To fix server hopping, or not to fix server hopping.

[daze23 549]

I think the mainserver is recording quite a lot of ingame data.

E.g. it knows the "total km travelled" etc.

So there could be the possibility to analyse player behavior / serverswitching. Server loot hopping has certain characeristics which would make it distinguable from e.g. looking for a server with low ping.

If player behavior indicates serverhopping with a probability of 99.8% character gets killed.

But this idea has certain disadvantes as well...

people disconnecting is a problem in many games. the problem is it's hard to distinguish between someone disconnecting to take advantage of some exploit, or someone disconnecting because they really lost connection, or even people that disconnect because they really have to get off the game right away. they've tried penalizing players in other games for this kinda stuff, and it always ends with a shitstorm of people claiming they just lost connection

and honestly it happens a lot in this game (it's an alpha, blah, blah..). the other night I lost connection right as I was going through the tents in Stary. right away I knew it wasn't gonna be a good thing. I joined a new server, it actually spawned me outside the tents (cause I guess that's where I last had a connection), but I was killed in about 3 seconds. and I'm sure whoever shot me thought I was trying to pull some slick shit

one thing I think should not be allowed is people server hopping with their private locked server. and that seems like something they could control

[Vitzo 0]

Another thread rehashing the same arguments. Sorry folks' date=' but there are loads of valid reasons to hop servers, this evening being a good example in my case.

For those who are getting spawned in 30 seconds or less after connecting to a server, you're very lucky. I've just been to about a dozen servers attempting to get a daytime game after being kicked from the lobby of the one server I did manage to log onto earlier this evening, while I went to the loo in real life.

Along with a number of other players I've chatted with this evening whilst being stuck at the waiting for character to create screen, a lot of people are struggling to find reliable servers and now you folk want to talk of imposing rules and restrictions that would penalise those players who are forced to server hop through no fault of their own.

This seems to be as reprehensible as the malicious server hopping you all so despise. As in life, it's generally better to not allow the actions of the few to spoil things for the many.

Until the server descriptions, time zones, versions and reliability are all addressed, server hopping is going to be a regular experience for a lot of players. And I can imagine that by the time DayZ is ready for a retail release, many players will have even less patience with punitive restrictions on a game that they will have paid for.

[/quote']

How are they penalized? If you aren't logging out in the middle of combat it's hardly a penalty. And you could trivially exempt people from the first few minutes on a server. That stops all but the farming abuse which is one of the most trivial concerns.

[daze23 549]

How are they penalized? If you aren't logging out in the middle of combat it's hardly a penalty. And you could trivially exempt people from the first few minutes on a server. That stops all but the farming abuse which is one of the most trivial concerns.

the post I was responding to was talking about automatically killing server hopping characters

edit: oh, you weren't responding to me. nvm

[Mourek 40]

10-30 minute cap between connecting on other servers

would not be capped if you're trying to reconnect on the same server that got restared/crashed.

EDIT: This would take affect only if you actually spawned, not if you're loading or waiting for character to create...

[fink2011 0]

Perhaps the game could be coded so that you can only spawn where one of your tents is placed (maybe make a context menu option to share the spawn with your friends or w/e).

If your spawning on the server you last played on, you can return to the actual location you spawned out from.

When spawning on a server that isn't the last one you played on, you will be put on the beach (unless you have a tent spawn to use)

Seems to me this would solve the loot farming and server hopping to get behind people issue. Keeping the character in the game world for X seconds after logout would solve d/c to avoid death.

People could still exploit this to travel instantly from one tent to another (on different servers) but I think that exploit would have less of a negative impact than the current server hopping exploits.

[Never 237]

Perhaps the game could be coded so that you can only spawn where one of your tents is placed (maybe make a context menu option to share the spawn with your friends or w/e).

If your spawning on the server you last played on' date=' you can return to the actual location you spawned out from.

When spawning on a server that isn't the last one you played on, you will be put on the beach (unless you have a tent spawn to use)

Seems to me this would solve the loot farming and server hopping to get behind people issue. Keeping the character in the game world for X seconds after logout would solve d/c to avoid death.

People could still exploit this to travel instantly from one tent to another (on different servers) but I think that exploit would have less of a negative impact than the current server hopping exploits.

[/quote']

Been suggested before this.

An enterprising exploiter would have a tent network set up in hours. Wormholes that you can place that is.

