Boosting

[The Kush]

Definition -
Boosting is the act of a user speeding up the process of gaining awards or experience in video game, typically a First Person Shooter in an online Multi-Player setting, by using methods that are not supported by the game developers and the online community. These methods include the user having one of his friends joining the opposite team and letting the user kill that friend multiple times to gain experience and kills at a faster rate than normal.

Example -
Jeff is on team A and gets his friend John to join team B. John lets Jeff kill him repeatedly so that John can "Level-up" faster. Jeff is "boosting" because John is helping him "boost" his level and statistics.

The Problem -
Users can make an infnite number of accounts with potentially no punishment (some users have suggested an account check of some sort; ie you must provide a phone number, credit card, something along those lines). Without a proper system to check for boosting, players will sit at a galaxy in the far corner of the map hiding from sight and have their "main" account continually kill the "boosting" account over and over again. Now the player has the chance to gain massive amounts of resources and other special achievemnts the game might have such as awards for x amount of headshots. The player will also have their rank boosted.

The Solution -
In PS1 the more you killed a player the less exp you gained for that kill. If you killed a player who was on a killing streak you would recieve a substantial amount more of exp versus a player who has been killed multiple times in x amount of time. This will work great in PS2 for protecting resources and exp boosters. However; this does not address the issue of stats (which are being tracked) and any other awards that might be available to "unlock". This is why I suggest if something such as stats is to stay in the game (which it looks like it will) a cheating system (which might already be implenmented or planned on) shall be placed in the game to detect boosting. Now obviously the just announced dedicated "server mods" could potentially view live data for repeat killing that might resemble boosting, but I believe it is crucial to also dedicate a system that scans the server for "patterns" that shows the same players constantly killing each other. After x amount of kills between a group of players, those players will have their accounts banned.

[Xyntech]

I'm in favor of players who have killed a lot of people giving out more XP when they die, even for other reasons than mentioned here, so I think this would be good all around.

Seems like it won't be that hard of a thing to add if their cheating solutions and stat tracking are as robust as the devs claim they are.

The same would have to apply to players flipping a hex back and forth repeatedly, or for medics constantly repairing damage inflicted by the same players, especially friendly fire.

[SKYeXile]

boosting should be crushed with an iron fist.

[Baneblade]

Nerf Iron Fisting

[Bags]

Off topic - I think the name "power leveling" sounds a lot better.

Simple solution is to use PS1's XP system. The longer you're alive, and the more kills you have in that life, the more xp you are worth. Recent spawnees are worth like 5 xp, people alive for 5 mins with 10 kills are worth 500.

[Captain1nsaneo]

The person doing this is trading fun for levels. Sounds like a raw deal to me. Also is crippling their actual skill which is built up in combat.

Also, in PS1, you got more/less BEP depending on how long they were alive. Spawn babies were pretty much worth only 3-5 BEP apiece.

[RNFB]

Player A kills Player B multiple times consecutively in a short amount of time in same area with no other activities being registered... system automatically suspends account for further review...

Not hard to implement.

[Talented Maori]

Meh, if they wanna go 'shoot themselves' in a corner I don't really care. I'll be playing the game as intended :D

[The Kush]

Off topic - I think the name "power leveling" sounds a lot better.

Simple solution is to use PS1's XP system. The longer you're alive, and the more kills you have in that life, the more xp you are worth. Recent spawnees are worth like 5 xp, people alive for 5 mins with 10 kills are worth 500.

If you read my post I discussed this.

As I mention it does not address every issue.

[The Kush]

Player A kills Player B multiple times consecutively in a short amount of time in same area with no other activities being registered... system automatically suspends account for further review...

Not hard to implement.

Yes this is one of the solutions I discuss. If they decide to implement it or can develop it is a whole different story.

[AgtPanda]

I thought they had a partial solution to this with the EVE-like exp gaining structure, i.e. exp is gained over time passively instead of based on the stuff you kill.

[Zekeen]

Most exp will be from missions, so boosting would have very little impact. You'd earn 10 times more by doing missions. They would respawn slower from dying so much anyways. It'd had hardly any value, like an overburnt steak.

[Bags]

If you read my post I discussed this.

As I mention it does not address every issue.

