OK - A bit unsure whether this belongs here or at "General". My proposal is "General" of nature, but my example regards illegal GB hits and thus belongs to "Combat".

Well. We just had a situation in a universe that is already close to dead. The #1 player and another was banned (GO can't say why, but given the circumstances it is rather obvious that it's due to illegal GB hit).

I understand peoples outrage about players (especially #1) breaking the rules and gain loads and loads of resources in a problematic way. And I understand the need for punishment, but excluding the player from the game permanently only decreases the activity further, so I suggest that the rules are changed in order to have the "punishment" reflect the "rule break".

In this situation where one or more fleets were engaged in an illegal combat with the soul purpose of pushing the higher player, perhaps some or maybe even all of the higher players fleet should be deleted from the account? The player still has his/her account, and has a chance of building up a new fleet, but has still suffered a huge "fine" if you want. And the rest of the universe will find that justice has been served.

As it is now, the GO's has no other option but to perm ban the account. If they are nice they might re-open the account after some time (and some "I won't do it again"-guarantees from the culprit). But this is really only a minor set back. An "all or nothing" solution. GO's don't have the means to make a fair penalty for breaking the rules.