Disconnecting seconds before the moment of destruction.

[MatTheCat]

I have a 50K bounty on my head picked up in Eravate, when I forgot about some 'stolen' (picked up in deep space from USS) goods in my cargo hold and got fined twice the Black Market value of said goods by System Authority vessel. I have grown however to quite like my bounty, as I enjoy being scanned by other CMDRs (preferably in considerably less powerful craft) who more often than not can't resist 'creeping' up behind me and unleashing everything they have on me, whilst I am ready with Shield Cells, 4 SYS bars, and Engine Boost, only to have them chase me down thinking they got me on the run, to be met with the full power of my dual Beam Lasers and Multi Cannons.

More often than not, my vessel's firepower is enough to almost obliterate any Viper or Cobra subjected to a full dose of it. More often than not however, my adversary who would have happily set me back a few hours of game time in order to claim that 50K bounty, simply disappears into thin air, often with sub 10% hull remaining.

With such a blatantly obvious 'get out clause' available in the game, there need never be any consequence for foolish or misguided decisions made in the game. As soon as a CMDR doesn't like a situation in the game, all he needs to do is disconnect to 'reset' the err in judgement. Since discovering that it existed, I last used it myself when I thought I was able to go bounty hunting Anacondas, only to soon discover that I couldn't. Instead of taking the battering and inevitable destruction coming my way, CTRL-ALT-DEL, Sign Out. Pain Over. Log In. Everything as good as new.

Lamest cheat ever, but faced with the potentially huge set back of being destroyed....who isn't going to use it if the stakes are great enough? And of course, this totally ruins the very few PvP elements that the game offers.

Are FD ever going to implement a rule where upon being disconnected or force closing the application, the server maintains the CMDRs avatar in the game for 30 seconds, and what ever happens in that 30 seconds (i.e. if the CMDR is destroyed) is applied to the CMDRs profile next time he logs in? Is it even possible to implement or is Elite Dangerous going to be stuck with this lame get out clause/cheat, forever?

 

[Battleship Kickass]

Well I and many others don't... It's only the players that elite dangerous is their first space sim who cheat. Well known fact.

 

[Oddity]

Unfortunately this UDF (Universal Defensive Manoeuvre), aka killprocess, and the direct P2P connection will prevent ED from becoming a 'serious' PvP platform. I've got hope though FDEV will eventually address both. The latter will be a greater operation, ofc.

 

[fergal]

Haven't seen anyone do this to me yet, but there is a certain percentage of people that will use exploits / cheat, whatever you would like to call it.

This is the oldest exploit in the book, might not be so easy to sort out with the P2P networking they are using.

The game is designed for co-op or player vs environment over player vs player so this might not be viewed as a big problem. Certainly is for anyone doing combat with another player.

 

[MatTheCat]

Haven't seen anyone do this to me yet, but there is a certain percentage of people that will use exploits / cheat, whatever you would like to call it.

Most people will use it and certainly from my experience in PvP.......the only players who will accept being blown up are in beginner craft and either don't realise how to pull off the UDM, or the consequences aren't great enough for it to matter. Any vessel larger than Sidewinder/eagle (i.e. any CMDR more experienced) and the UDM is deployed, unless he happens to get destroyed so fast that he doesn't have any choice....but this is more rare than Gaedwan Dance Dust.

 

[MR-HIPPO]

I agree that players deliberately doing this in combat are cheating. However, my client has crashed a couple of times while dropping out of hyperspace, it would properly suck to sign back in only to find that my fully laden ship had kept on flying towards the sun in my absence and cost me 7,000,000 cr in Insurance and lost cargo.

 

[Luponator]

Unfortunately this UDF (Universal Defensive Manoeuvre), aka killprocess, and the direct P2P connection will prevent ED from becoming a 'serious' PvP platform. I've got hope though FDEV will eventually address both. The latter will be a greater operation, ofc.

Not only that.Only a matter of time till someone figures the protocol used/client patching for one-shot kills, invincible ships and the like. It's happening on server-based games, it'll def. happen when the player hosts the instance.

 

[Jake Savage]

If you leave a bounty on you, do you get stations opening fire on you, or denying docking?

