Combat logging and bans

[killerofstars]

FDev are apparently cracking down on some of the more notorious cheaters. (hallelujah!) But this raises some questions, and I thought I'd inquire about some of the banning criteria.

-Is a warning issued to players for behavior (for combat logging) before they are permanently banned? Even for repeat offenders?
-Is combat logging against the NPCs in solo considered punishable behavior?
-Are players banned first of a period of time, or are they immediately perma-banned?

 

[ThirdNostril]

I just hope people with legit reasons for combat logging don't get a boot. Where I live, there's a strong chance of power outage during heavy rain and heavy snow fall.

 

[JazzyTech]

I'm not sure what criteria they will or do use, but I assume it will have some sort of logic (hopefully) to determining combat logs vs. crashes. One problem I've had for quite some time now is my NVidia driver crashing randomly. For some reason ED (The *ONLY* program I have this issue with) seems to dislike my GPU being overclocked. I can hear the game in the background, I get the message "driver successfully recovered".. but no ED window. My only option is to kill the task. So I'm guess I'm combat logging depending on whether or not I happen to be in combat at that moment

 

[S3B4ST13N]

I just hope people with legit reasons for combat logging don't get a boot. Where I live, there's a strong chance of power outage during heavy rain and heavy snow fall.

Combat loggers have a pattern which is difficult, if not impossible, to hide. The telemetry data Frontier gather as you play the game provides them with a plethora of information that helps them make educated and, usually, accurate determinations.
Sometimes mistakes happen though, the team are only human after all.

 

[Orange_Gaozu]

I'm not sure what criteria they will or do use, but I assume it will have some sort of logic (hopefully) to determining combat logs vs. crashes. One problem I've had for quite some time now is my NVidia driver crashing randomly. For some reason ED (The *ONLY* program I have this issue with) seems to dislike my GPU being overclocked. I can hear the game in the background, I get the message "driver successfully recovered".. but no ED window. My only option is to kill the task. So I'm guess I'm combat logging depending on whether or not I happen to be in combat at that moment

Misfortune! Although, you may want to set your GPU back to standard settings.

 

[Gunnet]

Frontier has no motivation to release detailed information on how they enforce their rules. It would help some players know how much they could get away with and how much they were risking, it would tell other players what it would take to get a legitimate player banned, and it would inevitably start a pointless argument over whether they were too lenient or too draconian.

 

[Stigbob]

Combat loggers have a pattern which is difficult, if not impossible, to hide. The telemetry data Frontier gather as you play the game provides them with a plethora of information that helps them make educated and, usually, accurate determinations.
Sometimes mistakes happen though, the team are only human after all.

I'm not so sure, my connections unstable and it seems to mostly fail in combat when there's more information passing to and fro (closely followed by entering super-cruise and changing menus in station). How would you tell the difference between me and a combat logger.

 

[Kneejo]

I'm not so sure, my connections unstable and it seems to mostly fail in combat when there's more information passing to and fro (closely followed by entering super-cruise and changing menus in station). How would you tell the difference between me and a combat logger.

May I inquire into your system specs? I've seen lots of people complain about bad connection but it turns out they are running ED on a system that can barely run it. I've tested it myself on an old computer.. if your cpu is maxed out you will lose network traffic and have a lot of disconnects in the game. People with a under-spec computer basically ruin the experience for others. I know it's a really cool game, but if your connection is unstable you should think about the fact that others depend on your connection as well, for instance, the guy trying to kill you.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

I'm not so sure, my connections unstable and it seems to mostly fail in combat when there's more information passing to and fro (closely followed by entering super-cruise and changing menus in station). How would you tell the difference between me and a combat logger.

The information collected could very well determine what's going on and whether or not it's combat logging related. I obviously don't know all the information Frontier collects, and most of this is Cisco IOS related, but I think it can be applied to the type of telemetry Frontier records.

( It is technical )

Network telemetry offers extensive and useful detection capabilities which can be coupled with dedicated analysis systems to collect, trend and correlate observed activity.
Baseline forms of telemetry for network infrastructure devices include:

•Time Synchronization -- dates and times need to be synchronized. The most common method for doing this is enabling the Network Time Protocol; and a best practice method is to use a common, single time zone across the entire network infrastructure in order to enable the consistency & synchronization of time across all network devices. Hence once reason why we all use GMT in game.

•Local Device Traffic Statistics - baseline information such as per-interface throughput (pps) and bandwidth statistics (bps). Cisco IOS in particular provides per-interface statistics. Which provides information on things like, packets, bytes, packets input, bytes, broadcasts, runts, giants, throttles, input erros, CRC, frame, overrun, ignored, input packets with dribble condition detected and so on. Per-Interface IP and global IP statistics are also available.

•System Status Information - This includes information like memory, CPU and processes.

•Syslog - Syslog is a UDP-based logging facility enabling detailed messages to be sent from a device to a syslog server. Syslog packets are reactively sent based on the occurrence of specific events on a device and provide invaluable operational information, including system status, traffic statistics and device access information.

•SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is a popular network management protocol that provides a range of information useful for network telemetry.

