Using Battles To Hide Forces

[BR549]

Not sure about the name and shame policies here, so if naming is okay, I'll provide the Clan name on a later posting.

 

On PvP 2 U.S. server players have been using mission battles to hide a larger force to attack players.  What they are doing is creating a group of 5 to 6 players, and obtaining missions from a friendly port that is located near enemy ports.  These missions can be the lowest ranked mission available, the quicker to finish the better.  Hoping of course that their mission is located near an enemy port or along a major trade route.  They all go into the mission battle and after the allowed time, the cross cutlass disappears and they complete the mission.  Though once completed they remain in the battle area, I have never remained after the battle to see if there is a timer that kicks you out.  So on this, I'm unsure as to how long they remain HIDDEN, because while they are in the battle and the cutlass is gone, they're location or number of ships are hidden from the OPEN WORLD. 

 

One player exits out of battle and becomes bait or hunts enemy ships, of course this is being done near their mission battle area.  An enemy player sails up on the player who sits waiting, and of course, the player is now targeted or the exiting player targets them, either way a battle begins in 20 seconds.  At first the battle appears to be a 1 vs. 1 battle.  Once the battle starts, the remaining players still HIDDEN from view in the completed mission battle exit, waits for their invulnerable cool down and enter the battle.  So they're using the in-game battle mechanics to stay hidden from view.  Not sure if this is playing within the rules or not.  But what good is scanning the horizon when sailing in the Open World if players can hide within the game and pounce on unsuspecting players.

 

The Clan bragged about how they could remain hidden after doing this tactic.  Being sunk 5 vs 1, even 10 vs 3 is not an issue and fairly common; we all get sunk from time to time.  But being able to obtain these numbers by being hidden in open waters, is not a fair engagement.  Its bad enough, this Clan is part of one largest populated nations as it is, but to hide their numbers, when they already have a large player base, goes a bit to far.

 

 

[Arsilon]

Pirates do the same thing by attacking each other all the time.

[BR549]

Sounds like intentionally exploiting the mechanics to me...

I'd be curious to see if they have submitted anything on the forums or via f11 regarding it...

Yes .. reported through F11 near end of battle

Edited February 27, 2016 by BR549

[Quineloe]

This is hardly tribunal material but should be in open world discussion. It is pretty much impossible to tell whether someone deliberately reinforced a battle from another battle or whether it's pure chance. You exit a battle and see another right next to you, are you now not allowed to enter?

 

This needs a game mechanic solution, not a million tribunal cases.

[BR549]

This is hardly tribunal material but should be in open world discussion. It is pretty much impossible to tell whether someone deliberately reinforced a battle from another battle or whether it's pure chance. You exit a battle and see another right next to you, are you now not allowed to enter?

 

This needs a game mechanic solution, not a million tribunal cases.

Apparently you didn't read the post where I said the Clan BRAGGED at how they did it ... must have just scanned the post...

[edgey the edge]

seen this happen a lot on pvp3 and not just pirates doing it.

sit in the loot screen or wait inside the battle after its ended while a friend goes out to look.

[Eishen]

This is hardly tribunal material but should be in open world discussion. It is pretty much impossible to tell whether someone deliberately reinforced a battle from another battle or whether it's pure chance. You exit a battle and see another right next to you, are you now not allowed to enter?

 

This needs a game mechanic solution, not a million tribunal cases.

 

Does not seem  pure chance if they used a mission battle to hide a whole fleet...but I think you are right this is better trated as a game mechanic that needs polish.... making battlesites visible even after finishing (think I read something similar in respect battle summary screen camping ) could help avoid this problem 

 

 

a quite cunning trick btw  

[Quineloe]

Apparently you didn't read the post where I said the Clan BRAGGED at how they did it ... must have just scanned the post...

 

First of all, unlike the new troll insinuated, I did not defend _these particular players_. All I said that this is quite impossible to really pin on someone because this might just happen through regular gameplay.

Damage farming can't happen by accident.

Crossteaming can't happen by accident.

This can. People could always just exit a mission and jump into another fight nearby. And if they don't brag about it, how do you catch them?

 

second, if this is a tribunal case, you need to declare the accused by name. Not "A clan". Since you didn't do this, we can only talk about this in general terms.

[Santhonax]

Agree with Quineloe on this one. I understand the OP's lack of willingness to "name and shame", but really without a chat log and specific names there's absolutely nothing of a Tribunal nature to pursue here. Taking the stance of "all abusers must be shot" is going to devolve into a developer wasting precious time perusing numerous complaints that were likely nothing more than genuine happenstance. Hell, I know that I've been tagged at least twice by other players only to have reinforcements drop in on one side or the other that neither of us knew were around because of this mechanic, but based upon our mutual surprise neither of us were culpable of mechanic abuse either. Without a screenshot "proving" knowing duplicity and abuse by a party, this issue belongs on the Open World discussion.

[KrakkenSmacken]

Just an FYI on how exiting a battle instance works, they seem to stay open indefinitely.  

 

I was in an rush and logged out before exiting an instance I was in after hunting an NPC trader, fully expecting to login in the OW when I got back.

 

Nope, 8 hours later, still in instance, still able to interact with the cargo loot/adjust window.

[Zisme]

One of my pirate mates on Eu1 thinks this happened to him the other night. 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Zisme

[DrunkenSloth]

I do think you should be able to remain in battle for maybe 10 minutes or so safe from being attacked, just so you can take a quick break after a long battle. But they really need to limit the time you can remain on the screen, because even in PvP1 people are using it to stay hidden.

[KrakkenSmacken]

It would be interesting if movement within the instance affected your final re-appearance location in the real world.

 

Add in a large scaling factor, and a fight could see you re-enter so far away from the start point that this tactic would be... difficult to pull off at best.

 

EDIT:Addtion

Could just put in an exit timer.

 

Can not voluntarily join a new combat instance for 5 minutes after exiting one.  Still subject to being attacked after invulnerable cool down,  just can't choose to join any instance that was started prior to your exiting.

Edited March 4, 2016 by KrakkenSmacken