Relogging

[Nomasaurus]

So lately I've been thinking about the controversial matter of relogging to get spawn kills and start as zombie early.
I enjoy relogging like many other players do, but lately its just gotten to be a little much. Many aspects of the Blocktopia Zombie server are there to make the game as evenly rounded Human Vs. Zombie as possible. For instance, Block limits, Different map times, and even the rules. I find that Blocktopia Zombies is a very even match for a lot of the maps. But relogging is jeopardizing this fairness. When a very skilled player starts out as a zombie and eats at least 2 or 3 people within the first minute, the tables turn very sharply in favor of the zombies. I think that some regulation for relogging should be put into order. I enjoy a challenge as much as the rest of you, but sometimes for hours on end surviving is impossible except on the maps that are quite in favor of humans.
In short, Relogging is too much of an advantage to the zombies, and should be regulated. If relogging continues to be abused, I think that running maps could become obsolete.

 

[Duffie]

I feel as if this has been suggested some time in the past.

But, you can't really control this, to be honest. And if they want to relog with the chance to not be able to get back in the server, just to be a zombie, I say more power to them.

I understand the concern of the unbalanced teams, but there usually are more zombies than humans in apocalyptic situations.

Of course, that's just my opinion, I guess. xP

 

[Chillingworth]

Well, I would normally say that this is not an issue. However, if Ops cannot unref in spawn at the beginning of the round, why can players re-log? It's the same issue.

 

[JKangaroo]

This actually has been suggested in the past... quite a few times I believe.

Honestly, I don't see a problem with re-logging, and I don't really see why there is so much concern for it.
If players want to play a certain way, let them.
Some players would rather, in the long run, play as a zombie on certain maps, or just enjoy the aspect of playing a zombie over the human.
If we restrict the availability of becoming a Zombie, we reduce the enjoyment of specific players, hurting the server in general.

One solution you could say is to make re-logging illegal, and just make people who want to play Zombie wait in the spawn.
Personally, this solution would do nothing in the cause to do this. In fact, I've seen more people just wait in the spawn instead of re-logging.
Re-logging and waiting in spawn roughly take about them same amount of time during certain hours of the server. And even in the lower-population hours, the time period in becoming a zombie through waiting in Spawn does not really differ that much, though it can be.
This solution would roughly not really add any more "balance" to the teams.

In fact: what games have perfect balance?
Most games that attempt to achieve perfect balance between opposite teams tend to be a tad bit boring, especially over a long period of time. A possible outcome in any scenario in balancing a game will be: "will it make our server/game less fun to play on?"
35 people have the ability to be on the server at any given time. Zombies will normally always have a slight advantage over humans due to their numbers; giving a challenge most of the time, which is good for competitiveness and becoming a better player.
Most maps are balanced, but many people don't really see the balance in them (I included). Because some people do not see the balance in specific maps, they can gain a sense of unbalance and that these maps have more of an edge for the zombies.
Of course though, stated above, zombies, in the long run, will most likely always have a slight advantage over humans due to it being more "team-like" then humans, which is a more "lone-wolf" style of gameplay.

If relogging continues to be abused, I think that running maps could become obsolete.

I don't really understand this. It doesn't really make a lot of sense. Running maps are perhaps the most versatile of maps in terms of protecting teams from unbalancing due to re-logging, and gives humans and zombies plentiful opportunities to either eat the opposite team, or avoid them entirely. This is possibly what makes people love jump-course, runner, and parkour maps extremely enjoyable to many players, at least, in a technical way.
If you could: elaborate on that, as I don't see a problem or understand this.

I've mentioned most of this in a previous post in a previous thread revolving this topic...
Here is a thread by _4_ on the topic: http://blocktopia.net/forum/threads/logging-in-and-out.7657/#post-114291
I feel the majority, with some additions based on stats, explains the scenario in a better light due to all the feedback in that thread.

 

[Duffie]

Well, I would normally say that this is not an issue. However, if Ops cannot unref in spawn at the beginning of the round, why can players re-log? It's the same issue.

