I was just in a GSF match where one person, who will remain nameless because the devs don't like us to call them out (but for purposes of simplifying, we'll call him Dan), self-destructed to cause us to lose. More than half the other team's points were because of Dan's self-destructing. That is all he did in the entire match.

When the match began, Dan was destroyed and he then asked if anyone wanted to "watch that again." Me, I'm a bomber, I was getting set up with my bombs and repair drone so that he and the others could have a bit of repairs, reloads, and Dare I Say It? COVER. But nobody responded to him. So, Dan decided to throw a tantrum and self-destructed the rest of the match. We might have had a chance to win, but with more than half of the other team's points being because Dan self-destructed the rest of the match, we didn't.

I'd like to propose that a new feature be added to GSF so that if a player chooses to try to throw the match through self-destructing, they are auto kicked after 4 or 5 self-destructs if they have not contributed to the match in any meaningful way between those self-destructs - i.e. doing damage to the other team or assisted with capping and holding a sat. Please don't allow players like Dan do this to the rest of the community. It makes it difficult for anyone to have fun, except for the trolls like Dan, who get a kick out of ruining everyone else's day.

Good thread but I don't have much faith in BW doing anything about this.

Anyway all of the Ebon Hawk regulars knows who you're talking about. Said person is notorious for throwing matches when people don't do exactly what he wants. Your team can be ahead by like 15 kills and he'll still do it. He plays both sides and it's to the point some players won't queue when they know he's on their faction.

You can try reporting to Customer Service. It's not a TOS or EULA violation, but there is still a Code of Conduct hidden away, and they can take action based on that, particularly in the case of a repeat offender.

Unreliable as a solution, but sometimes it works.

You can try reporting to Customer Service. It's not a TOS or EULA violation, but there is still a Code of Conduct hidden away, and they can take action based on that, particularly in the case of a repeat offender.

 

Unreliable as a solution, but sometimes it works.

I did report him. I told them he was ruining it for everyone else and offered my suggestion as a way to help prevent people like Dan from being able to throw their temper tantrums and ruin everyone else's day.

There is nothing in this game that stops 1 person ruining the experience for another 15 or indeed 23.

That should not happen. The ignore list should stop that person ever being in your group again. However it doesn't go that far.

However, the studio have done nothing about this kind of behaviour in PVP or GSF for years, so report and move on. Hopefully someone will look into it if enough people do the same. - Streaming the match always helps with evidence.

- Or just screenshot the scorecard afterward, and chat to the players on your team to encourage as many as you can to file a report.

Personally, I would say that continuous suicide-ing for trolling, credits, conquest, dailies, and their precious CXP is borderline exploitation.

GL OP. I hope you get some justice. - Safe flying.

The ignore list should stop that person ever being in your group again.

This works with group finder flashpoints. Unfortunately ignoring them does not work for warzones or GSF.

This works with group finder flashpoints. Unfortunately ignoring them does not work for warzones or GSF.

I've seen the same thing when I ignore folks that go AFK in GSF and nose pick until go non-contributing. Seconds later they fire single shot and nothing we can do about it. Still saw them in the very next match even after ignored.

There's three types of players that can ruin your game pretty quick.

The first is the Inveterate Foodship. This player is terrible, he can't hit things, and he dies a lot. He is an active menace to your team: you'd be better off if he left the match. He's trying as best he can, and it's shockingly awful. You might think you were once as bad as him... but you probably weren't.

The second is the AFK Farmer. This player hates that he "has" to GSF, even though he doesn't have to, and he will avoid participating as much as he can. He's not actually AFK- if you try to kick him, he will get in combat or whatever. Since kicking requires everyone to go push buttons as a coordinated team, he's a burden even if you manage to get the kick off.

The third is the Griefing Self Destructor. This player hates his team, and crashes into rocks as much as possible in TDM to throw the game.

In theory, the latter two are actionable- these actions are against the ToS, and players can be temp or even perma banned for them. The issue is that you can't tell the second from the first with any automated method, and so the second type of player generally persists unless everyone constantly spams reports on him, which is really very rare. Bioware doesn't want to accidentally ban an Inveterate Foodship just to clean up AFK Farmers (nor would we players generally want a potential new GSFer to get in trouble just because they are magnificently terrible), so in practice both do their things.

This thread is about that third type of player, and in general, if everyone reports that guy, eventually he will be actioned. This seems to take longer than it used to, and based on other complaints on other forums, I think that's sort of true of other PvP bad-behavers. But it is not allowed to SD repeatedly for the purposes of throwing matches, so keep spamming reports against those guys when you find them.

Long term, I'd like to see something that scales up respawns on players who die immediately in TDM (in Dom this behavior rarely matters) to prevent this from being as big of an issue as it is now- ultimately this player needs to be actioned by a GM, but it would be great if, in the span of time between the player beginning malicious action and a GM ending it, the player would have less influence over matches.

Not quite a 4th type, but there are a significant number of people who queue and quit the minute you go 3-0 down in dom, or get 2-capped in TDM. - Obviously they don't get any reward ( nor should they), but it leaves a team on the backfoot, even further behind, as they have to battle on with 7v8 ( 11v12) and wait for a back-fill ( if any arrive)

Unless this game gets active moderators or responds quickly to reports, I'm sorry to say that this ( these) situations will continue.

I've seen my fair share of matches turned around by a determined team, won in the last seconds or get so close to victory that it always inspires me to keep trying.... doing my best, pushing my hardest.... Never say 'die!'

In addition to Griefing Self-Destructor I'd add a sub-category, Griefing Inveterate Foodship. I ran into this on Harb last night. The offender started out the match with a few suicides, then switched "tactics" and began (as far as I could tell) autoflying straight into the enemy. This was LS TDM, so the guy was quickly and repeatedly killed by hungry gunships. Died that way at least 10 times. He finished 0-1-17, with 662 damage on 14% shooting...I suppose he accidentally got a couple of shots off at some point.