I do think that a single character locked to each server would be the best fix, it would cost the whole 'persistence over servers' thing, but TBH that seems to be of a minus than a plus.

THAT SAID, The servers aren't stable enough, nor have the capacity to handle that at the moment.

Its a huge stumbling block.

[heretic (DayZ) 76]

Another thread rehashing the same arguments. Sorry folks' date=' but there are loads of valid reasons to hop servers, this evening being a good example in my case.

For those who are getting spawned in 30 seconds or less after connecting to a server, you're very lucky. I've just been to about a dozen servers attempting to get a daytime game after being kicked from the lobby of the one server I did manage to log onto earlier this evening, while I went to the loo in real life.

Along with a number of other players I've chatted with this evening whilst being stuck at the waiting for character to create screen, a lot of people are struggling to find reliable servers and now you folk want to talk of imposing rules and restrictions that would penalise those players who are forced to server hop through no fault of their own.

This seems to be as reprehensible as the malicious server hopping you all so despise. As in life, it's generally better to not allow the actions of the few to spoil things for the many.

Until the server descriptions, time zones, versions and reliability are all addressed, server hopping is going to be a regular experience for a lot of players. And I can imagine that by the time DayZ is ready for a retail release, many players will have even less patience with punitive restrictions on a game that they will have paid for.

[/quote']

How are they penalized? If you aren't logging out in the middle of combat it's hardly a penalty. And you could trivially exempt people from the first few minutes on a server. That stops all but the farming abuse which is one of the most trivial concerns.

Perhaps you didn't read the messages suggesting characters being respawned on the beach again if they change server or being killed if they change server once too often. Both fairly obvious penalties I'd have thought?

I've stated in other threads on exactly the same subject, that ghosting, dc'ing during PvP or zed aggro and loot farming are all pretty crappy. But tying your toon to a single server? Respawning on the beach if you move servers. C'mon, please get real. Servers aren't all reliable and not all server hoppers are scum.

Stop trying to crack nuts with sledgehammers please?

KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid!!!

[Vitzo 0]

Another thread rehashing the same arguments. Sorry folks' date=' but there are loads of valid reasons to hop servers, this evening being a good example in my case.

For those who are getting spawned in 30 seconds or less after connecting to a server, you're very lucky. I've just been to about a dozen servers attempting to get a daytime game after being kicked from the lobby of the one server I did manage to log onto earlier this evening, while I went to the loo in real life.

Along with a number of other players I've chatted with this evening whilst being stuck at the waiting for character to create screen, a lot of people are struggling to find reliable servers and now you folk want to talk of imposing rules and restrictions that would penalise those players who are forced to server hop through no fault of their own.

This seems to be as reprehensible as the malicious server hopping you all so despise. As in life, it's generally better to not allow the actions of the few to spoil things for the many.

Until the server descriptions, time zones, versions and reliability are all addressed, server hopping is going to be a regular experience for a lot of players. And I can imagine that by the time DayZ is ready for a retail release, many players will have even less patience with punitive restrictions on a game that they will have paid for.

[/quote']

How are they penalized? If you aren't logging out in the middle of combat it's hardly a penalty. And you could trivially exempt people from the first few minutes on a server. That stops all but the farming abuse which is one of the most trivial concerns.

Perhaps you didn't read the messages suggesting characters being respawned on the beach again if they change server or being killed if they change server once too often. Both fairly obvious penalties I'd have thought?

I've stated in other threads on exactly the same subject, that ghosting, dc'ing during PvP or zed aggro and loot farming are all pretty crappy. But tying your toon to a single server? Respawning on the beach if you move servers. C'mon, please get real. Servers aren't all reliable and not all server hoppers are scum.

Stop trying to crack nuts with sledgehammers please?

KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid!!!

Having the player's body linger after disconnect though, which is the most recent topic, doesn't have these problems. It also can make for fun gameplay in and of itself. Having to seek out a safe place to sleep for the night. Or seeing a player disconnect when they left view in combat and searching the area trying to find their body before it disappears. Was their improvised hiding spot good enough?

[CongressmanAlexShrub 1]

You shouldn't be allowed to spawn within a minimum distance of 1 kilometer of either loot spawns or other people (unless you have marked them as friends in the currently non-existent friend system).

If there are people inside that radius around the place where you logged out you should be given the option to either wait or to roll the dice and spawn at the closest convenient distance from your previous spawn.

