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General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Zazen13 on January 07, 2003, 02:29:35 PM

Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Zazen13 on January 07, 2003, 02:29:35 PM
I don't want to be a ranter but I do have an issue with the Anti-fragging measures. Specifically in regard to a special situation. The other night I shot myself down repeatedly because of hitting a friendly. While this is incredibly unrealistic, I do see the need for adding some disinsentive to saturation spraying.

My problem occurred in an unusual way though, and one which I don't think the anti-fragging code does justice. Me and another were on the same bandit but we were occupying the same physical space. By that I mean we were exactly on top of one another 300 yards off the bandit's six. Well, I looked at every view , saw nothing, because he was right on top of me. So I fired...you can guess the rest..

My point is, if we are to be punished for hitting a friendly aircraft it is unfair to punish us for hitting an aircraft we cannot see with the tools the game provides. A reasonable way to fix this would be to program a minimum distance that the anti-fragging self-hit occurs, say 100 yards. If the friendly is below 100 yards just have him absord the rounds with some kind of text message or ambient sound that would indicate you are hitting a friendly. To shoot yourself down because you hit a friendly occupying your same physical space (very unrealistic situation) is kind of absurd. I am not a programmer but, this seems like it would be easy to fix and would lower the frustration level of the game for everyone who finds themselves in this similiarly unique situation.

Zazen
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Yeager on January 07, 2003, 02:39:33 PM
Killshooter is designed to prevent you (or anyone else from your team for that matter) from intentionally killing another teamate.

Unfortunately, there are situations like yours described that cannot be avoided.  Just look at it like sacrificing your own little bit of fun for the greater service to the game.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: jonnyb on January 07, 2003, 02:45:13 PM
This has been debated frequently.  I am of the opinion that both friendly collisions and killshooter should be turned off in the main arena, just as it is in some scenarios and TODs.  On the other side of the fence are those who claim that those measures are necessary to ward off such things as the frustrated dweeb who decides to continually shoot down his countrymates, or other such behavior.

One thing I find rather amazing about your description of the problem is that you *repeatedly* were in a position that you were occupying the exact same space as another friendly aircraft ~300 yards on a bogey's six.  In the year and a half I've been playing this game, I can count on less than 5 fingers the number of times I've died to kill shooter, and even fewer fingers are needed to count the number of times the situation you describe has happened to me.

In any case, that other friendly didn't just "appear" out of thin air and occupy the same space as you.  Both of you had to manouver into position to get behind that bogey, and I find it hard, actually I find it impossible, to believe that you both followed the exact same line to target on multiple occasions, such that you could not be aware of his presence.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: nuchpatrick on January 07, 2003, 02:55:40 PM
I must agree..K/S and Crashing off would be a much needed blessing.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Vulcan on January 07, 2003, 02:59:39 PM
I've died once to killshooter in the last 12 months. That was from a guy crossing at 90 degrees to me and my targets path at high speed.

If you were "on top of each other" then you would have heard your buddies engines. Hearing engines on top of you is a good sign you should a) check for a bandit   b) check for a buddy for KS fire.

KS is good. Without you get annoying newbies pinging your plane non-stop (even if it does no damage).

Work up your SA, doesn't take long to sort it out.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: ygsmilo on January 07, 2003, 03:22:23 PM
If you shut off the killshooter,,,

I will have to kill Rude.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: SunKing on January 07, 2003, 03:28:33 PM
Oh boy think of all the crying and ranting if killshooter wasn't  enabled along with the current contest.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Nwbie on January 07, 2003, 03:31:11 PM
I have gotten maybe KS'd twice since I started, as I learned that there are peeps who no matter what, want the kill, and don't care if you are saddled up already. If i see tracers or hear engines, I look around to see if I'm dead meat or if a friendly and pull away if a friendly, it just ain't all that important to act like a dog at the kennel trough. If more peeps did that, there would be less complaining, and if more peeps would pay attention to what their countryman are doing, there would be less beeching.
Unless of course if Silat is other pilot, I enjoy and he appreciates it if you steal his kills :) Spread the word!!  :)

