Forum - Space Odyssey MMORPG - a massive free online space game

EMI, I hope you find some way to remove the ability to cheat your way to the top by buddy nebbing. I would like to suggest that the length of time in a neb be reduced to 8 hours, 12 hours max. This buddy nebbing takes the war out of this fine war game. It is in my opinion cheating, all else who agree should post their opinion here. All who neb each other to avoid playing with any skill will see not be spared by me on dday.

Maybe creating a permanent truce between alliance members, would limit people nebbing each other, but since the vacation mode hasnt been fixed, I dont see anything being done about nebbing. It has been a constant problem for many rounds that has never been addressed

 :yawn:

Hmmm .. What is this I hear? Hide your way to victory? Doesn't sound right to me. Come to think of it, you don't need a buddy to do it, can do it with alt. d**n those alts.

Perhaps if people don't use their Counters, then that counter gets sold by the Intel Contract people ..

That would put a stop to buddy nebbing.

no it wouldnt, just counter with a decoy

I think nebs are fine the way they are, just make a list of those who hide, and when dday comes, there will be no hiding.

Argus is right but on the other side of the arguement when in the neb with no fear of counters you can put away everything but mission ships and fly encounters/incryptions and i believe 50 % of the commanders do it atleast those in the top 50 so that would be a long dday list btw i have done it myself but not often only when i go a few days without an attack so i dont believe it has much to do with hiding but more to do with falling behind the others

Maybe your income can double every 3 days you aren't nebbed. That'll stop people nebbing each other quick smart.

Never been nebbed on purpose, sometimes I don't even like to use pships  :12:
Even if it isn't cheating, it takes the fun out of the game, lighten up people play for fun not to win...

i agree with kryo there really is to much buddy nebbing going on in the uni.  :21: dont have a clue how to fix it though :(

I agree with blak for once i could care less who nebs who since everyone has their own style of gameplay but personally i havent done a mutual nebbing since last round and since i'm more into galaxy contracts anyhow nebbing doesnt do much for me except burn turns quicker but anyhow i believe it's a persons own business how he/she plays and noone else's thats my take on the subject but everyones views are differant

Justification for cheating? Hmmm, lets see what the ToS says.

Terms and conditions of Space Odyssey     
         
     Fair play   
        Players who try to manipulate the rules and/or use loopholes in them may be deleted from the game. Each case will be looked at separately by the Space Odyssey team, before a decision is made.

So what your saying Deezee is its ok for someone to cheat their way to the top in a multiplayer game by using a loophole in a game mechanic not to have to interact with anyone. Knowing full well that the main aim of the game is interaction between the players and conflict which allows the better players to come out on top. By cheating, by using this loophole in the game mechanic, you can avoid contact with other players completely, effectively playing a single player game ... On the SO Wars server, there is no D-Day, you don't have to come out of nebula ever ... So if your of the persuasion where mindless tedious ad nausea repetitive clicking is your thing, and you don't mind exploiting the  loophole in the game mechanic and running at a tangent to the basic premise of the game, why are you even playing an MMO. If your strategy involves not interacting with anyone else, then so be it, don't play.

Sir Emi, can you please return all the lost segments taken in battle from the other players, we thought we were playing a space combat/conquest game, when in actual fact I've just been enlightened as to the fact that we are playing some form of solitary self gratification by mindless repetitiveness.

Tzargoth, if emi would reset all segments from battles I would lose segments as msot of mine I gained from attacking :(

Maybe I'm not alone in thinking this was a space combat/conquest game ...

This game is Space Odysey Wack Armagedon Inc. Server right?  :12:

ok now your just going to have to explain that to me cause it just went right over my head. and im not blonde.


                                           :spider2:

I wish it was FTP, no one ever attacks me.

I attacked Rivaris, then had to go to college and when I got back he fled without hitting me while I was in the same system as he wa  0o

I'm not Riv ... :-)

Anyway ....

************ Problem Solved ****************

While in a Neb, you cannot do Missions.

That would solve the problem, stop the cheating, and keep the Neb for it's intended purpose of letting people have a life outside SO Wars.

Aslong as you do missions you fly around and dont need a neb, when you log of you can get a neb as then you dont do missions. Same problem.

Uhm you scouted me around 10 times using a single ship not leaving a counter and not getting true for that matter. (you call that a attack btw?)

so then you expect me to reserve my fleets and spend a bucket load of cash to hit you just so you can Tag team counter me with nightgaurd or some 1 else that hate my guts (and there are plenty that would jump on the horse to get me ) so you can steal my segs.

im sorry to say im not that kind of a blindfool to walk into that little trap ftp  :P

well maby something else is needed

when your in neb your workergrowth goes down 2 -1% seeing your hiding in a neb you cant get new food 2 your workforce since your trying toaviod detection and have shutdown your biofarms. maby the same for Interest Rate since you had to shutdown your secretbase else it might be found while your hiding in a neb.

then just make a button were you can leave the neb at anytime.

Whats that supposed to mean :confused: :2: :)) :))

anyways why not make a monthly limit to the amount of neebing if your a certain power...  Like someone with 100,000 power idk some low number would have a limtless are almost any way amount of nebs while some one with 40 mill or more would have left monthly and maybe it could be roll over i dont know might work might not

Hmmm, Riv's idea has merit.

Freeze all income while in a Neb.

the main problem is deciding who is nebbing on purpose and who isn't, on the SO server I'm in neb half the time or more and I don't get buddy neb it's from being attacked I admit I have considered having an alt neb me but decided it wasn't worth it.

