Am I the only one who thinks pad ramming is stupid?
You're not alone, and the makers of the game have worked and are working hard on techniques to put an end to it.
In the beginning, when the PU was new, there was very little to stop people doing whatever the hell they felt like. Dick-moves which no one who is interested in playing the game as it is intended to be played likes were rife, ganking/pad ramming, pad-camping where players used to hover over a pad and destroy any ship that spawned there before the other player could get to it (before the no weapons armistice zones), spawn camping and more...
Over time more and more is being bought in to counteract them. NPC security forces, armistice zones (which are intended to be removed eventually when better ways are found), stations with functional weapons, the Law and Order systems including an actual prison in the 'Verse being the latest thing to be implemented - players with a high enough crime stat will not respawn at their last port when they are finally caught or killed, they'll respawn in prison with some hard-time to work off. It's a legit part of the criminal play mechanics, but should work wonders on trolls too as it will remove them from circulation for a while.
Some dick-move using players I have spoken to about this have protested that some of these moves, like destroying ships on the pads before their pilots can reach them is legitimate Player Vs Player "suppression techniques". I argule there is a very thin line between what some players consider legitimate Player vs Player and harassment.
If it is consensual player vs player with all parties in a position to engage and enjoy the PvP I can't find a problem with it, but if, like I saw prior to the Armistice Zones coming in, one player holding loads hostage in Grim-Hex by simply sitting over the pads and blowing up any ship that spawned that's not PvP, that's a power-trip and harassing others. When I stumbled across this in the process of occurring, oh I did lay down my furious vengeance (back when the 350R was a fairly potent fighting ship before it's many nurfs and the rework. Happy memories.)
Pad ramming is not consensual PvP, it's a dick move. As the game is being made and more and more of these moves come to light, it is only the Ganksters and ass-hats who are harming themselves, as the more cards they show, the more the house can stack the deck against them.