I don't really give a damn about stats and unlocks are based on level which is based on XP. Good luck getting BR 25 off of 5 xp kills.

[The Kush]

Most exp will be from missions, so boosting would have very little impact. You'd earn 10 times more by doing missions. They would respawn slower from dying so much anyways. It'd had hardly any value, like an overburnt steak.

Okay you just like Bags did not read the entire post. It isn't just about exp gain, as I mentioned they can implement a similar system to PS1 and be okay. It is about the stats.

[GreatMazinkaise]

Stats don't win battles or lock continents (not that this is available anymore). It's a non-issue.

[Bags]

Okay you just like Bags did not read the entire post. It isn't just about exp gain, as I mentioned they can implement a similar system to PS1 and be okay. It is about the stats.

Who cares about the stats? If someone wants to spend all day stat padding let them.

[Purple]

I'm in favor of players who have killed a lot of people giving out more XP when they die, even for other reasons than mentioned here, so I think this would be good all around.

Seems like it won't be that hard of a thing to add if their cheating solutions and stat tracking are as robust as the devs claim they are.

The same would have to apply to players flipping a hex back and forth repeatedly, or for medics constantly repairing damage inflicted by the same players, especially friendly fire.

this will allow for even more booting tho. i love the way this worked in ps1 however you will get 1 guy have an alt kill another alt alot then have your main guy kill the first alt.

[Xyntech]

this will allow for even more booting tho. i love the way this worked in ps1 however you will get 1 guy have an alt kill another alt alot then have your main guy kill the first alt.

I was responding to Kush's post and was agreeing with him that the game needs to automatically track who is killing who. So that wouldn't really be a problem, since the game would flag that one person was killing the same person a bunch of times followed by being killed by that person, at which time a CSR could come and confirm.

[Goku]

The Solution -
In PS1 the more you killed a player the less exp you gained for that kill. If you killed a player who was on a killing streak you would recieve a substantial amount more of exp versus a player who has been killed multiple times in x amount of time. This will work great in PS2 for protecting resources and exp boosters. However; this does not address the issue of stats (which are being tracked) and any other awards that might be available to "unlock". This is why I suggest if something such as stats is to stay in the game (which it looks like it will) a cheating system (which might already be implenmented or planned on) shall be placed in the game to detect boosting. Now obviously the just announced dedicated "server mods" could potentially view live data for repeat killing that might resemble boosting, but I believe it is crucial to also dedicate a system that scans the server for "patterns" that shows the same players constantly killing each other. After x amount of kills between a group of players, those players will have their accounts banned.

I'm pretty sure that is not how PS worked. I swear it was a timer based on how long a player was alive. Hence why killing new spawned players netted like 5 XP.

[Eyeklops]

Who cares about the stats? If someone wants to spend all day stat padding let them.

This.

[SKYeXile]

I'm pretty sure that is not how PS worked. I swear it was a timer based on how long a player was alive. Hence why killing new spawned players netted like 5 XP.

Yea i dont think it had anything to do with how many people you killed, only time alive.

[Snipefrag]

I think there is scope for people to pad their kill stats, for XP its a pretty simple solution.. but we haven't heard of anything to stop someone doing this:


create 10 accounts, make 9 characters on the opposite faction.
run 9 bare bones, lowest resolution, lowest setting clients on a couple of other rigs.
Group all those characters on the opposite faction
Bring a gal over to a remote part of the continent
Set up some really simple 'clicker' app to just hit the respawn button for each of these instances of the game
Bring the char you want to kill pad over to the gal (played on a second PC)
The one guy automates something to terminate all the spawners


There will be problems with this for sure, the biggest being all those kills will result in a hotspot which would attract attention. Additionally PS2 wont be like PS1 (at least initially) where you can sod off to some remote continent and people might not notice a hotspot for a while, but i wouldn't put it past people to do it.. Some solutions that the devs could implement to make things like this harder, and also make sense for a whole host of reasons are:


1 instance of the game per PC, you might be able to get around this with a virtual machine but it will make it a lot harder
Spawn in many locations around a gal, not one or two specific places. Will make automating the person doing the kills harder, this makes sense also because it makes spawn camping harder
Client side pattern listener, something really simple that monitors for strange input client side. Such as people only clicking left mouse button and jumping etc. Games like WoW used this to stop botters and it worked well.
You don't get a kill until someone has been spawned for 15 seconds or more, discourages behavior like this as well as spawn camping.


