Server hopping? Is there a solution? If not, what else....

[derLoko 30]

I know Rocket's intentions was to introduce it as a refreshing new feature and planed to make it an exciting gameplay component, but the sheer number of server hoppers is ridiculous.

 

Actually, the public hive system was just like that in the beginning of the mod. Server hopping was an issue even back then. When Rocket finally allowed players to host private hives, things got much better imo.

 

And then, SA got released and was based on a public hive once more. 

[ColdAtrophy 1850]

Phased loot. For 15 minutes after joining a server, no loot appears for you. Problem solved. People wanting to play legit will not be affected, provided they take that factor into account before jumping to a new server. Server hoppers will be slowed and inconvenienced considerably. 

[BeefBacon 1185]

Phased loot. For 15 minutes after joining a server, no loot appears for you. Problem solved. People wanting to play legit will not be affected, provided they take that factor into account before jumping to a new server. Server hoppers will be slowed and inconvenienced considerably. 

 

That's... just horrible. 

 

Are you a freshspawn? Did you leave the server for some reason? Well enjoy not being able to loot anything for quarter of an hour.

 

It would inconvenience everybody. That is a horrible suggestion.

 

 

Server hopping can't be fixed in a way that doesn't interfere with other players. Do what sensible people do and play on private hives.

[FlimFlamm 509]

The existence of server hopping is not a good thing for the final game that will be released but it has some advantages for the beta version.

 

It makes it much easier for players to accumulate gear for testing purposes. That is the only benefit.

[skypig 139]

The existence of server hopping is not a good thing for the final game that will be released but it has some advantages for the beta version.

It makes it much easier for players to accumulate gear for testing purposes. That is the only benefit.

that's a valid way of looking at it and makes sense too. but I doubt any of them are hopping for science.

Edited to finish a damn sentence... child interference.. you know.

Edited April 27, 2015 by SkyPig

[ColdAtrophy 1850]

That's... just horrible. 

 

Are you a freshspawn? Did you leave the server for some reason? Well enjoy not being able to loot anything for quarter of an hour.

 

It would inconvenience everybody. That is a horrible suggestion.

 

 

Server hopping can't be fixed in a way that doesn't interfere with other players. Do what sensible people do and play on private hives.

 

Obviously, the parameters of the idea can be refined. Players can and will adapt knowing that such a system exists. Have to log out soon? Top off your water and energy levels. It would not need to apply to fresh spawns or to your campsite. 

[Weyland Yutani (DayZ) 1159]

wondering how, or even if, we can counter act it.

Find a private shard community with no slaves.

 

I've been playing one them for ages now and server hopping doesn't even exist for me or my community.

[Underdog (DayZ) 0]

Public shard issue and as said not really an issue if you remember you are playing a build and not a complete game. Just let them hop for now.

[mercules 1290]

The number of players that just materialised out of the house at 035,069, the barn at 037,070 and on the Veresnik hillside (044,072) was considerably more than I had expected. I counted over 20 in a matter of about half an hour. Obviously some might have come up out of my eyeline but those who know the position I am talking about will know that it offers pretty good coverage. You might say these are just people joining and going on their way to other parts of the map, but these 20 I am talking about started from one location, would move towards the military base, loot (or not as it was clear the place was cleaned out by then), then go back to where they had joined the server.

 

 

I've seen similar things skulking on the Prison Island. People coming out of the building back in the yard near the barracks, running through the prison, then returning to that location and logging out. 

 

Not to mention meeting new people, in every single game session, making encounters even more random and unpredictable??

Thats a pretty big plus, right there.

 

That sounds like a pretty big negative to me. On private servers people tend to end up with reputations and history. Now, DayZ SA still isn't great for identifying people but you can get to know certain areas certain people frequent and what gear they prefer and start to get an idea of the lay of the land, so to speak, on a private server. The Public are SOOOOO random that never happens and you just treat everyone as extremely hostile. 

[galekast 70]

I have an idea but I do not know if it is viable or achievable.. But if it worked it could stop the server hopping we currently see or at least diminish it to those with amazing amounts of time on their hands to do nothing but wait...

