Players disconnecting

Game Discussion Miscellaneous
1

I didn’t find any topics related to this, if there are and I missed them, I am sorry.

 

I have been noticing this problem for some time now, and today the last straw broke this horse’s back (so to speak). I was playing a t5 combat recon 5v5 when 2 of the players on my team quit the game before it even started. There need to be some penalties for abandoning the game, whether it is midway through or before it starts. I know that if you leave a battle, the ships in that battle are unusable until the battle ends, but that is no punishment at all. Any player could simply equip new ships and queue again. The players also miss out on the rewards from that game, which is also hardly a punishment, as it would only deprive them of a max of 400k (in t5 with a license) and several thousand synergy, which is extremely easy for most players to earn back. It is highly unfair for the team to have a player ragequit and abandon their team. In large battles (which are rare in t5, and only happen when the population is high in other tiers) one player disconnecting usually isn’t a big deal. But in small games (which 90% of all t5 games I get are) it is detrimental to the team. Being down a player in a 3v3 or 4v4 game basically ensures that your team will lose.

 

Look at League of Legends for example. If you leave games of League enough, you get temporarily banned from playing (anywhere from 1 hour to 7 days). I don’t think the punishment needs to be that harsh, but something similar would work. 

 

Before I continue, I want to emphasize that a punishment should only apply to players who intentionally leave. Not players who’s game crashes, loses internet connection, or anything along those lines. If a player intentionally quits the game before or during the match, I do think the current punishments should be in place, but I also think that the player should be punished much more. The extreme being after, say, 3 or 4 disconnects, the player is banned from playing for a 12 hours or so. The punishment needs to only be enough to teach the player that leaving the battle is bad and that they won’t be able to play the game for a time if they do it. If the player continues to leave games, the punishment should ramp up.

 

Any other thoughts?

2

I disagree, you can’t force players to play in games they do not want too. They may not like the game mode that comes up, they may think the opposite team is unfairly balanced against them, anything.

 

Disconnecting is not currently “illegal”, it should stay that way.

3

Then no-one will leave intentionally anymore, they will unplug their internet connection and relog in… The main problem is how to determine an intentional disconnect. And I can see myself getting a connectuon issue and getting a 12 hour ban for no reason.

4

The thing about LoL is that matches tend to all be around 45 minutes long. That’s something you find time for in your schedule, not just pop in and pop out of. It’s also got 5 players per team, meaning that each disconnect is huge.

 

Star Conflict has matches each around 5-10 minutes long, which is something you pop in and out of. It’s often got 3 players per team, but sometimes gets up to 12, so not all disconnects are created equal. On top of that, it’s got some terrible servers, so internet fails on it a lot more often than in LoL. But yes. There ought to be a punishment for disconnecting from a game other than just “Hey, you can’t use these ships, and you don’t get rewards! Hahaha.” Since I have nothing to do right now, let me pull a system out of my rear, right here…

 

Each battle has N number of human players per side. Every disconnection ought to give the player the option to join again, through popup or through the “Launch” button. Every disconnect that takes more than half the battle time gives the disconnecter .2*(12 - N) + 5 “disconnect demerits”. If the game detects that the game was quit manually (meaning with the “leave battle” button or with alt+f4), the player is given 7.2/N + 9.4 demerits. Every time a player queues up while disconnected from a previous game, they are given 32.534*(.96026^N) demerits. Demerits are rounded to three decimal places. They decrease by either 5% or just plain 5 demerits every day, whichever is larger, to a minimum of zero.

 

If a player’s demerits exceed 50, they are given a warning via inbox and are fined 10% of their current credits.

If a player’s demerits exceed 100, they are given a sterner warning, another 10% fine, and receive an income malus (including vouchers, synergy, and artifacts, but excluding gs, since that wouldn’t be fair) of 25% until their demerits drop below 100 again.

If a player’s demerits exceed 200, they are given a fine of 20% of all their credits, vouchers, and artifacts, are told that they can no longer queue for a regular game until their demerits drop below 200 again, and are put in a special queue for quitters.

 

A player’s demerits can be viewed by anybody through their pilot profile, in the upper right of the “profile” area, much like how achievement points are displayed in the “achievements” area. These rules can be displayed under “help”.

 

So, for examples of demerit values…

Manual disconnects for half the match and requeue: 35 for a 12v12, 50 for a 2v2.

Manual disconnects for half the match: 15 for a 12v12, 20 for a 2v2.

Disconnect for half the battle: 5 for a 12v12, 7 for a 2v2.

Manual disconnect: 10 for a 12v12, 13 for a 2v2.

Requeue: 15 for a 12v12, 30 for a 2v2.

 

Examples of penalty times:

50 - 10 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects.

100 - 20 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects. Just one day to get rid of the income malus.

150 - 28 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects. Eight days to get rid of the income malus.

200 - 34 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects. 14 days to get rid of the income malus. Just one day to get out of the special queue.

250 - 38 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects. 18 days to get rid of the income malus. Five days to get out of the special queue.

