Why doesn't this game have friendly fire yet?
This alone will fix many problems in the DZ. (Running around like new born "special agents" looks so stupid currently.
This will make BOTH teams think twice about running into the other team, and will force some players to take cover, aim and shoot properly.
Not to mention more realistic.
Something I am missing?
I don't get why people think ff would change the gameplay much in the dz. Sure grouos might have to rethink certian situations but it wouldn't change the clusterf### that is pvp. Not to mention the trolling you would start to see. People already whine about people going rogue on them suddenly, now just imagine being able to kill your teammate willy nilly. My suggestion would be something like flagging yourself rogue by holding a button prior to being able to attack someone. This way friendly fire of any agent would never occur so no more accidental rogues. To go rogue you would hold down a specific button and after 4 seconds or so it would flag you as a rogue and enable you to attack an agent. This would also give the victim a possible chance to notice what is going on. It would also make it harder for rogue because people wouldn't have to worry about going accidental rogue on their rogue hunting allies.
The only thing you are missing is that the developers have no common sense whatsoever.
The issue started because Massive decided that shooting another agent was what would initiate the rogue protocol. It makes sense to a degree and turning off friendly fire in PvE was kind of necessary too because randoms (and even teammates) can be annoying rushing forward into your line of fire.
But in PvP as you have stated it is a sh*t show. I would accept it being on for everyone or off for everyone.
Your suggestion allows us to keep opening fire on an agent as the trigger for PvP which some still like and I can live with that. However I also find the 19s accidental timer rubbish to be annoying as well, as rogues constantly run in and out of people to make them go rogue on each other. In my opinion, even if you utilise your idea, that will still happen and that mechanic in my mind is broken.
Better in my opinion is to have a requirement to select rogue status manually from your menu, before you can shoot another player and turn OFF friendly fire for everyone. Friendlies can't shoot friendlies, rogues cannot shoot their own team, but rogues can shoot other rogues (intentionally or accidentally).
Edit: Pretty much what Rage said actually.