Forums » Suggestions
I am looking for suggestions on how to end the abuse of alt characters to circumvent aspects of this game, namely the standing / kos "protection" of the stations. It has gotten to the point that the stations are only protecting the pirates!
Pirate A logs on his four accounts. Three F2P and one subbed. He drops one F2P at the Nyrius B-10 wormhole, another at the Nyrius 0-15 wormhole, and a third in Nyrius F-6. He homes his subbed account in F-6 with a Behemoth at the station. A plugin allows them all to share ship sightings.
Now, a Behemoth flys into F-6, which Pirate A has been expecting because his spotter ships saw it enter one WH but not leave the other. He /explodes his subbed account and selects his own Behemoth, then uses the alt at the station to kill the incoming ship without caring about that account getting KOS there. Then he flys out and scoops up the other players property. A quick rotation of alts leaves the KOS spotting at a wormhole, and a fresh killer sitting in F-6.
Meanwhile, the player who just lost his Behemoth, if they were lucky, were also homed at F-6. They can jump in whatever ships they have or can buy there (no Behemoths available, by the way)... and just watch as the subbed account steals their property under the protection of the station guards, who are by now flying back from destroying the alt account.
How is any one person supposed to protect themselves against someone playing four separate accounts, three of which are throw-aways that make faction standing pointless?
Pirate A logs on his four accounts. Three F2P and one subbed. He drops one F2P at the Nyrius B-10 wormhole, another at the Nyrius 0-15 wormhole, and a third in Nyrius F-6. He homes his subbed account in F-6 with a Behemoth at the station. A plugin allows them all to share ship sightings.
Now, a Behemoth flys into F-6, which Pirate A has been expecting because his spotter ships saw it enter one WH but not leave the other. He /explodes his subbed account and selects his own Behemoth, then uses the alt at the station to kill the incoming ship without caring about that account getting KOS there. Then he flys out and scoops up the other players property. A quick rotation of alts leaves the KOS spotting at a wormhole, and a fresh killer sitting in F-6.
Meanwhile, the player who just lost his Behemoth, if they were lucky, were also homed at F-6. They can jump in whatever ships they have or can buy there (no Behemoths available, by the way)... and just watch as the subbed account steals their property under the protection of the station guards, who are by now flying back from destroying the alt account.
How is any one person supposed to protect themselves against someone playing four separate accounts, three of which are throw-aways that make faction standing pointless?
Log into a different alt?
totally legit question
You could try paying the pirates to not rob you. OR you could hire an escort. OR you could stop at another station, then fly an expendable ship over there to look ahead for danger. You could even fly several XC's without cargo over to use up the killer alts.
I would recommend bribery, or a combination of the others.
I would recommend bribery, or a combination of the others.
How do you propose stopping a -1000 (KOS) player from popping you at a station? Alts are not the problem; a lack of combat pilots acting as escort pilots is the problem. (Hint: escort pilots with PCBS will stop most aggressors)
WAF is right. Also your escort could tell you if it's safe or not.
This particular stunt has been going on in F6 for years. I agree it's bad form. The only reliable solution I've found is to go in with a group.
Sounds like a lot of effort to me considering the amount of people that are Biocom admired. I'd rather just shoot them and ignore the strike force, like I do at any other station. But one thing to note is that UiT space is by design, a little more risky than Serco or Itani space, so tactics like this being employed there are to kind of be expected.
Also the strike force on the way back to the station won't attack you, unless you set off the NFZ. Yes the self-defence mechanisms and faction stuff does leave a lot to be desired and I really hope this is something that will change in Incarnates proposed "VO 2.0".
Also the strike force on the way back to the station won't attack you, unless you set off the NFZ. Yes the self-defence mechanisms and faction stuff does leave a lot to be desired and I really hope this is something that will change in Incarnates proposed "VO 2.0".
I think the key problem here is the use of spotter bots. Incarnate has specifically said these are not allowed, although the difference between a bot sitting in an area 24/7, vs. a scout under short-term active control, is perhaps problematic.