 

I spent an hour thinking of that. God, I need a life.

5

If you start punishing disconnects, they will just be afk with a spinning ship and alt tab till the game is finished.

The game currently punishes you if you leave. You won’t have any rewards, you will still have the repair and ammo costs, and your ships are locked all the time.

6

Rage-quiters are always in the game and will always be there. That’s an acceptable playstyle among players. 

 

However, what I concern most is, some players (maybe alt or some game-crasher) use this game-quitting bug too fequently. I’ve seen some players keep luanching and disconnecting when each battle starts. And what they done is very annonying. 

 

There should be some kind of macanisum that punish those players who continually disconnect from the beginning of battles. At present, I guess not so many players will tend to report those launch-and-disconnect players. As it takes too long for players to report someone during battle, and when the game is over, it’s too hard to find that player who actually quit a lot in battles. 

7

I’m only saying that there should be punishments if the devs can come up with a way to determine when someone intentionally leaves, which currently doesn’t seem like it will happen. I personally come across games where I intentionally disconnect, but that is because I have well over 200 ping and more than 10% packet loss, which is the point where I can’t control my ship at all.

8

If you start punishing disconnects, they will just be afk with a spinning ship and alt tab till the game is finished.

The game currently punishes you if you leave. You won’t have any rewards, you will still have the repair and ammo costs, and your ships are locked all the time.

If you don’t give any inputs to the game for a minute or so, it automatically disconnects you from the game. And if you have a [ridiculously obvious bot](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/24946-what-should-we-do-with-players-like-tnshorty/) to give inputs to the game, well, it’s ridiculously obvious.

9

Before you get all ban happy, consider this: a while back I was in a combat recon match that ran out the clock. I was top of the scoreboard - most assists, second most kills.

Game crashed on me 5 seconds before the end. I got no rewards at all. Despite being active for 99.9% of the match, I got nothing because the server hiccuped and kicked me.

What you are proposing is not only should I not get any reward for 20+ mins of play in that scenario, but I should also get a black mark that denies me reward in future games. Why? What does that possibly achieve?

The simple truth is that the only fix to disconnecting players is two-fold: more stable game code, and better quality matches. No other solution will work.

10

Before you get all ban happy, consider this: a while back I was in a combat recon match that ran out the clock. I was top of the scoreboard - most assists, second most kills.

Game crashed on me 5 seconds before the end. I got no rewards at all. Despite being active for 99.9% of the match, I got nothing because the server hiccuped and kicked me.

What you are proposing is not only should I not get any reward for 20+ mins of play in that scenario, but I should also get a black mark that denies me reward in future games. Why? What does that possibly achieve?

The simple truth is that the only fix to disconnecting players is two-fold: more stable game code, and better quality matches. No other solution will work.

 

I’m not saying that you should get punished for being disconnected by the game itself. I’m only saying that there should be punishment for intentional disconnects. However, with the current server system, it is impossible to differentiate. I do strongly agree that making a more stable game code and better quality matches is the solution.

 

It is my strong desire that I could play on US servers far more often than I do, but the player base doesn’t allow for that, and that is a topic for a different forum. I feel like you should have gotten rewards for that game. I have had numerous games where that happens, and it is entirely beyond my control. It is highly unfair for pilots to be deprived of the rewards they worked 99.9% of the match for all because of ****y servers or bad internet.

11

Okay, so you want to punish intentional disconnecting, but not accidental disconnecting.

 

Well here’s the thing: how do you tell the difference between someone who loses connection due to internet failure / client crash in the first 10 seconds of play, and someone who manually disconnects their internet / kills the game client in the first 10 seconds of play? Here’s a tip: you can’t.

 

So, given that you can’t differentiate between legitimate disconnects and illegitimate ones, how do you propose to implement and enforce this system?

12

If you come back within the minute you probably just got disconnected by accident. If you enter the match then you get the rewards. If you dont come back then you dont get rewards. Problem solved. If you leave 50 seconds before the match ends you get reward. Why is this so hard?

13

If you come back within the minute you probably just got disconnected by accident. If you enter the match then you get the rewards. If you dont come back then you dont get rewards. Problem solved. If you leave 50 seconds before the match ends you get reward. Why is this so hard?

 

Because that doesn’t account for other issues. Like if the player’s home router needed to be restarted and they couldn’t reconnect in time. Or if their ISP throttled their connection causing them a similar problem. Or their personal computer died because it overheated and couldn’t be restarted until it had cooled off. Or a power surge due to lightning… Or the baby needs an emergency diaper change because she is leaking poop all over the floor…

 

Basically, there are plenty of scenarios that aren’t covered.

14

I personally come across games where I intentionally disconnect, but that is because I have well over 200 ping and more than 10% packet loss, which is the point where I can’t control my ship at all.

I generally get 300+ on USA servers, I don’t leave… You can still hang around and support your team (even more so if you just take an engineer)

15

Simply report leavers by sending a ticket. We forward ALL tickets which include leavers/AFKs to the admins. They will be checked and players who have too many reports for leaving will be punished.