NwBie
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: ccvi on January 07, 2003, 04:13:23 PM
Quick solution:

Enabled friendly collisions. Then you wouln't have killshot yourself but crashed :)
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Zazen13 on January 07, 2003, 05:11:26 PM
I shot myself down repeatedly, mainly because there were too many damn rooks on heh. The overlapping plane death only happened once. Although it has happened to me before. I like to try to fly to live, I try to keep mistakes to a minimum, this particular aspect of the game, although rare is really annoying...

Zazen
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Zazen13 on January 07, 2003, 05:14:46 PM
Also, keep in mind, there are other ways of preventing fragging other than making the person shooting take damage. Just make the rounds get eaten into the twilight zone like they did in AW. If someone is in the way yer just wasting ammo. Taking damage because you are inadvertantly hitting a freindly aircraft is very unrealistic. AH is proud of it's realism factor, kind of suprises me this anti-fragging self kill codeis even in the game.

Zazen
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Zazen13 on January 07, 2003, 05:17:23 PM
In reply to Vulcan, yea, I listen for engines, but I was 300 yards or less from the enemy in a protracted turnfight. At that distance another engine noise around me is indistinguishable.

Zazen
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Dago on January 07, 2003, 05:22:44 PM
In time, you will learn Grasshopper.

dago
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: GPreddy on January 07, 2003, 05:34:47 PM
Oh yeah this is good. Turn killshooter off so we can all kill each other before a kill gets stolen. In AW DOS we had the problem of a defector moving to a field under attack upping in an a26 and sitting off the skirt to kill the first 80 guys trying to defend it. How would you like that? Friendly midairs? Thank god ht put some thought into this one. The only way to safely launch from a field would be slotted departures and I dont think the dweebs would ever figure it out and you would still get killed. Bad idea. Twilight zone bullets?
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Kanth on January 07, 2003, 05:47:06 PM
I think the idea was if killshooter is OFF then your bullets are just disappearing when they hit friendlies.
with no damage occuring to anyone, but, you'd lose your bullets.

Not meaning that with killshooter OFF you can now shoot friendlies down. (we all know what happens when you can shoot friendlies down.)
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: wetrat on January 07, 2003, 06:36:59 PM
While I've never had your problem, and can't imagine ever having it, I must say killshooter is a bit silly. Many a time have I been fighting a toejamfire in a G10 or the like, and since I didn't get a quick kill, a few countrymen would decide to "help" me. And as luck would have it, they tend to arrive to "help" me when I finally get a decent gun solution on the turning bastid. I'll fire, only to have my tail taken off due to some stunninghunk jumping in front of me.

 It makes sense to have friendly fire disabled in the MA.. but to be killed yourself for hitting friendlies? I fail to see the point when the bullets could simply be absorbed and have no effect on anyone. At least there could be some sort of proximity for it... If you're within 1000 yards of an enemy and you hit a teammate, it won't kill you.. something like that.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Dago on January 07, 2003, 07:00:51 PM
Having killshooter on has a very specific advantage.  

It helps minimize "shoulder shooters".


Without the risk of damaging themselves, too many tards would saddle up behind  you and fire away over and through you trying to steal the con you have worked to get a position on.

When someone shoulder shoots over me now, I just nudge my aircraft into his bullet stream to discourage that behavior.  :)

dago
Title: Re: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Grizzly on January 07, 2003, 07:03:31 PM
You say this happened repeatedly?

What I hate is that I not only get killed but the enemy gets a proxy kill on me, and the guy who I shot steals my kill. It and proxy kills are bad in many ways.

Quote
Originally posted by Zazen13
I don't want to be a ranter but I do have an issue with the Anti-fragging measures. Specifically in regard to a special situation. The other night I shot myself down repeatedly because of hitting a friendly. While this is incredibly unrealistic, I do see the need for adding some disinsentive to saturation spraying.