This would eliminate

- server hopping from barracks to barracks

- jumping servers to end up behind people or behind barricades

- players getting the jump on each other by spawning in each others' faces

The only downside is that you have to run a bit farther.

The ops idea is terrible' date=' but yours is just fucking stupid.

[/quote']

You have a fitting nickname.

[BL1P 252]

Body linger timers is a bad idea.

The timer would always be too low.

The only two good suggestions atm is 1 char per server

or

save point possible only if you log into the same server you where last on if not you spawn at coast.

[Keurk 4]

there is something wrong with server hooping. Not only about loots, but about players bases. With server hoop, you'll never be able , in a meaningfull way, to build and protect a player base.

Exemple: i put sandbags and wire to block the entrance of my base. In all logic, players who want to enter my base have to get the propers tools to cut the wire ,etc ,so they can get in.

Now, they just can log into another server where the same place will not be protected with wire and shit, then logback INTO your "safe" base you well protected.

Thats weird mechanics.

There is a server using his own database (EU BIGBOO). It should be the same for all the servers imo, no more server hoop ,complete fix for all of this. People will not even be able to rollback after abusive ALT F4 cause any servers they'll join they'll have an other toon to play specially on this server.

[Naykon (DayZ) 25]

i put sandbags and wire to block the entrance of my base. In all logic' date=' players who want to enter my base have to get the propers tools to cut the wire ,etc ,so they can get in.

Now, they just can log into another server where the same place will not be protected with wire and shit, then logback INTO your "safe" base

[/quote']

I think a good option would be that you can't log off in populated areas or within so many metres of zeds/players

1min or 2min despawn timer or something. But you have to be in a safe isolated location to log off and "sleep".

This would stop people spawning in behind you in loot spots and jumping other players defences all the time

A few MMO's implement this system I think, EVE online has in built protection to stop people Alt-F4ing to escape, your ship will warp off somewhere, but then remain in the world for a set amount of time. Meaning it's not a safe survival option.

I'm not too keen on my character being locked to one server, I think that's very restrictive.

[Euphe 1]

-snip wrong thread-

[aoshi 32]

so, a new spaw, and zones, sounds too hard to do, but put a delay of 20 segs for logoff from a server, plus 10 segs for log in, its make all guyz logoff on safe zones, avoid diconect to avoid death,and "unicentive" server hopping cuz when you log in, you will die if a player is on where you login, and when you logoff, form zeds or players they can kill you too

[Keurk 4]

I'm not too keen on my character being locked to one server, I think that's very restrictive.

i agree, but i couldnt figure an easier fix. Yes its restrictive. But it will increase the feeling of a "persistent world". We'"ll see how the Devs manage to fix this, im pretty sure they have something interesting and not that restrictive in mind! i hope!

[Pickerd 1]

Love the hive 'idea', but I think it's time server owners get to decide if they want their server married to it or not. The server I play on has been hell on earth all week due to server hoppers, exploiters, script kiddies and all sorts of various nonsense. Today we couldnt even play cause of hackers mass killing. Due to Arma 2 not logging who does the killing, there is no way to know who does it. This game is a hackers wet dream, and they are flooding in big time.

[fink2011 0]

Perhaps the game could be coded so that you can only spawn where one of your tents is placed (maybe make a context menu option to share the spawn with your friends or w/e).

If your spawning on the server you last played on' date=' you can return to the actual location you spawned out from.

When spawning on a server that isn't the last one you played on, you will be put on the beach (unless you have a tent spawn to use)

Seems to me this would solve the loot farming and server hopping to get behind people issue. Keeping the character in the game world for X seconds after logout would solve d/c to avoid death.

People could still exploit this to travel instantly from one tent to another (on different servers) but I think that exploit would have less of a negative impact than the current server hopping exploits.

[/quote']

Been suggested before this.

An enterprising exploiter would have a tent network set up in hours. Wormholes that you can place that is.

Provided tent duping is fixed, I think it would take many many hours to setup a wormhole network considering you can't server hop to farm tents. Even if the time was invested, your network will only work for one server, unless you invest even more time to do another server. I dont' server hop and quit often it has taken me more than 5 hours to find a tent, I also play with usually 2 or 3 friends which generally speeds up looting.

The real purpose of the suggestion though is that it will greatly lessen the impact of server hopping which I believe it will. If you spend 40 hours setting up a tent network, which nets you a total of 2 kills, then you get killed and lose all your spawns, I think people will be much less inclined to take the time to setup big wormhole networks.

