They need to:
1) Consider if this is actually the flag system they want, and if it is, consider if they actually want blue status to be meaningless & that 'local grey' & criminal flags should work how it does currently
2) Flesh out reputation and Murder Count mechanics so that they feel less arbitrary and shallow
or
3) If it looks like too much of an undertaking, cut their losses & scrap the current MC & Rep system and go back to the drawing board with something more simplistic
Whatever they do, the goal should be that being blue actually means something and that players who want to be outlaws/murderers are not punished with tedium. Core infrastructure like brokers and priests should be just as available to reds, for example, and likewise blues shouldn't be able to just murder blues at will while running parcels.
The takeaway here is: atm the game condones killing blue-flags while remaining blue & running parcels. The affect is basically one that encourages blue on blue grief &, since you can get away with it with no drawbacks, makes playing an actual outlaw less appealing (why would you want to? The game allows you to have your cake & eat it too with the current 'blue flag'). Basically, people who kill blues repeatedly should be outlaws (whether or not they try to game the system)... Just don't punish outlaws so much.
The benefit of being blue should be that people know you are lawful(ie. won't kill blues), and you have access to safe-zones (blue towns)-- the drawback is that you can't kill literally anyone you want with impunity (as you can currently).
The benefit of being a 'red' outlaw should be that you can kill whomever you choose-- the drawback should be that you can't access blues when they are in safe areas(blue-towns), and literally everybody can kill you anywhere with impunity (you have no safe zones).
That's a sensible trade-off compared to what we have now. It allows for some degree of delineation of people who don't want to be hardcore RPKers vs. those who do. It allows for a lawful playstyle. It does both of these things while also making the outlaw playstyle more appealing (no tedious punishments). But most importantly, it gets rid of the blue 'delivery-boy serial-killer' meta. You can't have both. If you want safe-zones, you can't use your blue-flag to get the jump on other blues. If you want to kill with impunity, you don't get to have safe-zones. I suspect more people would just choose to become outlaws, but so be it. It's a trade-off worth having. It would get rid of the 'turtle-in-town' syndrome, while also allowing new people, or 'PvE' people, to have some degree of safety learning the ropes. It would also create emergent ARPK, since now that would be the main venue to PvP for blues.
Theres not that many alternatives. Its either keep the game being garbo or change the placeholder features, and yes law system is a placeholder poop and i bet nobody even went to the drawing board for that, shits more like a napkin scribble at best.
Systems are clumsy, negligent poorly thought and delivered its hard to be empathic with SV when everything they deliver is half made placeholder content.
Lets be honests here more than half the systems ingame are shitty incomplete copies from the previous game.
The true question is how to reinforce the core concepts of the game. Not hardbrake mechanics for non consensual pvp. The law is more than giving a blue the status of blue and murderer a status of murderer, its the socio-politic configuration of the game. Problem is considering crime" as an unintended part of the game while its not, or at least not everywhere".
Right now Mortal is the promise of a "niche" mmorpg, because they don't deliver. Crafting is not niche, its placeholder, pve is not niche its placeholder braindead content, law is not law its placeholder, bounties, trinckets, housing, PVP is not niche its GARBO, you name it.
All incomplete systems that are almost" good but they keep going forward with more placeholder content and take months to fix elemental content problematics with small bandaids.
A true challenge for SV would be to re-design their systems going to the basics, the core of the game and deliver packages or modules of content that make sense its organic and intertwined and generate organic player interaction. Not isolated half baked systems that have nothing to do with anything.
The strongest problem with SV right now is the lack of direction, i don't understand if Henrique is really permeable to stupid opinions about the game or hes really out of touch and don't know anything about games.
How can you expect them to deliver anything good if theres those problematics with every piece of content they deliver. Now we gotta see whats the criteria for "bug and game polishing" thats supposed to come after necro patch, in MO1 that was sinonimous of "we worked hard on last placeholder patch, now we go dormant for months and deliver nothing, bye".
And i wouldn't be even mentioning things from mo1, they took the worst of MO1. One would think after so long they would be more capable which leads me to think sloppy development is actually intentional.