My problem occurred in an unusual way though, and one which I don't think the anti-fragging code does justice. Me and another were on the same bandit but we were occupying the same physical space. By that I mean we were exactly on top of one another 300 yards off the bandit's six. Well, I looked at every view , saw nothing, because he was right on top of me. So I fired...you can guess the rest..

My point is, if we are to be punished for hitting a friendly aircraft it is unfair to punish us for hitting an aircraft we cannot see with the tools the game provides. A reasonable way to fix this would be to program a minimum distance that the anti-fragging self-hit occurs, say 100 yards. If the friendly is below 100 yards just have him absord the rounds with some kind of text message or ambient sound that would indicate you are hitting a friendly. To shoot yourself down because you hit a friendly occupying your same physical space (very unrealistic situation) is kind of absurd. I am not a programmer but, this seems like it would be easy to fix and would lower the frustration level of the game for everyone who finds themselves in this similiarly unique situation.

Zazen
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Grizzly on January 07, 2003, 07:16:32 PM
Voss, I don't think anyone advocates being able to kill a friendlies. I like the persona non grotta system in AW where you can kill a friendly, but you lose your ammo for a day (AW allowed three kills, one day of PNG for each kill).

This made people careful about jumping in front of another player and made players use care where they shoot. It also helped provide a good supply of goon drivers  =o)

Quote
Originally posted by GPreddy
Oh yeah this is good. Turn killshooter off so we can all kill each other before a kill gets stolen. In AW DOS we had the problem of a defector moving to a field under attack upping in an a26 and sitting off the skirt to kill the first 80 guys trying to defend it. How would you like that? Friendly midairs? Thank god ht put some thought into this one. The only way to safely launch from a field would be slotted departures and I dont think the dweebs would ever figure it out and you would still get killed. Bad idea. Twilight zone bullets?
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: ALF on January 07, 2003, 07:33:51 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Zazen13
Also, keep in mind, there are other ways of preventing fragging other than making the person shooting take damage. Just make the rounds get eaten into the twilight zone like they did in AW. If someone is in the way yer just wasting ammo. Taking damage because you are inadvertantly hitting a freindly aircraft is very unrealistic. AH is proud of it's realism factor, kind of suprises me this anti-fragging self kill codeis even in the game.

Zazen



There are a few big drawbacks to making friendly bullets "do nothing", not the least of which is it would make it commonplace for dweebs to shoot thru you to get at the bandit on the other side....this not only makes things unfair to the poor pursued soul, but it also places the person with position in the unenviable place of constantly checking his six because he sees tracers wizzing by, and isnt sure of its an enemy.

It also lends itself to gaming the game as people fire with reckless abandon.


In the many years I have played aces high (since the initial beta....wow its amazing how much has changed), I have killshootered myself a total of maybe 30 times....and thats a generous estimate.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: vorticon on January 07, 2003, 08:05:37 PM
dont like ks??? get your 7 best buddies open a hth room turn off ks and hav a 4 on 4 match after that come back and well see how much your veiws have changed...
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Dead Man Flying on January 07, 2003, 11:33:00 PM
Killshooter actually encourages the most realistic behavior of any anti-fragging regime.  Simply disabling it hardly acts as a disincentive to killing teammates either intentionally or accidentally, and spray and pray rules the day.  Allowing friendly planes to absorb the bullets without damage to oneself leads to further spray and pray or attempts to snipe kills from over the shoulders of friendlies who are closer to the target.

But killshooter?  Killshooter forces one to get in as close as possible, to utilize situational awareness, and to avoid shooting over the shoulders of friendly airplanes in front.  It forces gun discipline in a target rich environment.

-- Todd/Leviathn
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Kanth on January 08, 2003, 01:36:10 AM
It may discourage you shooting towards any friendlies but it does nothing to discourage someone flying through someone else's bullet stream in order to be first in line by an inch to get the kill.

