Forums » General

In-Game Enforcement

Sep 06, 2003 Forum Moderator link
This is becoming an issue again, so it's time for a repost:

Currently the developers have instructed the guides to police only the following:

1) Chat abuse / verbal abuse: Players are asked not to direct unwanted profane, racist, or sexual comments at other players. This is not to say that players cannot curse - that's what the filter is for. Saying "Sherpa is a motherf**king a**hole." is verbal abuse and is not permitted. Saying "I f**king hate guides." is permitted, though some players may not appreciate the language. Spamming is also not permitted. Generally 4 or fewer lines of text are not a problem, but more than this becomes disruptive to others. A warning or two may be given to the offending player at the time of the offense, followed by muting if the player fails to comply. The muting generally lasts until the player agrees to avoid verbally abusing others. This could be a minute, or it could be days.

2) Bug abuse: If a bug (that is, an aspect of the game that is not working as it was intended)is discovered and it is misused to seriously interfere with players (killing others while invulnerable, flag capping while invulnerable, etc.) the offender will be asked to cease. If the bug abuse continues, measures up to and including banning can be used.

* There is much talk of "exploiting". This is actually a term used mostly in internet security to describe gaining access through un-secure software, but in Vendetta players are using it to describe the practices of rocket-ramming, stationing, station mining, jumping, and so forth. While many would describe these practices as "cheap", they are NOT against the rules. There is no official punishment for these practices because they take advantage of aspects of the game that are working as they were expected to. The developers have told me, essentially, that the game issues that result are the fault of the developers and are not to be policed by the guides. The developers are well aware of the impact of these practices, and fixes are in the works.

Please be patient with the development process. The developers are writing the game engine from scratch. Some of you may be familiar with modifying existing commercial game engines via a pre-made interface and may assume that changes are simple. This is not the case with a game-engine in development. Everything takes time, and one change may impact a whole host of other things. Sometimes functional code needs to be torn out and rebuilt to include a new feature or fix a problem. You want the developers to create a game-engine that is well thought-out and logical. Screaming for quick fixes and immediate attention to your particular pet-peeve is not helpful. Calmly reporting problems in detail and even suggesting solutions IS helpful. Remember, your job is to test this thing. Your pay is free access 24/7 and a hand in developing something cool. Enjoy.
Sep 06, 2003 mcnut link
amen brother
Sep 06, 2003 StarFreeze link
I agree with everything.

"Remember, your job is to test this thing."
I also would like to say if someone is testing a bug that they just found... that won't cause other players trouble or give the tester an ability that no one else would have. Let that person test it. Even if you don't trust the person, don't like the person, or whatever, let the person do the test and move on with life. You don't have to be all high and mighty and keep killing that person and saying stuff closely related like "I don't trust him, he's gonna use it to his advantage." If you really want you can watch the person and if they start using it to there advantage then fine go ahead and kill them.

Stopping a bug test does the following.
1. Inability to give a full report on how it happens and where.
2. Since the bug wasn't fully tested the devs will not know if there is other things that can also be done doing something similar or so on. So after everyone "thinks" it's fixed a bit in the future when the main testing of stuff is overwith lets say...someone else finds it. He or she may cause major problems with it depending on how they like the people/game.

So it's better that the bug is tested now, used now, COMPLETELY figured out. So that problems like #2 can never occur.
Sep 06, 2003 Rabid Panda link
There was a thread on what is and isn't a exploit that I mostly forced people to write their opinions into but everyone that posted there got it right. Station mining is a tactic, not a exploit, however immoral you may feel about this, it is *not* up to you so say what is right and what is wrong and press those beliefs on other people. You can however, act out your own personal beliefs in the game without pressing them on people, mostly this is done by the individuals that are referred to as "bad." Please keep in mind that good and bad are a personal aspect of the world and that not everyone sees it as you do.
Sep 07, 2003 Mini link
/me asks how u got salty water up your nose??
Sep 07, 2003 Renegade ++RIP++ link
actually in a way station mining is an exploit because due to a minor lack in code it prohibits me from docking or undocking safely.

Dont forget when you undock there is a little period of invincibility, in this period the mines cant harm you. So in fact this little period is actually implemented to neutralize this threat. It has only got 1 minor glitch, namely your invincibility runs out and if the mines are widespread around the station, then you will still get killed and the invincibility wont have the effect it was supposed to have. So in short, you could call it a bug, because a little code "that makes you invincible" gets prohibited from actually doing what it was supposed to do, and that is undocking you safely

PS: the invincibility has been put in to accomodate our complaintes about station camping.

So if you take this thought for the counterpart of undocking, which is docking "think about the no fire zone that the devs wanted to implement". Then you can conclude that mining a station actually is an exploit. Naturally my point on the docking part can be neglected because the code hasnt been put in yet, but on the part of undocking, it still stands.

PPS: and this point is true :D

cheers
Sep 06, 2003 Forum Moderator link
What Suicidal Lemming SHOULD have written:

"Exploit is taking advantage of a known bug to give yourself an unfair advantage. For instance [player reference deleted] stealing credits. Rocket ramming is not an exploit, station mining \ nukeing are also not exploits.

They're tactics, cheap tactics but tactics none the less."
Sep 06, 2003 Suicidal Lemming link
oops

sowwy

(it's late, and i have sea water in my nose, don't ask.)
Sep 07, 2003 SirCamps link
Rene, wrong.

the 5 second rule is doing what it's designed to do--keep you from getting killed within 5 seconds of un-docking. I have mined sector 7 with prox mines many times, and the pilots just aren't careful. See those yellow dots? Don't boost into them. If pilots would be more careful, they'd realize where the holes are and how to get out. If not, grab a bus and ram a hole, then get in a cent and fly through it before it can be filled.
Sep 07, 2003 Forum Moderator link
Okay this thread was intended to be a statement of fact, not a debate.

[locked]
Sep 07, 2003 Pyro link
Ummm... No? :P
Sep 07, 2003 Forum Moderator link
D'oh! I always forget that part!