Corruption System seems flawed
With the corruption system I can already see a few flaws and I'm sure there will also be many more. So I'd like to know if there are any ideas with how the developers will handle them or if the system will be changed.
Firstly, how is griefing going to be handled by the ToS and the GMs/devs? You could argue that the corruption system has so many penalties associated with it and that it's handled by "player agency" so there is no need for GM intervention, but what if you have a small handful of corrupted players (2-3) in a 40 man raid group, harassing level 1s on their level 50s for many many hours at a time? If the bounty hunters come along, the 37-38 other players can attack them, defending the corrupted players, with no penalty because bounty hunters are flagged as combatants. And you'd rarely see a level 50 non-combatant player in a level 1 area. Does that call for GM action? Will it be outlined in the ToS? Is it up to GM discretion (imo the absolute worst way to handle griefing as it's entirely subjective and changes on a GM to GM basis)? What will we do against people who abuse the system like this? I'm all for being a corrupt bad player, but killing lowbies isn't really fun for anyone.
Secondly, you have people who will abuse the system to reverse grief. As non-combatant players do not get flagged when they attack a player with corruption, you could have a group of non-combatants going around and intentionally griefing people by stealing their resources, tagging their mobs, blocking them from doing content, etc. As soon as that person has enough and turns to attack the guy who is harassing him, the guy just lets himself die and suddenly the victim is now corrupted allowing an entire party of non-combatants to beat him into the dirt with 0 penalty while the guy cannot even fight back without incurring more penalty unto himself, nor can he have anyone else assist him because they too would also gain corruption. The guy losing his resources, possibly losing gear, and getting even more frustrated. They could keep doing it to this guy with 0 penalty or they could be doing it to dozens of people daily. There will be no in-game repercussions against these "reverse griefers" but how will GMs handle it?
Thirdly, you have the bounty hunter system as a whole. A system meant for "player agency" and to deter people from becoming corrupted in the first place. A system that has dozens of hours already poured into it, and allows for unique interactions that you can't really find anywhere else. It's not going to get used, because while there still will be corrupted players from time to time, with all the penalties that corruption brings I guarantee it will happen so little that only a select handful of people will even bother with the bounty hunter system. If the reward for the bounties is too little, why should I care about stopping what I'm doing to go kill some PKer unless I'm specifically roleplaying? I don't care if some level 50 guy is out there on a murder spree, I'm busy with other shit, bounties give nothing compared to the content I'm already doing, so why should I go out of my way (especially if it's one of the two scenarios I already listed above)? This whole system feels like it will be null and void a few months after release unless it's changed. Not only because there won't be enough PKers to justify using the system in the first place, but because the reward structure is so insignificant that even when there is the random corrupted player it just won't be worth anyone's time or effort to go track them down and kill them.
