47 replies to this topic

[cmopatrick]

lockups and crashes seem a common thread in our current MWO experience. but i also notice a trend, both in game and here, to label anyone you don't already know is crashed (from ts or vent) an afk farmer. people who themselves have ctd think they themselves are ok, but without any rational explanation i have found accuse just about everyone else of something morally equal to cheating.

are those of you who think this way serious? i have had ctd 3 times in 18 or so matches since yesterday afternoon, and had teammates report either ctd (3) or freeze-frame (2) in another 5. if we are not just cursed and it represents something close to average, then that means you will have people "afk" in roughly a third of your matches and frozen in the middle another 1 in roughly 9.

i would suggest that we be adults and simply request that pgi neither reward or punish people who are locked out of the game. don't give them points, but likewise, don't give them the gratuitous damage quite a number of folks seem inclined to heap on.

make it simple: if you are not killed while active or active when the game ends (standing still on the enemy cap would qualify as active), then you neither get rewards (xp or cbills) or costs (damage or rearm). the incentive for anyone who might do it deliberately (or deliberately suicide, for that matter) would be removed.

(added on edit:) many have suggested allowing reconnect. since i think that an excellent option, i have added it to the poll, albeit a day late. i also deleted my old vote for the second option in #3 and voted for that.

Edited by cmopatrick, 25 November 2012 - 07:02 AM.

[Sandpit]

Bottom line is you report them. The devs have the info to look at it and see fi they're exploiting or legitimately getting disconnected.

[Fugu]

A CTD is usually easy to spot while the game. Most people who crash at launch don't enter the game with their 'Mech in the first place.
I can't confidently say what's the situation all the time though.

'Mechs should be entirely removed from the game on disconnect and there should be neither gains (to counter farming) nor costs (to not punish crashed).
All of this of course only when the player diconnects during the game, not after a death.

[MoonUnitBeta]

I came out of a match about an hour ago where we had an Atlas just stay at our base. Everyone died and so we're all looking through his eyes. There was 1 enemy left and he's headed to our base to cap. The enemy shoots the AFK Atlas. The Atlas starts to move and fire back. 30 seconds left in the game, we end up as a tie because he was being lazy and just waiting for us to win or lose...

I'd really like to see an AFK or TK report feature that basically reports the person and when granted enough votes should kick the player from the game, rewarding him nothing and his Mech remains in the game and unusable until it's finished. Also must make any repairs as necessary.

I'm not sure why there's even AFK'ers when 12 seconds before the match finished countdown they had to press the Launch button...

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 24 November 2012 - 02:59 PM.

[cmopatrick]

Fugu, on 24 November 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

A CTD is usually easy to spot while the game. Most people who crash at launch don't enter the game with their 'Mech in the first place.
I can't confidently say what's the situation all the time though.

i can say that i have seen our mechs (ones folks in our premades ctd from) in game and been told my mech was there when i was back to windows (and had to repair it, so there is further evidence). there may be times when ctd does not drop the mech so it shows, but i know for certain there are also times when it certainly does. and while it has not happened to me for a week or so, in the recent past, freeze-frames can and have happened to me almost immediately after countdown.

(added on edit:) make that another one crashed and team reports that i am neither showing discon nor missing the mech on the map (ie, it is there)... as in i am right now hearing my lfg teammates report this.

Fugu, on 24 November 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

'Mechs should be entirely removed from the game on disconnect and there should be neither gains (to counter farming) nor costs (to not punish crashed).
All of this of course only when the player diconnects during the game, not after a death.

i agree completely.

Edited by cmopatrick, 24 November 2012 - 03:50 PM.

[The Amazing Atomic Spaniel]

I've had a number of black screens on launch, but with my mech apparently in the game and not released til the match is over. This is annoying for me and must be really annoying for the team since I have been driving assaults recently and this will have left them an Atlas down on the other team.

More often than this, I get a failure where the game freezes for 10 - 20 seconds, but then returns me back to being in control with my mech having been trundling along in a straight line in the meantime. It is surprising just how far out into that lake even a slow-as-a-donkey Atlas can travel in 20 seconds.

[Taizan]

Well I've had several instances of black-screening or just a freeze without being disconnected. The few times I was in a group and on voice comm people actually told me I still was in the game and I asked them to tell them I had a crash and was not just AFK.
Sometimes I actually called out people who I believed were AFK, just to read they are trying to figure out how to set weapon groups/chainfire for about 2 minutes.

As many (not all) people not participating in match may have similar issues, I am against punishing people who do not participate. They should not receive any gains out of it either.

So either do not give anything, basically removing there attendance in the match or have a robust (!!!) votekick system in place.

[Belorion]

CTD leads to a discon much more often than not. So I answered no even though your phrasing is wrong.

[Aznpersuasion89]

i may be a ****, but i always shoot them. not kill them, but they are def a cripple when im done. i just love shooting things WAY too much to allow them to go unscathed and i fully expect the same to happen to me.

[Scratx]

There are a few things I'd rather be done...

1- Improve disconnection detection. CTD should _never_ go by undetected on server-side.
2- Fix egregious "start of game" bugs like yellow filter, HUD and mini-maps screwed up, etc.
3- Fix "Disconnect denies kill/death awarded" loophole.
4- Possibly track disconnections as a separate stat.
5- Possibly get *******' Betty to poke the player if he's not really moving from his spawn point, reminding him battle is underway.

