Wall of shame: Combat Loggers exposed.

[SyberSmoke]

Sadly there are a few issues that this game has. Players being able to alter their client side files and have near infinite shields...ammo...what ever. Combat logging also being a problem with no real recourse at the moment. And the unfortunate truth is that this is the nature of the beast as it is. The Pier to Pien nature of the game has no checks against it.

It would probably be something different if there was some basic validation between a central server and the client. Something that corrects errors by checking the players client while playing against valid files. Take more damage then the shields should ever take...error...dumped and validate files, log behavior. Log out in combat, turn the players ship into an NPC and let them burn.

Shoot it would not even need to be central would it. Why couldn't the process be democratic, the guys that have bad files are found through comparison in the P2P and marked or purged. What ever the reason it is obvious FD may have made an error in judgement. They wanted open play on the net and a larger simulated world. But they did not want to blow a ton of cash on a central server to make much of this client side. It feels like this was played a little fast and loose and now there are indisputable issues.

I hope they just get fixed or FD come to the realization they need to some form of a big bad server to maintain a solid grip against cheating and bad play. Even if it is not meant to control every NPC out there.

 

[kurush]

<--- proud combat logger.

 

[Zylark]

While I agree with you, you might want to take a look at this:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=115239

Hate to see you punished for trying to help.

I am aware of the rules of this forum - and though a technicality, I've not actually named anyone, much less shamed. What I have done is post a video from playing the game. Some stuff happened in that video that I used as an example of an as yet unplugged exploit.

Are you suggesting all who post videos of ED gameplay should anonymize the names of whoever happen to be in the video unless they gave a prior consent?

Should we not publish videos of exploits so as to make easily pluggable exploits come to an end, for the better of all but the exploiters?

What is really the point of asking me to be cautious. Do you think the FD devs and mods are so insecure as that they want to sweep the issue under the curtain?

I think not. I think they are very much aware of the issue, and are thinking very hard on how to solve it. But we need a solution *VERY* fast. This is after all an online game, those of us who play in open, expect all to play by the same rules. We can not, will not accept this combat logging stuff to go on for much longer. It is cheating. And if there is one thing that brings down an online game faster than anything else, it is unhandled cheating.

Fix it. Before anything else. Before wings even, as wings without a fix to this, is pointless. Open play without a fix to this is pointless.

 

[MaraJade]

I am aware of the rules of this forum - and though a technicality, I've not actually named anyone, much less shamed. What I have done is post a video from playing the game. Some stuff happened in that video that I used as an example of an as yet unplugged exploit.

Are you suggesting all who post videos of ED gameplay should anonymize the names of whoever happen to be in the video unless they gave a prior consent?

Should we not publish videos of exploits so as to make easily pluggable exploits come to an end, for the better of all but the exploiters?

What is really the point of asking me to be cautious. Do you think the FD devs and mods are so insecure as that they want to sweep the issue under the curtain?

I think not. I think they are very much aware of the issue, and are thinking very hard on how to solve it. But we need a solution *VERY* fast. This is after all an online game, those of us who play in open, expect all to play by the same rules. We can not, will not accept this combat logging stuff to go on for much longer. It is cheating. And if there is one thing that brings down an online game faster than anything else, it is unhandled cheating.

Fix it. Before anything else. Before wings even, as wings without a fix to this, is pointless.

I'm really not the one to have a debate with, ultimately it will be up to the moderators. I know I had a video pulled off because "technically" It was circumventing the systems. Again, not my call though.

 

[Undisputed]

... Smell a ban. Hate such combat logging.

however, i'm really surprised that this eagle survived so long. 5sec is more then enough to melt it into dust.

As big boys with condas and pythons, are combat logging no matter they play heroes, killing drive of your ship, behave as pride turqey '60 mills on my head, look at me, that is my 3 sec, i'm so famous' on the forum or they Extra Inchlong Tiny Cocks, but then once faced real player they combat log in pure imperial style, or should i say eccological style.
so dont be surprised that cmdr from scrap ships do the same, they dont think, all want to be as the idols, in other words being pro eccological is so popular.

 

[ciger]

not 100% sure but it does look like he used save & quit with 15s timer to log out which is not an exploit or against any of the rules. wonder why the devs decided to make it 15s as that is simply just way too short.

 

[starjump]

Why ticket? It is a known exploit. The devs are very aware of it. I am just nagging on getting a solution. The sooner the better, because this will not do in an online game. If you go Open, then for good or bad, you may get killed. Deal with it.

I do.

edit:

For the mods: is exposing cheaters with very good evidence to back it up naming and shaming?

I understand that rule as throwing slander around. Slander may or not be true. Video evidence however require a bit of explanation to make go away.

Yep its an exploit and last time i heard something from FD was to report those doing it so they can be punished by FD. I dont like that at all, but i guess its something we get before its fixed. Not sure why the timer we already have cant just be extended (in other games you are locked until one dies or escapes), but im not FD so we have to wait and see.