Even if wormhole networks were common, they would be a great improvement to the current server hopping issue IMO. If tents were server specific spawn points, I would imagine placing one near a high yield loot zone would put the spawner at quite a risk. I'm sure many players would camp tents near high yield zones as long as they were aware that a player could potentially spawn on that location. Quit possible that they would end up being flattened by vehicles as well.

I dunno just my thoughts. I really think the suggestion of server specific tent spawns would reign in server hopping to a very acceptable level. Perhaps there could even be a 1 hour cooldown on using any tent spawn on a specific server.

[whocares 1]

There are many reasons why binding a character to a server are bad,

- server full

- server offline

- server discontinued

- server not updated

- happens to be night at the server when i have time to play

...

Oh and of course, it is actually a distinct feature that makes the game so attractive, and not just because the feature can be exploited!

[lherron 0]

I like the concept' date=' but one possible problem with this is on higher population servers and in heavily-trafficked areas, you may run into instances where several people may have to spawn very close to one another around the circumference of these "no spawn" zones due to the new limitations of the possible spawn points. While likely a rare occurrence, it does put players in exactly the position we are trying to avoid.

[/quote']

[Meant to get back to this thread sooner. Some good comments and ideas so far...]

I agree that if you implemented the "no respawn zone" idea around cities there would a small amount of spawn clustering at the perimeter... but you could add a random distance element as well, as to not make it as predictable. So, if you logged out in a city and then respawned, you would appear back in game 0-50 yards away from the radius.

Take the realism approach: if you were in a zombie apocalypse, would you sleep in the most densely populated areas? I wouldn't. You just shouldn't be allowed to log out in any area of interest.

Also, an addendum to the idea... if you do log out inside of the radius, you are subjected to a 2 min counter before you're allowed to log out. One major flaw in the idea is that someone could be in the middle of some action, then log off/on and end up outside of the city... obviously that's the dodgy shit we are trying to avoid.

The end result is this: if you walk into a city, the only way you get out is to walk out or die. The way it should be.

---

Another thread rehashing the same arguments. Sorry folks' date=' but there are loads of valid reasons to hop servers, this evening being a good example in my case.

For those who are getting spawned in 30 seconds or less after connecting to a server, you're very lucky. I've just been to about a dozen servers attempting to get a daytime game after being kicked from the lobby of the one server I did manage to log onto earlier this evening, while I went to the loo in real life.

Along with a number of other players I've chatted with this evening whilst being stuck at the waiting for character to create screen, a lot of people are struggling to find reliable servers and now you folk want to talk of imposing rules and restrictions that would penalise those players who are forced to server hop through no fault of their own.

This seems to be as reprehensible as the malicious server hopping you all so despise. As in life, it's generally better to not allow the actions of the few to spoil things for the many.

Until the server descriptions, time zones, versions and reliability are all addressed, server hopping is going to be a regular experience for a lot of players. And I can imagine that by the time DayZ is ready for a retail release, many players will have even less patience with punitive restrictions on a game that they will have paid for.

[/quote']

Not to be rude, but your reading comprehension is poor. You can server hop all you want. Have a blast, find that perfect server. But you shouldn't be able to do it WHILE STANDING IN A POINT OF INTEREST. That's the entire point of the thread... but something makes me think you didn't read it.

[heretic (DayZ) 76]

Not to be rude' date=' but your reading comprehension is poor. You can server hop all you want. Have a blast, find that perfect server. But you shouldn't be able to do it WHILE STANDING IN A POINT OF INTEREST. That's the entire point of the thread... but something makes me think you didn't read it.

[/quote']

Not to be as patronising as you seem to be, but to quote from your original post;

"So, when I say "To fix server hopping, or not to fix server hopping" I mean that philosophically - what's better for the health of the DayZ franchise in the long term?"

If you invite philosophical discussion, perhaps you should be prepared for people to disagree with you!

Additionally, you may like to post suggestions in the suggestions sub-forum!

Perhaps your reading comprehension is as poor as you believe mine to be!!!

In the meantime, KISS... Keep It Simple Stupid!

[Play (DayZ) 123]

"#1 - All cities and major locations (castles, airfields, etc) have a radius around them that you cannot spawn inside of. The zones will be posted by devs for all to see. If you log out within a zone, upon relog you will spawn just outside the zone (as close to where you logged out.) This solves many issues right away. "

Sir, that's a brilliant idea. I hope Rocket and his team consider something like this.