Aggression Timer : Solving the ghosting/log offski problems.

[pagerage27 2]

Hiya gentlemen,ladies and Rocket if he hopefully reads this :)

First off first post here ive been playing day z for a week or so and i must say what an awesome game it is,of course buggy as shit but its a real privilege to help test the alpha.

My main gripe in the game is the ghosting and log offski's that happen when hunting other players and i think the fix would be easy enough to implement.

I play a lot of eve online and i this is where i borrowed this idea from.

If you fire your weapon/Get shot at/Have agrro'd zeds you start an aggression timer that last ten minutes.If you log off whilst your aggression timer is active although you can exit the client your character is still on the server in the same spot until said timer is gone.

Im not a coder at all so how hard this would be to code in i honestly dont know but i do feel something similar to this idea should be implemented.

So what do you think guys?Its pretty early and i havent had my coffee yet so hopefully i have explained this idea well enough.

Any thoughts?

Pagerage.xo

[Not Home 3]

I like this idea very much. Maybe 10 mins is a bit long but thats all. This would stick it to those pesky loggers.

Using Eve as a reference point is also good I think as it has much in common being a player driven game. I also referenced it in my very first post http://dayzmod.com/forum/index.php?/topic/9-survivor-camp/page__st__20.

To add to this I think players should have to log off or at least log in at the nearest forest to deal with ghosters and alike.

[Zeromentor 169]

Due to the way I think the game works, forcing the character to remain on server after logging out couldn't be that hard. But it comes with a ton (literally, thousands) of potential problems for a game that doesn't have it built in.

Maybe making them stay on server for 10 seconds, but 10 minutes could be a major problem. The easiest one to think of is what happens if you log out of one server and try to log into another? What if you fire and the server goes down a minute later? Both are problems. 5-10 seconds is long enough for zombies to really mess a player up, or give an opposing player enough time to aim for a headshot, and correct a miss or 2 (or dozen, based on player skill and weapon).

I believe the DayZ Dev Rocket wanted a 5 second timer, but something caused him to remove it. I want it back, but his removal had it own reasons, and I can almost promise they weren't carebear reasons.

[pagerage27 2]

I really think seconds are too short, you could easily fire on a human run to forest and log 99percent of time youll survive if the penalty is only 10seconds.

Perhaps 10minutes is too long and i think you should be locked out of other servers during said agression timer.Perhaps locking your player ID in the database to that server for x ammount of time could work.If you tried a different server during your timer you would get a message that your timer is still up on xxxx server.

I think 5minutes would be perfect but how this would be implemented i do not know.

Im happy though you guys like the idea :) Lets get rocket seeing this! <3

[Not Home 3]

I really think seconds are too short, you could easily fire on a human run to forest and log 99percent of time youll survive if the penalty is only 10seconds.

Perhaps 10minutes is too long and i think you should be locked out of other servers during said agression timer.Perhaps locking your player ID in the database to that server for x ammount of time could work.If you tried a different server during your timer you would get a message that your timer is still up on xxxx server.

I think 5minutes would be perfect but how this would be implemented i do not know.

Im happy though you guys like the idea :) Lets get rocket seeing this! <3

Time limit isn't important mate. This can be tweaked anyway but the idea is a sound one.

[enforcer1975 1111]

It's not posible to add a logout timer to the game because ArmA doesn't have that feature. I don't think they won't add this feature either because they made a million sales because of DayZ.

You can't avoid CDers disconnecting. you can only punish them when they reconnect by giving every player a timer when they reconnect where he/she has to wait until they can take action and bind characters to servers and not global. This way they will try to evade the target and have to log out in a safe area if they want to bring their character to safety.

[pagerage27 2]

@ Enforcer.

I think they could implement it though due to the way the database is central.Im assuming you would have a time value on connect/disconnect in the central database so i dont think it would be that hard to code something similar to my suggestion.

It would be awesome if a dev (Rocket im looking at you my kiwi buddy) could answer if this is possible.Im not saying 100percent to implement it but is it possible?

[propain666 7]

Why not just have a logout timeer combined with cooldown time before joining a new server. Annoying both the DC people and the serverhoppers in one swift go sounds like a good idea to me.

[johnyflash 10]

great idea in general, the exact amount could be figured out when implemented.

