CODE blockade and roleplay

[chagnampra]

Throwing my 2 cents into this whole CG blockade I personally believe it comes very close to bullying...

I agree it comes across like that. In-game player gangs, declaring that areas are 'off-limits', using superior strength and numbers to enforce their will against weaker, and mostly defenceless, opponents, placing players on a KoS list permanently for perceived offenses to their members (and who else is to say if such offenses are entirely warranted to be put on such a list?), attacking such players whenever they log on to Open - all of this amounts to CODE being (on the face of it) an in-game bully.

Having said all of that, like in real life, the game 'allows' players to do this (up to a point - FD has policies against unacceptable behaviour, or bullying, in-game as well as anti-social / offensive behaviour).

So, even if I couldn't personally bring myself to do what they do to other players, should CODE simply be viewed as 'a fact of life' in a player-driven environment? Even, a necessary evil? (I can't believe I'm saying this, but the question should be asked...)

 

[Noobdelux]

+1 totaly agree to firts post

EDIT: Since the thread is turning into an argument, let me try to rephrase

 

[chagnampra]

I agree that this does appear like bullying from the receiving end's perspective. However, to do our jobs effectively, we have to instill a certain amount of fear into our prey. Otherwise our words have no meaning and we are better off shooting the cargo hatch instead of warning the targets. Surely we do not seek out extremely small/weak ships just to boil them up with our large ships, that is grieving, and we do not grief (some will disagree). We have set procedures to go through and never shoot right after an interdiction unless the target is KoS or the rare, rare misfire (we will explain immediately and will sometimes even just let the target go because of our mistake).

We try to be effective, in the sense that it saves players time/credits when compared to grievers. Piracy is an accepted profession by FD, as evident that we never received any official warning about our operation and piracy has been mentioned several times on Galnet and also official posts by Devs.

As a fellow profession, we seek equality in terms of the right to exist and pursue our interests. It just happen to be a conflict of interest this time around.

This isn't to make light of your childhood experience or anything, and forgive me if you find this offensive.

People can only appreciate peace and prosperity when there is an on-going threat, and danger. Without the comparison, people will appreciate peace less and their enjoyment of the game less when they do not feel the on-going possibility of being interdicted and demanded for cargo. This is the idea of relativity, if we eliminate one side of the equation, the balance collapses and the two concepts on both sides die or lessen as a result.

I do have sympathy for players that suffer from our interest and understand their perspective, but I feel this co-existence if precisely what is necessary for players to be actively engaged and enjoy the game. (Not grieving, that's a whole another story and something the CODE is absolutely against)

Further to my previous post, I think this answers my question. Done properly, piracy can be both a necessary and exciting part of the game, for both parties. I just find the existence of a KoS list within a guild or gang to be slightly worrying, bordering on bullying. But thank you Fang for your considerate and intelligent reply to the previous poster. I am starting to find areas of common ground with you.

 

[Kayweg]

Question here, regarding the actual topic.

How does Code make the RP bit work ?

Say, you decide to blockade a certain CG station. You know you can't really succeed, because of solo and group play and the players that get through other instances, which aren't covered by Code.

You can of course (depending on the number of Code players active) blockade several instances, so from an RP perspective those ARE successful.

But it won't prevent the CG from completing.

How do you roleplay your way out of that fact ?

How do you keep the RP alive and believable, when GalNet reports the successful completion of said CG ?

I'm not into RP myself, i'm genuinely asking here, not baiting.

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

The only "CODE" I'm getting from this is your seemingly encrypted sentence structure

 

[Fanta]

"CODE" uhmmm can I say or not who cares, "CODE" is strong only when they outnumber you, if it comes to 1vs1 they submit and run away always. Tried hard before few days to get on one of them, not possible they never accept 1vs1 , that was day when I got on one casual player who accepted fair fight 1vs1 and it was fair, none died , just minor repair bill. And than jumped in to war zone , found many cmdr's there but as soon as I got realized that they are few wings of "CODE" there, they all turned on me , killed with no warning, 7 vs 1 as I was able to count, luckily recorded everything, it is on youtube uploaded with name "conflict zone pvp - cmdr Fanta_BH died again".