•ACL Logging - ACL logging can be used to log basic information related to: successful access attempts from authorised communicators, and failed access attempts from non-authorised communicators

•Accounting - Accounting is a critical element of network telemetry, in includes things like: Who accessed a device, when a user logged in, what a user did, when a user logged off, failed access attempts, failed authentication requests, failed authorization requests, and so on.

•Packet Capture - Packet capture is generally undertaken after a macro-level indication of an anomaly, for instance via SNMP or syslog, in order to enable more detailed analysis.

 

[Red Fox Four]

I just hope people with legit reasons for combat logging don't get a boot. Where I live, there's a strong chance of power outage during heavy rain and heavy snow fall.

Pretty sure they can trend this.

E.g. do you only have a "power outage" during combat where you are losing... or do you actually have an outage at random times... e.g. while docked in the station, while mining, while doing a hyperjump, in the middle of a supercruise.

If you are banned for combat logging 15 times in a row then claim it was a power outage and there has never been a single recorded instance of you getting a power outage outside of combat then I think your case will be very weak in terms of getting the ban reversed.

 

[Shar]

Are NPC's reporting players yet.[wacky] Lyin NPC's

 

[Stigbob]

May I inquire into your system specs? I've seen lots of people complain about bad connection but it turns out they are running ED on a system that can barely run it. I've tested it myself on an old computer.. if your cpu is maxed out you will lose network traffic and have a lot of disconnects in the game. People with a under-spec computer basically ruin the experience for others. I know it's a really cool game, but if your connection is unstable you should think about the fact that others depend on your connection as well, for instance, the guy trying to kill you.

Systems fine, I live in the middle of nowhere there's only one internet provider available and they are slow and unstable due simply to the geography. Views great though, except right now as there's thick cloud outside. I like to play open (usually) and I'll stick with it thanks.

Pretty sure they can trend this.

E.g. do you only have a "power outage" during combat where you are losing... or do you actually have an outage at random times... e.g. while docked in the station, while mining, while doing a hyperjump, in the middle of a supercruise.

If you are banned for combat logging 15 times in a row then claim it was a power outage and there has never been a single recorded instance of you getting a power outage outside of combat then I think your case will be very weak in terms of getting the ban reversed.

Connection errors in combat seem to be the most frequent, last time I bothered monitoring it (and on a day when it was really bad) I was getting a disconnect about once every fifteen minutes six over an hour and a half. IIRC four of them were in combat one super-cruise transition and one at the station menu. That's too much for FD to look into they'd need a dedicated staff member just for me, it was shortly after the last upgrade and really shaky for a while.

So if two thirds of random service provider related disconnects happen in combat, there would have to be built in safeguards to protect people like me from unjust bans. The real cheats would probably work out the suspicion threshold and "game" it to keep themselves out of trouble.

 

[LameoveR]

bans?
there was a huge thread recently, where OP has proved that ED support doesn't even investigate ANY cases of cheating.

 

[Stigbob]

bans?
there was a huge thread recently, where OP has proved that ED support doesn't even investigate ANY cases of cheating.

Wasn't that the smiling dog crew thing ?, they were just time-wasting FD did right to ignore them.

 

[GunnerBill]

I just hope people with legit reasons for combat logging don't get a boot. Where I live, there's a strong chance of power outage during heavy rain and heavy snow fall.

ED crashes my PC continuously. But I suppose a record of the disconnects would prove that it's random <shrugs>?

 

[S3B4ST13N]

ED crashes my PC continuously. But I suppose a record of the disconnects would prove that it's random <shrugs>?

If it's an actual crash, Elite will have a crash log.

 

[Winterwalker]

Given 2.1 million copies of ED are sold, Frontier need to automate it don't they?

I've a few ideas on the subject, even suggesting bonuses that you might only earn if your ship gets killed occasionally (link) but I also think improving the report player function could be helpful .. building a database that an algorithm might check connects/disconnects against ...

Trouble is with the rudimenatry flagging we have now .. I've never tried it because what happens to the guy? I'm no rat! Plus, as his name was H7hf&&g and I only got a short look at him in combat I can't remember his name anyway. So I'd like to see a list in the main menu of the last 5 Commanders I came in contact with, with a tickbox added "did he disconnect?" Leave it up to the algorithm to decide if it was a genuine disconnect, a log or if I'm being vindictive .. but takes onus off the player to accuse the guy of logging when players can't be 100% sure what happened.

 

[babelfisch]

They did send warning emails a month ago.

 

[LameoveR]

Wasn't that the smiling dog crew thing ?, they were just time-wasting FD did right to ignore them.

No, it was a serious investigation.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ion-into-Frontier-s-actions-on-Combat-Logging

 

[babelfisch]

No, it was a serious investigation.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ion-into-Frontier-s-actions-on-Combat-Logging

No, it wasn't. They have telemetry, they don't necessarily need to watch videos. Also they are not going to take action after one or two incidents, you'll need to combat log regularly. Also they don't ban as soon as they encounter a cheat / exploit. They ban in waves later, just like every other clever company. Also they don't tell random people who send reports what they are going to do.