Criminal Flagging System

The Criminal Flagging System

How does the criminal flagging system work?

This article is about what causes you to become criminally flagged towards other players and who has permission to do what after aggression has been initiated. A different article covers the subject of stealing from containers or wrecks owned by other players and the effect these actions have on the parties involved. You can read about wrecks and ownership in the wreck ownership article.

The rules for criminal flagging only apply in Empire space, that is, solar systems which have a security level of 0.1 or above. You can be criminally flagged towards a faction, corporation or a character (at the moment, faction flagging only occurs towards NPCs). You may attack anyone who is criminally flagged towards you without having to fear a loss of security status, or police interference. [The pilot you attack, however, does have the right to respond in kind. If the pilot responds, he will be affected by a different type of aggression timer that prevents docking or jumping for up to 1 minute after the last offensive act.]

If a character becomes criminally flagged in the way discussed before, the flag stays active for at least 15 minutes after the criminal activity. The timer resets every time the player changes session, for example when docking, undocking and jumping through a stargate. If the player commits another criminal act while the flag is active, the timer restarts. Every time the player encounters sentry guns or security forces, the timer will be reset as well.

There are three possible ways for a player to get aggression flagged in EVE

These are: attacking, aiding and stealing.

• Attacking is when a player initiates combat against another player or the player’s property (activating offensive modules or by using drones)
• Aiding is when a player activates a beneficial module on another player (activating aiding modules or commanding drones that have aiding purposes) That will cause the aiding player to inherit any flag (aggression or criminal) that the player being aided has. eg if the a player activates a remote armor rep on a player with an aggression flag, the aiding player will also get the aggression flag.
• Stealing is when a player takes items from a container/wreck belonging to another player (covered in this article here)

The types of scenarios you may encounter:

• Attacking an innocent
• Aiding a player who is aggression flagged towards everyone
• Aiding an outlaw (player with sec status of -5.0 or less)
• Attacking an outlaw who is a member of a player corporation
• Aiding a player who is aggression flagged towards a corporation
• Aiding a player who attacks an outlaw
• Fleet complications

Aggression Flagged

To be Aggression Flagged a.k.a "flashy red" (as of the current build, criminal flags are typically solid red) in Eve means you have done something "bad" (see list above). Flags usually allows a set group of people to fire upon you without CONCORD intervention. This manifests in several ways:

• If you are the "bad" guy you will have an aggression timer in the top left of your display. If this is red you are globally flagged, and may be shot by anyone. If it is yellow, you are only flagged to a particular set of corps/factions. You can hover your mouse over the countdown timer to see who you have aggrieved, and for how long they will see you as "flashy red" (this shows you can have multiple timers going at the same time)
• Those in local will see you flagged by a icon of a white skull on a red square (just as you may see green or blue icons for friendlies)
• Those that have "eyes" on you (i.e. you are on grid and can see your ship) will be flashy red, just like some common outlaw (* depends on your overview settings, but the default is to show "flashy red". If you've customized your overview to not show this then you are on your own).

Of course who exactly "those" people are that this effects depends on what you did. If your actions get you Globally flagged, everyone will see you as the bad guy. If it did not merit a global flag, then only the corporation/faction you aggrieved will be flagged towards you. (also see: Piracy Guide) Examples below...

Attacking an innocent

When Player A attacks Player B who is considered innocent towards Player A, Player A gets aggression flagged towards everyone.

Aiding a player who is aggression flagged

When Player A aids Player B who is aggression flagged towards everyone, Player A gets aggression flagged towards everyone.

If Player B's ship is destroyed without them retaliating to the attack (Offensive acts on Player A's ship in an attempt to defend themselves) then Player B will gain Kill Rights on Player A. Kill Rights last for 30 days and permit Player B to attack Player A at anytime without getting criminally flagged. Other aggression laws still apply.

