Player Mass Lock: Is it's removal intentional??

Lateralus · Jan 18, 2019

So, there was a patch the day before yesterday and the much despised player mass-lock 'bug' still persists... This is a major change that has been allowed to remain in every iteration of 3.3 since the start of beta. I'm now struggling to believe that this is a bug, because usually ~~major~~ critical gameplay bugs are fixed within a couple of weeks of a release. It has now been around 6 weeks since 3.3 went live, and 12 since beta started. Also, mass lock has never been affected by other gameplay updates before.

Perhaps Fdev saw all the comments Fallout76's anti-griefing mechanic was getting and decided to remove mass-lock as a similar step? I hope not, because mass lock is a vital part of PvP.. if this 'bug'/change remains in place a lot of pvp players will simply walk away from the game (from both outlaw and lawful sides).

The main bug thread has also been locked without any word from staff or mods: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/463777-No-Player-Mass-Lock-Anymore

So FDEV please clarify... is this actually a bug? Or is this some misguided, poorly communicated attempt to reduce player killing? What's the deal?

Thanks,
An exasperated PvPer

Santisador · Jan 18, 2019

I agree this needs some kind of explanation. If it's a bug, fine, it'll get sorted.
If it's intended, and they keep the NPC masslock, then it's a pretty stark contrast to the "immersion" that so many people here crave.

flyauburn41 · Jan 18, 2019

Agreed. It’s well past time we heard something about this. If they are going to leave it in, then Low Wakes need to take 15 seconds just like High Wakes. If anything they should have gone the other way and made Mass Lock a factor for ALL FSD use, including High Wakes (Hyperspace Jumps).

bigity · Jan 18, 2019

I'm going to bet it takes about the same time to fix this as it took to remove Nominations from the PP UI.

So, chapter 6?

da_wae · Jan 18, 2019

flyauburn41 said:
Agreed. It’s well past time we heard something about this. If they are going to leave it in, then Low Wakes need to take 15 seconds just like High Wakes. If anything they should have gone the other way and made Mass Lock a factor for ALL FSD use, including High Wakes (Hyperspace Jumps).

I'm sure FDEV will fix this major annoyance to the PvP community, with it's seemingly non-existent impact on the rest of the game ASAP. They're dispatching multiple dev teams to work on it as I type this.

Lateralus · Jan 18, 2019

Let's be honest, if there was a major bug with core gameplay that was affecting explorers or other PvE activities it would have been fixed by now (or at least acknowledged).

Fdev's 3 month silence on this game-breaking bug is deafening.

Brrokk · Jan 18, 2019

So is low-wake actually the best escape option?

da_wae · Jan 18, 2019

Lateralus said:
Let's be honest, if there was a major bug with core gameplay that was affecting explorers or other PvE activities it would have been fixed by now (or at least acknowledged).

Fdev's 3 month silence on this game-breaking bug is deafening.

Maybe this is how FDEV intends to fix Combat Logging, by rendering it obsolete [haha]

Lateralus · Jan 18, 2019

da_wae said:
Maybe this is how FDEV intends to fix Combat Logging, by rendering it obsolete [haha]

Nah, because it will just result in more ganking of noobs because everyone else just low-wakes.. fragile ships will still be murdered easily. That's why if this is intentional it's ridiculous. It only benefits those who outfit their ships decently and know the game mechanics well.

Ian Skippy · Jan 18, 2019

Lateralus said:
Let's be honest, if there was a major bug with core gameplay that was affecting explorers or other PvE activities it would have been fixed by now (or at least acknowledged).

Fdev's 3 month silence on this game-breaking bug is deafening.

You mean how it took 6 months for FD to acknowledge landable planets didnt render correctly, and then another 8 months to fix it?

MUSKETEER · Jan 18, 2019

If it's true then this is creating consensual-only PvP environment to some extent. Boring but that's what many people on here were asking for.

Lateralus · Jan 18, 2019

Ian Skippy said:
You mean how it took 6 months for FD to acknowledge landable planets didnt render correctly, and then another 8 months to fix it?

That isn't game-breaking, that's a graphical glitch.. they are less important. You could still land on planets, they just didn't look as good as they should do.

bigity · Jan 18, 2019

MUSKETEER said:
If it's true then this is creating consensual-only PvP environment to some extent. Boring but that's what many people on here were asking for.

We already have one, spoken out of FDev's mouth.

See my sig.

da_wae · Jan 18, 2019

MUSKETEER said:
If it's true then this is creating consensual-only PvP environment to some extent. Boring but that's what many people on here were asking for.

Most PvPers want the opposite of consensual tho. They even suggested recently turning CZs into "locked-in areas" you couldn't FSD out of during a fixed period of time [haha]

This, with all the "Open only" stuff tells me they're mostly interested in forcing others to play the game for their amusement - we're just "content" for the PvP overlords.

Zaphod Hawke · Jan 18, 2019

da_wae said:
Most PvPers want the opposite of consensual tho. They even suggested recently turning CZs into "locked-in areas" you couldn't FSD out of during a fixed period of time [haha]

This, with all the "Open only" stuff tells me they're mostly interested in forcing others to play the game for their amusement - we're just "content" for the PvP overlords.

If you're in open, you've already given consent to PvP.

Lots of us don't care what you do outside of open.

But open is OURS.

ZO

PeLucheuh · Jan 18, 2019

Brrokk said:
So is low-wake actually the best escape option?

At the moment, i would say it is the fastest.

da_wae · Jan 18, 2019

Zaphod Hawke said:
If you're in open, you've already given consent to PvP.

Lots of us don't care what you do outside of open.

But open is OURS.

ZO

Tell that to my well curated blocklist [haha][haha][haha]

Zaphod Hawke · Jan 18, 2019

da_wae said:
Tell that to my well curated blocklist [haha][haha][haha]

I don't know what you think you're winning here.

All you're doing is creating a custom filter that may or may not work.

Kind of like PG and Solo, when it comes right down to it.

Just with more work.

Have fun with that.

ZO

Lateralus · Jan 18, 2019

Let's try and avoid this thread turning into an open vs solo slug-fest. Remember it will get locked or moved with the smallest of pretexts - perhaps before any answers to the question can be given. Thanks.

da_wae · Jan 18, 2019

Zaphod Hawke said:
I don't know what you think you're winning here.

All you're doing is creating a custom filter that may or may not work.

Kind of like PG and Solo, when it comes right down to it.

Just with more work.

Have fun with that.

ZO

Winning some flawed but functional peace of mind from having to deal with repeat interdictions by people who couldn't mass lock my Corvette (before the bug), me low-waking, getting interdicted again, etc - also station rammers.

I mostly only block people who do something extremely annoying that prevents me from enjoying the game. Random PvP encounters generally do not classify as that (only a subset).