should you report players that block docking bays?

[Sandmann]

i'm a pirate/smuggler

So let me see if I've got this straight. You're a pirate... someone who attacks defenceless people to steal their possessions... and you reported someone for being legally docked in an inconsiderate manner? REALLY?

And then you felt justified to try to shoot them up, and outraged that the station shot back at you? REALLY???

Seriously... just drop to solo and dock.

 

[Mephane]

Solutions:
- FD could make it so after a certain amount of time has elapsed while docked, the player is moved smoothly into a temporary solo-like instance, they are still in open mode but their instance is closed off for others, until they launch and FSD out.

Not solutions:
- Reporting the player.
- Killing the player.

 

[Winterwalker]

What if you log off? Does your ship disappear? Go underground, and then disappear?

This OP sounds like one for the docking authority, after all the station "profits" from having more traffic ..
"Blocked pads are dead pads" as far as the station is concerned, they would want you to transact and be gone, too.

Should we be paying a landing fee / parking meter when docked and logged on (obviously not when logged off)
Scaled to size of pad, and minutes / hours occupied? <gets ready to run away ..>

<no wait> What if you could complain to the dock (not report a player by the way)
The dock might issue warning to the landed ship, the meter is running?
If there's no response, it soon becomes clear that the landed pilot is AFK (that is, Away From Krait, while logged in) ..
Tribbles get onto the ship and start to eat it from the inside out ... (or you get a fine .. or charged extra for docking next time)

In any case, "switch to solo," though a bit of a sad solution,
might have to be call, for now at least, if only because ED is in development.

 

[zzzornbringer]

And then you felt justified to try to shoot them up, and outraged that the station shot back at you? REALLY???

well, i was not outraged that the station shot back. i know that's the consequence of opening fire in a no fire zone. all i was doing was using the tools the game gives me to potentially free the landing pad. it didn't work. i learned (the hard way, like you learn anything else in the game) that players are immune to other player's fire while docked.

all i'm trying here is ask if it's considered abusive behavior that can be reported and if there are other solutions (not workarounds) to this problem. it's not the first time that this problem occurred. usually you just have to wait a few minutes and you get your landing spot. this time, it didn't happen. this person still occupied the pad after 10 minutes. and something needs to be done about that. switching to solo (or only playing solo) is not the solution.

 

[Sandmann]

all i'm trying here is ask if it's considered abusive behavior that can be reported and if there are other solutions (not workarounds) to this problem. it's not the first time that this problem occurred. usually you just have to wait a few minutes and you get your landing spot. this time, it didn't happen. this person still occupied the pad after 10 minutes. and something needs to be done about that. switching to solo (or only playing solo) is not the solution.

You're not the first person to notice this, in fact we've been talking about it since the game was in beta and probably even earlier. The usual "proper solution" that gets suggested is the game moving idling players into a solo instance, and the usual "workaround" suggested is dropping to solo to dock. Someone always suggests having the game move players into the hangar till it's pointed out that those players would stil be using the dock, and you just wouldn't be able to see them. FD are very aware of the issue and have shown no interest in fixing it, so don't hold your breath while waiting for a fix. Oh and docked players were made invulnerable specifically to stop them being griefed, which would make your actions of shooting them abusive and reportable if it weren't for the fact that they're now of no consequence coz you can't hit them and the station shoots back at you, and would make his actions of sitting on the dock just bad manners.

 

[Muzz UK]

i'm currently on a mission that required me to travel quite a bit. 30k-40k ls to an outpost. once arrived, i tried to get docking permission. "permission denied". flew around a bit, saw a player type-6 docked. messaged him: "i would appreciate if you hurry". no respond, as usual. cool, i've got another mission 120 ls away. finished it, came back. the same commander still docked. k. now, i did two things i never do: shoot within the no fire zone and shoot a player. unfortunately, players seem to be immune when docked and attacked by other players. station started to fire, obviously, and i got away (with my new ASP) with 40% hull.

i did actually report this player for blocking a docking bay. whether this will have consequences or not is not up to me but i thought i just give it a try. i can't really do anything else about it. i wonder how long it would take for the game to disconnect you if you block a docking bay. if this happens at all.

do you have an opinion on that? should you report players that block docking bays? should there be a game mechanic that frees up docking space if it's occupied for too long?

Sorry I think the OP is in the wrong. Docking bays etc are a game mechanic and if they are full they are full. I usually message politely and ask how long most of the time you get a response. No one said you had to fire your weapons etc! No point in having stations with docking permissions or mission timers if you make it so you can always dock on request.

I think your horrible for reporting someone for this! they paid money to play.... how do you know they weren't looking at a trade route, fitting their ship or waiting for a decent mission to spawn?

 

[Drink!]

if the player actually is afk, left his seat, he has to live with the consequences, too. i'm a pirate/smuggler. so, it actually fits me, lore wise. it's not like you don't get punished if you open fire at an outpost. i took quite a lot of damage. i think it's actually unfair to give players immunity from other players while docked. i actually did get attacked by an npc while docked once, and i actually did get damage.

not really an optimal solution. forced to go solo isn't optimal either. something should change imho.

