Combat logging fix, Absolute and Server speed degradation

[crusader_111 62]

Hey everyone,

As you all know combat logging is still a major problem in DayZ and will continue into DayZ Standalone at this rate.

First thing is the problem;

People that are about to die and instead of ALT+F4'ing they pull their internet or turn off their Computer/Laptop or ARMA 2 OA Process because as of 1.7.3 they can not ALT+F4 as it just opens the status menu.

First fix;

Disable ALT+F4 function, add combat timer (30 Seconds) as a punishment for combat logging you would lose your gear and current character and have to start anew, this being a deterrent if done when fighting.

Fix to new problem;

Though it is less that before when people would combat log, in the end it was a good idea but was never going to work because if you think about it, they combat logged to save their character from certain death as in, they was knocked out, just about to die and they combat log so to save their character, log in later, wake up, bandage etc. But because they are going to die anyway and are going to lose their gear anyway they pull the plug and start anew but the other player doesn't get their gear.

what I propose to stop these people who thrive by ruining DayZ is keep everything as it is, combat timer, ALT+F4 function disabled but when they "pull the plug" so to speak their character drops a packet/bag/crate with all their gear inside it, including there backpack and disappears after 5 - 10 minutes or so, this way theres no advantage to "pulling the plug" and might as well face their pending fate. They could not exploit this to dupe gear as there character would start anew afterwards and wouldn't have their previous gear after spawning, and the object the gear was stored in would be removed after all items have been taken out or 5 - 10 minutes so the world wouldn't have loads of random drop crates everywhere clogging things up and slowing down the server.

This would 100% remove combat loggers as there would be nothing to gain from doing it. Also an object to store all the gear in doesn't necessarily have to be implemented, all their gear could just be dropped around where they were.

Server slow down;

As my previous point about servers being slowed down because of more drop crates around, this could be applied to to everything else.

As with every server, most restart after 2-4 hours depending on activity on the server. This because all the activity causes items to spawn, zombies to spawn, persistent bodies (to a certain point), interactions etc play havok with the servers capabilities after a certain amount of time. As the only way to fix this is to restart the server, a fresh start if you will, to remove all the other crap, vehicle wrecks, dead bodies, useless items not being moved (empty cans and bottles, crowbars etc) things that clog up the world and cause it to be slow. Even when dead bodies and vehicle wrecks have despawned there address is keep in the address tables and gather and cause the server to be slow because it has to go through all these to find what its looking for and adds time to this, affecting the speed of the server, also when bodies despawn or get hidden they actually don't get taken out, physically, from the world, they just get hidden about a meter under the ground, which is inefficient because you can never access that body again so why wouldn't they just remove it from the world and address list thus eliminating slow server speeds and would be directly affected by the amount of activity the server has (the amount of players on it interacting with the world).

The fix to this would be adding a timer to spawn locations and items moved away from spawn loacations but still laying on the ground in the world. After that timer expires the items get removed physically and their address removed from the address tables as if a server restart has just happened. this includes dead bodies and the "Hide body" function is replaced by this, as in the animation is displayed where it 'realistically' sinks into the ground slowly. after the end of the animation, the body gets removed physically and from the address table this applies to vehicle wrecks but obviously you can't hide those. The timer is affected by the radius to players, players within this radius to spawn locations and seperate items would reset and stop the timer until the players are out the radius. the time can be anything like an hour or less, both functions can be added so depending on activity if there is less activity then it would be an hour or more, if there is a lot it would be 30 minutes or less this is because if there is a lot of activity, players would constantly be going into radius's resetting the timer and would defeat the purpose of this fix.

Cons;

Though you may think this would be a lot easier for people to loot cycle to get what they want, which it would be one of the main causes to servers slowing down is loot cycling, because people move items out of the spawn areas, wait for more to spawn and so on and piles of items gather and cause server issues. It is better for it to be removed then respawned then for it to pile up and not be removed until a server restart isn't it?

Query;

What about areas that have constant activity? Well this can't be helped and this fix is null and void but this gets puts back into use when you add a seperate timer, spawn locations get a seperate timer on top of the other one. This is activated in a area where players are constantly in the radius for a certain amount of time, the first timer is disabled/stopped, second starts but this one goes for an hour or less on spawn locations where it is not interacted with so even if players are in the radius it can still despawn if not interacted with like a loot pile with just empty cans and whiskey bottles, a useless loot pile if you will.

Conclusion;

Server restart would not have to happen and players can continue playing as long as the server stays up (crashing or update etc, not restart related). At most manual restarts would only happen when the server is really active 100 players for example and the fix wouldn't technically be able to work properly or at its full capacity/efficiency. Server logs will still be fully effective and working as this is stored in a seperate file not linked to the address table, the address and any other information is recorded/copied to this completely seperate file and thus when the address is removed from the address table, it is still staored in this file not affecting the server speeds in any way. So people duping, hacking or anything else they shouldn't be doing is still recorded effectively and a punishment dispensed to the player.

If these was implemented if would improve DayZ gameplay remarkably and Rockets dreamed "Persistent World" can be even closer. Especially when DayZ Standalone is released and private hives not being avaliable anymore.

Also if you want proof about the "Hide Body" discussion, go to the top floor of the Barn building, get a zombie or player up there, kill it/them, hide the body go down the stairs and watch. The body will sink below the floor and be floating in mid air. Amazing.

Thank you for reading, any questions or critism's post below, any information you want to correct me on or think is important to add also post below and if I deem it important to add/correct I will, more so the correction.

[Cerbo Knight 48]

I like it already.

