Would you like to see a combat logout timer introduced?

[tagos]

Why can't this be fixed? Your ship is in my game, and your game is sending my game updates telling me where your ship is, how it's moving, where it's firing, how much health it has, and so on. When we're done, both our games are going to update the central server, which is always there, with who won and who lost.

It's sending the data, as you say, to YOUR machine. Not a central server. I'm not a techie but I can't help but think there's all sorts of issues involved in monitoring what goes on on individual machines. I don't need to be a techie to remember the various 'spyware' storms that have blown up when game companies have taken it upon themselves to install stuff on people's machines. And you would need something on each machine to send the data needed to pass judgement on a disconnect.

Change the incentives and the behaviour will change. Try and penalise people based on trends or try to install anything remotely resembling spyware on a player's machine and you're in a world of PR hurt.

 

[Murphy's Ghost]

Awww, I see they removed the ability to downvote / reduce rep for rude posters. *clap*

 

[Conundrum]

Logout timers. Approved by 10 out of 10 griefers.


Must suck that all those lightly to no armed cargo ships get away from you.

 

[Dreich]

I'd have voted "don't care" had it been an option but, having read this thread (and a few of the others on this and other "PVPISALLIMPORTANTNOTHINGELSEMATTERS!!!"-driven threads that have been stinking up the place recently) I had to go with "NOPE", because I simply don't care. If I interdict someone and they log before the fight is over, so be it. If someone interdicts me I won't log off, and I'll take any losses that occur on the chin - as I have up until now. The people who log off don't affect me, beyond potentially some ammo/repair costs for interdictions and/or fights that never take place and, let's face it, these costs are insignificant.

Why people are getting so worked up about it I simply cannot fathom. I find myself concerned as to their health in a few weeks time when wings are introduced and a good chunk of the players who currently fly around on their own (and I'd wager they make up a solid majority of the playerbase) decide -- after their first few deaths to gangs of low-cost ships chasing down players for "teh lulz" -- to simply move off into group. The whining on this forum will become even more deafening.

Someone above mentioned the need for stiffer penalties for players killing other commanders, and that certainly chimes with the devs' stated vision for the game. It is this, rather than some clumsy implementation of a logoff timer (and that's really not all that practical, for reasons related to the P2P architecture of the game that have been stated repeatedly on all of these threads but which seem to be falling on deaf ears) that should shape the future of PvP battling in ED.

 

[scubaian]

If ED was pure peer to peer then I could see no way to manage this, but with the central server sitting there in the background, it could be handled even though the fight itself is happening locally.

I could write a script in 10 minutes that would cut connection to the peer whilst retaining comms with the central servers. We'd both be connected to the FD servers and they'd have no idea which of us did the dirty. I'm not seeing a robust way for them to code against loggers.

 

[Antmax]

Why does anyone who would "Combat Log" when pirated bother playing in open, solo is the place surly. Or is there some sort of advantage that i am missing?

No matter how much you want it to be. ED is't a PvP game and some people still want to socialize and see other people going about their business. FD are already setting up methods to punish unwanted PvP against innocent players in the open game mode. Hopefully things will get better for those people once those changes are applied.

 

[amysteriousstranger]

I love how people completely ignore posts to make their point just write:

"approved by griefers 10 out of 10"

or

"only the pvpers want this"

When I already stated it was a pvper who interdicted me and combat logged when he started losing

I'm gonna say it and probably get myself banned

Some people are so stupid they only see the world in black and white

All they see is PvE player and PvP players, they can't fathom that their are other scenarios, possibilities or things that happen in this game

I got interdicted, was winning and he logged out, came back a few minutes later and finished me off

And I rarely bounty hunt anymore, because player who have bounties (which are the only ones i interdict, I leave peaceful players alone)
Those players simply log out to avoid death when losing a fight they usually start

If someone wants to get away they should use FSD and not a cheat

 

[Distance]

Oh, thats very simple. There still are people that have VERY unstable internet connections. As in: losing their connections regularely several times a day. A logoff timer would basically force them to stop playing cause they simply cant take the risk of being a sitting duck in space for several minutes. With offline mode that issue wouldnt exist. So, if you wanna go ahead and screw the people who already lost offline mode a second time: yeah, that will make FD look REALLY good in their books.

I think you've missed the point. The majority of people who wanted an offline mode wanted it so they wouldn't have to play with other people and therefore would most likely now be playing in solo mode. If you have a bad internet connection in open play (which is where we're debating the addition of a proper log off timer) then it's a risk you have to take. If you're playing any online mp game with a bad connection it's always going to be a risk and that's your responsibility. If you can't handle the 10kbs solo mode requires without interrupts and you decide to play in open then it's wrong to allow an exploit that might "unfairly" catch a legitimate player and punish them by mistake.

As I've said before I rarely pvp, I don't pirate player traders but I may do in future as that's a valid play style. We have changes coming in soon to make murder a more serious crime and player killers will be punished accordingly. People who exploit should be punished accordingly or the holes that are open allowing people to exploit should be closed.

Kind of ironic the dr and the master arguing on an internet forum

 

[Kremator]

15 seconds is plenty ... if you can't kill in that time, you are obviously a noob pilot.

 

[WalterHWhite]

I'm not seeing a robust way for them to code against loggers.

I mentioned it earlier in the thread. They should log disconnects. Anyone who disproportionately exits during battle is a candidate. The only way to mitigate that is for the combat loggers to disconnect at random times outside of battle.

Anyone who is doing it, beyond reasonable doubt, should get a healthy slap on the wrist (ship blown up, credits deducated, demotion etc).

 

[Distance]

15 seconds is plenty ... if you can't kill in that time, you are obviously a noob pilot.

As mentioned several times before, force killing the elite process skips the timer. 15 seconds isn't long enough to destroy a lot of shops, if you remove a type 9's shields you can't kill it in 15 seconds.

 

[scubaian]

I mentioned it earlier in the thread. They should log disconnects. Anyone who disproportionately exits during battle is a candidate. The only way to mitigate that is for the combat loggers to disconnect at random times outside of battle.

Anyone who is doing it, beyond reasonable doubt, should get a healthy slap on the wrist (ship blown up, credits deducated, demotion etc).

Unfortunately this leaves it open for the more unpleasant types to harass other players. If a group decide to disconnect peer side from another single player repeatedly it'll make the single player look bad. Don't get me wrong statistics are good, but its not a robust solution.