What consequences? He didn't doing anything. Its not illegal to stay docked.

 

[PhazonAran]

I got shot up by 2 x Asp for taking a long time at an outpost (I had a phone call) when I took off. If this happens now I escape to the main menu. I think if you know you are going to do something that takes a long time, such as selling exploration data, after docking you should probably go into solo to do the long task.

Those guys refuse to go in Solo to dock, why should I go in Solo once I landed ?

 

[AluminumAlloy]

Early this morning, I was docked with my DBX at a small outpost and went to grab a drink. When I walked back, I saw a CMDR in an Eagle firing at me. The turrets began to fire on the Eagle and it didn't survive.

 

[VR Morgan Grimes]

should you report players that are using docking bays?.

Fixed and nope, but there should be a time based fee for using bays

 

[badwolf77]

...eventually it disappears down into the hanger, I hang around for a minute or two but the lights on the pad go out, the Asp
does not leave, I request docking permission this time it is accepted and the same pad lights up and I land, I suggest from this that
docking must be instanced, and you can land even if there is a ship in the hanger

He just logged out.

 

[zzzornbringer]

Fixed and nope, but there should be a time based fee for using bays

yea, rip the issue out of context.

i give you a comparison: in wow battlegrounds (that's pvp matches) players that are afk can get reported and eventually get kicked out of the battleground if enough players report that player.

in my case, there was a player that obviously was AFK. he occupied a landing pad for more than 10 minutes. the game actually has no system whatsoever that would disconnect the player even after 100 minutes. he did not reply after i messaged him.

so, i reported it and tried what i could within the rules of the game to free up that space, so i could continue to play the game. it didn't work and i actually failed a few missions.

however, i'm glad that this topic got up to 7 pages already and that it's a bit controversial. just underlines that FD should think about a solution. and that's the goal of this.

 

[Sandmann]

so, i reported it

You'd actually have been better off reporting it as a bug rather than as a player's breach. They're just gonna look at the report and figure he wasn't breaking any rules. If you report it as a bug there's a small chance it'll come up for consideration in a future update.

 

[xslam]

Now they report and demand ban not only for griefing/piracy/pvp, but for afk as well.

They doesn't talking about outpost docking flaws, they talking about how to use "law" as weapon in struggle against innocent player.

Should FD listen them?

 

[FlaGuitars]

So is this thread about "changing" a game mechanic that one (or many) feels needs to be changed or is it about "reporting" people for playing, innocently, according to the existing mechanic ?

 

[Fenster]

yea, totally agree. if you're not in the game, make room for others.

when you're afk for 5 minutes while docked, you should enter the hangar automatically. but apparently this doesn't even free up the spot?! not sure about this. if not, then the game should disconnect you if you're afk for a couple of minutes. switching to solo is a poor fix. i play this game for immersion. stuff like that breaks immersion completely.



depends where you live.

Fits perfectly into immersion to me, there will be parking jerks in the future.. Trust me..lol

 

[Snarfbuckle]

So...are we really discussing if we should report people to the Ingame cops/FBI if they forget their car in the parking lot?

Sometimes people just forget that they parked the car in an akward spot.

We should on the other hand be able to call a the towing company so the ship is sucked into the hangar.

 

[PhazonAran]

So...are we really discussing if we should report people to the Ingame cops/FBI if they forget their car in the parking lot?

Sometimes people just forget that they parked the car in an akward spot.

We should on the other hand be able to call a the towing company so the ship is sucked into the hangar.

Even if a player goes into the hangar, it doesn't free the pad.

 

[Lord_Crazy]

So let me see if I've got this straight. You're a pirate... someone who attacks defenceless people to steal their possessions... and you reported someone for being legally docked in an inconsiderate manner? REALLY?

The difference is that pirates bring something to this game. The hard way but they are a part of the game play.
Preventing others from docking just for being lazy and/or AFK does not bring anything in this game. It is just being an ass.

- - - Updated - - -

Solutions:
- FD could make it so after a certain amount of time has elapsed while docked, the player is moved smoothly into a temporary solo-like instance, they are still in open mode but their instance is closed off for others, until they launch and FSD out.

I really love this idea thank you so much! It solves the problem, it is seamless, and it does not put undue hardship on forgetful people. Nice!

- - - Updated - - -

Early this morning, I was docked with my DBX at a small outpost and went to grab a drink. When I walked back, I saw a CMDR in an Eagle firing at me. The turrets began to fire on the Eagle and it didn't survive.

Wait... A dude in an eagle fired at you near a outpost? I guess that's called natural selection

 

[Sandmann]

The difference is that pirates bring something to this game. The hard way but they are a part of the game play.
Preventing others from docking just for being lazy and/or AFK does not bring anything in this game. It is just being an ass.

I would say that being a pirate by it's very nature is also being an ass. Both are legal though. Reporting a player for piracy OR port blocking is useless as BOTH as legal, if anti-social. As I said earlier, reporting it as a bug would be much more useful -it's a legal mechanism that's not working.