Server Hopping/Combat logging-How it ruins the Dayz experience

[Hero of Suburbia 40]

So it was the 2nd day of my survival. Overall things were going well. After I washed up on shore I met a guy I will refer to as Bill. I was weary of him at first, but he seemed like a trustable guy. He said he only had one can of tuna but offered it to me under the pretense that I was hungrier than he. As I devoured the can of tuna he started telling me about these mutant creatures that now roam the place. It terrified me half to death. As our conversation continued he said he over heard other survivors talking about a military outpost to the north west where we could possibly find refuge, or at the very least a firearm. I asked him if this information was an invitation to join him and he nodded, but before we could go anywhere we needed supplies. We walked down the deserted streets of the city in a sort of slumber. It was sad really entering other people's houses and ripping the place apart for a can of beans. But such was the state of life.

Skipping a few of the boring details we finally got enough supplies to make the journey. As we approached this military outpost we realized it was not as we had hoped. There was no refuge. Just a few walls and a couple buildings within. But not another healthy soul in sight. It was time for the second part of the plan, arm ourselves with whatever we could find.

We tried on some military pants that seemed to fit and found a couple of m4 rifles, the only problem was there was hardly any ammunition. I ended up with 5 rounds and bill with 15. But hope was not lost, we saw what looked like a battle schematic indicating that there should be more ammunition atop green mountain. With this newly acquired Intel we headed to green mountain in a bunny hop technique, always covering each others movement.

We finally reached the top of the hill, bill told me to climb the tower and keep watch as he looted the place. So far so good. He found more ammunition and all seemed well. But all was not well. 4,survivors were heading to the front door armed to the teeth. 
At this point bill moved with in audible range of these strangers and told them,,we don't want any trouble, we are honest men just trying to survive. The place is cleaned over but we can offer you some munitions if you let us pass.

Before anymore words could be said bullets were zinging off of the fence and the four people quickly moved into an attacking position. I was able to pick off one and cover bill as he ran into the entrance of the tower and climbed the ladder before I was spotted by the other 3. As they were now reacting to my position I was able to strike down another running for cover. I tried to keep tabs on the other two, but I could only follow one as they wisely split up. I had to abandon my post once the survivor I couldn't track had set up position and started firing on me. I went back inside and closed the door. By this time bill had climbed the ladder to the top. We thought of a few ideas to get out of the situation but we decides the best thing to do would be to wait it out. They could never attack our position as there is only one entrance up the ladder, it also makes us vulnerable, but we had supplies that would last us for days possibly weeks. Therefore we concluded the best chance of survival is to wait it out a couple days.

And then they server hopped and climbed the tower and then came back and shot us in the back from the top of the tower yelling over direct chat that we were gay noobs. 

 

I think that the server hopping issue is one of the most important issues to fix. It entirely breaks the game.

I think one possible solution would be to not let people spawn inside buildings or towns. 

[green_machine 179]

This is why I KOS Server hoppers and everybody else should too. They're cheaters who can't afford hacks -or- too scared of being banned. There is no reason to log out near high end loot, other than server hop.  

Spent my first few days on near empty servers to get a feel for loot, area's and to role play the tourist, every now and then a player would enter... then leave. Then another would do the same... then 3 players enter... then leave. If they ALL stayed for 3 hours, the server would be almost full.

I'm looking around 1 base, found a wrecked med kit, another med kit and another med kit. No Seline bags, no IV bags. So this guy, pretty much got blasted on 1 server... jumped around to find med kits (stole my chance for a Seline IV) and then fucked off to try and kill more people with his boosted gear.

If I go onto a low body count server, I run the risk of being jumped by a booster every time i'm in a high grade loot area.
Everytime I go to a high population server, I'm going to be facing 1/2 a server of high end gear players who should not have that gear to begin with. (presumably they go where the action is once they're kitted up).  

When you hack gear into the game to get kills. Camo clothes, Good gun and ammo, people get banned.
When you server hop for gear, Camo clothes, good guns and ammo, people get away with it.

1 last thing. There were some bugs in the first few days of release. They were mentioned, they were fixed.
Server hopping has been around for years.
Nuff said.     