 

[SirFreddie]

<--- proud combat logger.

Noted...By all means cheat on if you think that improves your game without consequences for you and the rest of the players, be proud of your achievements, nobody else will be.

 

[Zeeman]

Large hardpoints.

They die before they can log off. Eagles do, anyway....

Z...

 

[Dbrn47]

I am aware of the rules of this forum - and though a technicality, I've not actually named anyone, much less shamed. What I have done is post a video from playing the game. Some stuff happened in that video that I used as an example of an as yet unplugged exploit.

Are you suggesting all who post videos of ED gameplay should anonymize the names of whoever happen to be in the video unless they gave a prior consent?

Should we not publish videos of exploits so as to make easily pluggable exploits come to an end, for the better of all but the exploiters?

What is really the point of asking me to be cautious. Do you think the FD devs and mods are so insecure as that they want to sweep the issue under the curtain?

I think not. I think they are very much aware of the issue, and are thinking very hard on how to solve it. But we need a solution *VERY* fast. This is after all an online game, those of us who play in open, expect all to play by the same rules. We can not, will not accept this combat logging stuff to go on for much longer. It is cheating. And if there is one thing that brings down an online game faster than anything else, it is unhandled cheating.

Fix it. Before anything else. Before wings even, as wings without a fix to this, is pointless. Open play without a fix to this is pointless.

Well, couple problems. The rules are clear and they are aware of the issue. Posting video evidence of the issue that is already known does not further assist them in fixing it. It just beats on a drum that has already been listened to. At this point I imagine it sounds like drum and bass. It's better to be on the safe side rather than risk any kind of punishment. You have people trying to warn you so I hope that if you do get punished you don't get mad.

 

[Ericlas]

Combat logging is the result of a design decision, nothing else.

This behaviour is only seen because people obviously feel the death penalty is too high.
If it wasn't, they wouldn't bother dieing once in a while, would they?

Look around in the PVP section of other games, either you receive some compensition for trying to fight in form of experience, regardless of the outcome, or PVP-deaths have no financial consequences, which in return encourages people to stay in the fight.
Don't get me wrong, i understand the concept behind Elites PVP, the wanted "feel of danger", but obviously that danger is perceived too high in comparison to a possible positive outcome of a battle.

As a matter of fact it is only 1 kill added to your counter, in some cases being rewarded with a bounty-payout, that you have to claim first without dieing before that claim.....yay!
On the other hand you could end up either with a high repair bill, ammo bill, losing your cargo or even your whole ship.
So why on earth should any sane person, who is not interested in role-play or in the hunt to combat-elite-rank, be interested in this profit-/loss-forecast?

It is why I as a trader stay in solo-mode when trading, regarding the fact i am risking roughly 15 Mio credits on every single trip.
It would take me around 5 hours of constant playing to get that back, in case of a death....for the little feel of danger? Hell no!
A lost interdiction with a successfull run afterwards costs me roughly 200k credits, that is a risk i'm gladly going to take, providing me with the same feel of danger.

So as long as this situation stays as it is, i'm sorry for all the pirates and bountyhunters out there, i can understand their anger very well.
As well as they might understand the reasons for hiding in solo.

 

[Zylark]

That is fine Ericlas - trader doing trading in solo. The person in my example however was a pirate, wanted even, that preyed on traders and then me as the the (cough) hero in white shining armor (cough) descending upon him like the rage of Thor in a bad mood with a Hammer as solid and spouting with thunder as a midwinter storm in Valhalla. The pirate in question, did not like being on the receiving end at all and cheated his way out.

That is all.

If playing in open, as I do and have done since day one, you take the good with the bad. Want to be a pirate? I've done it, even got a video of it. Fun stuff. But being a pirate, you prey upon traders playing in open. You depend on easy prey being available.

As do Bounty Hunters. In fact, the entire ecology of ED open players depend upon each other to populate the galaxy and have some emergent and fun gameplay. Pirates need bounty hunters as much as traders need pirates.

This all goes way out the window however when people can just do the logoffski without repercussions. Combat logging is cheating, no two ways about it.

 

[Andrew Sayers]

Thread closed. Where to begin with the issues here...

Let's start with this - if you believe a post might be against the rules, the best course of action is to PM a mod with your suggested text and ask their opinion. Challenging us to moderate a post is not a good move.

It's true that Frontier do consider this an undesirable exploit. It’s not “part of the game”. As others have said, raising a ticket (or reporting a player in-game) gets accurate feedback to the people at Frontier who are working on it. Calling people out in the forum would be a less effective solution even if it was allowed, because it's a different group of employees checking the forums.

Although there is some grey area around third-party content, a video posted for the express goal of naming and shaming another commander definitely violates the forum rules.

Finally, the moderation team are volunteers who look after the forum. We don't work for Frontier, and making our lives more difficult does nothing to change their priorities.