Fixing The Player Hopping PK Problem

[Cdrive 60]

You're sitting in Cherno making yourself a sexy little nest on top of the highest point, being the troublemaker sniper that you so enjoy being. 10 kills deep, people start becoming aware of your location but you know better then to stick your neck out when you're getting shot at, so you play it safe and continue on. 5 minutes goes by and you've had a couple of visitors coming up the ladders to try and get you but you're better than that, and you quickly dispatch them with a few short 45's in the dome.. but all of a sudden they stop trying. Next thing you know you've got a guy spawning into the server right next to you, gun loaded and you're dead before you can even react.

We've all been there and nothing is more frustrating then knowing you lost all your goodies to a server hopping sackless piece of ... well.. you know. The simple solution is to not stay still but sometimes that's just not possible, be it if your guarding something like a vehicle or you're just pinned and you don't feel like being 'that guy' who combat logs to save his bacon. Whatever your reasoning the issue is here and frankly its not something that should be, because it's no fun to lose out on anything that doesn't involve staying on one server, no matter if its server logging, server hoppers or anything else that comes to mind.

My proposed solution is to have a randomized position assigned to you after you join a new server. Imagine a grid (I've included a picture if your imagination is a little shy) of 3 by 3 squares, and you're in the middle. When you enter a server it looks at your position, then randomly chooses a number from 1 to 9 (the 9 surrounding squares) and whatever number it lands on it will spawn you to that area instead of your existing position. These squares can be as small as 100 meters apart or as big as 400, as long as where you spawn is relatively in the same area but not the EXACT location.

It's clear a system like this already exists since when you die and spawn, most times you can spawn in the exact same relative area (west of electro for example) but never in the EXACT same place, so why not just implement that into the game on each server log as well.

Pros: Effectively destroys any server hopping PK potential, slows down and puts players at risk when server hopping for loot (spawning in the middle of the field instead of in the same building)

Cons: If you logged out in the city you might log in a pretty inconvenient place.

Let me know what you think about the system and its pros and cons, but please be aware that I'm not taking into account things like spawning inside (literally) of walls and what not as that is an issue that I'm sure will be looked at and fixed in the future.

[tofucake 6]

Alternately you could play smart and move after killing people.

[duddbudda 33]

irl snipers fire and move on

do that

I'm not getting logged into the middle of a field so you can feel safer on top of your tower

[Cdrive 60]

irl snipers fire and move on

do that

I'm not getting logged into the middle of a field so you can feel safer on top of your tower

And what if at some point Rocket decides he's going to implement forts or higher player caps where the idea of clan controlled cities comes into play. Do you think its a viable strategy to just be able to server hop your way past every single defensive measure?

As I said, it's not just about sniping, it was just the best example I could come up with.

[Jaan 1]

Whats about disabling the ability to log out in towns, so u have to log out in the woods but if u log out in a town ur getting teleported to the woods? dunno

[CardboardSword 0]

Server hopping is a massive problem, I'll give you that. I do not think that this is the best way to deal with it however. There are enough glitches with location spawning as is, let alone when you start randomizing locations. If you're playing target practice in the same spot long enough to get 10+ kills, you pretty much deserve to be killed (not saying you shouldn't do it, don't get me wrong). I think you'd rather get killed by someone cheating to get to you than by logging back in to your character to find him/her fused to a tree/rock/building/underground/godknowswhere, I know I would. If there's a way to make it work reliably, without spawning people in impossible or dangerous places, then I'd say go for it. Given the state of the game/mod though, I'm not sure about that being a realistic expectation.

I think an inactivity period when you log back in after having recently switched servers would be a more elegant solution. That is, if you've recently switched servers (for legitimate reasons or otherwise), when you log into subsequent servers your character will not respond to inputs for say, 10 seconds. This shouldn't harm anyone playing "fairly" because I would think most people would log out in a location they know is relatively secure. If you're in an unsafe area and don't want to chance it, wait until your timer goes back down and you can join another server without penalty. If it's only 15 minutes or something it won't hurt anyone that gets disconnected at a bad time or something. And honestly, if you're STILL in the same spot then, I don't know what to tell you.

[spinager 152]

Whats about disabling the ability to log out in towns' date=' so u have to log out in the woods but if u log out in a town ur getting teleported to the woods? dunno

[/quote']

I actually like this idea here much better. It would drastically drop the log out before dieing since most encounters happen in cities. And it would stop the people who camp loot spawn points(fire stations) from logging into another server in hopes of looting it and doing it repeatedly. They should just make it where we have to log out in a 'safe area'. Woods are a much safer area than a city.