involuntary pvp

Your either getting flagged for going into the Outlaws den or getting healed by someone in your group who was flagged.

Make better choices.

Good question. I was playing last night and got flagged somehow. Not sure what caused it. I'm not a noob and have been playing MMOs since UO launched. I "popped" and i got flagged as well as the person I was grouped with. If you pop next to a PvP player, do you get flagged? Did our companions have a role in this?

I will be one of the first to say, "PvE Server not PvP server!" But my wife and I were running around and a Sith Maurder tried to steal our boss and my AoE hit him, he then attacked us. He was alone so we killed him. It was kind of fun... in an albeit mean way. As we were finishing the 12 parts of the ship quest, in the far W of the dune sea my wife headed N and I checked the map only to find myself under attack from 4 Sith. What do you do? You die.

It is ok with me to have pvp forced on me occasionally as 90% of the time I will never try it. It was fun ganking a lone Sith. I'm sure the 4 Sith who ganked me thought the same. What did I learn? Travel with guildies and prepare for war.

Just my 2 cents...

What you should have learned is not to use AoE around flagged enemies.

It's all about situational awareness.

No, that is not why they do it... guess again...

I thought this was fixed a LONG time ago?

I thought that one of the recent patches changed how this works? You can't get flagged by using AOE on a PvP flagged player. Griefers were running into the AOE to flag people and then gank them.
I'm not complaining about all of this (been playing MMOs a long time) but I want to understand the underlying mechanics and rules of engagement. Just trying to understand how I got flagged.

He came in out of nowhere to steal our boss as our attacks started.... as I choose a healer class my most potent attack is Force Quake. And yes I know i can stop it, which I did as soon as I realized he was attacking us. It was more of a guy hiding and trying to force pvp on ppl. Which is fine. My point is that if BW wants to force pve players to run through pvp flagging areas for a quest, ppl should know they are flagged and not cry about it when they are. It happens, deal with it. I'm not complaining that I ganked and was ganked another player, I wanted the item so it goes with the pvp area.

But it's not a PvP area. I was flagged at the event vendor while doing nothing. I think someone exploded, and my companion used some AE skill in reaction to that, which got me flagged. After getting insta-killed, I went to the med center, and queued for a WZ. No waiting or worrying about being flagged. I also put the companion away while near flagged players.

Enlighten us then, because I see no other reason than "I suck too much to fight people my own level" as rationale for forcing pvp on and killing someone half your level on a PvE server.