[Hero of Suburbia 40]

This is why I KOS Server hoppers and everybody else should too. They're cheaters who can't afford hacks -or- too scared of being banned. There is no reason to log out near high end loot, other than server hop.  

Spent my first few days on near empty servers to get a feel for loot, area's and to role play the tourist, every now and then a player would enter... then leave. Then another would do the same... then 3 players enter... then leave. If they ALL stayed for 3 hours, the server would be almost full.

I'm looking around 1 base, found a wrecked med kit, another med kit and another med kit. No Seline bags, no IV bags. So this guy, pretty much got blasted on 1 server... jumped around to find med kits (stole my chance for a Seline IV) and then fucked off to try and kill more people with his boosted gear.

If I go onto a low body count server, I run the risk of being jumped by a booster every time i'm in a high grade loot area.

Everytime I go to a high population server, I'm going to be facing 1/2 a server of high end gear players who should not have that gear to begin with. (presumably they go where the action is once they're kitted up).  

When you hack gear into the game to get kills. Camo clothes, Good gun and ammo, people get banned.

When you server hop for gear, Camo clothes, good guns and ammo, people get away with it.

1 last thing. There were some bugs in the first few days of release. They were mentioned, they were fixed.

Server hopping has been around for years.

Nuff said.     

 

So basically this is not going to go away?

[superkyle 6]

server hopping and combat logging pretty much ruins the whole "Survival" aspect of the game which is the main selling point of the game. I was under the impression that the reason for the delays for the standalone was to find a fix for this within the server structure of the game. Guess I was wrong.

 

To me, fixing those 2 should be the utmost priority of the development team over ALL other "fixes", because it basically ruins the entire point of the game. Why search for 8 hours to gear up when you can gear up in 30 mins? Why lose everything you got in 30 minutes when you can just exit if you're losing a firefight?

[green_machine 179]

To me, fixing those 2 should be the utmost priority of the development team over ALL other "fixes", because it basically ruins the entire point of the game. Why search for 8 hours to gear up when you can gear up in 30 mins? Why lose everything you got in 30 minutes when you can just exit if you're losing a firefight?

It should never have been a fix in the 1st place. Server hopping should have been blocked off from the start. They've only wasted their own time because boosting has disrupted the flow of gameplay and thus, disrupted the feedback that players give. Loot balance goes out the window when server hopping is rife.

So any feedback that we give about loot balance has been corrupted.

 

Don't give feedback until it's fixed  

 

Edited December 24, 2013 by DaveZ

[jBrick 116]

 

And then they server hopped and climbed the tower and then came back and shot us in the back from the top of the tower yelling over direct chat that we were gay noobs.

 

 

 

Well... that is the main issue with a game that has linked servers.  This isn't what I would call "Server Hopping" though its what I call "Ghosting" and on my DayZ Mod server it was a bannable offense.  Ghosting is cheating.  Unfortunately with how loot is dispersed right now server hopping is going to be a way of life until its changed.  I literally cannot find anything on a server sometimes and it practically forces me to switch to a server that's been restarted recently.  That's just reality of loot spawn @ server startup. 

 

That being said though... maybe only allowing people to log out in a forest or area away from a city / town would be beneficial at the moment.

[Hero of Suburbia 40]

Well... that is the main issue with a game that has linked servers.  This isn't what I would call "Server Hopping" though its what I call "Ghosting" and on my DayZ Mod server it was a bannable offense.  Ghosting is cheating.  Unfortunately with how loot is dispersed right now server hopping is going to be a way of life until its changed.  I literally cannot find anything on a server sometimes and it practically forces me to switch to a server that's been restarted recently.  That's just reality of loot spawn @ server startup. 

 

That being said though... maybe only allowing people to log out in a forest or area away from a city / town would be beneficial at the moment.

Yeah I agree with you. Only be able to log out outside of cities, and when you spawn in, you have to also spawn outside the city. Much like the main spawn where you spawn at the coast, close to cities, but not within the city limits.

