Digital Anvil needs to fix multiplayer PK.

Sun Mar 16, 2003 10:45 am by Xaanix

I havent played it yet just because of lack of time but i see a lot of rants about PK.

DA i hope you are reading this. What i suggest is for the good of the whole FL multiplayer community, it also would require minimal code from your end.

You should make level based PK. Not just everyone PK everyone. Make it in such a way that you can pk only people 5 levels below or above you. Not others. This way you keep the bastards who try to ruin a newbie's day from doing so.

Once you get to level 38, you can PK everyone from level 30 and up. At that level, there shouldnt be much of a difference in equipment. This way, everyone hast a chance at least to get level 10 weapons/shields/ships. Otherwise its pretty pointless to have PK.

If you have level based PK, high level PC pirates can only pick on people their own size. And low level pirates can mess around with players who can actually kill them if they try.

This is what i say to those who support across the board PK.
Some will say "But need to have excitement in the game". Bull****. Thats not excitement or fun, its crap. Its different when you have an AI, thats powerful and shows up randomly but not a PC who makes it a point kill you when he knows there is nothing you can do. Other morons will say, "But the AI is not challenging enough, need to have players kill you." I agree, but NOT players who's ship you cant even scratch the paint on. How about if they coded and implemented an AI that was as overpowered to a rank 38 fully loaded titan/sabre as you are to a rank 10. An AI that tracked you constantly and waited for you every time you landed. An AI with 100,000 shield, and 100,000 armor. I wonder how those rank 38 @S$h0les would like it if some special AI, was outfitted with stun weapons, 10 diamondbacks and 5 sunslayer launchers. That cut your engines to 0 for 10 seconds, then proceeds to pound you with Sunslayers and more stun things, to make sure you not going anywhere? During all this time you unload your nomads on this AI and barely make a dent, while youre taking 50k damage a second. I doubt you would like that. Thats how a level 10 feels when attacked by a level 38.
So to all those who support across the board PK, go measure your D1ck somewhere else and pick on people who can actually tear you a new one, damn pansies.

its pretty damn sad that DA didnt think of this critical fault in Multiplayer. What is the friggin point of allowing rank 38 super decked players to kill newbies for 'fun.' Let the newbies/low ranks fight amonst themselves when they want to, and let the high level players kill their own kind if they dare.

Digital Anvil needs to fix this PK thing or the whole aspect of Multiplayer for this game will go to $h1t as will the game itself for MP.
The End.

Edited by - Xaanix on 16-03-2003 10:48:08

Sun Mar 16, 2003 10:47 am by Nagorak

Or...you could just play on a care bear server...

Sun Mar 16, 2003 10:54 am by Coda A27

1) DA won't read this server. The link in my sig, however, will be read. Copy and paste my friend.

2) It's not just death which is the problem, it's the damnable quick leveling system as well which should be modified by the servers to their tastes ... if only cheaters couldn't get around that.

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Sun Mar 16, 2003 10:58 am by Xaanix

@Nagorak
Or you could just bite me?

Whats wrong with low ranks killing themselves and higher ranks killing themselves? Youre just too much of a wuss to take on those who can kill you. When 3 high ranks players show up to kill you cuz you been killing newbies, you quit/run. Like i said..bite me.

Every single massively successful MP game has a rating system. Battlenet, MSZone etc. They match player with players, rank with rank based on level, exp, kills..whatever. Those who DO NOT have rating systems, dont FORCE you to fight players of much higher rank. You do it as a challenge but only if you wish.

Digital ANvil should also up a bit the penalties for dying since your PK range gets reduced a lot and dying to a rank 15 if youre a rank 19, he should take some of your money.

Edited by - Xaanix on 16-03-2003 11:00:15

Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:01 am by Coda A27

Really Xan, add a quip about it in my sig link to DA. I agree with you totally about higher death penalties. But they'll read it. And goddamn if I won't persuade every living soul I meet to a grass roots campaign to make DA fix FL into the next Privateer 3 by the second patch.

Want to tell Microsoft to improve Freelancer?
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Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:03 am by aerundel

You can't always play on a non-PvP server. Most of the servers for this game are crap, and the majority of the ones that do work are PvP enabled. It's like the Diablo 2 Realms, except each realm is unstable, limited to 32 players on average, speed cheats, money cheats, level cheats, and no PK protection for the lower level players. It wouldn't hurt to put some sort of level limit structure in the PvP servers...once the exploits are fixed of course.

Edited by - Aerundel on 16-03-2003 11:03:14

Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:15 am by Xaanix

@Coda

Ill send them something about that. Ill pester them if I have to, because FL can be so much more than it is now, without too much work, if DA does it right.

Yes the death thing has to be fixed and also the leveling. It should be hardcoded into the EXE or encrypted so it cant be easily hacked. If it is hacked, then those players cannot play on a normal server, since it modifies the game and they get an error when connecting.

Cheaters and hackers are the types of people like the Nagorak up there, who's brain rolling down the edge of a knife would be like a bowling ball rolling down a 5 lane highway.

--- Yes, most servers suck. Cheat codes should NOT be allowed in MP, period. It shouldnt even be a server option. If you want cheats, go and prance around in Single Player Mode.