And please do not get me wrong , I do not complain on being killed by 7 at once, it is part of game and I accepting it as that. It is just comment about CODE and your members how you do behave usually and my experience with you . And I am not mad on CODE as I said it is part of game , I only wish to be able to get enough good players and go against you to see will you handle or run in to solo/private group. But no luck, none want to fight you , only got 3-4 who willing to fight and who will to risk some money for rebuy. Simple not enough.

See ya in game, I Am in open almost always, you did pushed me in to solo for a little, while community goal was active , as there was no chance to fight for Empire in war zone while you all are there.

 

[xondk]

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If this is true, then that's just sad

 

[I_Am_Static]

"CODE" uhmmm can I say or not who cares, "CODE" is strong only when they outnumber you, if it comes to 1vs1 they submit and run away always. Tried hard before few days to get on one of them, not possible they never accept 1vs1 , that was day when I got on one casual player who accepted fair fight 1vs1 and it was fair, none died , just minor repair bill. And than jumped in to war zone , found many cmdr's there but as soon as I got realized that they are few wings of "CODE" there, they all turned on me , killed with no warning, 7 vs 1 as I was able to count, luckily recorded everything, it is on youtube uploaded with name "conflict zone pvp - cmdr Fanta_BH died again".

And please do not get me wrong , I do not complain on being killed by 7 at once, it is part of game and I accepting it as that. It is just comment about CODE and your members how you do behave usually and my experience with you . And I am not mad on CODE as I said it is part of game , I only wish to be able to get enough good players and go against you to see will you handle or run in to solo/private group. But no luck, none want to fight you , only got 3-4 who willing to fight and who will to risk some money for rebuy. Simple not enough.

See ya in game, I Am in open almost always, you did pushed me in to solo for a little, while community goal was active , as there was no chance to fight for Empire in war zone while you all are there.

Neither of the 3 CMDRs you briefly targeted in that video are Code members. This is how misinformation is spread right here. You got attacked in a CZ so it must be Code doing it?

 

[Fanta]

Neither of the 3 CMDRs you briefly targeted in that video are Code members. This is how misinformation is spread right here. You got attacked in a CZ so it must be Code doing it?

So it looks you know all CODE , game developers never gave us any chance to have guild tag or clan tag or whatever so we can know who belong where, and dont push me to search for post where code said , they blockading system from everyone so you cant trade, you cant fight in open at all during that community goal. Why I should ever think those 7 was not CODE and those 7 opened fire at once on me, so they was communicating between them somewhere on skype, ventrilo, or whatever. Just look radar, in a second all 7 cmdr's became red on my radar so it was attack on command, by agreement. If they are not CODE than we have another killer clan in game .

So at the end please give me list of CODE members , all of them so I know , so I can ask them for fight when I see them around, none in game is not on my KOS , I have no KOS , and I will never form any KOS , simple it is not my way of playing. Killing others or being killed by others is just part of game. Lately even ruing my way of play because of so much compliant of being killed by Fanta_BH in unfair fight, so now I asking for fight I do not attack without acceptance from other player or without being provoked on some way.


And sorry I said they are CODE and still I do believe they are code, but as we do not know who are code , everyone can easily say they are not , those was not code, what I do know code said they are there on open and I got killed by synchronized attack from 7 players, 1+1=2 simple as that.


Again if truly those was not CODE than I say sorry to them bec. I sad they are but still I cant give proof they are and you cant say they are not. Only what we do know , they said they are there.

 

[xondk]

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Yeah, right now anyone can basically claim to be part of any group, because there are no group indicators, which I'd really love for them to implement, just a group tag or such + maybe a decale, that's it, nothing more needed.

 

[I_Am_Static]

So because of a CG blockade you immediately think that when someone in the game attacked you, then it's a Code member? Do you understand how ridiculous it is to continue this incredibly skewed belief that somehow, with all the other groups in this game, all the other pirates, that the only people who fire at another player are Code members?

People kill other players in CZs all the time, but because it happened to you, it's Code doing it. That's not good logic. I shouldn't have to give you any kind of list for you not to assume that any time you're attacked in this game that it's a Code member doing it, that assumption is down to small thinking.