 

Basically, if every item has its own id (I believe I read this was something that might happen to stop duplication? Though I could be wrong) then basically what I would propose is this. 

 

You run into a barracks, grab a shiny AK 101 and some mags etc.. Your typical server hopper then runs off a little way and logs out nearby to go do the same thing again.. What if, items had a timer as such.. So if you pick up an item, for 30 minutes that item is ticking down as such.. It is still usable, it is still lootable by others if you are killed. Everything about the item/weapon/clothing functions as normal. However, if you log off a server and onto another before that 30 minutes is up, you lose that item. It is deleted on joining the new server along with any others in your inventory that haven't been a part of it for 30 minutes.. (or however long really, could be any number).. Now this timer would be tied to a central clock that would track when you picked it up etc.. So the timer would still run even when you log out. Meaning, if someone grabbed some gear and wanted to log out for the evening, they could without fear of losing it as long as it was 30 minutes until they logged back in again on a different server... Obviously if you log back in on the same server then you the timer would be fine and you would still keep the item regardless of how long it had been (eg/ for server restart etc).. This would mean, anyone hopping would have a 30 minute "down period" between grabbing any items and changing server, meaning only those who want to literally wait 30 minutes between logins would ever be able to server hop if they want to keep anything they find each time...

 

I know this wouldn't eradicate it as it would only punish those who actually pick up items and not those who quickly jump between barracks and leave when there's nothing they want.. However, it would stop people grabbing a gun and jumping straight to a high pop to pvp with their ill begotten gains. I don't know if its feasible, I don't know if it would work, but it could certainly help a little bit..

 

Or just KO for a set period anyone the game notices has jumped between servers more than 3 times in a set period of time, though this would be a risk most would take as I assume most of these hoppers will be jumping to low pop servers where they are unlikely to be found... Actually, better plan.. If someone jumps a set amount of times in a certain period of time, KO them for 10 minutes and automatically dump them into the highest pop public server that has player slots available :) 

[nexdemise 16]

One character on ever server works great.

 

It only works great if you're chickenshit playing on empty servers. My "home" server is generally empty or close to it (most I ever saw on it was 11 players, 5 of which were from my group). Good place to make a base but it's not good for anything else. If we want to PVP, we grab our toys and go elsewhere. With your idea if your server is always full you rarely will consider yourself geared and be in a position where you're not about to die. If your server is usually empty you'll die of boredom. There is no good balance.

 

 

You know why people hop? To find loot. The scarcer the loot is the more people will hop to find said loot. You can't fight against server hopping and make loot scarce at the same time, it simply won't work. Either you make stuff common and have little server hopping (by encouraging exploration where someone knows there is stuff to be found), or you'll make things scarce and have a lot of server hoping. Players have this really nasty characteristic, namely - we do not give a shit what dream or bigger picture some dev had. We do whatever is most convenient for ourselves. If there's no loot here, there's gonna be some elsewhere else and we WILL server hop.

Edited April 28, 2015 by NexDemise

[skypig 139]

if it ended up being 1 character per server (regardless of the amount of loot) it would definitely squash server hopping. it would work for sure... the only people it wouldn't work for anymore are the lazy, make no effort, gear up fast, quick-kit kiddies

[Killawife 599]

It only works great if you're chickenshit playing on empty servers. My "home" server is generally empty or close to it (most I ever saw on it was 11 players, 5 of which were from my group). Good place to make a base but it's not good for anything else. If we want to PVP, we grab our toys and go elsewhere. With your idea if your server is always full you rarely will consider yourself geared and be in a position where you're not about to die. If your server is usually empty you'll die of boredom. There is no good balance.

 

 

You know why people hop? To find loot. The scarcer the loot is the more people will hop to find said loot. You can't fight against server hopping and make loot scarce at the same time, it simply won't work. Either you make stuff common and have little server hopping (by encouraging exploration where someone knows there is stuff to be found), or you'll make things scarce and have a lot of server hoping. Players have this really nasty characteristic, namely - we do not give a shit what dream or bigger picture some dev had. We do whatever is most convenient for ourselves. If there's no loot here, there's gonna be some elsewhere else and we WILL server hop.

