Cannon theft prevention

[Rejenorst]

Just a quick thought on possible ways to tackle cannon theft and trolling as it seems to be one of the more reported issues in discord. Probably not a high priority given other issues but possibilities include:

IDEA 1

• Server toggle of Player lock for cannon to prevent theft (first come first serve but resets if player is killed/disconnects/walks further than x meters from cannon/doesn't fire a round within 2 minutes/doesn't actually manage to kill anyone in 5 mins )
• Obstruction warning for players standing in front of the cannon when a player is aiming with it. Failure to move away within 5 - 10 secs results in death.

OR IDEA 2
Or Instead of a lock you could have what the ships use currently that might simplify things: The captain can simply take over the steering wheel. Likewise maybe the lock idea could be replaced by an ability to take over the cannon from anyone using it. Ie: Priority usage.

OR IDEA 3

Perhaps people playing the arty class (when we get one) could take over the cannon from someone who isn't an arty class and the arty officer can take over from the arty rankers.

OR IDEAD 4

I'm not a huge fan of locking out the cannons for one person... BUT... if you wanted this feature on pub servers, I would say the best way to implement it would be to prevent any new player entering aim mode on the cannon for 3 seconds after it has been pushed forward - This is more than enough time for the current gunner to claim the cannon after reloading is completed, but doesn't interfere with the game if he wanders off.

Any other limitations would be more disruptive to the game than the griefers...

It should be noted that there will be artillery classes in game based on the last dev blog.

[Florian Geyer]

The "lock in" system might work however I have operated in tandem with a friend before when operating a cannon. I think the reality is in a public server there are simply going to be factors that lead towards chaos.

[Rejenorst]

Instead of a lock you could have what the ships use currently that might simplify things: The captain can simply take over the steering wheel. Likewise maybe the lock idea could be replaced by an ability to take over the cannon from anyone using it. Ie: Priority usage.

[Absol]

Instead of a lock you could have what the ships use currently that might simplify things: The captain can simply take over the steering wheel. Likewise maybe the lock idea could be replaced by an ability to take over the cannon from anyone using it. Ie: Priority usage.

Perhaps people playing the arty class (when we get one) could take over the cannon from someone who isn't an arty class and the arty officer can take over from the arty rankers.

[Rejenorst]

That's a good idea

[Eternal]

I'd improve idea 1 as follows:
> If player blocks the cannon and doesn't move from the cannon in the next 3 seconds, and dies, don't count it as a team-kill. The distance should be in a radius around the cannon + the distance in-front of the cannon. (So the troll won't just stand next to the cannon and jump in while you're about to fire, or stand a little bit further in-front of the cannon and do the same).
> Lock cannon for 15 seconds unless you're in the same clan or run away. (server should have the ability to set time or remove that)

Idea for instantly unlocking:
- Add an option to instantly unlock the cannon by hitting it twice.
     con: takes long
or
- Switch to a weapon (thus forcing the player to be unarmed when using a cannon)
     con: accidental switch

If the artillery class is added, than I think only the artillery should be able to use cannons in the first place. Any other class would get the message "Your class isn't trained to use cannons". However, I don't think anyone should be able to take away your control over a cannon.
The only exception to that would be the clan's current round officer, where the officer class can take over anything (from the same clan member)

Idea 1 gives a troll cannon player an opportunity to teamkill without penalty, however this solution is better because everyone else can just back off where the penalty will count again.

=====

Additional idea: (Not just for cannons)
It would also be nice to set some factors, as in log warnings, for players with suspicious activity. This would help admins to supervise their server and make sure everyone follows the server's rules.
For instance, the admin looks at the logs and sees the following warnings:
REPORT: Suspicious activity from %playername%. (Hit same teammate 5 times with %weaponname%)
REPORT: Player %playername% killed an enemy officer %officername%
REPORT: Suspicious activity from %playername%. (Moved in-front of cannon 3 times)

and to not start looking for the players, I would recommend the following:
> Spectate a player instantly by selecting their name in the player list (tab)
> Right click on the player menu to choose what actions to take against the player.

The con here is quite obvious: Possible spam in the logs. But the more choices the host has over what type of errors he can see, the better. It would also be nice to have the ability to show these reports or not while in-game.

[Wolfster]

Or just make an artillery class?

[KRRC Ranger Niko]

Why not a ingame report a player system? Use the "P to mute system" and have a report a player option. Click cannon stealing and just write a few words. 1 Report = Warning 3 reports = Temp Ban after the temp ban 3 more reports Perma ban. Before you can get perma'd a server admin could perhaps try to confirm it. Its a relatively simple system to stop a infuriating problem.

[VetroG]

Or just make an artillery class?

Yes please.

Why not a ingame report a player system? Use the "P to mute system" and have a report a player option. Click cannon stealing and just write a few words. 1 Report = Warning 3 reports = Temp Ban after the temp ban 3 more reports Perma ban. Before you can get perma'd a server admin could perhaps try to confirm it. Its a relatively simple system to stop a infuriating problem.

This isn't a good idea because trolls could literally just report you non stop to get you banned even if you didn't do anything.. So giving the power to anybody on the server is not such a good idea (Even with admins watching).

[Brigadier_General]

I think just adding an artillery class would be good enough. However, there should be different arty classes, so that each cannon has a small crew of gunners. Not only would it allow multiple people to use the cannons, but it would be historically accurate, and I am always in favor of that.

[Kethrian]

I'm not a huge fan of locking out the cannons for one person... BUT... if you wanted this feature on pub servers, I would say the best way to implement it would be to prevent any new player entering aim mode on the cannon for 3 seconds after it has been pushed forward - This is more than enough time for the current gunner to claim the cannon after reloading is completed, but doesn't interfere with the game if he wanders off.

Any other limitations would be more disruptive to the game than the griefers...

[Livington]

I kind of just assumed that everyone being able to fire the cannons was a temporary solution until the real artillery units come out. You need proper equipment to operate a cannon. You can't just shove a cannonball down a barrel and hope for god to fix the rest...

[Mendoza]

I kind of just assumed that everyone being able to fire the cannons was a temporary solution until the real artillery units come out. You need proper equipment to operate a cannon. You can't just shove a cannonball down a barrel and hope for god to fix the rest...

Jep, i also hope that the cannons can be only maned by the artillery class if they arrive in game. If you want men cannons, just take the correct class.

[Kethrian]

Unfortunately, having a cannon class would not prevent the problems on pub servers that the op is describing. In fact it would only cause more problems when the 8 (for instance) cannon crew slots were all instantly claimed by knob ends who were out on the front line shooting people with pistols, or were just bad! (see rifles for example) leaving no-one able to fire the artillery.

I don't support cannon locking, I think its just a fact of crappy pub server play you have to deal with. Everyone who joins a pub game should have a chance at playaing anything they want and it seems stupid to judge them on their ability to determine wherther they are allowed to try it. You cant legitimately say they should be banned from firing the cannon is they dont score a kill in X mins... they might just be learning and how can they learn if they cant play?

However, in isolation, when a player takes charge of a gun, I think they should have reasonable rights to continue to fire it, as long as they keep trying, and that is why i suggested the gun aimer should have few seconds grace period after the gun has rolled forward where they cannot lose control of the gun (see my previous post).