Could you expand on the reasons for making this change? (Why make the change now, what issues the law/rule presented, how removing the rule will improve the situation, etc)
Additionally, do you have an idea of what changes are expected regarding sentencing for more serious violent crimes?
I have to say this change is a little puzzling for me, but perhaps hearing more detail on why this decision was made would be helpful.
Hello,
This answer is the information that I feel like I can give, based on my experiences with the Law, my interactions with it, and my perceptions of it as I've interacted with LEO, Criminal, DOP, and the Judiciary. So this is my personal take on each of the points you have asked about.
The issues this law presented was that it created a lot of extra work for LEO when it comes to maintaining these HHO, sentencing these HHO, and doing court for these HHO, recalling 6 months of criminal history (depending on the criminal), can be a multi-hour long affair within the MDT system, and it creates a lot of unnecessary work that makes paperwork, court, and sentencing feel like a full time job rather than a fun roleplay experience.
From the criminal side, people are being incarcerated for IRL months of time due to the strain on the Court system, and by the time its "over" it has resulted in a lackluster result where someone gets time served. It creates unfun experiences for the criminal player where they feel punished as a player, rather than their character feeling punished. This process can be a real damper on RP, as there are only so many roleplay sessions you can have in Sisika before its "just another day" and the well of roleplay begins to dry up and leaves the experiences feeling samey. This is something I can personally attest to, as some criminals we've been host to for weeks or months, you eventually just run out of things to talk about and do.
For the Civilian side, I can see where this would be a puzzling change, or a strange change, as it implies that Criminals will be facing less overall time for these serious charges, and you would be mostly correct, but the current times that criminals are "serving" while waiting for court is also an extreme circumstance that greatly exaggerates what their realistic time to serve would be without any consent to life or capital sentences. The general maximum of time in (years) or IRL days in prison is 30 with initial consent to take years instead of serving mechanical months, and further consent is still required for Life and capital punishments. These conversations happen between the Judge and the Criminal player to establish a baseline for consent and what those players are allowed to be sentenced to. When Court takes an exceedingly long time, this time gets factored into time served to respect the player's time and tends to create a lackluster result at the end that leaves all parties sort of unsatisfied. I would compare this to you really craving something at your favorite restaurant , you get seated and then wait 2 hours for the time, and you don't even want it anymore.
I am not able to comment on specifics regarding what changes are to be expected to these heinous/serious charges, but there will be more information in the near future relating to this.
I would encourage players who play LEO, Criminals, and others actively to also speak of their experiences with HHO.
