Mhm, i have had a hope that the reputation penalties would be... lessened, for accidental issues.
I had 35 rep with Hegemony. A fast picket, after catching me once with my transponder off, and not much after, with it again (turned on before combat) because i was trying to hack a relay, engaged me. Ran away sucessfully the first time, but the picket continued to chase me. I tried to run away again, not that i was unable to defend myself, but they got too hard on my carrier and i destroyed i think one destroyer and two frigates from their side. Boom, i was at -55 reputation in one go. I am wondering whether that would have been lessened if i /didn't/ turn it on before combat, but either way, as much as it makes the roleplay of 'high-and-mighty-holier-than-thou-fringe-sherrif pushes around traveller' more genuine, this little problem left me in the back-end of Haegemony space with no fuel to really go anywhere else and far from capable to slip under the radar and blackmarket some fuel. Had my entire fleet crushed not long after when trying to procure said fuel.
Isn't there a lessened penalty when i /didn't/ engage the fight? Not like i attacked a defenceless trade convoy and erased it from existence to get put on their kill-on-sight list.
Video of the encounter. This cut a fair bit of the steam i had under my sails. Thankfully made a tiny nest-egg to get back to at least a modest trading fleet (thankfully trading is improved in 0.9a) before i get back on my feet, but this entire situation was not cause by agressive playing or by taking big risks, just one transponder fluke and one agressive picket. I usually don't really play iron-man so i would have just reloaded after this situation, but it does not mean it's fair. My only other alternative would have been to /not/ defend myself and take the carrier hit but it seems entirely anti-play since i was not supposed to be trading '80 rep points versus a dead 20k credit carrier' then, or even '80 rep points versus 40k worth of enemy ships'.