Open letter to Devs, Why I am now combat logging and what to do with this pirate.

[Yabba Addict]

I think combat logging against guys like the OP mentioned is fine. He's just using one scrubby tactic against another guy using an equally scrubby tactic.

It's not upto you to decide, or have an opinion on whether it's fine or not, this has been flagged as an exploit. It's FD's game, they make the rules.

 

[Hitsuke]

In a Galaxy where rampant capitalist and profit/credits rules all things it is entirely normal for a crime to be payed off. Nothing in the lore of Elite states anything other than credits are the all important factor to a profession or government/ faction.

Complain all you like that players decide to remove any remaining tiny profits they gain from Piracy by clearing their bounties but to combat log is an exploit and i hope you face the consequences for your exploitative actions.

Sorry m8, but you sound like a pure scrub with that comment. The fact that you can pay off pathetically small bounties so easily in order to avoid repercussions and consequences is a HUGE flaw in the game, and your attempt to justify it is hilarious.

"Pirates" who do it are genuine, first class triple A scrubs of the first order and you're just as bad as the combat loggers.

 

[GlyphGryph]

Accidental Double Post

 

[Chazzie]

My opinions... combat logging is cheating, use of solo is not cheating, piracy is part of the game but so is bounty hunting and bounties for murder should only be wiped on the pirate's death (since the game has no concept of incarceration).

If you want to "punish" the cowardly pirate for wiping his record so he can't be hunted, don't start committing your own acts of piracy, instead trade in solo or group to deprive him of his target. Pirates are probably the most vocal supporters of moving people back into open where they can be shot at, and traders go to solo/group coz piracy has been left to develop on it's own rather than being supported within a balanced game system, so depriving them of targets so they complain more is probably the best way to get FDev to fix the issues pushing so many traders into solo/group in the first place.

Traders want to trade and make.profit, pirates want traders in open where they can be robbed, and bounty hunters want pirates with bounties to be hunted. Right now traders are going solo/group NOT because pirates exist, but because they flourish uncontrolled on lucrative routes. If pirates want traders in open the traders need to have a good chance (not 100%, but high) of trading the profitable routes unmolested. Yes traders should face some risk, but no trader is going to keep going keep going back to a route that he always gets robbed on. The whole "raison d'etre" for trading is profit not charity, losing profit occasionally can be absorbed as a "cost of doing business" but losing it too often will have the trader looking elsewhere. That is WHY pve groups are flourishing (mobius group is now over 5000!). We've all seen nature docos of zebras or wilderbeqst crossing an african river and getting eaten by crocodiles. Why do they keep doing it? Because there is something on the other side that they want but more so because 99.9% of them make it across safely. If they start losing 20-30% of their herd to the crocodiles they will go find another way across. That's what the traders have done - their losses were too high so they found another way to trade. A more boring way perhaps, but without the too high losses.

Of course, to give them their due the pirates feel justified in hunting on lucrative routes, for the same reason as sharks hang out where fish like to feed, coz that's where the prey is! Pirates, be they "gentleman pirates" or "psycopathic scoundrels" are proud of being hunters and see traders as their natural prey, but if they want to be part of a food chain though, they need to accept that they're not the lions, they are the jackals and that the bounty hunters see THEM as prey, and that if a predator is decimating their prey in a certain area the prey will either die out or move away. A pirate clearing his bounty so he's not hunted is exactly the same as a trader going to solo or group so he's not pirated. The only difference is that the pirates complain about the traders hiding, when the pirates are doing the same thing. Hypocrite much?

Put in systems to support a viable trader/pirate/bounty hunter ecosystem and trqders will start seeing pirates as "fun" rather than seeing them as circling sharks and may start returning to open, and pirates will in the same way see the bounty hunters as "fun" rather as a nuisance out to spoil their trader hunting ways.

I could not have said this better!

 

[Johnny Cyclops]

Not read the entire 7 pages, but a suggestion to the OP as follows. Apologies if it's already been made.

