Re: Hardcore
The TTK in Sandstorm is extremely low so it doesn't take many shots at all to kill others or to be killed. Typically it's 1-3 shots depending on the weapon, distance, material you shoot through if applicable, if you have body armor on, location you're hit, etc. ....so being shot again after being injured (by a teammate or otherwise) will likely result in death but in that game, you're lucky to survive the first hit(s) anyhow. There is no healing mechanic or regeneration, health bar, etc.
FF takes more shots to kill someone on your own team so it doesn't result in death as easily as it will against enemies. ....not so much with explosives or secondary explosions however. Those count too though and damage will be mirrored back on you next time.
I find that killing someone on your team once is enough of a lesson in that game to get your head right. Anymore and it would begin to get annoying IMO.
One of the issues however is that if someone feels wronged, they may take the one freebie TK (so to speak) and kill the offender. If that person is in a group, their friends will sometimes take turns TK'ing who they believe is the aggressor. ....the player will either end up leaving or sometimes get vote-kicked at that point by the group.
No system is perfect but a similar mechanic might work in Portal with some tweaks / safeguards in place so it's not abused, etc.