This is not the case for me. I play on four different private servers frequently and maybe six or seven more on occasion. I basically never join a server unless theres 20 players or more on it. I don't have a "home" server mostly because I'm playing solo and don't have to care what other people want. My best geared character right now is actually on Public 3pp since my second best geared one got shot the other day.

 I understand that people hop to get the best loot and that is precisely why this should be removed. Theres simply to little effort required to gear up to fully geared, I think it should be easy to gear up to survival level then very hard to attain fully geared status. But when you can sit and hop twenty different vybor bases or prison islands in an hour its just not fair or even fun. 

 I remember the first time I found an m4 in this game. I was super-exstatic about it and Carried it for a good two hours before I was shot :/   Still it was a very special feeling to actually find one. Then My friend learned how to server hop so we did that for a while and gearing up was super-easy. I quickly grew bored of it though so when he quit Dayz I stopped hopping. It wasn't hard, anyone can do it if they want to. Just say no to dru.....hopping.

[galekast 70]

It only works great if you're chickenshit playing on empty servers. My "home" server is generally empty or close to it (most I ever saw on it was 11 players, 5 of which were from my group). Good place to make a base but it's not good for anything else. If we want to PVP, we grab our toys and go elsewhere. With your idea if your server is always full you rarely will consider yourself geared and be in a position where you're not about to die. If your server is usually empty you'll die of boredom. There is no good balance.

 

 

You know why people hop? To find loot. The scarcer the loot is the more people will hop to find said loot. You can't fight against server hopping and make loot scarce at the same time, it simply won't work. Either you make stuff common and have little server hopping (by encouraging exploration where someone knows there is stuff to be found), or you'll make things scarce and have a lot of server hoping. Players have this really nasty characteristic, namely - we do not give a shit what dream or bigger picture some dev had. We do whatever is most convenient for ourselves. If there's no loot here, there's gonna be some elsewhere else and we WILL server hop.

 

Regardless of what is easier, you shouldn't hop to get geared up.. That is not what the game is about quite simply.. If you do that, you take away so much from the DayZ experience that you might as well just go play Battlefield or COD or something along those lines. The idea of DayZ is for it to be a struggle, for you to have to survive and slowly build up your gear and items until you are at a point of sustainability and survival.. It should not all be given to you and to play the system to find more loot quickly is weak beyond belief.. I am of the opinion, if people want to go do deathmatch PVP then they should have to find the weapons and ammo to do so on that server, not hop about until they are fully geared then try their luck on a higher pop server.. Its pathetic, cheap and completely against everything the game should actually be.. Unfortunately, lazy, immature people for whom the survival aspect is "too hard" will do it until it is abolished.. Hopefully sooner rather than later.. For now, I am sticking to the private hives until they figure this out as I know a) all the loot is (probably) fairly acquired and b) I won't have to worry about a train of hoppers spawning in behind me everytime I go loot a military area!

[scriptfactory 620]

if it ended up being 1 character per server (regardless of the amount of loot) it would definitely squash server hopping. it would work for sure... the only people it wouldn't work for anymore are the lazy, make no effort, gear up fast, quick-kit kiddies

 

Or it would end up like H1Z1 and Rust with people simply choosing not to play since their current server is empty and they would have to get geared up again to play on another server. I think public shards (with 5-10 servers per shard) is the best of both worlds. Create your base on one shard and hop to others to loot up. I see no problem with this.

 

Then again, I don't play for the "best" loot and don't care if other people DO. I don't give a shit if someone server hops for an AK or a hi-cap vest. I do care about the shitty deathmatch and there are other solutions to that problem that will present themselves after modding support is enabled.

[Schweinsteiger 107]

I don't know, I like being able to server hop. What happens if you get caught on a server that disappears or the population takes a serious dive? It's nice to be able to move to another server. I know people take advantage and server hop to get weapons at military bases and such, but people like that will always find a way around the system. I was talking with some dude in TS while playing Dayz with a buddy last night and he started telling me how to dupe items in DayZ. I don't cheat so it was irritating to hear how these guys do it. Why can't people play a game without cheating?