I think we are missing a big part of the point here.
The issue of combat logging is secondary. Everyone knew it was an issue before Tuesday evening, everyone knew it was difficult to solve, and from a technical standpoint I haven't seen any suggestions here that I've never seen before.
What is really at stake here is that SDC have turned themselves into effectively a terrorist and lobbying organisation operating against the game of Elite Dangerous both within the game, and now outside it. They are using well worn political lobbying techniques in an attempt to influence the development agenda and priorities of Frontier, without really caring about the long term future of the game.
The techniques they are using bear more than a passing resemblance to organizations like UKIP in the UK.
I suspect strongly that this whole blow up was caused on purpose without much true objective other than to cause a big argument and get SDCs name in lights - they don't really care about the game or even whether they succeed or fail in getting combat logging solved - they are just here to cause trouble.
So, what we should really be asking ourselves is, are SDC right that Combat Logging and penalising combat loggers should be shifted to the top of FD's agenda for progressing the game? If not, then I sincerely hope that other than issuing the mandatory Customer Service statements to their customers, FD will do precisely nothing to change their priorities on their internal work.
I do think there is a place in this game for anarchist type activity - I partly agree with Brett's posts last night that having some players in the game who randomly attack other players, although people will complain about it, actually is a good thing for the game, and that if you play in open mode you should expect some level of risk. I also tend to agree that if you turn combat logging into a baiting type activity in itself, you are stooping to their level - better just to move into PG or Solo.
However this is not really what SDC are about - what they are about is trying to find exploits and then stage publicity stunts for their own self aggrandisement - even if you make a lot of fixes to crime, punishment, CL etc, SDC will simply look for more exploits in those changes and stage another "event" about it. They have now moved this activity outside the game where they are trying to create a big storm about an issue that was already well known in the past.
Even if you gave them the benefit of the doubt that they are trying to fix a problem, it's very lucky that the problem they are highlighting is one which, if cracked down upon much more heavily, would provide a big benefit to their play style. I await to see the results of SDCs detailed investigation into ticket handling and action taken against players indulging in in game harassment.
So my plea to FD is - ignore this thread and all this fuss and just carry on with the priorities that you had at 5pm on Tuesday night. Nothing said here really makes CL or crime and punishment more of a priority than it was 2 days ago. I would like better solutions to these items, but I would rather the dev priority be decided by FD than by minority lobbying activities.