Yeah.. i put way to much thought into this :lol:. I dont really care about people stat padding, but some people do.. I just like trying to think of solutions :D

[CutterJohn]

Maybe boosting isn't the problem. Maybe its a symptom of the problem. Maybe the problem is that people dislike experience grinds so much that they are willing to do unfun things to push past them.

[Baneblade]

Player A kills Player B multiple times consecutively in a short amount of time in same area with no other activities being registered... system automatically suspends account for further review...

Not hard to implement.

'no other activities' meaning what exactly.

Because I can see several scenarios where this would screw with ordinary players.

[Rbstr]

Frankly I just don't care. Let the guy go off and attempt to pad his BR...It means next to nothing in a game where levels don't determine character power.

I would like some kind of experience scaling system as that would be a benefit to me.

[The Kush]

The only reason I have a slight care is because I am a competitive player and they are bringing back the leaderboards. Boosting will make the leaderboard worthless.

And Goku you may be right my apologies it's been awhile.

[waldizzo]

Didn't Higby say in the PSU interview that part of their "anti-cheat" is the equivalent of having a live administrator on a BF server? I think it would be pretty easy to detect this kind of activity.

[The Kush]

Didn't Higby say in the PSU interview that part of their "anti-cheat" is the equivalent of having a live administrator on a BF server? I think it would be pretty easy to detect this kind of activity.

Yes I touched on this in my solution but the server mods might be too busy handling worse forms of cheating.

This kind of cheating is at the bottom of the list because it isn't negatively affecting gameplay, it is merely ruining the leaderboards.

Also if they have skin unlocks for your guns/vehicles/players/ect after x amount of kills or x amount of headshots people could cheat the system and unlock these as well.

[The Kush]

I think there is scope for people to pad their kill stats, for XP its a pretty simple solution.. but we haven't heard of anything to stop someone doing this:


create 10 accounts, make 9 characters on the opposite faction.
run 9 bare bones, lowest resolution, lowest setting clients on a couple of other rigs.
Group all those characters on the opposite faction
Bring a gal over to a remote part of the continent
Set up some really simple 'clicker' app to just hit the respawn button for each of these instances of the game
Bring the char you want to kill pad over to the gal (played on a second PC)
The one guy automates something to terminate all the spawners


There will be problems with this for sure, the biggest being all those kills will result in a hotspot which would attract attention. Additionally PS2 wont be like PS1 (at least initially) where you can sod off to some remote continent and people might not notice a hotspot for a while, but i wouldn't put it past people to do it.. Some solutions that the devs could implement to make things like this harder, and also make sense for a whole host of reasons are:


1 instance of the game per PC, you might be able to get around this with a virtual machine but it will make it a lot harder
Spawn in many locations around a gal, not one or two specific places. Will make automating the person doing the kills harder, this makes sense also because it makes spawn camping harder
Client side pattern listener, something really simple that monitors for strange input client side. Such as people only clicking left mouse button and jumping etc. Games like WoW used this to stop botters and it worked well.
You don't get a kill until someone has been spawned for 15 seconds or more, discourages behavior like this as well as spawn camping.


Yeah.. i put way to much thought into this :lol:. I dont really care about people stat padding, but some people do.. I just like trying to think of solutions :D

Thank you snipe I like that WoW idea.

[Gandhi]

Use Planetside 1's variable XP system, which should be in PS2 regardless because it was great. Problem solved.

edit: Unless you're all talking about padding K/D ratio, I don't really care about that so I'll let you come up with solutions to it :p

[Fuse]

Who cares about the stats? If someone wants to spend all day stat padding let them.

This. I can't remember the last time I played a game with global stats that the leader boards were worth looking at. I never really cared, but now it's not something I even consider. Let the losers fight over the top spot. Those of us actually playing to complete objectives don't give a shit.

[RNFB]

'no other activities' meaning what exactly.

Because I can see several scenarios where this would screw with ordinary players.

Not damaging other players or participating in active hexes

Higby also pretty much just confirmed they're doing what I said in the live stream

[The Kush]

Higby confirmed my post in the live stream. I am glad they are aware of this