Camp out in Lave. You know the target 'clean' pirate by name, so just follow him/her around the system, get on their tail. Mess with their game and chase them off the patch, and wait for them to open fire on some poor Hauler or T6 tea-trader, at which point then should turn Wanted, and then you jump in and take care of it.

With 1.2 around the corner you could provide Wings escort to traders in/out of the system, and this would reduce the likelihood of a humble brandy trader getting killed by a 'clean' pirate.

Both of these allow you to keep some semblance of gameplay 'reality' in the context of a BH of gun-for-hire escort.

Finally, in a T6 you really need to learn how to run away from a player interdiction. Submit, boost, boost, supercruise. Don't bother with weapons on a T6, or believe you'll really beat anything. A grade shields, A2 shield cells pack, big engine. By the time the pew-pew chews the outer shield layers you'll be an FSD wake on their screen.

 

[Thermidor]

This certainly is an issue (the whole clearing wanted status)

But i think what is needed is more detail.
Like you should have a harsh and hard to pay off 'wanted for murder' status for killing another player or another NPC that was clean.

You also shouldn't be tarred with the same brush if you accidental hit a cop that flys in front of you in a RES, or you accidental hit a player etc.

There should be more detail to the criminal status you have, and the fines / punishment and ways of clearing those status ailments should be in line with the crime.
A guy who became wanted because he had stolen cargo or slaves or something shouldn't be in the same category as a multiple mass murderer killing over and over.

It also shouldn't be impossible to be really really wanted, and get yourself back to clean, it just should take some time, and a bit of effort.

 

[GlyphGryph]

When snakebite dabbled in piracy he was streamed paying off his bounty lol

This does not surprise me at all, hah.

You know what, it really saddens me how some people can be so quick to form an opinion and type out a reply, when they quite clearly didn't bother to read the OP.

It really saddens me how someone can spend so much time writing such a long post trying to justify why they cheat.

But seriously, dude. Being a bounty hunter in this game right now is exceptionally easy, why the heck are you complaining? And then you go and cheat when fighting pirates, when being a pirate is incredibly hard? I understood your OP completely - you want to justify your poor behaviour because you think your "justified" in making pirates suffer because YOU don't get enough pvp as a bounty hunter.

Well tough luck! At least bounty hunters can make money in game by hunting NPCs until piracy is better implemented - pirates literally have no choice but to try and hunt PCs, since the NPCs are utterly worthless to pirate (and you can't even demand they drop their goods).

So since you feel unfairly maligned (even though you haven't been) you feel it's okay to cheat to punish pirate players, who HAVE been unfairly maligned.

I read the OP, and apparently I understood it better than you. Maybe you should read it yourself?

 

[Jorlin]

Cool...once you guys kill Open, they can focus more on content......

Hmm... maybe i should help with that

 

[Mephane]

1. I disagree with the OP's opinion that solo mode were cheating.
2. I agree that bounties for murder should not be so easy and fast got get rid off. Something like a timer of a few days after which it can be paid off, which always resets when a new murder bounty is added, something like that.

 

[GMac]

Not sure I agree with OP completely but it should be harder to wipe out a wanted status that comes from more than accidental friendly fire.
Most of us have a 'home' port. Any crimes on me should require the aggressor to travel to within 50 LY of my 'home' to clear their bounty. Or pay a significant premium (or have a time delay) to pay it elsewhere. Let's see you make the 600 LY round trip without getting hunted. In a cheapo ship or pureblood fighter like the viper it would take an age, in a python or conda the wear and tear would cost.

 

[Kowboat]

The reason that I combat logged was that the guy was interdicting me as I did my first trade run in and demanding cargo was quite clearly playing the role of a pirate. And yet having crossed him several times in my bounty hunter career he would not ever appear as a bonefied target I just found that so frustrating that I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of playing the Pirate role against me as a trader when he would never do so against me as a bounty hunter. does that make more sense ?

I'll answer that, Yes I did indeed pay off the fine, but then you see I was not ever really a pirate I just had a little go to see how it worked and help me figure out why as a bounty hunter I could never find pirates, I filmed myself doing that in order to highligh the issues.