Incarnate has promised resolution of the bot issue in due time, as I understand.
Incarnate has promised resolution of the bot issue in due time, as I understand.
You could just... "Risk Everything..." and just go about your business.
han solo here has a point, it is a space game lol and you should always be ready for a fight!
I haven't seen the exact scenario described by OP but I have seen variations like the ones below:
Abuse 1 Person has 3 alts spread across the system, one near each of the CS. Person cycles through characters and attacks each of the stations while people who have only one alt fly across the universe checking the status of stations.
Abuse 2 Person has 2 alts, one with a Moth waiting in nearby sector logged out. Player kills a target hauling goods, then quickly switches characters and scoops up the cargo, and quickly jumps out of sector.
Abuse 3 Person has multiple bots filling turrets in trident spamming missiles.
Abuse 4 Person has KOS account hunting in nation space and another character/account with good standing nearby to scoop up merchandise to dock with station and store merchandise where the killing character is kos/tempkos.
Solution
In all of these abuses, the common thread is that people can run multiple clients from the same IP, and that people can quickly cycle through characters to achieve a universe-wide presence that grants an unfair advantage to those playing from a single account/character.
Since we can probably all agree that nobody is organizing VO LAN parties, I propose that some variation of the below controls be implemented:
1. Set a max_connections_per_ip value for each account that defaults to 1. Accounts that wish to have multiple clients running from the same network, for example, spouses playing together, parents and children, etc, can open a ticket to have their connection count increased on a case by case basis. When the max_connections_per_ip is exceeded, one of the existing connections is disconnected or login is disabled until one of the existing connections is disabled.
2. When logging out and logging back in, set a timer that must elapse between changing characters. For example, If I log out of Savet, and then log in to Hegar, it prompts me that I have to wait X seconds or minutes between character changes. Something small like 1-5 minutes is probably sufficient to avoid impacting legitimate usage and will dramatically reduce the effect of character hopping.
This obviously doesn't cover all ways to abuse the system, for example, using VMs that use a vpn connection or mobile devices on a data plan, but it's a good start to blocking this behavior and raising the bar for anybody wishing to carry out this type of abuse.
Abuse 1 Person has 3 alts spread across the system, one near each of the CS. Person cycles through characters and attacks each of the stations while people who have only one alt fly across the universe checking the status of stations.
Abuse 2 Person has 2 alts, one with a Moth waiting in nearby sector logged out. Player kills a target hauling goods, then quickly switches characters and scoops up the cargo, and quickly jumps out of sector.
Abuse 3 Person has multiple bots filling turrets in trident spamming missiles.
Abuse 4 Person has KOS account hunting in nation space and another character/account with good standing nearby to scoop up merchandise to dock with station and store merchandise where the killing character is kos/tempkos.
Solution
In all of these abuses, the common thread is that people can run multiple clients from the same IP, and that people can quickly cycle through characters to achieve a universe-wide presence that grants an unfair advantage to those playing from a single account/character.
Since we can probably all agree that nobody is organizing VO LAN parties, I propose that some variation of the below controls be implemented:
1. Set a max_connections_per_ip value for each account that defaults to 1. Accounts that wish to have multiple clients running from the same network, for example, spouses playing together, parents and children, etc, can open a ticket to have their connection count increased on a case by case basis. When the max_connections_per_ip is exceeded, one of the existing connections is disconnected or login is disabled until one of the existing connections is disabled.
2. When logging out and logging back in, set a timer that must elapse between changing characters. For example, If I log out of Savet, and then log in to Hegar, it prompts me that I have to wait X seconds or minutes between character changes. Something small like 1-5 minutes is probably sufficient to avoid impacting legitimate usage and will dramatically reduce the effect of character hopping.
