Removing rammers

OK that's interesting, I must give them another read.
Seems quite a stange rule to have. If I am being ganked it's me who gets in trouble for avoiding it, not the ganker.

Ganking isn't against any rules of the game, severing connection (an out of game action) to preserve in-game assets, is.

I understand that but in real life if you are a highly wanted criminal you are hunted down and thrown in prison for the rest of your life, not given an inconsequential fine.
If not combat logging is in the terms of service, then so to should not ganking

You are failing to distinguish what you are capable of as the player of a video game, and what your in-game character is capable of as part of the in-game setting.

Your opinions about the flaws of the setting your character exists within do not entitle you, the player, to play by a different set of rules from other players.

Combat logging is like playing chess then refusing to remove a knight from the board when someone uses their queen to take the piece from six squares away...because you don't like the idea that the queen can move faster than a mounted knight.
 
Also the insurance co-pay goes down depending on the attackers notoriety level and price difference between the 2 ships. Same for the bounty handed to the attacker, higher notoriety and bigger difference in value of ships == higher bounty.

And you can block the player highlighted in red with nearly one click. Plenty of player interactions possible.

Real challenge seems to duel with a buddy without exploding him or her by a ram accident tho.
 
Does anyone have a link or excerpt of the Terms of Service that forbid combat logging ?

Nobody has that link because it's not explicitly stated in the TOS. It was explicitly stated by Sandro on the old forum that it was considered to be an exploit but since it was never codified past that point, it's a somewhat controversial issue. To say the least. That's without even getting into the two separate forms of combat logging.
 
Nobody has that link because it's not explicitly stated in the TOS. It was explicitly stated by Sandro on the old forum that it was considered to be an exploit but since it was never codified past that point, it's a somewhat controversial issue. To say the least. That's without even getting into the two separate forms of combat logging.
This has degenerated to the usual dummy spitting and toy strewing here:

Guess what 'club' the ones shouting loudest about it being an exploit are in :)
(and that the game condones 'seal clubbing')
 
This has degenerated to the usual dummy spitting and toy strewing here:

Guess what 'club' the ones shouting loudest about it being an exploit are in :)

I just saw that thread after I posted 😁

Sandro's position was always very clear; combat logging via menu exit is fine, combat logging via Alt-F4 or yanking the cable is an exploit. The problem of course is that even when the game's producer says that on the game's official forum, it's not much use when it comes to penalising people since maybe 1% of the game's player base ever visit the official forum and most of them won't read even 10% of the threads. Throw in the fact that it's now over a year since Sandro's involvement in the game ended and I can see why anybody would question it.
 
I just saw that thread after I posted 😁

Sandro's position was always very clear; combat logging via menu exit is fine, combat logging via Alt-F4 or yanking the cable is an exploit. The problem of course is that even when the game's producer says that on the game's official forum, it's not much use when it comes to penalising people since maybe 1% of the game's player base ever visit the official forum and most of them won't read even 10% of the threads.
It is an emotive subject, always, as 'the club' wish to delete any ship they choose and the fools who are too 'proud / stupid' to select the mode best suited for the task at hand argue otherwise.
Everyone has a great time - soon it'll degenerate to the normal Carebears Vs Gankers squabble.

ETA: All it would take is a definitive statement in the Code of Conduct, one way or the other, and at least the position of Frontier regarding the tactic (which it is) would be clear.
 
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The Pro and Con ganking argument was cooled down by creating a separate PvP discussion group some time ago. I remember moderators regularly shutting down ganking discussions as they usually degenerated to a state as previously described.

From a subjective observation, it seems that some of the more visible PvP groups/players may not be as active as they once were, some were caught up in cheating and we've had instances of hacking (FD response to these factors was criticized for a number of reasons by some).

As dastardly as some of those players were painted to be, they added color to the game and certainly stoked discussion, to which FD probably was delighted to see, as any attention, good or bad, was welcomed (see political processes).

So for better or worse, some of the prickly game points have been abraded in response to player demands, again, was this good or bad?

S'up to you.
 
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Nobody has that link because it's not explicitly stated in the TOS. It was explicitly stated by Sandro on the old forum that it was considered to be an exploit but since it was never codified past that point, it's a somewhat controversial issue. To say the least. That's without even getting into the two separate forms of combat logging.

OK so that clears it up, it isn't a requirement of the terms of service, that makes me feel a whole lot better about the subject then and yes it certainly is a controversial subject with points on either side and in all likelihood, ne'r the twain shall meet.
 
Its okay guys I have the answer you can all go home now.

I was rammed and they blew me up!
Hull reinforcement packages! 4 pips to shields!

I was rammed going into a station and the CMDR died and the station blew me up!
Obey speed restrictions in Open!

Also if you go 99mps its hard for them to judge your speed and they suicide themselves and nothing happens.
 