That should eliminate a lot of problems... and narrow down potential abusers.

[Fiachdubh]

Have been on comms with someone when they got the black screen on loading map but have also seen a pilot in same match as me twice in one day and he did not move either time. I am sure there is a bit of both going on.

[rolly]

Hey I'm a new dad here. Just last night the baby needed me right at the opening, so regardless of what the situation is in MWO, (if I launched or not, in combat or running full speed) I'm going AFK. Surprisingly my Raven was still there where I left it. I'm sure everyone thought I was farming. Other times I have to stop simply to fix the graphics bugs when I try to fullscreen or swap to Thermal or Night vision.

There are legitimate reasons for going AFK and its not all about farming. RL does intrude on gaming now and then.

Edited by rolly, 24 November 2012 - 03:59 PM.

[Lefty Lucy]

Fiachdubh, on 24 November 2012 - 03:45 PM, said:

Have been on comms with someone when they got the black screen on loading map but have also seen a pilot in same match as me twice in one day and he did not move either time. I am sure there is a bit of both going on.

yeah, i voted "we don't have enough data" because while AFK farming *does* happen, CTD with no disconnect happens too.

[Broceratops]

i dont really care if its a disconnect or a bot or whatever. end of the day there's a imbalance at start which in this game is significant, and i don't like it!

PGI has a ton of stuff to do in on this game so this to me isn't at the top of the list, but if they could implement a low priority queue for people with a lot of DC's or AFK games, that would be nice. this queue would 1) take longer and 2) be open to only other AFK/DCers much like in DOTA2

[Cache]

Sandpit, on 24 November 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

Bottom line is you report them. The devs have the info to look at it and see fi they're exploiting or legitimately getting disconnected.

Leave things as they are now (regarding rewards/punishment) and this ^^^^.

Let the people with the data and the ability handle it.

[Asmosis]

Fugu, on 24 November 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

'Mechs should be entirely removed from the game on disconnect and there should be neither gains (to counter farming) nor costs (to not punish crashed).
All of this of course only when the player diconnects during the game, not after a death.

If you disconnect (or otherwise leave early) before death, you only get cbills for activity you've done so far like 2k for kill assists/spotting etc so you "win" about 10-20k cbills for a repair bill of 30-70k

I do agree disconnected mechs should not be able to take damage. They took away the cbill/exp rewards for shooting them so why not the damage as well? The only reason to shoot them is harrasment or target practice.

Broceratops, on 24 November 2012 - 04:01 PM, said:

PGI has a ton of stuff to do in on this game so this to me isn't at the top of the list, but if they could implement a low priority queue for people with a lot of DC's or AFK games, that would be nice. this queue would 1) take longer and 2) be open to only other AFK/DCers much like in DOTA2

so your idea is to punish people who CTD by shoving them into matches that will be always unbalanced severely? thats a horrible idea and i can't believe another game company would implement such a thing. Presumably CTD/DC are very rare in DOTA2? (like actual ISP internet outages causing them).

Edited by Asmosis, 24 November 2012 - 04:07 PM.

[Scraper]

A certain user who's name more or less means that he's going to DC every game, and does, makes me lean towards people DC/AFK on purpose for C-Bills. Yes some people are crashing, yes I have crashed... I wish there was a hot seat option where maybe if a mech doesn't move for 60 seconds straight, the first team mate to die can pilot that mech.

[Insidious Johnson]

No rewards for 0 performance. If it is CTD related, those not getting rewards they would have for otherwise performing will become more vocal on the boards about poor programing or play something else. Either way, the message that the bug hunts need to precede all else will be received. The priority should be fixing things so there is clarity enough to correct non bug related activities.

[Asmosis]

Scraper, on 24 November 2012 - 04:08 PM, said:

A certain user who's name more or less means that he's going to DC every game, and does, makes me lean towards people DC/AFK on purpose for C-Bills. Yes some people are crashing, yes I have crashed... I wish there was a hot seat option where maybe if a mech doesn't move for 60 seconds straight, the first team mate to die can pilot that mech.

one person. and yes we all see them from time to time.

Thats no reason to punish the other 99% of players who are DC/CTD'ing about 1/3 matches. That 1/3? its not the same people every time. its everyone across the board. almost everyone crashes every 10-20 matches whether its "failed to find match" which is where they dont show up at all, or black screen aka they show up on team roster but DC'd or 4fps bug forcing them out or CTD when trying to shoot or target to name a few.

Edited by Asmosis, 24 November 2012 - 04:21 PM.

[8CH Trooper]

At this point of the whole Beta process it doesn't bother me, right now 1 or 2 times a gaming session MWO crashes on me, it doesn't seem to matter how long the game has been on, where I am on the map or what's going on around me I get kicked to the desk top. This is different from AFK where some one has wondered off for a snack and didn't come back, he or she still has to pay the repair bill, again this doesn't bother me. Right now MWO is a buggy TDM where we really are only playing for K/D, W/L, CBills or because we like to stompy shooty. What's that saying "It's better to let a hundred guilty men go free than put one innocent man in jail". There is no way to punish the guilty without punishing the innocent.