Ahhh CW1, I knew you so well!

CCP just put out a new dev blog on the CW2 system aka the new Crime Watch system for Eve online, and boy will it be a welcome change. The notifications alone for WHAT you are flagged for will be a big and nice change for me.

Let's dive in a bit and give my take on the changes.

I'll get to logistics and neutral repping last because that is something I want to be sure I am interpreting correctly.

• Bunch of new flag states... PvP flag, agression flag, Weapons flag, Legality flag (both Suspect and criminal), NPC flag (for shooting at NPC's and the like). A full chart of the flags and how they can be incurred is here.
• most flags will be active for 15 minutes and will make specific things happen. Detailed here. 

Now here's some of the more nitty-gritty changes that will really shake things up.

1. Shooting at NPC's will result in a 'NPC flag,' that will be active for 15 minutes after the last time you shot a NPC. Now this flag means that you will stay in space until the flag runs to zero if you log off. Just logging off to avoid getting killed by a roaming fleet or solo roamer isn't viable in nullsec or lowsec given fleets bring probes. I expect that probe ships will be mandatory fleet accompaniment again. Go-Go scanning skills. Also cloakies will be preferred again for nullsec NPC bears... that is if they ever went out of style, substitute one button click for another, but might give everyone a chance to get a few more kills if NPC's are aggroed on the NPCer, maybe even scramming them. A roamer might be able to lock em down before they can warp out and cloak... okay okay, it's a pipe-dream, but the small possibility of hope remains.
2. Kill rights are somehow going to extend into the new bounty system, so I look forward to reading that. Coming soon(tm). Kill rights will generate from killing people illegally (ie not flagged people, currently called piracy) in lowsec.
3. Can-flagging and container stealing with now give a global PvP flag instead of just to the person you are stealing from, both eliminating it as a form of 1v1's but ALSO nerfing the current form of can to can transfer traps, can baiting, and loot stealing since now anyone will be able to come kill you instead of just the involved party or corp. Still, expecting people to come to your rescue in a mission will be a small hope. Just there is now a way for people to plead for help.
4. Only a 'Suspect flag' is given to ships attacking other ships in lowsec, instead of the broader reaching 'Criminal flag.' Suspect flag doesn't spawn CONCORD in highsec so you could jump into highsec with a suspect flag and be flagged for combat to everyone, but no CONCORDDOKEN!
5. RR to a pirate in lowsec outside of combat won't be flagged, or rather will not transfer the combat flags, so no more having to wait 15 minutes to start repairing damage with your logi's in a safe spot or between fights, if you want to keep your logi unflagged.
6. Sec status losses will be front loaded, meaning when you engage you get the entire sec loss for the fight, not sure how this is going to work for ship aggression vs ship kill sec loss?
7. Criminal flag will only be granted vs pods, making killing pods an even bigger drawback as the criminal flag makes gate guns and police engage you for the entire 15 minute span. As an RP side note, funny that killing a single capsuleer pod, and the actual capsuleer survives with more or less no "harm" is punished harsher than killing the crew members of the ship that capsuleer was just flying.
8. Neutral RR - According to all the charts, Neutral RR will get all the associated flags of the fellows they are helping in a combat situation, including what we would currently call "agression" preventing them from simply docking up at the first sign of trouble, or jumping out. When logi-chaining they will not be getting agression off their cap buddy, unless they are using combat drones or otherwise PvP flagged. Not-so giant nerf to neutral RR, as it is not clear if the PvP flags them make it possible for other people to engage the reppers or how that transfer of agression will work. To explain the lack of clarity let me expound a bit. Say wartarget A is engaging your buddy and losing, then neutral alt of wartarget A pops out of the station in a nice squishy t1 revamped logi cruiser and starts repping wartarget A... Theres no indication of if that person will then be flagged to the corp like they are involved in the war, as it currently works, only that they will be unable to dock back up. A clarification that I imagine CCP will be short in answering.
9. There's no clarification of what flag you will get if you are -10.0 in lowsec, if it's the suspect flag then you can run into Empire and not get shot at by gate guns, but just by every player who wants some. If it is the Criminal flag then gate guns will engage you everywhere you go... I think the Suspect flag would be more appropriate, but also could be gamed by pirates to prey in highsec more often.

All in all the changes makes sense(to me), even though there are not much of a 'change' more of a redefining into a new system trying to keep as much intact as possible. I am really looking forward to being able to see some of the currently only implied flags. Lots of new pop-ups that's for sure...