I agree, you can't give proof that they are Code members, however being a Code member myself, I'm pretty sure that I can indeed say that they are not

 

[GluttonyFang]

Regarding the Blockade at Diso, I feel like it was nothing more than a clumsy first attempt. What other outcome could we expect from a whole syndicate of pirate greenhorns, learning the ropes. Now, it seems, everyone has gotten caught up in questioning the CODE's motives, role-play, strategy, ethics and so on when perhaps the CODE isn't the main issue.

The one thing we can fault the CODE for is making their organization known to the general player-base. It's their prerogative, I know, I know...but now, every greasy, sociopathic loner that plays Elite to grief, murder, exploit, and destroy the game has been gifted a second layer of anonymity by the CODE. Any and all bad behavior can now easily be blamed on the CODE, the offender only has to claim allegiance. Could these honorless oafs lurk the forums, feeding on incendiary conversations and laughing droplets of spittle at their screens, justifying their soulless existence by impeding the enjoyment of as many Elite players as possible in one fell swoop? I can't imagine that's the case.

The CODE gave a name to "the bad guys" which may prove to be more trouble than it was worth. Will the CODE ultimately let the bad guys give them a bad name? That's for the CODE to decide.

My advice: ALWAYS HAVE INSURANCE MONEY. Every, single, bloody encounter has the potential to end with your ship in a charred heap. Do yourself a favor and keep the rage away.

I can see how you derive your reasoning from what you illustrated. Our reputation was made known to the community by annoyed traders more than ourselves. If anything we don't go around the forum and make ourselves known to be CODE at every chance possible, if anything we are very conservative with it and only reveal our identity on relevant topics (Obviously CG intervention declaration in role-play section, at least we are warning the community).

I agree that it is easily exploitable for grievers to claim their associations to CODE, but that argument can literally be applied to anything. Find a less well-known player and send him/her on the way to grief players and claim to be associated with a certain syndicate, we will have rumors of that group growing fast.

We try to explain to the community that we have a complaint forum open day-one and we accept PM with commander names to check with our member list. However, there are currently only three threads on the complaint forum and less than a handful of Cmdr names provided to us in PM, and I have not heard any successful IDed case from any of our members.

The only thing arguable left is that "I made a wrong career choice, I deserve it." Well, sorry I would rather stick with my profession, because it is how I enjoy the game and it is a valid profession.

 

[EdzUp]

TLDR

Tbh having anarchy systems dotted around pirates could use them to launch raids on the neighbouring systems to try to destabilise them and turn them anarchy. Its all part of the game and would make interesting targets for pirates, hunters and traders alike

 

[Scimiter]

So it looks you know all CODE , game developers never gave us any chance to have guild tag or clan tag or whatever so we can know who belong where, and dont push me to search for post where code said , they blockading system from everyone so you cant trade, you cant fight in open at all during that community goal. Why I should ever think those 7 was not CODE and those 7 opened fire at once on me, so they was communicating between them somewhere on skype, ventrilo, or whatever. Just look radar, in a second all 7 cmdr's became red on my radar so it was attack on command, by agreement. If they are not CODE than we have another killer clan in game .

So at the end please give me list of CODE members , all of them so I know , so I can ask them for fight when I see them around, none in game is not on my KOS , I have no KOS , and I will never form any KOS , simple it is not my way of playing. Killing others or being killed by others is just part of game. Lately even ruing my way of play because of so much compliant of being killed by Fanta_BH in unfair fight, so now I asking for fight I do not attack without acceptance from other player or without being provoked on some way.


And sorry I said they are CODE and still I do believe they are code, but as we do not know who are code , everyone can easily say they are not , those was not code, what I do know code said they are there on open and I got killed by synchronized attack from 7 players, 1+1=2 simple as that.


Again if truly those was not CODE than I say sorry to them bec. I sad they are but still I cant give proof they are and you cant say they are not. Only what we do know , they said they are there.

7 v 1 not very fair and hardly enjoyable for the attackers or the victim it would be over in a few seconds, what is the reasoning behing it, seems a bit dumb to me!

 

[Abbadon]

Why dont all of the pirates in open create a few macro with nice dialoge and everybody would be happy. I got 3 "How I will vaporize you becouse of what..." dialoge in macro. I somtimes use it when I engage an npc, just for the fun.