[entspeak 374]

I don't think this can really be implemented until the bullet proximity portion of determining who is and isn't in combat gets worked out and put back into the game. Servers have issues and many people get kicked for changing into a ghillie suit. Server and computer issues happen and not everyone who ends up off the server is a combat logger. What really needs to happen is a reasonable means of determining who is in combat and who isn't. And, though in some cases it would seem unfair, when that timer goes off, the person can abort. "In combat" appears to be a relative term. The only time you are definitely, unequivocally in combat is when you are firing, or being fired upon (you are being hit, or bullets are flying near you.) My opinion is this: get the in combat system working in those cases where one is definitely, unequivocally in combat - I'd even be down for a longer period of being in combat... and if someone logs during that time, their character dies. This will undoubtedly impact those who happen to have an internet or computer issue during a firefight, but... nothing's perfect and the odds are slimmer that this will occur just when you happen to be under fire.

[crusader_111 62]

But the point is about combat loggers cheating the system not people getting unfairly accused of combat logging and loosing their character, combat loggers will always win when they pull the plug just before they die because no one gets their gear and is exactly why they do it, so the other person doesn't get their gear. This would stop them combat logging because their gear gets put into a object and there character still dies so they will never win and there is nothing to gain from combat logging. That is my point and that is why combat logging is still going on.

[DiazWaffleCrabstro 39]

#1. You cant disable alt+F4 function, no matter how hard you try, that would require one of 2 things. 1.) M$ removes the feature from windows, and other OS vendors do the same respectively, 2.) Rocket would have to implement what would be essentially a hack, that limits the functionality of the OS, while your running the game, immediately black listing this piece of software. So good luck with that.

#2. It does not stop people from doing ctrl+esc or alt+tab, which is btw faster than alt+f4 in some cases, alt tab+right click+close window = instant death of process, no hanging(as in some cases with alt+f4)

#3. AS long as it is possible for people to gear up on other servers and then go to another server for a bambi hunt, and keep swapping servers for easy kills, removing the option of logging out when your a fresh bambi and get shot at, essentially should first see the removal of cross server gear travel.

[crusader_111 62]

#1. You cant disable alt+F4 function, no matter how hard you try, that would require one of 2 things. 1.) M$ removes the feature from windows, and other OS vendors do the same respectively, 2.) Rocket would have to implement what would be essentially a hack, that limits the functionality of the OS, while your running the game, immediately black listing this piece of software. So good luck with that.

#2. It does not stop people from doing ctrl+esc or alt+tab, which is btw faster than alt+f4 in some cases, alt tab+right click+close window = instant death of process, no hanging(as in some cases with alt+f4)

#3. AS long as it is possible for people to gear up on other servers and then go to another server for a bambi hunt, and keep swapping servers for easy kills, removing the option of logging out when your a fresh bambi and get shot at, essentially should first see the removal of cross server gear travel.

I hope you realise the ALT+F4 function is practically disabled, it opens your status menu now not ending your games process, further more, Your rambling, this about getting the gear off the combat logger, IF he tries to end his game process while in combat. Further more, I think you fail to see my point and I really don't understand the point your trying to make, Rocket would be doing nothing wrong, and wouldn't require him to create a 'hack' to implement these features.

The whole purpose of this is simple, just to dumb it down for you;

Combat logger gets attacked > Nearly dies > pulls internet or as you said ALT+TAB and end process in another way > Character gets deleted for leaving the server while combat timer is activated on player > a drop crate appears where he disconnected, which has all of his gear inside > you get the gear you rightfully deserve and the combat logger loses > Profit???

The whole point is to removed the reward behind combat logging, which is stopping the other person from getting your gear if your going to die anyway. If you read properly you would have understood this stops them from doing this.

Rocket has already got rid of the ALT+F4 feature, go read the change log of 1.7.3 before trying to ramble about pointless things that doesn't contribute to this what so ever.

You point about cross server gear travel is moot, Rocket wants a persistent world, so because everone can't fit onto one server, everyone has the same gear on each server to keep this persistent world alive. Eliminating this feature would remove this, and your point also has nothing to do with what I discussed, where did bambi hunting come from, they have nothing to do with this discussion. If you combat log on another server you lose your character so any other server with a linked database would also register this and so your character would be the same across all boards.

If you fail to understand re-read CAREFULLY, hopefully you'll understand after the 2nd to 4th time.

Edited December 16, 2012 by CRUSADER_111

[SmashT 10907]

Have you read the rolling changelog for the next update?

Specifically:

* [NEW] - In combat bot added if your in combat and logoff your player will be replaced with a bot that can still be looted and killed.

* [NEW] - New Load screens added to show timeleft for combat logging.

* [uPDATED] - Combat Mode is now effected by everything you do and everything done to you (example any kind of damage).

* [uPDATED] - Bots will lie down on player disconnect.

* [uPDATED] - While bots are active all gear is synced in real time as if the bot was a normal player removes dupping issues.

Edited December 16, 2012 by smasht_AU

[DiazWaffleCrabstro 39]

Have you read the rolling changelog for the next update?

Specifically:

* [NEW] - In combat bot added if your in combat and logoff your player will be replaced with a bot that can still be looted and killed.

* [NEW] - New Load screens added to show timeleft for combat logging.

* [uPDATED] - Combat Mode is now effected by everything you do and everything done to you (example any kind of damage).

* [uPDATED] - Bots will lie down on player disconnect.

* [uPDATED] - While bots are active all gear is synced in real time as if the bot was a normal player removes dupping issues.

Wow, i have a bad feeling about the bot, and how the potential combat log detection works...i smell a shit storm aproaching.