Why can't Ops unref in spawn at the beginning of the round? o. o

 

[JKangaroo]

Well, I would normally say that this is not an issue. However, if Ops cannot unref in spawn at the beginning of the round, why can players re-log? It's the same issue.

Ops are still allowed to unref in spawn at the beginning of rounds, are they not?
The only restriction was to wait a brief amount of time before un-reffing, at least, that's what I saw in the Meeting Recap. :/

 

[Nomasaurus]

I don't have a problem with how equal the teams are, as with how hard its made surviving sometimes on the server. I don't care how good your hiding spot is, if all the other humans are dead in 3 or 4 minutes and 20 zombies are looking for you, more often then not they can find you. I just find that when you have that many zombies at the start then its nigh impossible for humans to win.
A couple suggestions I have is that you either make a randomized rejoin time if you try to rejoin in under a minute, so that it could be anywhere from immediately to 1 minute so that relogging would be more difficult.
Also, you could code it so that nobody could join the server for a minute after the round started.

 

[Nottykitten]

I can see the problem, but I still have to disagree with you.
Some people -me- like to rejoin to become a zombie. For being a zombie can sometimes be funner than being a human. Ofcourse I am not going to wait in spawn for someone to join. This could take 2 secs, but this could also take two minutes.... And running throught the whole map to find the first zombie seems silly to me.
And rejoining can take 1 sec to 30 secs. Thus it is by far one of the best options.
If relogging will be illegal, people will still wait in spawn to die. Most likely within a minute becoming a zombie too, and just continue to kill. So much diffrence will it not make.
Ofcourse it is annoying to have 20 zombies looking for you at 7 minutes left. And its nearly impossible indeed.
But if people like to be a zombie over being a human, I don't think there is much to do about it.

 

[Nomasaurus]

I understand that Notty, and respect it as well. As a player who enjoys both zombie and human, I still find it quite annoying that on certain occasions where I'm in a human mood, its simply impossible to survive.

 

[Vatumok]

We can't really forbid people to relog. Also, I don't think it's that hard to survive, there people with like 150 rounds survived already. I think it's alright that surviving is a bit challenging.

 

[triangle]

I've often reloaded to be a zombie. Sometimes I just want to be a zombie, and sometimes the server is just so sparsely populated that it feels a bit necessary.

Anyway, if I couldn't reload and wanted to be a zombie I'd just do what I do when the server is packed - look for a zombie and start chasing them. In this situation I could lose maybe a minute (or two), but it usually results in me being in a much better position to start taking out humans when I do become a zombie.

This mostly applies to running / parkour maps but those are the most likely to be ones I want to eat brains on anyway.

On the other side of that, I *have* tried reloading in that period of time between the round starting and the zombie being picked to game an additional 50 blocks - I wanted to try out a great idea for a hiding spot on a certain map. That felt really cheap and wrong to me and I don't do that.

 

[ethical1337]

One thing in the same idea as re logging that I felt should be brought up. I have noticed quite a few players who quit when they are picked to be the first zombie, then they quit because they don't want to be the first/only zombie. This forces the server to pick another. Here is where they log back in and play as a zombie. Vatumok Do you think we should talk to these players about that or warn? I just want to know what we should do because this seems quite un sportsman like.

 

[Vatumok]

One thing in the same idea as re logging that I felt should be brought up. I have noticed quite a few players who quit when they are picked to be the first zombie, then they quit because they don't want to be the first/only zombie. This forces the server to pick another. Here is where they log back in and play as a zombie. Vatumok Do you think we should talk to these players about that or warn? I just want to know what we should do because this seems quite un sportsman like.

If they relog to get someone else also to start, then that's very pathetic behavior. And yes, I think this should definitely be warned/kick for if it's done. I don't think a verbal warning is necessary because it's not that hard to figure that it's lame to relog to let another person start besides you.

 

[ethical1337]

Alrighty, thanks for the input. I know a few other ops were wondering what to do about this kind of thing but I always forgot to bring it up. Ill be sure they know our standpoint on this.