Obviously if I really embarked on a Pirate career then I would expect to suffer more severe consequences than a simple 300cr fine.

You sure seem to love making personal exceptions!


For the record, I completely agree that piracy and PKing should have steeper consequences, but the lack thereof does not entitle you to break the rules of the game. You are however free to violate your personal credo as often as you want, just be aware that it makes your arguments ring a touch hollow.

 

[Hump Johnson]

1. I disagree with the OP's opinion that solo mode were cheating.
2. I agree that bounties for murder should not be so easy and fast got get rid off. Something like a timer of a few days after which it can be paid off, which always resets when a new murder bounty is added, something like that.

paid off by how much? the same as the insurance cost and cargo/exploring data of the victim?

 

[Jorlin]

[redacted]

come on... keep it civil and don't let someone drag you down on his level

 

[Sim Maker]

Piracy is Broke....
.
It just brings more to Open and Groups......so, thanks guys......
.
Until you realise, that an Explorer losing 4 weeks of data and 15 Million credits, is pretty hard going.......and the Pirate just walks in a pays a fine.........its just daft and people don't want to play that way........bleat all you want about Open being empty.....as long as it is so grossly unfair, it will stay that way.
.
About time you "Pirates" took some risk.....rather than moaning about being "Poor" all the time, in your Clippers........

 

[Hitsuke]

when being a pirate is incredibly hard?

I'm sorry what? Being a pirate is incredibly hard? In which game? The ONLY pirates who have the right to say pirating is hard are people like Derath, who don't clear bounties. The scrubs who clear them every 5 minutes have NO RIGHT what-so-ever to claim pirating is hard lol.

 

[Fanta]

A simple 48hr wait on a murder charge before you can pay off the bounty would make things a lot better.

Quite unfair thing for those who get bounty and wanted status by casual hit at nav point, developers did something about , but I have seen last night , gimbaled beam just missed my target and hit Clean ASP , and all security around and other clean npc engaged me, ok I ran in to FSD easy and gone to station to clean wanted status. It should get you wanted and bounty only for destroying friendly clean target not because you causally hit him than change to 48hr or even longer before u can clear bounty on ur head.

 

[GlyphGryph]

[redacted]

Looks like we've got another "bounty hunter" here who is really hurt that he can't force other players to have huge bounties and then pvp him so he can make money blowing real people up. Are you gonna claim to cheat whenever you don't like how things are going as well?

 

[Hitsuke]

come on... keep it civil and don't let someone drag you down on his level

I know m8, I apologise to anyone who isn't one of the previously mentioned "scrubs". I can't stand hypocrites, and I find people who complain about exploits, while taking advantage of clearly flawed game mechanics to be annoying as hell. They think saying "But it's within the game" makes it ok. Horrible, horrible bunch.

 

[Sim Maker]

Looks like we've got another "bounty hunter" here who is really hurt that he can't force other players to have huge bounties and then pvp him so he can make money blowing real people up. Are you gonna claim to cheat whenever you don't like how things are going as well?

No, thats not it.......He is right. "Piracy" is broke..........I mean, do you think you should be able to pay off a fine for player "Murder"?....................does that sound like the Wild West or 7 Seas of Old?.....of course not.....you are meant to be an outlaw.............so, that means Wanted posters, and people hunting you down........not wlaking in to a police station with a dumb game mechanic and paying off a fine.......THAT'S why "Open" is broke......becuase it is completely un-fair..........
.
And if you say "But it's "Elite Dangerous".....I justr want you to know, that whenever anyone says that, all I can see is the MATT DAMON!!! puppet.....
.
"Murder" is broke in this game, admit it.............then we might get somewhere......

 

[GlyphGryph]

I know m8, I apologise to anyone who isn't one of the previously mentioned "scrubs". I can't stand hypocrites, and I find people who complain about exploits, while taking advantage of clearly flawed game mechanics to be annoying as hell. They think saying "But it's within the game" makes it ok. Horrible, horrible bunch.

Aren't those like the OP who complain about admittedly flawed game mechanics while taking advantage of exploits even worse though?