Abusing Summoning

[Arry]

Recently I've noticed people hopping on a defending pub team and sabotaging it by summoning the team out of the base with ?summon. They then logged out or specced so quickly that those of us who had been summoned couldn't even see who we attached to in order to complain to the mods. (I'm !@#$%^&*uming they switched back to the attacking team in order to reap the benefits of summoning everyone out).

 

Now I was told to use ?antisummon, but in order to never get abusively summoned I would have to have ?antisummon on all the time. (because you never know when abusive summoners will join your pub team) And that just doesn't make sense. And not all the newbs on pub teams should be forced to remember to change to ?antisummon when defending a base. I do agree that disciplined ?antisummon use could be effective, but you just can't except everyone to be that disciplined. You wouldn't even need ?summon in the first place if everyone was that disciplined; they would attach on their own when called.

 

I don't know how to fix this but I think that players should be given a notification as to who summoned them when ?summon is used. Just a short little message pm'd to teammates. This would at least let us report who's doing the abusive summoning AND it would let us know when we have to turn on ?antisummon (i.e. when the known abuser is around) It would be a deterant at least, so they couldn't do it with impunity. The mods could then take appropriate action.

 

Example text: Arry has used a summoner. Use ?antisummon if you do not wish to be summoned by teammates.

OR

If ?antisummon was on: Arry has tried to summon you, but your ?antisummon was turned on. Use ?antisummon again if you wish to allow summoning

 

I don't think summoning is used so much that you'd have spamming from this.

 

Your thoughts?

[tcsoccer and neptune]

My thoughts...

 

 

Deal with it.

[Arry]

My thoughts...

 

 

Deal with it.

If it's not dealt with then more people will use the tactic. It'll grow to the point where it will have to be dealt with. Why not nip it in the bud?

[tcsoccer and neptune]

Theres been summoner for as long as I've played and I haven't had a big problem like you seem to have.

[Dr Brain]

It shows you attached to the guy, if the guy does it to more than one ship, chances are high that someone sees it and reports it to a mod.

 

This is like asking for a team kill notifier: it's a waste of already limited dev time.

 

Can you imagine the kind of message spam this change would generate? A message for every time you get summoned? Team messages would get completely drowned.

[Rareitanium]

Well if you happen to find out who is doing this, then post it here.

 

We will know to watch them when there is basing going on.

[Arry]

It happened to my team twice in the same flag game. Both times I don't think anyone saw who was doing it. I have a decent connection and I didn't see either time. I guess if you guys don't think it's a problem I'll let it drop, but it was really disappointing when it happened to me/us.

 

I don't want to take up valuable dev time. I have done dev work myself and I know any changes take time.

[Dr Brain]

The problem isn't with summoner, it's that you can't see the guy's name long enough to report him and get him fined/banned.

 

It seems to me like if he does this more than a few times, he'll get caught. I recommend turning on ?leave (and ?enter while you're at it) so you can see who leaves at the same time this is happening.

[Sharpflame]

I don't think this is Summoner being used, though.

 

A few days ago, people were complaining about being warped places that they couldn't have been summoned to, like between sectors and inside the safe zone that borders each sector (which is a 2x2 tunnel, a lanc cannot fit in there to summon you there). This has only happened to me once, and when it happened I ended up in the transwarp hub and shortly saw a turret graphic. It was not my turret graphic, as I have it big and yellow compared to the enemy/teammate turret graphic.

[Aceflyer]

You wouldn't even need ?summon in the first place if everyone was that disciplined; they would attach on their own when called.

 

Actually, the primary use of Summoner these days is to allow people to PM you to attach without loss of energy (F7-attaching drains energy; being summoned doesn't). Only rarely is Summoner used to 'force' a team to attach, and when it is used in that fashion it is seldom effective - the ?summon'ed people generally don't return after dying, since they didn't voluntarily come when called in the first place.

[Pity.]

I don't think this is Summoner being used, though.

 

A few days ago, people were complaining about being warped places that they couldn't have been summoned to, like between sectors and inside the safe zone that borders each sector (which is a 2x2 tunnel, a lanc cannot fit in there to summon you there). This has only happened to me once, and when it happened I ended up in the transwarp hub and shortly saw a turret graphic. It was not my turret graphic, as I have it big and yellow compared to the enemy/teammate turret graphic.

 

 

This is exactly my though. I too believe the problem did not involve summoner. It the the problems the players where having few days ago. To be able to summon multiple people and log off quickly without people seeing who did it is very very unlikely.

[tcsoccer and neptune]

I remember a mod (not sure who) saying that summoner was meant to forceably "summon" people to where you are, not to save energy.

[Sharpflame]

I remember a mod (not sure who) saying that summoner was meant to forceably "summon" people to where you are, not to save energy.

 

Maybe it was, but somebody realized they could set an ?away message?

[tcsoccer and neptune]

Lol Yep...

[Dr Brain]

It was made to save energy. The ?away thing was an unanticipated bonus.

[11___________]

never happened to me in a flag game. i used to only do it to break people down, only to build them back up stronger, unlike never before!

[tcsoccer and neptune]

It was made to save energy. The ?away thing was an unanticipated bonus.

 

Thats probably what I was told.

[James1293]

This is exactly my though. I too believe the problem did not involve summoner. It the the problems the players where having few days ago. To be able to summon multiple people and log off quickly without people seeing who did it is very very unlikely.

 

Unless they were hacking

[tiss61]

never happened to me in a flag game. i used to only do it to break people down, only to build them back up stronger, unlike never before!

yea, most of the time you are antiwarped. so having your whole team being summoned somewhere else is rare.

[Guest Moose Master]

The easy way to fix this is to have a "Accept summon from" property. IE:/ ?accept UnkleFester

 

Then the only person who can summon you is unklefester and can be reset to anyone by typing ?accept

[tiss61]

The easy way to fix this is to have a "Accept summon from" property. IE:/ ?accept UnkleFester

 

Then the only person who can summon you is unklefester and can be reset to anyone by typing ?accept

omg that's is a great idea!!! so lancs in base can make it only certain people can summon you. we should follow through this idea Brain, it's great!

[Aceflyer]

In practice most people seem to have problems spelling player names properly - especially some of the longer or more esoteric ones.

[tiss61]

In practice most people seem to have problems spelling player names properly - especially some of the longer or more esoteric ones.

maybe you can tick that person and pm them "/?acceptsummon" ??? that sounds good

and type "?accept" in public to accept summon from everyone

Edited December 10, 2007 by tiss61

[JoWie]

Another solution: Make Lancs not summonable. May have some other positive effects to

[Deathmonger]

I'd rather catch the persons doing it since the solutions sound like a PITA. Maybe Cerium's log reader could identify a pattern in the server log where the command stream was a ?summon followed by exiting the game to find out who's doing it? Anybody whose last command before exiting is a ?summon is pretty suspicious.