So many Suggestions on Serverhopping/Ghosting

[CrashBoomK 12]

I consistently see suggestions on here about how to fix server hopping and almost all of them have some sort of major restriction.  Everything from timeouts to restricting server choices to seperate characters on every server.

 

A big problem most of you don't think about is how do these suggestions impact a players ability to actually play?

 

Timeouts currently cause delays and punish the innocent as well as guilty.  Server Disconnect or Crashed several times in a row?  Enjoy your wait.  It only minimally slows down server hoppers/ghosting and isn't all that effective.

 

Restricting server choices how can I play with my friends?  Not to mention how can I find the best server for me not only ping based but general play style of other players who visit the server regularly?

 

While the one character per server would be a decent solution it has it's own problems.  First it means anytime I want to play on another server I have to start over.  Plus what happens when the server I've been playing on for months goes broke or no longer exists?  I lose my character and whatever else. The friend issue can crop up again.

 

 

As I see it the best solutions are only two.

1.  Timeout instituted with a server memory so that if you get disconnected or whatever happens as long as you connect to the same server again you don't get a timeout.  This is the most likely solution to be enacted as it has minimal impact on playability for most players and still enables switching servers to join your friends or whatever else.  The major drawback is it doesn't really address issues of ghosting or server hopping it merely implements a delay and forces it to take more time.

 

2. Position Reset would be the other.  If you keep connecting to the same server it saves your logout position and you start there again.  However if you jump to a new server your location is reset to a new spawn location.  This basically does two things.  People will tend to play on the same server consistently and while it doesn't completely eliminate ghosting or server hopping it will make it much more difficult as now you have to run all the way across the map again.  It doesn't have any negatives as far as playing with friends other than having to run to meet up with them.  Major negative is the whole spawning in a new location people would abuse this and switch servers until they got a spawn point they liked.  It might work better if they added another set of spawnpoints out in the middle of the woods rather than the current new spawn points.  Still pretty much it would all be abused for changing location.

 

Granted a lot of what people want to do to prevent server hopping/ghosting will have to adapt with the introduction of persistent backpacks, base building, and vehicles.  I don't think we can accurately determine what the impact those will have on server hopping/ghosting will be.

 

Anyways just food for thought.  If your gonna post all these suggestions try to analyze things.  Think about what the Pros and Cons of your idea are and then post those along with your idea.

[Proper Gander 45]

How about they reskin server hoppers in a huge rabbit suit and replace their loot with carrots. When you kill them, you get fresh rabbit and carrots for a stew.

[brutalwyrm 23]

the time penalty is fine, the only problem i have with it is that you have to wait 5 minutes to log back in to the same server you were just on when the game crashes, or you encounter a bug that gives you a black screen and you have to exit, etc, etc...

[antonioajc 500]

How about they reskin server hoppers in a huge rabbit suit and replace their loot with carrots. When you kill them, you get fresh rabbit and carrots for a stew.

I hope they don't make zombie sounds though...

[cels 43]

 

 

2. Position Reset would be the other.  If you keep connecting to the same server it saves your logout position and you start there again.  However if you jump to a new server your location is reset to a new spawn location.  This basically does two things.  People will tend to play on the same server consistently and while it doesn't completely eliminate ghosting or server hopping it will make it much more difficult as now you have to run all the way across the map again.  It doesn't have any negatives as far as playing with friends other than having to run to meet up with them.  Major negative is the whole spawning in a new location people would abuse this and switch servers until they got a spawn point they liked.  It might work better if they added another set of spawnpoints out in the middle of the woods rather than the current new spawn points.  Still pretty much it would all be abused for changing location.

 

 

I like this.. and think its going to be a huge need for when base building comes in. Was the same issue with barbed wire in the mod.. You saw a tent surrounded by barbed wire.. All you had to do was jump on another server and move over enough to be sure your right next to the tent.. Then log back into the original server.

 

Although I would have it that if you change to a different server, you would spawn at any distance only north or south of your original servers position. In this case it will keep people from trying to jump all the way inland from the beach and such.

[CrashBoomK 12]

I like this.. and think its going to be a huge need for when base building comes in. Was the same issue with barbed wire in the mod.. You saw a tent surrounded by barbed wire.. All you had to do was jump on another server and move over enough to be sure your right next to the tent.. Then log back into the original server.

 

Although I would have it that if you change to a different server, you would spawn at any distance only north or south of your original servers position. In this case it will keep people from trying to jump all the way inland from the beach and such.

 

That is a good point on people being able to raid bases by switching locations on servers.  I hadn't thought of that when it comes to base building.  Still I'd like to have something that prevents server hoppers from just switching servers over and over and being in the same vicinity so they can keep raiding the airfields or whatever.  Granted I think this will be much less useful once item respawning is implemented.  It will be interesting to see how that works.  I know they can't do it the same as they currently do zombie respawning instantly in the same area or spots.

[buddy_cassino 69]

What about some kind of "loot flag" which makes you unable to log off of the server for X minutes.

Some system like EVE Online is using. Could also apply "combat flags" to help with combat logging?