 You want to kill friendlies, no need to shoot at them, just fly thru their bullet stream while they are engaged.

 not a huge leap in logic.


 Just like the people who get kills on the nme by flying under them and then pulling up right in front of their nose causing collisions, then fly away no bullets spend with kill.

 both having killshooter on and off have someone paying for someone elses foolishness.

Having the bullets absorbed (not passing thru) only counts against the person spending them.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Dead Man Flying on January 08, 2003, 01:46:52 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Kanth
It may discourage you shooting towards any friendlies but it does nothing to discourage someone flying through someone else's bullet stream in order to be first in line by an inch to get the kill.
[/B]

This is where the situational awareness part comes in.  Hitting someone in that situation isn't his fault... it's your own for not being aware of his position.

Quote
You want to kill friendlies, no need to shoot at them, just fly thru their bullet stream while they are engaged.
[/B]

Again, this is a situational awareness issue, and there are two ways to counter it.  The first is to always remain cognizant of friendly planes so they can't pull something like that.  The other is to engage enemies at as close a range as possible, minimizing the likelihood that anyone could jump in front of your guns.

Quote
not a huge leap in logic.
[/B]

But in all cases it's preferable to simply no killshooter at all.  And as it promotes increased situational awareness, ammo conservation, and real consequences for shooting at friendly planes, it's also more realistic.

Quote
both having killshooter on and off have someone paying for someone elses foolishness.
[/B]

I disagree.  With killshooter off, you're paying for someone else's foolishness.  With killshooter on, you're paying for your own.

-- Todd/Leviathn
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Dowding (Work) on January 08, 2003, 06:57:17 AM
In two and a half years of play, I've been killshot twice.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: lazs2 on January 08, 2003, 07:51:00 AM
Hey.. we got suicide bombers who will suicide a CV or fuel at a field simply because they are frustrated by their lack of skill or they are simply attention starved... think what they woud do if there were no killshooter.   They could really get some attention then.
lazs
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Zazen13 on January 08, 2003, 09:53:49 AM
By bullets getting eaten I mean, they don't pass thru a friendly they get absorbed by him (they wouldn't pass thru), effectively wasting your ammunition, so there will be no 'shoulder' shooting. Also, an aware pilot can still jockey in front of a farther spraying friendly to block his shot if he so desires. The end result will be the same with less un-realism and frustration of the self-kill junk in there now, people will want to get the closest and have the best firing position or they risk wasting precious ammunition.

In a game frought with internet latency, warpers, and view restrictions that were not present in real life, being overly harsh with penalties of this nature detracts from the gaming experience, it does not enhance it. This is why AW switched from the PNG penalty to the simply absorbs bullets penalty, and never enabled mid-air collisions (not that I want AH to be like AW, but they had a valid point with regard to this issue).The person with the worst connection having a supreme advantage in a collision situation is a slightly off-topic example of why penalties of this nature don;t work over the internet very well. With this system there would be.

A) No fragging
B) No silly self-killing
C) No dis-insentive for realistic flying, just a new insentive (instead of plane damage to oneself, you lose ammunition).

Zazen
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: MWHUN on January 08, 2003, 09:59:50 AM
The only time killshooter worries me is when you are in a fighter trying to help clear a friendly buff formation's rear.  I tend to fly the typhoon so even 1 stray bullet can be detrimental to my health.  Most of the time I have to wait till I'm <200 out to take the shot while ensuring I don't frag myself.

Perhaps some modification for bombers could be made? I'm not sure how it would play out in the long run...:confused:
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Innominate on January 08, 2003, 10:01:33 AM
Killshooter type systems are the best form of friendly-fire protection around.  They eliminate the un-checked fire of not having to worry about hitting friendlies, without offering the possiblity of people killing friendlies just to be jerks.

Killshooter as we have it isn't perfect.  I believe that any round that hits a friendly plane hits a certain spot on yours, the tail i think, no matter where you hit the friendly.  So only a couple of hits across a friendly which would do practicallly no damage to him, will kill you.  IMO a hit to a friendlies left wing should damage your left wing, a hit to the tail should damage the tail, etc.