Sun Mar 16, 2003 11:19 am by Coda A27

Sometimes I wonder of a monetary loss for dying, or a limited number of spawns per character until you use the last one ... and you're deleted

Or a combination of both. I don't know of any other ways dying can be punished gradually.

Want to tell Microsoft to improve Freelancer?
http://register.microsoft.com/mswish/su ... us&gssnb=1

Sun Mar 16, 2003 4:26 pm by RunOrDie

I agree with increasing death penalties, but only if it's in conjunction with level-based PK. Increasing penalties won't make the lvl38'er in a Titan with 4 Nomad badasses more afraid of newbies.

Another solution is to disallow PK in some systems and allow it in others. For example, not allowing PK in the core Liberty systems (New York, California, Texas, Colorado) would definitely protect newbies from L38 lamers.

IMO something like this would be nice:

- Fix the level indicators so that your ship has a greater bearing on the level. A player flying a Titan with Nomad cannons should NOT be able to be level 30, which is perfectly possible now. Nomads/L9 or 10 cannons/shields should instantly make you level 38, reflecting your heavy firepower/defense and attracting more powerful player enemies. Increase radiation damage by a factor of at least 5 in Nomad systems - right now it's way too easy to get 20 Nomad cannons in a single run.

- Level based PK (+/- 5 levels) in Liberty space. Relatively low death penalties.

- Level based PK (+/- 10 levels) in the other 3 house spaces. Low to medium death penalties.

- Level based PK (+/- 10 to 15 levels) in the "unsafe" systems between the houses (Magellan, Cortez, Kepler, Galileo, Hudson, and Bering). Medium to high death penalties. We could include in this category unsafe systems in the house spaces (Edinburgh, Dublin, Dresden, Hokkaido and Chugoku).

- Free-for-all in Border World systems, as it should be. This includes the Tau, Omega, Sigma and Omicron systems. High death penalties.

- Fix the "faction bug", and make it so if you kill a player, your rep with all his allied factions takes a hit.

A system like this would prompt players to make more difficult decisions. For example do you, as a level 20 pilot, take the shorter Sigma-13 diamond route from New Berlin to New Tokyo, but risk being ambushed by a L38 player? Or do you take the safer, but longer route through Liberty? Do you mine diamonds yourself in Sigma-5 for maximum profit?

Sun Mar 16, 2003 4:52 pm by RazorX

I'm waiting to see if DA corrects the mistake of letting client .ini's determine universe state.

Also you must remember that this is not a MMORPG. It is a multi-player action-shooter. You cannot demand that DA fix through game mechanics what so many other servers have fixed already through the setting and enforcing of PvP rules. An example of this is the Elite server, which prohibits PvP in the Liberty systems.

I'm just afraid that this will not be the last "So-and so killed me on X server!!!! DA Please NERF PvP!!!" thread we are going to see. I see enough of those in the forums of the MMORPG I play.

Sun Mar 16, 2003 5:45 pm by jim_dewit

Yes please, go ruin some other game with your stupid arbetrary rules.

Maybe the majority of servers have PvP enable because thats what the majority of people like.

Sun Mar 16, 2003 6:03 pm by Apocalypse

wow a pk rant that actually make sense ... though I would like to see those 50k dmg per second ai ... maybe it would than make sense to go with 4-5 mates ai hunting aswelll ... btw atm those nomads make with their 2 nomad laser, 2 cannons and 2 blaster about 12k dmg per second ... though could be wrong and its just one of each than it would be just 6k dmg which ... though both still would be not enough, so getting up enemys till ranges of at least 25k dmg per second sounds not that bad .... I do atm, about 15k dmg per second, which means ai ships really are death in 3-4 seconds normaly (not each shot hit, else it would be faster I know). so giving them 100k armor sounds not that bad in my book.

aswell players with the same ship die against me most time in a few seconds. some times if they are fast enough to use their bats before the torp hit it takes abit longer cause an actually fight starts

(which is more or less just flying circles and fire at each other but well

)
and in some really rare situations I am the one that dies in 2 seconds (huhu tas)

but after all I would have nothing against level restriktion in PvP, I simply would use that maybe a hammerhead and keep my level down to something like 20-25 ... though, there should be in that case aswell something to gain in player killing ... even if it would be just that my kills of x player ships in y ship would be saved on my player profil.

ah and just a sidenot,my normal level is 28-30, with a maxed out ship, cause those nomad weapons really do not raise your level much ... so I guess changing the level system abit would be a good idea aswell ... furthermore make level requirments for items and ships and add a lot more items, at best with random drops from enemys (here comes again your killer AI handy ... they could drop sometimes new items, and it would be at least a tuff fight for those items aswell *g*)

Edited by - Apocalypse on 16-03-2003 18:04:04

Sun Mar 16, 2003 10:50 pm by aerundel

How is keeping weaker players safe from lame powergamers/cheaters going to ruin the game? It didn't ruin Diablo 2, did it? Fight someone your own size...

Mon Mar 17, 2003 12:12 am by Apocalypse

hum, I really do not like your powergamers/cheaters ....

Mon Mar 17, 2003 12:22 am by aerundel

Fine, let me extend that to "people who just want to make the game 'fun' by terrorizing players for no reason". I think that covers it. The point is, it's not PvP if the other player doesn't fight back. PKing is what I'm against. Especially when the victim wouldn't be able to pierce your defenses anyway, like what was previously mentioned...

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