I think most of the important points have been raised here.
The rule was designed to give people a chance, whilst promoting flag capturing.
I'm sure we all remember the days of Hastings when the game would start, and both mi-8's would be at US main slaughtering everything with a pulse. The US would lose it's Huey's, or not even get them airborne, and the entire map would just revolve around the US team being killed as they spawn, or losing the flags they did have as their air support was non-existent.
This rule stops that, or at least should, for the most part. It gives people a reason to make sure they have other flags, but doesn't make mains an area that's entirely off limits as it doesn't seem right to give teams a flag that no-one is allowed to attack.
I think how it is right now is the best solution for it. We prevent it when there are other targets, allow it when there are none and also allow them to assist should ground troops neutralise it, or by some miracle a heli neutralises it without shooting...
What players need to begin to realise though is that just because they can main-rape on last flag, doesn't mean they should. I know there are players out there that wont attack it if it's the last flag, I try not to, because it's just not fun; there's no challenge to killing ground troops or grounded helis/planes... Also, just because the other team main raped doesn't mean you should...that's a terrible attitude to have and will only make things worse. Record it, report it and have it dealt with. Being one of the only servers left, no-one is going to want long-term bans...
Another issue is people ignore the rule, which I'm hoping the report system will slowly start to stop. When players realise anyone on the server can get them a 24 hour ban or longer, it wont take long for them to be extra cautious about breaking rules.
I've been playing under an array of different names recently, as my stats probably show. The way players act when they know an admin is there, compared to when they think there is not is completely different. Just today I had to deal with this:
Code:
2015-11-14 07:47:52 : User SucceededKiller issued console command 'admin.admin_killplayer 1'.
2015-11-14 07:47:55 : User SucceededKiller said '[BVSM] Record please don't main rape unless last flag'.
2015-11-14 08:51:58 : User SucceededKiller said '[BVSM] Spieler please don't main rape unless last flag'.
2015-11-14 08:52:01 : User SucceededKiller issued console command 'admin.admin_killplayer 6'.
2015-11-14 08:53:31 : User SucceededKiller said '[BVSM] -=Int.]-[=- rick please don't main rape unless last flag'.
2015-11-14 08:53:34 : User SucceededKiller issued console command 'admin.admin_killplayer 1'.
2015-11-14 08:57:27 : User SucceededKiller said '[BVSM] Morgan Kane please don't main rape unless last flag'.
2015-11-14 08:57:30 : User SucceededKiller issued console command 'admin.admin_killplayer 10'
2015-11-14 09:02:21 : User SucceededKiller said '[BVSM] Record kicked for Kick for main raping'.
2015-11-14 09:02:21 : User SucceededKiller issued console command 'admin.admin_killplayer 2'.
2015-11-14 09:02:47 : User SucceededKiller issued console command 'admin.admin_killplayer 8'.
2015-11-14 09:02:50 : User SucceededKiller said '[BVSM] Coala please don't main rape unless last flag'.
2015-11-14 09:03:46 : User SucceededKiller said '[BVSM] Ben Dover please don't play disruptively'.
and so I will continue playing under other names and keep dealing with this, but if players want to help when there isn't an admin there by recording and reporting the player in accordance with
our player reporting system it would help greatly.
AFK players are an issue, but we can deal with the ones with no score without needing to be in-game, so I'll look out for that a bit more.
Hopefully over time this will result in less rule breaking and more fun for us all.