In the case you mentioned though you xbow a ninja in the head save a teammate okay that is a reward, saving a teammate, the glory of a risky shot well put that lead to a kill. I understand that part but where was the risk. What having to say your sry if you accidently shoot the teammate in head. I don't understand your version of risk I guess.
The risk is in accidentally shooting your teammate, and therefore losing that asset to your team's victory. No more risk is required.
I am certainly a SOMEONE and I used to watch my swings much more b/c I didn't want to tk and lose out on gold and xp. So to say that it never held anyone back before and won't in the future is wrong. It made people think more about firing into melee or throwing and it would again if reimplimented.
You are making strong assumptions, which would only be backed up by facts if the # of TKs were higher now than they were pre-patch. Again, I urge someone with access to statistics, if available, to post the numbers here so that we can properly evaluate the impact that no penalty has had.
Personally speaking, I get TKed less these days(because of my higher strength build), and TK others at about the same rate as I did with a penalty. Pre-patch, I wasn't worried about TKing people. I lost 1k xp and 50 gold? lol, it didn't happen enough to be scary. I still fired/threw into melee, and occasionally would TK people. But the fact of the matter is this:
#1) If I have a 50-50 shot of hitting a teammate OR an enemy, where the enemy will take 100% damage, and the friend will only take 50% damage, I'm taking the shot. It makes mathematical sense to do so, if you're playing the odds.
#2) If I consistently throw/shoot into melee, and kill an ENEMY 2 out of 3 times, and kill a friend the other 1 time, it still makes mathematical sense to take the shot.
#3) Firing into melee is worth it, especially if they are high priority enemies(cyranule, balbaroth, dan, singinintherain, etc), where their death could directly lead to my team's victory.
#4) I am less likely to fire into melee if the ally involved in the melee is someone who is dependable, and of high tactical importance to my team(cyranule, balbaroth, dan, singinintherain, etc).
Oftentimes, if I see such a high priority target engaged in melee with a peasant, or someone of little tactical value to our team, I will shoot/throw into melee with only a 50-50 chance of hitting the enemy/ally, simply because the value of killing the high priority enemy far outweighs the risk of TKing the peasant on my team.
Taking the above into consideration, if you were to add a 1k xp penalty, and a 50gp penalty to TKs, nothing above would change. I'd still follow the exact same formula for determining whether or not to fire into melee, and I'd still hit allies with the same amount of frequency.
Why? Because the formula above is all about WINNING, which is the driving force in the metagame right now. Adding a trivial penalty will not change that. So I get all the same odds as I got before, except I MAY be penalized by 1k xp and 50 gold if my gamble doesn't pay off? Who cares? If my gamble doesn't pay off, I'm likely losing MUCH more than that by losing my modifier, and if my gamble DOES pay off, I'm gaining FAR more than that by gaining a modifier.
So again, it all comes back to my main point, which has remained the same from the start: A small penalty(1-2k xp, 50-100 gold) will not have a serious effect on the number of TKs that happen. A large penalty probably will, however, if you guys are looking for support rather than opposition, a large penalty isn't the way to go. Nothing will bring out opposition to TK penalties faster than a large, scary penalty for accidents.