While it would be nice if killshooter was applied better, it's a simple elegant solution to handling friendly fire.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Dead Man Flying on January 08, 2003, 10:03:30 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Zazen13
By bullets getting eaten I mean, they don't pass thru a friendly they get absorbed by him (they wouldn't pass thru), effectively wasting your ammunition, so there will be no 'shoulder' shooting. Also, an aware pilot can still jockey in front of a farther spraying friendly to block his shot if he so desires. The end result will be the same with less un-realism and frustration of the self-kill junk in there now, people will want to get the closest and have the best firing position or they risk wasting precious ammunition.
[/B]

I understand what you're saying, but you're incorrect that it won't create "over the shoulder" shooting and reward spray and pray tactics.  If there's a friendly 200 yards in front of you and an enemy plane 100 yards in front of him... why not just let loose with the ammo, kick rudders around a bit, and hope you score the kill shot?  If your bullets hit the friendly, they hit the friendly... no big deal.  Those that don't will hit the enemy, and voila! -- you get your kill.

Realistic?  Hardly.  The fact remains that killshooter teaches gunnery discipline whereas none of the other methods mentioned in this thread do.  As such an admittedly unrealistic game concession leads to realistic pilot behavior because there are real consequences for spray and pray or poor situational awareness.  This is a good thing!  

Quote
In a game frought with internet latency, warpers, and view restrictions that were not present in real life, being overly harsh with penalties of this nature detracts from the gaming experience, it does not enhance it.
[/B]

Assuming that we all suffer from Internet latency, warpers, and view restrictions, please explain to me why many of us haven't killshootered ourselves in almost a year?  I'll do it maybe twice a year tops, and each time I know it was my fault.  It's not that your connect is much worse than mine, or that my views are somehow less restrictive -- it's that many of us practice the sorts of tactics that minimize the possibility of killshootering ourselves.

-- Todd/Leviathn
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: WineMan on January 08, 2003, 11:17:24 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Kanth
Just like the people who get kills on the nme by flying under them and then pulling up right in front of their nose causing collisions, then fly away no bullets spend with kill.


Does this ACTUALLY happen?  :confused:   Wouldn't that result in both planes going down, most of the time?  Who in their right mind would try to get a kill this way?

I can see a newbie maybe overshooting, then pulling up and having a collision, but anyone purposefully doing this boggles me.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: hitech on January 08, 2003, 11:25:59 AM
Innominate: A agree with what you desire, the problems arizes that not all planes/tanks/boats are created =. for instance some have multi engs some radators gunners and such.  So you can't just pass damage to the same component. In the end it does whats needed, and to modifie it to try make it more component type to component type mapping is fairly complex.


HiTech
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Innominate on January 08, 2003, 11:32:31 AM
Quote
Originally posted by hitech
In the end it does whats needed, and to modifie it to try make it more component type to component type mapping is fairly complex.


What about having KS hits pick a random part of your plane to hit?
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: BD on January 08, 2003, 11:41:33 AM
Can't remember the last time I died to KS.  It's just not a consistent problem, compared with what would probably happen with it off.
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: vorticon on January 08, 2003, 01:01:54 PM
how annoying would it actually be  if ks wasnt enabled???? its bad enough on americas army where u get killed by a freindly nade but if you were killed because some cuddlinghunk was trying to hit the guy behind you and accidntly hit you???
Title: Anti-Fragging Problem
Post by: Kanth on January 08, 2003, 01:15:51 PM
Yes it does happen.

Yes it could result in both planes going down and I fully expected it to.

Someone who is desperately trying to save their wing(man) with no ammo.


Quote
Originally posted by WineMan
Does this ACTUALLY happen?  :confused:  
 Wouldn't that result in both planes going down, most of the time?
 Who in their right mind would try to get a kill this way?