16

Because that doesn’t account for other issues. Like if the player’s home router needed to be restarted and they couldn’t reconnect in time. Or if their ISP throttled their connection causing them a similar problem. Or their personal computer died because it overheated and couldn’t be restarted until it had cooled off. Or a power surge due to lightning… Or the baby needs an emergency diaper change because she is leaking poop all over the floor…

 

Basically, there are plenty of scenarios that aren’t covered.

Fine, everyone, just ignore the idea I took an hour to think of.

 

:fed003:

17

Actually, this could work. Too bad the wall of text was a turn-off the first time around.

 

The thing about LoL is that matches tend to all be around 45 minutes long. That’s something you find time for in your schedule, not just pop in and pop out of. It’s also got 5 players per team, meaning that each disconnect is huge.

 

Star Conflict has matches each around 5-10 minutes long, which is something you pop in and out of. It’s often got 3 players per team, but sometimes gets up to 12, so not all disconnects are created equal. On top of that, it’s got some terrible servers, so internet fails on it a lot more often than in LoL. But yes. There ought to be a punishment for disconnecting from a game other than just “Hey, you can’t use these ships, and you don’t get rewards! Hahaha.” Since I have nothing to do right now, let me pull a system out of my rear, right here…

 

Each battle has N number of human players per side. Every disconnection ought to give the player the option to join again, through popup or through the “Launch” button. Every disconnect that takes more than half the battle time gives the disconnecter .2*(12 - N) + 5 “disconnect demerits”. If the game detects that the game was quit manually (meaning with the “leave battle” button or with alt+f4), the player is given 7.2/N + 9.4 demerits. Every time a player queues up while disconnected from a previous game, they are given 32.534*(.96026^N) demerits. Demerits are rounded to three decimal places. They decrease by either 5% or just plain 5 demerits every day, whichever is larger, to a minimum of zero.

 

If a player’s demerits exceed 50, they are given a warning via inbox and are fined 10% of their current credits.

If a player’s demerits exceed 100, they are given a sterner warning, another 10% fine, and receive an income malus (including vouchers, synergy, and artifacts, but excluding gs, since that wouldn’t be fair) of 25% until their demerits drop below 100 again.

If a player’s demerits exceed 200, they are given a fine of 20% of all their credits, vouchers, and artifacts, are told that they can no longer queue for a regular game until their demerits drop below 200 again, and are put in a special queue for quitters.

 

A player’s demerits can be viewed by anybody through their pilot profile, in the upper right of the “profile” area, much like how achievement points are displayed in the “achievements” area. These rules can be displayed under “help”.

 

So, for examples of demerit values…

Manual disconnects for half the match and requeue: 35 for a 12v12, 50 for a 2v2.

Manual disconnects for half the match: 15 for a 12v12, 20 for a 2v2.

Disconnect for half the battle: 5 for a 12v12, 7 for a 2v2.

Manual disconnect: 10 for a 12v12, 13 for a 2v2.

Requeue: 15 for a 12v12, 30 for a 2v2.

 

Examples of penalty times:

50 - 10 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects.

100 - 20 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects. Just one day to get rid of the income malus.

150 - 28 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects. Eight days to get rid of the income malus.

200 - 34 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects. 14 days to get rid of the income malus. Just one day to get out of the special queue.

250 - 38 days to get rid of all demerits, assuming no further disconnects. 18 days to get rid of the income malus. Five days to get out of the special queue.

 

I spent an hour thinking of that. God, I need a life.

18

I generally get 300+ on USA servers, I don’t leave… You can still hang around and support your team (even more so if you just take an engineer)

 

It usually isn’t the ping that is an issue for me, it is packet loss, which I only experience on RU servers. My ping is stable 99% of the time on any server, but on RU servers I end up with packet loss once every 5 or 6 games on an RU server. Packet loss less than 10% is usually flyable, but anything higher than 10% packet loss makes it impossible to control your ship, even in an engineer, there is nothing you can do to help your team, and it is almost better to disconnect so you don’t give free kills to the other team.

 

And Statue’s idea would work nicely provided that the game could differentiate between an intentional disconnect or a crash/internet problem.

19

Removed by Author 

20

Hmm… generally you can only punish people for breaking rules. So, which rule is being broken, exactly, and where is it described? 

 

When there are reports of players who disconnected or were AFK the whole game, these reports are forwarded to the admin in charge of it. He will then check the reports by verifying first of all, if they are false reports or not. You don’t get punished for leaving one game, or being afk one time. But if those justified reports on you leaving games or being afk during battle start to sum up,… then the admins will act according to the game rules.

Keep in mind, one or two disconnects are not the end of the world. Can happen to anyone, due to technical reasons, etc. It just shouldn’t happen too often, since your team is affected by this. And if it happens too often, the administration will have to punish those players, for the sake of the other teammembers.

If you ragequit or go afk, you deserve it. If you have technical problems, that’s ‘bad luck’. It is not the job of the admins to ensure that your hardware is fully functional on the user side.