This obviously doesn't cover all ways to abuse the system, for example, using VMs that use a vpn connection or mobile devices on a data plan, but it's a good start to blocking this behavior and raising the bar for anybody wishing to carry out this type of abuse.
a) Cargo dropped by an exploding ship in protected faction space, can only be picked up for 10 minutes, by:
a.1) The player that exploded,
a.2) A player that did damage to the exploding ship, in the sector it exploded in.
b) You will never respawn at a faction station while you are under that faction's self defense penalty for attacking that faction's protected player. If you are homed there, your respawn point will be moved.
That way you have 10 minutes to go fight over it, or pick it up, unless the other guy can pick it up.
Now he has to use two alts, and one has to be able to drive an xc. Making disposable alts that can drive an xc is going to be a pain.
Edit: Make a disposable alt that can fight, and use that to defend the cargo, so your main can use a stored xc to go pick the cargo up. Keep picking it up, even if you get exploded, to reset the timer.
Edit: You should have a disposable alt anyways, to kill his xc when he comes for your cargo.
a.1) The player that exploded,
a.2) A player that did damage to the exploding ship, in the sector it exploded in.
b) You will never respawn at a faction station while you are under that faction's self defense penalty for attacking that faction's protected player. If you are homed there, your respawn point will be moved.
That way you have 10 minutes to go fight over it, or pick it up, unless the other guy can pick it up.
Now he has to use two alts, and one has to be able to drive an xc. Making disposable alts that can drive an xc is going to be a pain.
Edit: Make a disposable alt that can fight, and use that to defend the cargo, so your main can use a stored xc to go pick the cargo up. Keep picking it up, even if you get exploded, to reset the timer.
Edit: You should have a disposable alt anyways, to kill his xc when he comes for your cargo.
Roda,
The only problem with that implementation is that there are genuine epic battles that have ensued over capship or other expensive cargo. While not common, I have witnessed glorious battles for dropped cargo as somebody unexpectedly explodes and two teams fight it out while trying to scoop up the goods in a moth or XC. The person scooping may not be the person who dropped it, and that suggestion would eliminate a very real gameplay scenario.
The only problem with that implementation is that there are genuine epic battles that have ensued over capship or other expensive cargo. While not common, I have witnessed glorious battles for dropped cargo as somebody unexpectedly explodes and two teams fight it out while trying to scoop up the goods in a moth or XC. The person scooping may not be the person who dropped it, and that suggestion would eliminate a very real gameplay scenario.
I say fight alt with alt. They have disposable alts to kill you, have disposable alts to kill them.
We either limit alt interference, or we don't. Pick one, and we can create a workable system from there.
The number one defense against alts, is alts. They are only one player, and can only command so many alts at once, same as you. Takes next to nothing to prep an alt with a hog2/raven/stingray. Save the stingrays for the other guy's moth.
We either limit alt interference, or we don't. Pick one, and we can create a workable system from there.
The number one defense against alts, is alts. They are only one player, and can only command so many alts at once, same as you. Takes next to nothing to prep an alt with a hog2/raven/stingray. Save the stingrays for the other guy's moth.
+1 to the login timer, 5 minutes before you can log back in would do a lot to stopping immersion breaking character jumping.
I would add: Make a clear ruling on what is, and what is not allowed as far as automation, 'bots', and using f2p accounts to spot/multi accounting. Post this ruling somewhere public, and enforce it with a set system of punishments that increase in severity.
I would add: Make a clear ruling on what is, and what is not allowed as far as automation, 'bots', and using f2p accounts to spot/multi accounting. Post this ruling somewhere public, and enforce it with a set system of punishments that increase in severity.
lol @ login timer. you are all for this till you happen to get disconnected in the middle of something important and by the time you are able to log back in your ship and cargo are gone. Then the tickets will flow like a waterfall crying for your items back due to the login timer.
Think people, think.
Think people, think.
Hasn't incarnate already pretty much said he's not going to do anything about people doing this kind of thing?
Wash, if you are logging back into the same character there should not be a timer. The only timer should be in changing characters.
Make Nyrius where Kos pilots cannot dock in system if Kos to biocom