Author Topic: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players  (Read 1624 times)

Offline xtyger

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Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« on: July 30, 2014, 04:28:20 PM »
I'm not sure there's a way to do it, but I'd like to explore the possibility of booting players that go afk for hours on end.

We have at least a couple players in Midwar now that will take a vehicle, drive to where they'll get an enemy field or town flashing, then park in a barn and then go afk for hours. They do it just to annoy people. I had one specifically tell me "...they mess with me, so I'll mess with them".

You end up with a field flashing for hours and it's quite distracting, and just because someone wants to be a jerk.

And, yes, myself and others have looked for them. I spent considerable time and effort yesterday flying around a flashing field and looking into every barn I could find. No luck. Two other players were looking for the same guy when I logged on today, albeit at a different field.

Would it be technically possible to set a time limit on non- activity? Say if someone hasn't done anything for half an hour could they be booted?

We do have some that stay afk for hours but don't go out of their way to make bases flash. I find that annoying but can live with it. It's the ones who are malicious about it that should be booted if they're not playing and just hiding somewhere to annoy the other players.

My biggest concern is if an effort was made to do this, some active players might get booted if the system didn't work right.

I've told myself until a resolution is found I'll try and point out the offenders locations to the other teams, if I'm on the same team as the offender. That might suffice, but sometimes communications aren't good enough to make that work well. Besides, if people are just trying to be jerks, they should get booted.

Offline bustr

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2014, 04:41:38 PM »
He pays his $14.95 he plays the game as he sees it.
bustr - POTW 1st Wing


This is like the old joke that voters are harsher to their beer brewer if he has an outage, than their politicians after raising their taxes. Death and taxes are certain but, fun and sex is only now.

Offline Naughty

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2014, 04:59:56 PM »
this topic has been brought up and ignored many many many times. especially in off peak hours where AFK tower sitters can dramatically effect the ENY.  don't count on it changing anytime soon.

   to deal with your problem of Gv's  hiding and flashing a base..  easy solution.


       Up a fast plane,  run film, then fly a simple search pattern.   maybe just a north to south run of the dar ring, then an east to west.
     
       logout, and view your film, and watch the pilot list.  this will tell who it is, what it is, and their range from you. giving you a pretty good idea of their general location.

      log back in, grab some ords and enjoy the free kill.  ;)
The true warrior has no enemies. Only teachers

Offline f35raptor

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2014, 05:03:49 PM »
So what happens when my squad and I are on a b29 mission to your  strats, it would normally take what 1 and a half hours,  or so to get up to alt, would we all get the boot because we did not move our stick for say that hour of time for said time.

Boomhaur

Offline Dragon Tamer

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2014, 05:06:43 PM »
I've had people do this before and found them using the film viewer. Record the sortie, close the game then find them in the FV, go back in and kill them. Repeat until they learn that they can't hide. And yes, I realise this is cheap. But sitting in a barn to make a base flash just because someone annoys you is just poor sportsman ship.

Offline 68ZooM

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2014, 05:23:44 PM »
so one of the five people in mid-war was inconvenienced, sounds like a great tragedy to me why not just up a recon plane and go locate it.
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Offline xtyger

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #6 on: July 30, 2014, 05:32:23 PM »
And yes, I realise this is cheap. But sitting in a barn to make a base flash just because someone annoys you is just poor sportsman ship.

Exactly. It's one thing when someone goes afk for hours, if not days, but is sitting in the tower (I saw one guy in a bomber ditched next to a field for two days). It's another thing entirely if someone's just doing it in a way to annoy other players. I'm guessing bustr does the same sort of thing.

Yes, the long range bomber thing that raptor brought up is a concern. That's one of the reasons I asked the question here: to consider unintended consequences.

Good idea about the film viewer. I'll pass it along. Thanks.


Offline bustr

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2014, 06:40:39 PM »
As long as you are the one doing the thing and irritating the other guy it's fine. The unintended consequence is the sudden inability to realize if you can do it to him, he can do it to you. It's always wrong if the other guy is irritating you.

When you submitted your credit card, did you read the terms of use for the MA? Other than profanity and hacking, there are no rules to playing in the MA. If that player wants to sit in a barn 24x7 for the whole tour, it's his $14.95 and his home electric bill.

