TNC: An Honor-code Status

Today, I would like to discuss TNC. Those of you who use the Test Server may be familiar with the concept, but not by that designation. I will be discussing it in a simulated Q&A format. Enjoy!

What is a "TNC"?
TNC stands for Temporary Non-Combatant. So who or what is a TNC? A TNC is any player who is not contributing to the flow of the game, but rather is minding their own business. A TNC is not fighting, spotting, scouting, or doing anything else that affects battle. A TNC could be someone practicing piloting but doesn't want to leave Live or wants to escape the confines of VR. They could be an infantry who wants to see how long it takes to run across Indar. Or maybe they're trying to film! Basically, a TNC is someone who killing will achieve nothing, because they aren't doing anything.

How does TNC work?
Well, TNC is a status granted at the mercy of your opponents. If you want to be left alone to mind your own business but someone engages you, you would stop what your doing (moving, flying, etc.), and type "/yell TNC" into your chatbox. It is up to your attacker to grant you this title. It's based on the Honor-system, and requires both sides to respect it. However, if an attacker chooses to ignore your request for a TNC status, you can't get upset (it is a war game after all!)

Does it work?
Believe it or not, it does! There are a lot of players who have a general respect for others in the game. I was flying a Mossie today on Esamir, hunting Snowmen. A Reaver engaged me and gave me a short chase. I went into hover, called "TNC!" and he quickly broke off, allowing both of us to go our separate ways. Sounds silly of him? Not really. Again, this player had a general respect. He understood I was not a threat, and agreed that his ammo and effort would be better spent eliminating someone who was opposing his group.

I called TNC, and my attacker left me, but next time he attacked again! What the heck man?
This is where the "Temporary" bit comes in. You must declare TNC every time you are engaged. For all your attacker knows, you have decided to drop you TNC status and join back in the fight!

TNC is a strange concept, but it has it's uses. If you choose to use TNC, please do so respectfully. Don't call "TNC" and then turn on your attacker when he or she breaks away. They gave you the benefit of the doubt, so show some respect! Only call TNC when you really are a TNC! And don't whine if someone chooses to shoot you regardless of a TNC request. It's up to them. You are playing a PvP war game, and TNC kind of goes against it's nature.

If your target calls "TNC", at least consider acknowledging it. However, be careful. If the guy just took out your Sundy and tried to call "TNC" immediately after, he is obviously not a TNC! He just wants to get away

Well, as Forest Gump once said:
"That's all I got to say about that."

See you folks soon with some new weapons systems concepts! What are they? Well you will just have to wait and see! I will tell you that they are for Lightnings, ESF's, and Liberators, but that's all I'm saying!

this would work if everyone knew about it
unfortunately not everyone reads the forums - if i never read this and someone mentioned tnc i would be like "wtf" and just shoot them (because i diddnt know what it was)
good idea but i dont think you can expect everyone to know about this or abide by it

There is pretty much no incentive to ever not kill an enemy no matter what they are doing and since I still get the XP there is an incentive to ignore their cries and kill them anyway... so even if the majority of players DID know about this most would ignore it anyway... it's the same way in any PVP MMO... honestly who is not going to kill an enemy running around their territory just because he says he's not fighting

if people really really wanted this than it shouldn't be on live but maybe add a way to un-flag yourself from PVP on the test server or something... then they could screw around, practice, or whatever without getting killed till their heart is content without bothering or getting in anyone else's way on Live

Only time I would do this is if I were filming raw footage of large battles for a video. Since my graphics suck and my upload speed also sucks at the moment, I doubt I'll be doing it any time soon.

This is not a suggestion. This is actually a functioning system. Though not everyone knows about it or will abide by it, it does work more often than you would think. I posted this to help spread awareness of the system. I used it constantly last night while hunting for snowmen in the last few hours of the event. Most players honored it, with the exception of one Scythe pilot who didn't get it (he wound up crashing right into me because I stopped) and one Scythe pilot and one Reaver pilot who were simply honorless (Scythe called me a "scrub" for having A2A. C'mon, right?) Most pilots got the hint and broke off to return to battle.
Even when passing through occupied enemy territory on "Free-Kill-Flash", my request for TNC was acknowledged and heavy tanks were deterred, allowing me to continue to harmlessly off-road.

I can see this as viable on PTS, but I don't think it'll fly much on live. Too many Aholes that would much prefer to ruin someone else's day because they have a very little general self-esteem and cry themselves to sleep every night.

This wouldn't work with me just because I don't keep my chat panel on General. I always set it to display Squad, Platoon, or Outfit chat, therefore I don't see yell chat normally.

So unfortunately, you could be calling TNC and I wouldn't know it as I try to shove missiles up your bum.

Few people know about this and all it takes if for one idiot to type "TNC" and then kill someone to make it irrelevant.

There are too many fools in game to make this work, but maybe the test server would be different. I can't imagine too many of the morons would bother to spend time on the test server.

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1. It's not an idea for a system. It's already in place. So don't say "I don't think it would work" because it's already there and it does work more than you would think.
2. It's not fool proof and it's not mandatory. That's why it relies on an honor code.

I am going to close this thread now. Please keep posts constructive and respectful when using these forums.