And to say sg about the blockade: It's great!, I hope one day Frontier will give us tools inside the powerplay to do such a thing(maybe it could got a permit in solo to support multiplayer metagame?) or It could be they originally implemented such things into the powerplay update. The problem here is not that they decided to blockade the system, It's that they havent got the right tools for it

 

[DWorth]

I used to get interdicted quite a bit when flying an Asp. Now I've got a tooled up Clipper it hardly happens. I saw few Vultures and FDRs tailing me during the Diso CG but none of them chose to attack me. Funny that...

 

[Fanta]

So because of a CG blockade you immediately think that when someone in the game attacked you, then it's a Code member? Do you understand how ridiculous it is to continue this incredibly skewed belief that somehow, with all the other groups in this game, all the other pirates, that the only people who fire at another player are Code members?

People kill other players in CZs all the time, but because it happened to you, it's Code doing it. That's not good logic. I shouldn't have to give you any kind of list for you not to assume that any time you're attacked in this game that it's a Code member doing it, that assumption is down to small thinking.

I agree, you can't give proof that they are Code members, however being a Code member myself, I'm pretty sure that I can indeed say that they are not

You have your point, I do respect it , lets say they are not CODE, ok you said that I do believe you, have no reason to not believe and it does not hurt me on any way whatever you telling truth or not.

So I feel sorry , those 7 killed me probably are not CODE, but for sure than we have another clan in game who do kill everyone on seen base. So sorry CODE if I hurt you in any way by my statement.

Still it stays, 7 turned red in less than a second, so they must be communicating outside of game on same way, and how the hell CODE said they do blockading system well, when others was controlling only one existing combat zone in system.


And I did heard many times from other commanders , try to fly in open in Lesti you will get killed by wing of 3-4 in first 10 mins of fly. Truth is never tried so cant say anything about that. Even never been in Lesti if that name of system is correct.


And please do not get anything personally , I am not mad, I am not disturbed on any way, I just chatting and talking, no hard feelings at all.

 

[Fanta]

7 v 1 not very fair and hardly enjoyable for the attackers or the victim it would be over in a few seconds, what is the reasoning behing it, seems a bit dumb to me!

I really do not know what made them attack me, I did not attack first any, but some cmdr's do know me well, I did killed many. Before it was without warning without care about what ship they fly so reason could be there. Now at least I do interdict and ask for fight, or even if I spot someone in strong ship in supper cruise I ask them without interdicting that is how fight against Python happen.


Or there was some very cmdr who remember me long time bec. I killed him by bumping in station long time ago pre 1.2 , two times I was doing even that for my own fun. But never released that videos , imagine reason

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Nothing wrong with solo, I will play there to maximize my earnings in RES zones mainly but given you can achieve a Community Goal in a non community mode seems absurd. Even private groups shouldn't affect it.

For it to be a community then all participants should have the potential to interact with their follow CMDR's.

IMO the issue is mostly a branding problem and not a mechanical problem. The whole name community goal is gamey... after all from within the game ittself we are ALL part of the community, both Federation of Pilots members and Non members.

If FD was to change the branding of them, and the word community taken out of the equation then the argument for ban solo from them dissapears imo (or at least it means the argument is the same for all modes, rather than the weekly goals being a special case).

Personally I think it would be wrong, and against the game that was pitched to stop all 3 modes from doing the weekly missions, BUT I do think they could be tweaked somewhat to make them harder, and for instance stop CMDRs from running out of targets in a warzone in open for instance. A warzone should never be out of enemys to kill and ideally if CMDRS were wiping the floor in an instance then the losing side should radio for help, and then the enemy forces react by sending - stronger - reinforments. This should in theory keep it fun regardless of the strength of the CMDRs in an instance..

I also would not have a problem with having the payouts change so that it is top 5% in each group, the top 40% in each group etc gets the pay outs (but you can only "score" in one of them so cant be top 5% in all 3). IMO this stops the perceived unfairness of players "winning" the extra cash in solo whilst still affecting the mission.

but, imo like it or not (and I can see why some may not like it) solo has always promised to affect the galaxy in the same way that open does and i truly hope this never changes.

I am not sure if what I put above could be seen as a fair compromise or not?

 

[Darkphoenix]

My advice: ALWAYS HAVE INSURANCE MONEY. Every, single, bloody encounter has the potential to end with your ship in a charred heap. Do yourself a favor and keep the rage away.

That alone deserves some rep and is some very sound advice my friend......