Mechanics

RedGalaxy’s combat rules don’t just decide who can shoot whom — they also regulate behavior through Honor: killing enemies earns it, killing friendlies or stealing their cargo loses it. Every rule and timer on this page comes straight from the server code; values may change with balancing.

Home Zone Protection (x-1 / x-2)

Each faction’s first two maps (e.g. HELIOS-1 and HELIOS-2) are that faction’s home zone:

Same-faction combat is disabled — you cannot fire at players of your own faction on these maps.
An enemy player can only attack you if you start the fight. The moment you deal damage to an enemy (laser, rocket or SNB) your combat window opens and you become attackable by all enemy players. Abilities that deal no damage (e.g. EMP) do not open the window.
The window closes after 10 seconds without damage — if no enemy-PvP damage is dealt or taken for 10 seconds, your protection returns. Dying or leaving the map also closes it.
The protection only covers home faction players — an enemy visitor has no protection here.

Per-map details: Maps.

The Self-Defense Window

If a player of your own faction attacks you, fighting back is not a friendly kill:

Kill your attacker within 20 seconds of their last hit on you and it is classified as an enemy kill — full XP, positive Honor and rank points, no penalty.
The window refreshes with every hit the aggressor lands on you; kill them more than 20 seconds after their last hit and it no longer counts as self-defense.
Clan wars are a separate exception: two players whose clans are formally at war fight under enemy rules even within the same faction — no penalty.

Friendly Kills (Honor Penalty)

Killing a same-faction player without cause (no self-defense, no clan war) costs honor:

The penalty is applied as negative Honor based on the victim ship’s PvP Honor value — killing a bigger ship costs more honor. XP is still granted, but no rank points.
The penalty doubles with every friendly kill: a second friendly kill within an hour costs ×2, the third ×4, then ×8…
Go a full hour without a friendly kill and the multiplier resets; the next offense starts from the base penalty again.
Your Honor can go negative — habitual friendly-killers watch their honor sink below zero and their rank progress suffer.

Cargo Ownership & Theft

Cargo boxes dropped by NPCs and dying players have owners:

Cargo dropped by an NPC you killed belongs to you for 10 seconds (reward ownership). Cargo scattered by a player killed in PvP belongs to the killer.
When you die, 10% of the ore you carry scatters into space as a cargo box.
If another player of the same faction collects the cargo while the ownership window is active, it is theft: the thief takes a base penalty of −500 Honor.
The penalty doubles with every theft (−500 → −1000 → −2000…); it doesn’t matter whether the victim is the same person or not. Go a full hour without stealing and the counter resets.
Once the 10-second window expires the box is free for anyone — collecting it costs nothing. Taking cargo owned by a different faction’s player is not theft either (they’re the enemy, after all).