing faction.
  
• Once you leave the Neutral Zone you will still be flagged for PvP for 5 minutes as long as you don't participate in any PvP activities.
• If you do take part in PvP it resets the 5 minute countdown.

There's no reason why this system couldn't work in STO. It still gives the PvP players their area go wild with while all the carebears can enjoy PvE and dabble in some PvP if they really want to.

They could also add the command to keep yourself flagged for PvP which is also in WoW so if those PvP players want to stay flagged they could. (I can imagine some funny tactics being used with this method)

There are so many other methods that PvP could be implemented into the game but I think this one may end up working the best.