If you don't like what he is doing. Find his ride and kill it. Or ignore him.

I suppose you can take self righteous revenge by filming to get his name and hitting the report button. Then you have to explain to Skuzzy why you reported someone for sitting in a hanger. Now that's some unintended consequence.
bustr - POTW 1st Wing


This is like the old joke that voters are harsher to their beer brewer if he has an outage, than their politicians after raising their taxes. Death and taxes are certain but, fun and sex is only now.

Offline xtyger

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2014, 08:42:47 PM »
As long as you are the one doing the thing and irritating the other guy it's fine. The unintended consequence is the sudden inability to realize if you can do it to him, he can do it to you. It's always wrong if the other guy is irritating you.

When you submitted your credit card, did you read the terms of use for the MA? Other than profanity and hacking, there are no rules to playing in the MA. If that player wants to sit in a barn 24x7 for the whole tour, it's his $14.95 and his home electric bill.

If you don't like what he is doing. Find his ride and kill it. Or ignore him.

I suppose you can take self righteous revenge by filming to get his name and hitting the report button. Then you have to explain to Skuzzy why you reported someone for sitting in a hanger. Now that's some unintended consequence.

They don't sit in hangars, at least not usually. I suppose you think it's ok, then, what one player did a few years ago:

He was on a well known squadron- the VF- 15(?), aka the Satan's Playmates. The few of them at the time were trying to capture a coastal base. He was going to leave so switched sides. He realized he outranked his opposition so switched to their side before leaving.

Since he outranked them, he "Took Command" of their carrier group. Then he went to work, or wherever. The opposition was pissed, as their carrier group was tied up in a tight circular pattern. The were screaming about what he did, but nothing could be done.

I'm not sure if a half hour limit on inactivity could have stopped what happened there. I'm not sure it matters, other than just another example of rude behavior by players. About the only good thing was I believe that player was booted by the VF-15 for that behavior. I get the impression you think that sort of thing is just fine? After all, it's his $14.95.

As far as I'm concerned on my own personal playing behavior, nope, I don't play games like that. I play an honest game, despite being a scum- sucking side switcher. I go where the fights are and have never given away any strategic information after switching sides. That's just the way I am. I'm not sure about you.

Offline 1ijac

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #9 on: July 30, 2014, 09:34:55 PM »
How do you know he is afk?  No way to know. 
"One-Eye"

Offline Max

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #10 on: July 30, 2014, 09:44:19 PM »
Nothing's going to change. It's been brought up on wish list many times over the years.

That said, call HTC and ask for Hitech. He has been known to horse trade for a bottle or two, or three, or four, or five of Cragganmore Single malt Scotch  :devil

Offline Tazz69

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #11 on: July 31, 2014, 04:20:51 AM »
If a bad guy hiding somewhere for a long period of time to just flash the base really bothers you so much, there is an easy fix to find them. Up a plane, Record your sortie, fly around for a little bit low on the deck, land, save the video from that sortie, Alt-Tab out and go check the video. It will show who/what is hiding and where if you double click on that bad guys name. Go to GOD mode and zoom out, revealing his position and just up something and go kill him. Yeah, Yeah, some of you guys are going to say it's cheating, but it's not cheating, it's just using the resources you have at hand to battle this type of player. Same idea as using film to find out who you were furballing with in the event where both you and the other guy leave a fight without killing one another so you can say to him 'good fight' or whatever.

My 2 cents.

Offline Tazz69

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #12 on: July 31, 2014, 04:48:31 AM »
EDIT: Sorry, didn't read down far enough to see Naughty's suggestion. What he said! lol :headscratch:

Offline SirNuke

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #13 on: July 31, 2014, 05:30:21 AM »
See rule #4
« Last Edit: July 31, 2014, 12:13:06 PM by hitech »

Offline warhed

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Re: Suggestion: Booting hour long afk players
« Reply #14 on: July 31, 2014, 09:46:10 AM »
If it makes you feel better, it doesn't really effect ENY, all 3 sides probably have the same ratio of AFKers to Active Players
warhed
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