After re-reading the post and replies I had a number of thoughts. (If you think that this is just whining; feel free to stop right here and go and spend your time on more productive endeavors – I will not be offended).
With respect to the “why does it matter” arguments, I’ll point out one lesson I got from it was how INCREDIBLY EFFECTIVE spy spotting can be. In my original post I did not want to go into a lot of details of actually what happened that night, (yes losing that specific base in that manner pissed me off – but I saw a bigger problem and in my post I was suggesting and asking for possible specific and generic solutions).
After the Nits captured the 8.5K bases they moved hard on the V base below. From the advantage of my C47 in god mode I was able to communicate range and direction of the in coming GVs. The Nit (above) who stated that they ended up taking the base anyway was right. He neglected to tell you, however, the cost.
In their first wave the Nits came in with 8 to 9 tigers, a couple of M4s, a panz, 2 M3s and if I remember correctly an A20 and some other heavy fighter. At that time the base was being defended by 4 GVs – a tiger – 2 M4s and a flack. The Nits ended up losing all of their first wave GVs. Ouch.
As any GVer knows, getting first Viz on a target is 95% of the engagement. As I found out, being able to call an incoming target (tiger 1.5K away on your 2 o’clock) was disturbingly effective. Their subsequent waves were mostly concentrated on air – bombers etc.
To the “get a life” crowd I’ll share the following. The following day, in the morning I grabbed a cup of coffee and logged on to see what was happening in that arena. And guess what, the Nits had re-captured most of the peninsula, the spy from the night before was on (as a Nit) and our CV (I had switched back to my home country) was doing tight donuts in the middle of nowhere. I just logged and went to MA. The heck with it. I guess what I am saying is yep I agree with you. If it gets to the point were I see this practice all over – and I don’t have a way of dealing with it - I’ll just log.
To those who say that what I did was “childish” because it was pay back – wait a minute – how many of you have been taken out by one ping from 3K and not said ‘I’m going to get that guy’? Pay back is part of game. I’ll agree that I went to an extreme – but I was mad. (BTW, being called a 12 year old is a compliment when you consider that my wife and kids often compare me to a 9 year old.)
One final observation on the thoughts expressed in these “whiner” themes. One of the posts was from someone who has been a spy in the past. Yep – I guess that he doesn’t see a problem here at all!
As far as the solutions I had the following thoughts.
I do not think that turning off Killshoot is the “worst idea ever”. It may not be perfect, but the “worst idea ever……”? I think that the problem with newbes would be real one. In fact, I had one come after me tonight. I really tried to warn him and help him out – to no avail…. But again, if there was a way of only turning it on for a single flight-by-flight basis I think that most of problems would be avoid. (Maybe turning it on should cost you peak points – what the heck – give us something to spend these points on!)
It would leave two problems – that of jealous team mates and the other would be perhaps one of rampant vigilantism.
Does anyone know if Killshoot is a global only setting? Can it even be turned off on a per flight basis?
Turning off cross country VOZ/Chat might work – but as someone said – third party tools could possibility step into the mix. I should also point out that you can talk cross country without the squad channel – 255 I think. I have used it in the past to talk to other players and I would miss it if it was not allowed.
Limiting or penalizing country jumping seems to be a common theme in addressing this problem. There are some really good reasons to change countries so I do not think prohibiting would work – but extending the change time really does seem in order.
BTW, I really like the idea of turning a recently changed country player to blue!
The other spy issue that I’m not sure how you would deal with is multiple accounts. Yea – I have no problem with people who want to play with multiple accounts on the same country – but I’m not sure that all multiple account players feel that way.
I know that my $14.95 a month fee does not entitle me to a seat on the Board of Directors of HTC, but if it did, I would ask HTC managers why not turn killshoot on on a flight-by-flight basis, turn recently changed country players to blue and extend country change times?
Do not let the Great be the enemy of the Good.
Spying is distasteful and it does impact the game experience in a negative way. Unfortunately, spying can be very effective for those who make that choice and given the competitive nature of the game it will not go away. I think that we as players need effective tools to deal with this sometimes common problem.