It would be pretty bad if you get hit lose half your fleet and segments and lose all your income because your in neb :o



Rivaris my internet fell off, otherwise I might have actualy have bought a fleet to inflict damage :P

this is a pointless discussion unless Emi decides to step in all this is a waste of words

Coming up with possible solutions is always good, as if we can present Sir Emi with a good solutionm he migth change it.

well if u couldn't do contracts when u were nebbed, u would unneb to do contracts, then neb urself again.
if u had no income when u were nebbed that would be horrible cuz then ud be ruined, like ftp said.


what about not being allowed to change systems when ur in a nebula, when u change systems, u are taken out of it. and then u cant be in a nebula until u would be out of it if u didn't change systems.

to make it more clear:

someone is nebbed. 12 hours in, they change systems and lose the neb. the cannot be renebbed until the full 24 hours has passed.


im sure there would still be ways around it but its something

I still think can't do Missions and No Income while nebbed is the way to go.

Attacking people might be worthwhile then.

But ok, no income might be bad, I realise some players don't have any spare credits. So how about Nebula Insurance.  :21:

You buy Nebula Insurance, and with it you can still generate income while nebbed, you still can't do missions. You lose the insurance after the first time you get Nebbed and either set the Insurance Premium at a set price, possible 10000*Segments, or just have a set scale, the more you get nebbed the higher the premium.

Bad idea imagen you want to play in you few hours spare time abord your neb, then go offline people could wack you without you going to neb.

I tink it's high time Emi made the counter return to it's true power, that is, no matter their position rankingwise, you can return fire. I'd rather get my own ass blown up for firing back at someone who climbed higher in the ranks, than be unable to hit the cheat who attacked me, had himself nebbed, and then cut his power in half so I can't counter him.

Im sure there is a solution that will adress the issues.  Nebula is a very necessary mechanic - however, needs some change to prevent it being exploited.

In addition to the changes below I believe that a button should be added allowing any player to "Return from the Nebula".  With some of the ideas proposed below it would be critical to allow players to easily get out of neb.

Heres some ideas (idea 2 has been proposed already);

1. You go into neb when you lose a certain fraction of your fleets COST, not fleet power.  Say 10% for example.

2. Growth, income and interest are halted when in nebula.

3. When inside the nebula, and for 6 hours after returning from the nebula you cant see any missions.


I dont think any of those ideas would be overly concerning for those of us who play a fair game.  The added penalty is reasonable considering if you get neb'd, you should have just suffered a serious attack.

i actually think the first would be the most effective. since pships are killed to get into a buddy neb, they usually dont cost anywhere near 10% of the total fleet cost

But then you cant defend your fleets with pships anymore.

Not being able to do missions and missions 6 hours after you leave neb, I know lower ranked players get attacked very often they would never be able to do missions

Same again. Giving other people a nebula to make there interest halt, then that can be the main damage point instead of the ships.

Well - PShips are no use on SOWARS anyhow. 

You really think some people will struggle to do missions if they are prevented 6hrs after a neb?  Missions can be done fairly quickly now, even if they cant do them today they can save turns and do it tomorrow - you can burn up 3000 turns of missions fairly quick if you really need to.

The halt on interest etc would be a fairly big impact I agree - but then again, you get neb'd after taking a hard hit - so you can rationalise it easily - its another strategic reason to attack people :P

Maybe theres another solution not yet proposed - but any change will have some impact - and I dont neccessarily think the best solution is the one with the least impact, rather one that fits the game the best.

Ok I'm reacting allot looking from SO Main aswell as this topic started for the same abuse but then on SO Main.

It isnt as big of a problem as it is made out to be on SO main right now looking at the top 63 ranked players i only see 10 nebbed but i cant comment on wars.

I dont care if its only a small fraction of players, even if it was only one person - seeing someone in the top 10 who (Im fairly sure) hasnt won a combat is annoying.

The other thing that Tz loves to point out to me frequently is that I zeroed at least two of our buddy nebbing pals more than once, back in the days before they found how addictively intoxicating invulnerability is - so who are they going to come looking for once they feel they have an unassailable advantage? 

Haha - OH NO! PLease dont !! - Haha - It would be like being mauled by a sheep.

i agree
even 1 player who buddy nebs is a problem. the higher ranking he/she is the bigger the problem

ok ive been thinking about this. it sucks there are people who want to try to hide their way to the top ten. but look at the $ they waste everyday to stay out of harms way.i think we should all just enjoy watching those who hide in a neb all round get destroyed during d-day. if emi was to change how nebs work it might hurt those players who are in nebs honestly. if anything is done to fix it it the simplest thing would be to ban the people who are abusing it.let one or 2 people get banned for buddy nebbing and it would most likely disappear as a problem in the game

I have to agree

sounds like a good idea to me, got to set an example and everyone else will fall to into place

No one is going to get banned over buddy nebbing, there is another thread with a good suggestion and a poll so we can get the mechanic changed. Go look for that thread .. adding to this thread is not the best approach. I mean there are atleast 3 threads on this very topic .. Now a forth with a poll. The idea FTP, Amagnon and I hammered out will solve the problem. Go find the poll. :-) Probably in suggestions forum.

i think ill just post here, changing the mechanics isnt going to do anything but probably hurt those who need the nebs. i still think my idea is easiest.

we dont need the mechanics changed we just need a way of policing abuse of the system

I'm all for banning cheats, but Emi said its not cheating and no one is going to get banned for it.