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OK so that clears it up, it isn't a requirement of the terms of service, that makes me feel a whole lot better about the subject then and yes it certainly is a controversial subject with points on either side and in all likelihood, ne'r the twain shall meet.
The game permits any action the payer wishes, excluding modifying the game (cheats/hacks) files...
We also have 3 modes, 2 of which enable the player to dictate directly who, if anyone, they wish to encounter in-game.

The only time the issue raises its head is when somone insists on playing in open but doesn't wish to be another player's content... Then the mud-slinging starts all over again when they end up being just that.

As for station ramming, it appears to be less of an issue recently...
 
The topic isn't really ramming but rather actions in game with no outcome other than to hinder/annoy other players
The problem is that there isn't really a way to programmatically identify and penalise such actions without also penalising completely legitimate gameplay.

For instance - I find a miner, scan them. They refuse to drop any loot, and when I hatchbreak them, they run. So I pulverise them. As you might expect a pirate to do.
They're a harmless asp, I'm an elite cutter. Is that ganking or griefing? It wasn't a "for no reason" kill, they ran from a pirate.

How does the game distinguish that from just diving on someone and shooting the hell out of them for no reason at all?
Did I scan them? Message them? Fire hatchbreakers? Sure, that's a thing that pirates do but random gankers don't. But if you put those into the game as criteria to make it "legitimate combat", then all that'll happen is gankers will strap manifest scanners and a limpet controller onto their gankboats. Scan, fire literally anything into chat, fire a hatchbeaker, open fire.
What are you going to do? As soon as you impose restrictions on it like "the scan has to be complete", then how are pirates supposed to deal with people that boost as soon as a scan is detected, considering that not everyone has access to fast scanners? You have to wait 10 seconds before you can attack? I pop a sink, haha, now you can't resolve me as a target so if you try to stop me running you get flagged as a filthy ganker.

These are the sorts of things that always come up in these discussions, because most of the things people talk aboout in terms of punishing "griefers" end up devolving into "punish anyone who doesn't play the game as purely pve".
 
The game permits any action the payer wishes, excluding modifying the game (cheats/hacks) files...
We also have 3 modes, 2 of which enable the player to dictate directly who, if anyone, they wish to encounter in-game.

The only time the issue raises its head is when somone insists on playing in open but doesn't wish to be another player's content... Then the mud-slinging starts all over again when they end up being just that.

As for station ramming, it appears to be less of an issue recently...

To a certain measure modifying game files is tolerated, as well as the use of several external programs and macros. It's in direct contradiction with the EULA yet you can tweak HUD colours, use macro to optimize your pip management and have market connectors to external databases. It's a real advantage in game.

All the 3 modes enables the player to allow or block who they encounter in game.

It's not issues that are raised, it's different part of the community with different gaming cultures, colliding. And FDev inconsistently trying to cather to all.
 
To a certain measure modifying game files is tolerated, as well as the use of several external programs and macros. It's in direct contradiction with the EULA yet you can tweak HUD colours, use macro to optimize your pip management and have market connectors to external databases. It's a real advantage in game.

All the 3 modes enables the player to allow or block who they encounter in game.

It's not issues that are raised, it's different part of the community with different gaming cultures, colliding. And FDev inconsistently trying to cather to all.
True, the player can modify the graphics / HUD files and it is tolerated...
I don't think you meet many players in solo... (unless you count system chat 🤷‍♂️)
I don't think external utilities modify game files exactly, although they can interact with the log files to some extent, I use EDDiscovery whenever logged into any of my 3 accounts, it feeds EDSM useful info as well as assisting me...

None of this I think would logically come under the remit of cheats though...
 
The problem is that there isn't really a way to programmatically identify and penalise such actions without also penalising completely legitimate gameplay.

For instance - I find a miner, scan them. They refuse to drop any loot, and when I hatchbreak them, they run. So I pulverise them. As you might expect a pirate to do.
They're a harmless asp, I'm an elite cutter. Is that ganking or griefing? It wasn't a "for no reason" kill, they ran from a pirate.

How does the game distinguish that from just diving on someone and shooting the hell out of them for no reason at all?
Did I scan them? Message them? Fire hatchbreakers? Sure, that's a thing that pirates do but random gankers don't. But if you put those into the game as criteria to make it "legitimate combat", then all that'll happen is gankers will strap manifest scanners and a limpet controller onto their gankboats. Scan, fire literally anything into chat, fire a hatchbeaker, open fire.
What are you going to do? As soon as you impose restrictions on it like "the scan has to be complete", then how are pirates supposed to deal with people that boost as soon as a scan is detected, considering that not everyone has access to fast scanners? You have to wait 10 seconds before you can attack? I pop a sink, haha, now you can't resolve me as a target so if you try to stop me running you get flagged as a filthy ganker.

These are the sorts of things that always come up in these discussions, because most of the things people talk aboout in terms of punishing "griefers" end up devolving into "punish anyone who doesn't play the game as purely pve".

Yeah it's completely impossible. Having non lethal freezing weapons harpoons or tractor beams to allow piracy like the kind of scenario you describe... It would be drag effect outcry all over again.
 
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