 

[Robert Maynard]

Unfortunately this UDF (Universal Defensive Manoeuvre), aka killprocess, and the direct P2P connection will prevent ED from becoming a 'serious' PvP platform. I've got hope though FDEV will eventually address both. The latter will be a greater operation, ofc.

It is doubtful that Frontier will abandon the P2P networking model as that would require more server throughput and thus cost more to maintain the game. The game is not subscription based so some other method would require to be found to raise enough revenue to continue funding the increased number of servers.

 

[Trigg]

I would suggest that a disconnect while in PvP combat should leave a 'ghost' version of your ship behind for 30 seconds or so. If you reconnect before that time is up then you reappear inside the ghost. If you get killed then when you reconnect you get to re-buy same as if you'd hung around waiting for it to happen. A similar timer could be worked out for a disconnect while fighting an NPC

There might need to be some discussion on what counts as "in combat" and how long the ghost ship should persist, but it should definitely stop people doing it on purpose as a means of avoiding destruction

 

[Tigga]

I had somebody disconnect on me today while his ship was blowing up. First explosions happened, no final explosion. Didn't get any bounty on me either.

In any case, I report anybody who does it, and I exterminate them with extreme predjudice if I meet them again. I suggest others do the same.

 

[MatTheCat]

If you leave a bounty on you, do you get stations opening fire on you, or denying docking?

Nope. Not unless you get scanned and identified as WANTED.

I am only WANTED by default in Eravate which is Independent. I wouldn't recommend being 'WANTED' by default in any of the main factions as this would totally ruin your game. Other CMDRs and NPCs can attack you with impunity when you are WANTED....can make life quite annoying when you are doing other things i.e. wanting to collect loads of highly valuable cargo floating around in Space.

Outside of Eravate, it takes a Kill Warrant Scan for my Bounty to show up. Should an NPC or CMDR attack me for my bounty when in an area where I am Clean, then they become the felons and I have the right to obliterate them with no consequences. In an anarchy system though where a PvPer (or Griefer as some would have me) like me likes to spend most of his time.....when hanging around Nav Beacons or Resource Extraction Sites, I am often attacked by other CMDRs for my bounty with no comeback for them opening fire on me first....apart from me turning on them and ripping them apart (if I don't reckon I am way more powerful than any potential CMDR bounty hunters in such an area then I am offski)....but then they just pull the plug on the game and all the badness goes away for them.

I would suggest that a disconnect while in PvP combat should leave a 'ghost' version of your ship behind for 30 seconds or so. If you reconnect before that time is up then you reappear inside the ghost. If you get killed then when you reconnect you get to re-buy same as if you'd hung around waiting for it to happen. A similar timer could be worked out for a disconnect while fighting an NPC

There might need to be some discussion on what counts as "in combat" and how long the ghost ship should persist, but it should definitely stop people doing it on purpose as a means of avoiding destruction

I would suggest that it is imperative that something like this be implemented asap, but from what others are saying, perhaps it is not possible to do this when considering the P2P nature of the ED online game?

 

[MissMeYet]

There's nothing new about this. I played Hasbro's Axis & Allies online back when it came out in 1998. People would just quit when they saw they were going to lose. It was actually worse than in ED because back then you kept waiting for your opponent to make his move, because with dial-up there was some horrible lag at times. After a few minutes it would be clear he was gone, and that was that. A third party set up a match-making service years later; if you ghosted, your opponent claimed the win, you lost, and rep was made. Maybe that's the way ED should go...

 

[Cevap]

I had somebody disconnect on me today while his ship was blowing up. First explosions happened, no final explosion. Didn't get any bounty on me either.

In any case, I report anybody who does it, and I exterminate them with extreme predjudice if I meet them again. I suggest others do the same.

This. Would also make it so after 30 or so dishonorable disconnects you get banned to Solo, or just a private group for rage-quitters. I really hate the attitude of quitting while in danger, defeats the purpose of the multiplayer so why not just have them in Solo.

A good solution would be their ship stays in the game for x amount of time (1 to 5 min). It would only be if you were in a conflict or being interdicted, then again it might be to harsh for some people. I was really confused I could quit the game while not docked at the station for example.

 

[epoch71]

However, my client has crashed a couple of times while dropping out of hyperspace, it would properly suck to sign back in only to find that my fully laden ship had kept on flying towards the sun in my absence and cost me 7,000,000 cr in Insurance and lost cargo.