[EnermaX 59]

I think 10 sec. are ok. In a battle 10sec are a looong time. I hope the devs can do something about it, would be too bad if it's really impossible because of the engine.

[Thegoon84 54]

Heard this being mentioned over and over again.

PEople who say its hard to put in are wrong...

All the dev's need to do is make the time appear in the top corner but continue to allow the player to continue run around and funcation as normal.

[baltsar 25]

This idea could be implented when they fix the stability of the mod, like desynching and lag.

[enforcer1975 1111]

Why not just have a logout timeer combined with cooldown time before joining a new server. Annoying both the DC people and the serverhoppers in one swift go sounds like a good idea to me.

That should be possible. The server should have a timer when the player disconnects so when the player reconnects and joins the game he recieves a message "You have to wait xx seconds to be able to play again".

Pagerage. even if that worked, it would add quite a load to the servers and the database. Imagine 10000 players DCing every 5 minutes. Maybe keep it serversided. A buddy tried different methods to punish bad player behaviour and we had different solutions and you didn't even have to be an admin, just your ID added to the permissions list of the mission. ( f.e. black out: player cant see anymore until you give him permission ( good for ppl on a killing spree, they can't shoot what they can't see ), kill, set state, teleport etc ). Reconnecting won't solve anything because the player has an ID and name bound account. He can use a different name on the same ID but he can't access the equipment from his other character.

[pagerage27 2]

The more i think about this idea the more it makes sense.To make the 'aggression timer' also stop the server-hoppers that use an exploity mechanic to gear up i propose looting any item also triggers said agression timer.Voila a lot less players gearing up using server-hopping.

Anyone have an actual idea how hard this would be to code in?

Edited July 12, 2012 by pagerage27

[datguy (DayZ) 157]

How many times have I got a shot or two into someone only to see them crawl into a building and log off? A ten or twenty second timer wouldn't matter to those cowards, since I can't see or shoot through walls, I have to get to the building they took cover in and get the killshot before a timer runs out. Leaving their immobile, defenseless, cowardly ass on server minute to a minute and a half would be better, I could make it to their hard cover and riddle their punk ass with 45 rounds.

How would this effect me, someone who takes my deaths like a man? Simple. When I want to log off, I have to spend a few moments findings somewhere out of the way to safely log out, where the chances of someone finding me for that crucial minute or two after logging out are slim to none. I could live with that, I generally do that anyway.

[pagerage27 2]

How many times have I got a shot or two into someone only to see them crawl into a building and log off? A ten or twenty second timer wouldn't matter to those cowards, since I can't see or shoot through walls, I have to get to the building they took cover in and get the killshot before a timer runs out. Leaving their immobile, defenseless, cowardly ass on server minute to a minute and a half would be better, I could make it to their hard cover and riddle their punk ass with 45 rounds.

How would this effect me, someone who takes my deaths like a man? Simple. When I want to log off, I have to spend a few moments findings somewhere out of the way to safely log out, where the chances of someone finding me for that crucial minute or two after logging out are slim to none. I could live with that, I generally do that anyway.

Exactly mate this one fix will only work towards rewarding 'correct' play and punish those who have as of yet constantly abused mechanics to gear up and pvp.

I <3 all the other mechanics in play including no difference in skins between bandit and survivor and the general grittyness of the game but in a player lead sandbox exploits lead to broken gameplay which hurts all the gamers experiences.Although different in many aspects DAY-Z and EvE share similar core gameplay tennants imagine factional warfare in DAY-Z :)

[SneakAttackITB 0]

Heard this being mentioned over and over again.

PEople who say its hard to put in are wrong...

All the dev's need to do is make the time appear in the top corner but continue to allow the player to continue run around and funcation as normal.

Agreed, implementing a timer to expire before an action takes place would take minutes to implement in code. I disagree though about allowing the player to move while the countdown is active. I would recommend to put the timer between 15-30 seconds and any movement would cancel the countdown. Otherwise you can turn a corner and continue to run away while the timer is active. If movement cancelled the exit sequence, there's no way a player could log if someone was chasing you around corners etc..

