This idea was originallly posted by me for Battlefield 2, on the planetbattlefield forums. IBut since I like the progress you have done so far, and will only like to see even better games in the future, I forward this idea to you.
This does not necesarly apply 100% to Enemy Territory, but it can help with it, and any future projects.
I think it’s about time games had an efficient way of spotting TKers without the need of a complaint/voting system. Patterns of a TKer are easy for a Script to predict and take care off.
I will just link to the thread where the idea started. And qoute it below.
http://www.forumplanet.com/planetbattlefield/topic.asp?fid=7419&tid=1679058
The purpose of a TK system if any is to kill TeamKillers. That is, people who have no other purpose in life but to kill Teammates. NOT to kick those who cause accidents from time to time, that’s what votes are for.
I think games should be smart enough to kick and ban TKers, without any need of votes, or punishments/compaint system. Meaning, the game should be capable of monitoring what you are doing, and simply kick those who are TKing on purpose.
On some games, PunkBuster can be configured to kick on negative scores. This is an effective way of kicking the true TeamKillers. You can set this to allow some degree of negative scores (in case you started that round on the wrong foot). But it’s obvious that if someone has a -50 score, he should be banned. What I have seen on other games was a PB variable that could be tweaked by the admin.
That is a simple method that already EXISTS for other PB games. So EvenBlance, WAKE UP!
Now lets try and define new methods that should be easy to implement.
So far a TK count is not good enough. That is, you are banned after N number of kills. A player that kills 1000 enemies is expected to kill 10 teammates, maybe 20, or even more. Unlike a player who kills 10 enemies, that isnt expected to kill that many friendlies.
So this is where a Ratio comes in. It would be very easy to have a TK tolerance ratio, again Tweakable by the admin. And also, will only start counting after some amount kills (In case you start the round on the wrong foot). Now in detail:
This requires Two values. The ratio itself, and a value in which it actually starts working. So an example would be a ratio of 0.20 (aka 20%) and a second value of “10”. This means that from 10 total kills and onward, the game engine will analize how many TKs you have commited and if it ever passes 20% of all your kills you are banned.
The idea of this method is to avoid voting, all your TKs are counted. You have a margin of error provided by the admin. So you gotta learn to live with it. You may have noob servers where TKs are more forgiving, and pro servers where the margin is lower.
All these settings could have nice defaults values, which can be calculated after some trial and error. And should be tweakable by the admin. The values I provided are not suggested defaults, I suggest testing to find appropiate values.
Note that escentially both work the same way, but the first can still be exploited by TeamKillers. They can get scores from doing simple irrelevant stuff and keep on TKing. The second will force them to rack some kills. So even if they do TK, they will have to help the team even more.
The methods pointed above still have one flaw, they are good for bullets. But what if someone dies by other means?
There are mainly two types of TKers, those that shoot you. And those that try to die on your hands so they can file in a complaint and kick you instead. My methods suggest no voting so obviously, there will still be a problem with someone exploting the method to kill legit gamers.
So lets analize the other ways of dying. That do not involve gunfire.
a) Vehicle Squashing. First off all, the lethal lead poisining on the outside of the vehicles is expected to be removed. Touching a buggy that is going at 1 mph shouldn’t kill you.
That fixed, if you ever die by Vehicle Squashing i’d say it’s more your fault than TK. Put yourself on the TKers point of view, You want to mess up the game, It’s a lot easier to make vehicles kill you and punish, than to kill everyone with your vehicle (you’d probably kill yourself trying to do that). So this shouldn’t be considered a TK.
b) Mines, and other Target-Triggered Explosives. Again put yourself in the mind of a TKer. A TKer can do more damage to the team by running over mines and punishing. Compared to putting mines to TK others. As a legit player you see a mine, you simply avoid it, If you die it’s mostly your mistake. So death by mine shouldn’t be considered a TK.
c) Grenades, c4, and other User-Triggered Explosives. The name says it all, this should be considered just like it is now. It’s a TK just like with any other type of gunfire.
d) Artillery. This will be considered just like it is now a TK. But the commander will now have a “Ratio” instead a Static Number of TKs he can commit. So if you kill a lot of enemies, you will be able to kill a lot of friendlies, as long as you are within the ratio. Example: Who cares if the commander killed 50 teamamtes when he has killed thousands of enemies. But I would care if he has only killed 5 enemies and 50 teamamtes. The “second value” stated on my previous thread will help forgive those who started in the wrong foot.
e) Bad Driving. If you as a dirver/pilot crashed and everyone with you died. None of this should be considered a TK. It’s an accident. If you sense you have a bad driver, just abandon the vehicle early.
Hope you find it interesting… Comments 