If you crash on leaving hyperspace, then player/NPCs ships won't have had time to spawn, approach you, and interdict. Therefore your ship is not in immediate danger. I assume FD could factor that into any process that detects disconnects.

 

[Robert Maynard]

I was really confused I could quit the game while not docked at the station for example.

Explorers have to be able to log out - even if they are thousands of LY from the nearest station....

 

[tagos]

Most people will use it and certainly from my experience in PvP.......the only players who will accept being blown up are in beginner craft and either don't realise how to pull off the UDM, or the consequences aren't great enough for it to matter. Any vessel larger than Sidewinder/eagle (i.e. any CMDR more experienced) and the UDM is deployed, unless he happens to get destroyed so fast that he doesn't have any choice....but this is more rare than Gaedwan Dance Dust.

I've just had my Asp blown out from under me by a Python, at a cost of 1.4 mill. I know full well how to disconnect. But that wouldn't be cricket.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I would suggest that a disconnect while in PvP combat should leave a 'ghost' version of your ship behind for 30 seconds or so. If you reconnect before that time is up then you reappear inside the ghost. If you get killed then when you reconnect you get to re-buy same as if you'd hung around waiting for it to happen. A similar timer could be worked out for a disconnect while fighting an NPC

There might need to be some discussion on what counts as "in combat" and how long the ghost ship should persist, but it should definitely stop people doing it on purpose as a means of avoiding destruction

I totally agree pulling the cable sucks, i have not seen it happen elite but back in my FIFA playing days it drove me nuts!., but equally agree crashes do happen. I propose a compromise. If you pull the plug the AI takes over. Nothing fancy just enough to apply the brakes and stop it going into a sun. It then automatically attempts to escape & go into SC. As soon as it manages this it disconnects properly.

 

[MatTheCat]

Lots of players. Without the real threat of being destroyed the game stops being a game.

I thought I was able to go bounty hunting Anacondas as well. I got whooped pretty good and my widdle viper now floats in lots of pieces across that USS. This is part of the story of Ziggy Stardust in Elite. The escape pod/insurance safety guard is a pretty substantial safety net that makes it possible to do stupid and/or daring stuff, allows you to make mistakes, so the game is pretty forgiving in that regard as it is.

There is no excuse for using disconnect to get out of a pickle.

Ok. What you describe is you playing at your most 'honourable', whilst me describing me pulling the plug on an Anaconda battle is me describing me at my most 'dishonourable'. In reality, all Elite Dangerous players will have a mixed bag of honourable deaths and dishonourable death avoidances.

The fact is that the ultimate get out clause is always there. It is there and it ruins the game. Last night, there was a player with a tanked up Viper who was really annoying me (and no doubt plenty others), hanging around Anarchy system outposts scanning for bounties and attacking vessels within the so called 'No Fire Zone' of the station...and getting away with it. Having had several battles with him including one from a time when he interdicted me, I just didn't have enough fire power in my Cobra (for some reason....I did wonder whether he had some infinite shield cheat going on) to inflict any damage on him at all, so I was pondering whether I should go and fit a couple of torpedo pylons to my Cobra and go sort him out once and for all........

Stuff like this doesn't ruin a game, it makes it far better.....however.....If I were to take the time and expense (In Elite credits) to go and fit my vessel up to ensure this CMDR destruction, the most likely outcome would be that he simply pulls the plug before he is destroyed.

Having this Ultimate Defense Manoeuvre available at all times, absolutely ruins the game.

It is no use pointing to the times when for whatever reason you decided to face death and lose several hours worth of grinding in doing so, and go putting that forward as a representation of your behaviour, because human nature is human nature and there is always the other side of the coin that you aren't advertising....i.e. the time when you thought "Arghhhhh....I am not away to go and do all that again".....CTRL ALT DEL-------End Task......etc.

 

[ncjunk]

No, not all.
I've never used the exploit and never will as death's all part of the fun.
However, if you're close enough to me when my hull is almost gone I'll try and ram you before I explode. Some people don't like that but to my mind if your tactics aren't good enough to avoid it then tough.
So no not everyone does it but it's nothing to do with honour.