[pagerage27 2]

Agreed, implementing a timer to expire before an action takes place would take minutes to implement in code. I disagree though about allowing the player to move while the countdown is active. I would recommend to put the timer between 15-30 seconds and any movement would cancel the countdown. Otherwise you can turn a corner and continue to run away while the timer is active. If movement cancelled the exit sequence, there's no way a player could log if someone was chasing you around corners etc..

Agreed, implementing a timer to expire before an action takes place would take minutes to implement in code. I disagree though about allowing the player to move while the countdown is active. I would recommend to put the timer between 15-30 seconds and any movement would cancel the countdown. Otherwise you can turn a corner and continue to run away while the timer is active. If movement cancelled the exit sequence, there's no way a player could log if someone was chasing you around corners etc..

This would still encourage log offskis though.Look at EvE again for the example real assets on the line gone when you fuck up.Same in day z if you fuck up you loose hours maybe days of gearing up (if your not exploiting - another reason why the timer needs to be significant in length)My point being the timer needs to be long enough that you are no way getting away once it has been triggered if you were to log off.

5minutes minimum 10max in my honest opinion.

If you need to log for real life situation go somewhere safe...same in eve...consider every step you make in day-z.

Edited July 12, 2012 by pagerage27

[SneakAttackITB 0]

This would still encourage log offskis though.Look at EvE again for the example real assets on the line gone when you fuck up.Same in day z if you fuck up you loose hours maybe days of gearing up (if your not exploiting - another reason why the timer needs to be significant in length)My point being the timer needs to be long enough that you are no way getting away once it has been triggered if you were to log off.

5minutes minimum 10max in my honest opinion.

If you need to log for real life situation go somewhere safe...same in eve...consider every step you make in day-z.

true, but i don't think you will ever completely eliminate logging off to avoid something while being reasonable length. It could be a lot longer and that would fix people trying to avoid death and server hopping but if something comes up irl and you have to log, most likely you would go pick some corner to hide in and afk while the timer expired. it would suck to log back on and spawn from scratch because someone happened to find your character. I am all for a log timer, as long as its reasonable. 5 minutes is a pretty lengthy to the casual hour-a-night gamer. Personally there's no way I would sit and wait 5 min to make sure I logged correctly, but idk maybe that isn't an issue for others.

edit**

I've never played eve and correct me if I'm wrong, but i would assume if you die you don't lose everything and start from scratch.

Edited July 12, 2012 by SneakAttackITB

[pagerage27 2]

true, but i don't think you will ever completely eliminate logging off to avoid something while being reasonable length. It could be a lot longer and that would fix people trying to avoid death and server hopping but if something comes up irl and you have to log, most likely you would go pick some corner to hide in and afk while the timer expired. it would suck to log back on and spawn from scratch because someone happened to find your character. I am all for a log timer, as long as its reasonable. 5 minutes is a pretty lengthy to the casual hour-a-night gamer. Personally there's no way I would sit and wait 5 min to make sure I logged correctly, but idk maybe that isn't an issue for others.

edit**

I've never played eve and correct me if I'm wrong, but i would assume if you die you don't lose everything and start from scratch.

true, but i don't think you will ever completely eliminate logging off to avoid something while being reasonable length. It could be a lot longer and that would fix people trying to avoid death and server hopping but if something comes up irl and you have to log, most likely you would go pick some corner to hide in and afk while the timer expired. it would suck to log back on and spawn from scratch because someone happened to find your character. I am all for a log timer, as long as its reasonable. 5 minutes is a pretty lengthy to the casual hour-a-night gamer. Personally there's no way I would sit and wait 5 min to make sure I logged correctly, but idk maybe that isn't an issue for others.

edit**

I've never played eve and correct me if I'm wrong, but i would assume if you die you don't lose everything and start from scratch.

You lose the same thing as in day-z - time.In EvE your ship is blown up which = money lost = time lost.Some ships are worth more than others.Day z you could reasonably feel decent about your gear within a day if your lucky.Your right some people would still log in a city maybe and still have the timer and get away with it but on occasion they would realize this would cause their death.I believe it is much more immersive to have to log somewhere secluded.

Of course your right some emergency Real Life situation can occur and it may end you but all in all the pros to stopping log offskis far outway the cons dont you think?

Im so sorry about the double quoting guys...im not sure what im doing wrong :(

Edited July 12, 2012 by pagerage27