[Valdee_uk 2]

 

So it was the 2nd day of my survival. Overall things were going well. After I washed up on shore I met a guy I will refer to as Bill. I was weary of him at first, but he seemed like a trustable guy. He said he only had one can of tuna but offered it to me under the pretense that I was hungrier than he. As I devoured the can of tuna he started telling me about these mutant creatures that now roam the place. It terrified me half to death. As our conversation continued he said he over heard other survivors talking about a military outpost to the north west where we could possibly find refuge, or at the very least a firearm. I asked him if this information was an invitation to join him and he nodded, but before we could go anywhere we needed supplies. We walked down the deserted streets of the city in a sort of slumber. It was sad really entering other people's houses and ripping the place apart for a can of beans. But such was the state of life.

Skipping a few of the boring details we finally got enough supplies to make the journey. As we approached this military outpost we realized it was not as we had hoped. There was no refuge. Just a few walls and a couple buildings within. But not another healthy soul in sight. It was time for the second part of the plan, arm ourselves with whatever we could find.

We tried on some military pants that seemed to fit and found a couple of m4 rifles, the only problem was there was hardly any ammunition. I ended up with 5 rounds and bill with 15. But hope was not lost, we saw what looked like a battle schematic indicating that there should be more ammunition atop green mountain. With this newly acquired Intel we headed to green mountain in a bunny hop technique, always covering each others movement.

We finally reached the top of the hill, bill told me to climb the tower and keep watch as he looted the place. So far so good. He found more ammunition and all seemed well. But all was not well. 4,survivors were heading to the front door armed to the teeth. 

At this point bill moved with in audible range of these strangers and told them,,we don't want any trouble, we are honest men just trying to survive. The place is cleaned over but we can offer you some munitions if you let us pass.

Before anymore words could be said bullets were zinging off of the fence and the four people quickly moved into an attacking position. I was able to pick off one and cover bill as he ran into the entrance of the tower and climbed the ladder before I was spotted by the other 3. As they were now reacting to my position I was able to strike down another running for cover. I tried to keep tabs on the other two, but I could only follow one as they wisely split up. I had to abandon my post once the survivor I couldn't track had set up position and started firing on me. I went back inside and closed the door. By this time bill had climbed the ladder to the top. We thought of a few ideas to get out of the situation but we decides the best thing to do would be to wait it out. They could never attack our position as there is only one entrance up the ladder, it also makes us vulnerable, but we had supplies that would last us for days possibly weeks. Therefore we concluded the best chance of survival is to wait it out a couple days.

And then they server hopped and climbed the tower and then came back and shot us in the back from the top of the tower yelling over direct chat that we were gay noobs. 

 

I think that the server hopping issue is one of the most important issues to fix. It entirely breaks the game.

I think one possible solution would be to not let people spawn inside buildings or towns. 

 

Now this is shite, i have noticed the benefits of server hopping for a noob like me, cannot find decent equipment here, maybe it will be there, loged, got shot instantly, and using apparently non PVP server, set up for people who just want to familiarise withthe game (awesome, despite the bugs).

I think that this server hoping will be or should be disabled as it is abused, as in your case, or people from PVP servers are hopping to get geared up. In your case a really bad example of this feature and i can say, i feel your dissapointment...

[chris_heyward 47]

Well... that is the main issue with a game that has linked servers.  This isn't what I would call "Server Hopping" though its what I call "Ghosting" and on my DayZ Mod server it was a bannable offense.  Ghosting is cheating.  Unfortunately with how loot is dispersed right now server hopping is going to be a way of life until its changed.  I literally cannot find anything on a server sometimes and it practically forces me to switch to a server that's been restarted recently.  That's just reality of loot spawn @ server startup. 

 

That being said though... maybe only allowing people to log out in a forest or area away from a city / town would be beneficial at the moment.

I agree with you also. I have always hated server hopping as it DOES destroy the whole aspect of DayZ. Dean created this game and wanted it to be sort of realistic. If that is the case, he needs to either abolish the whole public hive thing or find a way that will stop server hoppers 100%.

 

The first time I played the mod on a hived server, I pinned a guy down in a industrial building. He then combat logged, switched servers, ran behind where I was going to be and logged back in behind my last known position. But unfortunately for him, I knew he was going to do that and moved up to behind where he was going to log in at and I shot him. Things like this destroy the game. If I wanted to watch someone switch between dimensions (that's what they are doing... lol), I would just watch an episode of Sliders or Stargate.

