Decided to post this because there have been some threads complaining about Griefwatch and the wiki is unhelpfully vague. Been playing since Sol'Tech was a server and haven't gotten weapon locked, even when I TK'd people on purpose (what, how else do you learn how it works?) thanks to careful research. This guide does not promise accuracy or statistics, only to serve as a rudimentary instruction manual for navigating the confusing Griefwatch system that must have been based off modern criminal justice laws. Griefwatch in a nutshell First, and foremost, each tier of griefwatch is accompanied by a warning message, the first being intended to gently correct a noob, the last being a vain effort to talk sense into a troll. The most important part of learning the Grief system is knowing what these messages are and how they correspond to your current level of grief. The messages/warnings break down roughly as follows: 1)Hey, newbie, you're firing on Allies and that's bad in this game. 2)Hey, a-hole, you're shooting the wrong color and that's not cool. 3)Something bad will happen if you don't stop, it's gonna be really, really bad. 4)Final Warning before the Wrath of Higby rains down upon you. 5)Time to play your alt account (or your main, since you probably did this on an alt account). Even though the wiki divides Grief into 4 tiers, you will still get 4 warnings before lock, so it's technically more like 5 tiers, with each message confirming when you've reached it. There is also a point system and a numerical value at each tier level; completely ignore them because who cares about keeping track of numbers. Grief points accumulate when you damage other players directly or indirectly. However, not all offenses are the same, and in fact, there are many subtle nuances to navigating PS2's Crime and Punishment. For example, straight-up killing someone is probably the least offensive thing you can do (wait, what?) Oh yes, here's why: 1-shot killing someone, like say with a rocket or running them over. and damaging them slightly with a stray shot more or less ticks the same amount on the grief counter. This is how people exploit the system to blow up half a dozen Sundies/MBTs/revenge TK and it is how weapons-lock can sneak up on someone even if they haven't actually killed a single friendly (fair, isn't it?). If you don't believe me, go try it (don't really try it). Hose down a crowded doorway in a biolab with an LMG (don't do this), then C4 a few fully loaded MBTs and see which gets you to the bottom faster (third disclaimer: don't do this). Most important of all, however, is that the time in between each warning seems to gets faster the closer you get to weapons lock. In other words, once you pass the threshold from Confused to Deliberate, you face stiffer consequences, sort of how once you lose your driver's license, every ticket becomes a $1000+jail time affair. The trick, therefore, is knowing how much trouble you're in and what you can get away with at this time. Managing your SOE aggro Much like the current Resource system, griefwatch ticks down over a minute or two, gradually refreshing your count. If you don't damage friendlies, it'll eventually go all the way back up to the top, often within the space of a single fight. Therefore, your best bet is to simply cool down and backoff the AOE for a little while. Go snipe, play support as a medic or engineer, gun instead of drive, use the AV option (since there's barely any splash anymore) or even pull AA. As few as 2-5 minutes of this can get you back in the server's good grace and it's not like you don't spend that much time waiting for empty bases to flip. Once your Grief is back to Noob Warning level then you know you've regained some leeway and can start splatting/spamming your allies as much your enemies without worry until you see the next tier of warning pop up. If you learn the warnings and understand the ticking system, you can happily manage your level of SOE aggro and be a menace to all sides avoid accidentally getting weapon locked for unintentional friendly damage. Hope this helps!
