I have a question about in-game behavior, and am not sure how to approach it.

I think that the FM has said that testing bugs is acceptable, as is generally playing.

However, is it acceptable to crash the game out of spite? I will not name names here, but if the devs or a guide or FM wishes to contact me about this, they can.

A character in sector 7 announced his intention to (again) crash the place by dispensing potentially thousands of cargo widgets outside of the station.

He said, "well everyone doesn't like me so I'm gonna make sure they don't."

Is this behavior, crashing Vendetta for personal reasons, acceptable?

Clearly this would not be acceptable, however it is unlikely that a single individual would be able to disperse enough widgets to achieve this.

Personally, I would think that in this case, while socially disappointing, it's something the devs need to address. If there *is* a way for a person to crash the game, through accident or ambition, it is a bug and needs to be fixed. I don't know the server code, but if it's possible to crash the game by dumping crap in sector 7, then there needs to be some way to prevent it, even if that means some kind of new game mechanic--a lone station defense bot at each station that destroys cargo (or mines), or self destruct timers on cargo--to prevent people from using the tools of the game to hurt the game.

Cargo ceases to exist if it is left unattended for 15 minutes. Thats what I was getting at when I stated a single individual would have a difficult time dropping enough cargo to impact the server.

FM? It's been done. I was there. So was Phoenix. There were two people, a perp and an aid. (if what I am thinking is what SirCamps was thinking). It is quite doable. There's a thread about it in this forum/

Please note the use of the phrase "a single individual". I was speaking to the concern that SC had.

It would seem that we could use a limit as to how many cargo containers are lying around, or a perhaps some bots would scoop them up. Converse amongst yourselves.

He was not trying to crash the sector, but he dropped well over 2000 widgets outside the station and was deliberately lagging the sector out. I had to switch to the lowest resolution and turn off everything to get a framerate decent enough to maneuver my centaur and scoop up the cargo. Otherwise, my normal 60FPS would have dropped down to between .5-1 FPS. As I understand he did it 2 or 3 more times after I left.

hmm. i also think that if it was for testing purposes, he could have done that in a less frequently used sector.
i'll stick with SirCamps on not naming names, but i really think there should be some kind of educational measure taken to prevent said individual from doing this over and over again.

Well, it sounds to me like this individual is doing it out of spite. As a beta tester he's also refusing to report the exploit/bug on his part. So yeah, I'd say ban his ass. Please report him if you have clear evidence that he was in fact the person that made the server crash. The fewer people we have like him online, the better off we'll be for the future.

He didn't make it crash. He just deliberately lagged out the sector by buying 2200 100c widgets, loading up a centaur and constantly dumping them as soon as he undocked. It wasn't a bug or an exploit, just a deliberate attempt to lag the game.

On a related note, I noticed all his cargo didn't lag the server out as much as it would have in 3.2. It just lagged out our computers because they had to render all those spinning, floating, glowing pieces of cargo. Looks like the 3.3 codebase really does take a lot of load off the servers.

Is this individual the same one who did it last time, or is it a new person?

T'was me, started out as me being pissed off, but then turned into a bugtest...flame me all you want...it's not like I fought and got a massive amount of PK's or got some massive score boost, or pwned everyone in the game or whatnot...it was a test, and that's what we're doing, no? My ping stayed the same the entire time, only the actual graphics lag. Also-I don't think it's classified as an exploit is it? Noo, it's not..

OK, you've revealed your identity, I'm not responsible for any grief you get in-game.

The point is, you specifically said that you did it since "everyone hates me, and I want to make sure they do."

This is not beta-testing, nor is it helpful to anyone. Not everyone has a superb computer (I'm running on a 400 mhz computer), and all the cargo dumped into a small pile creates a huge amount of lag and ping. It's because of the rendering widgets as well as counting them as an object in the sector. It's as bad as 2200 ships attacking each other in a sector.

I guess my point is this: If you have/want to crash a sector, please do it someplace that isn't very trafficked. Sector 7 is the center of the universe (aside from 16), and you'll only end up ticking more people off and make them more intent on causing you pain.

It's neither an exploit nor a bug, but an un-tested feature. If you had said "hey people can you help me crash the sector? I want to see how many widgets it can take before it goes down," many people, including myself, would have helped you. However, by declaring spite for everyone and tempting them to hate you, you radically alter the enviroment and create one completely hostile to you. I'm asking for you to exercise wisdom and sound judgment next time you attempt something like this.

Hmm, actually me and another player WERE testing this the second and third times....and what good does it do to test something like this if I'm the only one to see it? I'm pretty sure hardly anyone here has the machine I've got, and I wanted to see how it affected other comps, faster and slower.....read your logs, I did explain to several people what I was doing, it's effects, and warnings to stay out of 7....and the whole "crashing intentionally" title is out of line, as it didn't, and will not, crash a sector.

/me sighs and shakes his head in disgust at alienb1212

/me agrees with Arolte, at the risk of bringing the wrath of the FM down on him.

Then why did you say, apparently out of spite, "no one likes me, so I'm going to make sure they don't."

Again, if you had said that you were testing, people would not have been hostile to you or your actions.

My bottom line is this: Please do not declare that any actions are out of spite, as it only serves to irk people, and you cannot then cry "beta-test!" or "bug test!" after that. Once words go out, you can never take them back.

crashing the server intentionally...wow why is this such a big thing?

before we had about 3k+ piece of cargo in sector 7(cargo balls from cent(200pieces a ball)) without it crashing so this "cargo" idea crash never works.

now this is a test...and crashes are bound to happen and this is good because then it can be reported so that it never happens again. If you do find a bug that crashes a sector...send in a bug report...and don't talk about it.

People really like to tell everyone that they figured out a way to crash/break something. That just causes problems.

When I crashed the server it definatly was not the expected outcome of what I was testing but it did happen and the game server went down.

As for the line "i'm going to crash the server" in some way or form...instead of yelling this out just test. If you crash or find something...send the bugreport and never test the bug again. The End.

SF, there is a difference.

What if you said, "well everyone hates me so I want to make _sure_ they do, watch me make the game hell."

But I agree, better to not brag or announce anything and do it yourself.

However, exploiting a bug out of spite is different than inducing a bug to test. As far as he knew, the bug had already been exploited and reported on, and he was doing it again just to spite everyone.

Oh well, you apparently don't actually spend time reading my posts...w/e...

You know, I think dispite all I could ever do to you here...you'd ALL live...

You're overplaying this.
He didn't "intentionally lag the game". He was testing a bug.
This is a TEST, you know. Not a GAME.

For christ sake...

- Arc.