Make no mistake, it was definitely griefing (as indicated by the post-match banter in /gsf). So, I guess it's actionable, but a little trickier than Griefing Self-Destructor. There's a blurry line somewhere between griefing and halfheartedly trying.

I did report him. I told them he was ruining it for everyone else and offered my suggestion as a way to help prevent people like Dan from being able to throw their temper tantrums and ruin everyone else's day.

I'm not proud of it. But it is ridicilous. A Deathmatch...enemy team consists out of four gunships, surrounded by three bombers, and one scout. Within 30 seconds of gameplay it is 0-10 kills. There is absolutely no way i gonna sit there and wait, till my team figured out a strategy to break through. Of course i will selfdestruct as much as possible to end this missery. No, i don't leave the match. Because the next match is the same. If i stay, at least it will count for the daily/weekly. You can report as much as you want, but i really don't think, i am the one ruining everyone else's game. The enemy team tactic is ruining GSF, and that's why nobody stays long enough to really get into it. And thats my two cents.

If i get any punishment for this behaviour in an obviously lost match, i just stop playing GSF. Or i will find a way to end it quickly without punishment...just fly in range...stop engines...wait a split second before two or three gunships will kill me.

Here's the thing - people will be overly matched and run a gunship wall in a kill match. These people expect that you are to try in vain to deal with said gunship wall. The easiest way to reduce griefing is to give both sides a reasonable chance of winning - but as most of us are selfish and inconsiderate of our fellow lesser skilled pilots, you're unlikely to see those close matches.

For example, yesterday evening, one match was won by a single point. There was no special organizing and simply random players thrown together. After a group of four pilots chose to fly on the same side it became extremely one-sided after that. I can tell you that close match was more enjoyable to all its players vs the lop-sided matches which only really catered to the winners.

Either way, you can't truly prevent a player from throwing a match if they really want to. But if you encourage competitively gameplay instead of mindless domination you're a lot more likely to avoid it.

Here's the thing - people will be overly matched and run a gunship wall in a kill match. These people expect that you are to try in vain to deal with said gunship wall. The easiest way to reduce griefing is to give both sides a reasonable chance of winning - but as most of us are selfish and inconsiderate of our fellow lesser skilled pilots, you're unlikely to see those close matches.

The standard reply will be "git gud", and "get your own group".

there's absolutely nothing wrong with someone who is trying their very best and still dies a lot..... replace that one with the Weak Hearted "Pro" Who Groups To Farm Noobs

GSF is damaged wayyyyy more by these "pros" than it is by people who try hard, have fun, and die a lot...

I did report him. I told them he was ruining it for everyone else and offered my suggestion as a way to help prevent people like Dan from being able to throw their temper tantrums and ruin everyone else's day.

Not that I want to defend the behavior of Dan, quite the contrary.

But if a lost GSF match ruins your day, you have a very poor life.

I'm not proud of it. But it is ridicilous. A Deathmatch...enemy team consists out of four gunships, surrounded by three bombers, and one scout. Within 30 seconds of gameplay it is 0-10 kills. There is absolutely no way i gonna sit there and wait, till my team figured out a strategy to break through. Of course i will selfdestruct as much as possible to end this missery. No, i don't leave the match. Because the next match is the same. If i stay, at least it will count for the daily/weekly. You can report as much as you want, but i really don't think, i am the one ruining everyone else's game. The enemy team tactic is ruining GSF, and that's why nobody stays long enough to really get into it. And thats my two cents.

 

If i get any punishment for this behaviour in an obviously lost match, i just stop playing GSF. Or i will find a way to end it quickly without punishment...just fly in range...stop engines...wait a split second before two or three gunships will kill me.

There is literally no tactic that exists that doesn't have a counter. Gunship walls can be beaten, bomber balls have counters. Merely giving up because you personally lack the skill is griefing.

3 SD is way to low. There are many matches I'll SD more then that to go from 1 sat to the other quicker by Self destructing intentionally to help save the other node. For instance your group has A, and C in Lost shipyards Dom, If I'm at C, and A is attacked I'll suicide and respawn at A. It's easy to do this 3-5 times in a match with no problems, and it doesn't troll your team mates.

Then tell your teammates you are doing that and they won't kick you. But 3 SD's in a DM probably indicates griefing.

Your exception might be less 1 out of 100 matches where 3 SD's is tactical. I think 2 SD's should be enough but I think 3 is a good balance for accidentally SDing when fighting tightly.

How about exponentially increasing the respawn timer for each death over 6? At death 7 add 10 seconds. At death 8 30?seconds. At death 9 1 minute. Death 10 2 minutes. Death 11, 4 minutes. This will completely remove them from the match at 11 deaths

Except a griefer usually only gets in about 10-11 deaths even without getting kicked. Doesn't solve the problem. And when one person can still throw 20-25% of the match points... that will still be griefing.

Granted bad players will have a longer time out too in your method, which would cut down on the ability for some "bottom feeders" to farm, but also for skilled but not ace pilots to tackle aces who kill much faster than them.

It's unlikely that Bioware builds a mechanic to prevent the behaviour but we as a community can do something about it.

If you are on the same team as him, everyone should exit the battle. Then the offender will be left on his own and the match will stop.

The downside of this is that he'll probably keep queue-ing. I think the other team will understand everyone quitting.

If you are on the opposing team and you notice your match being pulled in your favour.. well, your best bet is to stop shooting if you are willing to do that (I do). I encourage the others to do the same if I see this.

If it is really bad I will purposely fly into mines as well.