 

What you suggested there is good. Forcing people to log out away from a town/city is a damn good idea and the people who ALT+F4 or disconnect in a city to bypass this should spawn randomly around said town/city outskirts or nearest tree line. Once that is implemented, you now have to worry about the combat loggers abusing that mechanic..

[420jeppe 28]

[Valdee_uk 2]

I agree with you also. I have always hated server hopping as it DOES destroy the whole aspect of DayZ. Dean created this game and wanted it to be sort of realistic. If that is the case, he needs to either abolish the whole public hive thing or find a way that will stop server hoppers 100%.

 

The first time I played the mod on a hived server, I pinned a guy down in a industrial building. He then combat logged, switched servers, ran behind where I was going to be and logged back in behind my last known position. But unfortunately for him, I knew he was going to do that and moved up to behind where he was going to log in at and I shot him. Things like this destroy the game. If I wanted to watch someone switch between dimensions (that's what they are doing... lol), I would just watch an episode of Sliders or Stargate.

 

What you suggested there is good. Forcing people to log out away from a town/city is a damn good idea and the people who ALT+F4 or disconnect in a city to bypass this should spawn randomly around said town/city outskirts or nearest tree line. Once that is implemented, you now have to worry about the combat loggers abusing that mechanic..

 

Or simply if you server hopp, spawn away from your location, not the same place or even random. As a noob, i liked server hopping (first time ever played DayZ) but seeing how badly it is abused, i agree, something has to be done.

[codave 121]

The first few days I played SA, I played on one server that usually had about 30ish people on it.  I got tired of not being able to test anything, because I couldn't find anything.

 

I started server hopping to find gear to test shit out with, and it's a night and day difference in the amount of gear I get in the same amount of time.  (Note: I haven't killed any players or participated in PvP, so not doing it for an advantage over others).

 

It's a legit problem for sure.  Joe Blow can gear up in about 30 minutes server hopping, while someone playing on a single server all night may take hours to get decent gear.

 

I would honestly love DayZ more if there was nothing but private hives.

[Deadend197 8]

We actually needed to explain why this is bad?

[gsp167 95]

Server hopping has been around for years.

 

No, it has been fixed in DayZ mod by removing the central hive concept.

[TimM1983 57]

10 second log out timer ( combat logging )

Spawn far away from the last point ( preventing gear hopper )

 

Both "mechanics" are toxic as hell. NO argument about that.

[BigCountry 26]

server hopping and combat logging pretty much ruins the whole "Survival" aspect of the game which is the main selling point of the game. I was under the impression that the reason for the delays for the standalone was to find a fix for this within the server structure of the game. Guess I was wrong.

 

To me, fixing those 2 should be the utmost priority of the development team over ALL other "fixes", because it basically ruins the entire point of the game. Why search for 8 hours to gear up when you can gear up in 30 mins? Why lose everything you got in 30 minutes when you can just exit if you're losing a firefight?

 

X100

[Isamu7 78]

A quick temporary fix at the moment for those issues would be as TimM1983 said.

 

10 second delay before loging out (maybe longer if you are in combat like it was in the mod)

and for the spawn point, I'll suggest to simply make respawn anyone that change server (instead of using the "Play" button) back at the coast.

 

The last one is toxic for the fresh spawn but as you don't have much to loose I don't think it will be a big deal to being shot by a fully geared dumb server hopper and respawn somewhere else in the minute after.

Edited December 26, 2013 by Isamu7

[Karmaterror 982]

Ugh again...really.

 

ATM you arent experiencing dayz....your testing a stripped out, cut down version of it. If you want to play the game, and experiance it, you should wait till it comes out, not buy into alpha and moan about things that have been identified as issues years ago, and have planned fixes. As iv said many times before there isnt really a need to fix gameplay elements yet, not untill all the games basics are worked out. Whats the point of curing server hopping now.....when we will all be loosing our toons to database wipes, and patches.

 

As i understand it there is still a lot of work to be done on the servers. They need to perform properly and be able to handle more players. If the servers arent up to scratch everything else should wait untill they are. Then when we have great stable servers start adding content....then finaly balance the game out addressing combat logging/server hopping, balancing loot tables and damage values. 

 

rant over :P