As of November 10th 2011, a small change has been made to game mechanics in regards to criminal flags when aiding a player who is aggression flagged in high security space. If a pilot is remote repairing (or otherwise assisting) another pilot who commits a criminal act then the repair (or otherwise assisting) module will now disengage. In order to continue repairs the module will need to be restarted and a message will appear warning of the criminal flag and possible consequences.

Aiding an outlaw

When Player A aids Player B who has security status of -5.0 or lower, Player A gets aggression flagged towards everyone.

Attacking an outlaw who is a member of a player corporation

When Player A attacks Player B who has security status of -5.0 or lower, Player A gets aggression flagged to Player B personally but not his corporation.

Aiding a player whose corporation is at war

When Player A aids Player B whose corporation is at war with another corporation, Player A gets aggression flagged towards all players that are involved in warfare with Player B.

Aiding a player who attacks an outlaw

When Player A aids Player B who has initiated aggression towards Player C, who has security status of -5.0 or lower, Player A gets aggression flagged towards Player C.

Fleet aggression

If player A and player B are in two corporations that are at war, and both are in the same fleet, they may freely attack each other at any time, as they could when not in the fleet. However, this does NOT allow other players in the fleet to attack either player, unless these players' corps are ALSO at war.

Cargo containers and wrecks are considered valid property just like drones and ships. If you damage a container/wreck, you are initiating aggression on its owner and should be ready for a security hit and Concord intervention. This is also true if you attack a fleet member's cargo container or wreck. Being in a fleet does not allow you to destroy his container/wreck or his ship.

What does this mean for my security status?

Killing Criminally Flagged targets will not incur a security status loss, as you are legally sanctioned under the criminal-flag system to shoot.

However, commiting a criminal act will lower one's security status. A low (negative) Security status incurs penalties, increasing as you go deeper into secure space. Harsher penalties are applied in 1.0 security space, and will be much more severe than those penalties applied in 0.1 security space.

The security status of both participants in an engagement or destruction of a ship is taken into account when calculating the final penalty as well. This means that attacking a low security status pilot has less of a consequence than attacking a pilot in higher standings with CONCORD.

Basic rundown of actions that will/won't trigger a CONCORD response

This is a list of targets that you can shoot without getting a CONCORD response in high-sec (0.5+ security rating systems).

• Attacking another player that is in your player corporation.
• Attacking the property (wrecks etc) of another player in your player corporation.
• Attacking a war target.
• Attacking a player that is flashy red in your overview (if you are using the default overview settings)
• Attacking a member of the opposing militia if you are part of Factional Warfare

The actions below however WILL trigger a CONCORD response and loss of security status;

• Attacking a fleet member that does not meet the requirements above.
• Attacking the property of a fleet member that does not meet the requirements above (this includes wrecks, deployed containers, anything he/she owns in space)
• Attacking friendly militia members (players in the same militia as you)
• Attacking any neutral player, i.e. not at war with your corporation or alliance, doesn't have aggression against you / isn't flashy red and is not in your player corporation.
• Assisting (f.ex. with remote repairers) an outlaw (a player with -5 security rating or less)
• Assisting (f.ex. with remote repairers) a player who commits a crime which gives him a Global Criminal Cooldown (such as attacking a neutral player).
• Assisting (f.ex. with remote repairers) an NPC pirate. Be very careful in missions if you have an assistance module fitted on your ship.
• Attacking CONCORD ships or sentry guns or any of their assets (including stargates)
• Jumping into a CONCORD controlled system with a security rating that would normally trigger the Faction Navy to attack you. You can see a rundown of the Security Restrictions for Empire Space here security status

Worth noting is the fact that sentry guns of NPC Empire factions will attack you in Empire Space if you have committed a crime which normally warrants a CONCORD response, even in low-security systems. If you have a security rating that does not meet the security status requirements of the system you are in, then you will be attacked by the Faction Navy Police of that system, this is NOT to be confused with a CONCORD attack. A CONCORD attack will in almost all cases result in the loss of your ship.

See Also

• Smiling Friends Social Club
• Neurotechnicon: A Manual
• Corporation Security
• The Technocrat