Dark Trooper - The Glitch

[Draigun]

No, this is not a person from the game I'm requesting to be banned for glitching. This is the subject of "Dark Trooper's Glitching". Or, as many of you know, the cooldown timer for shocking the enemy is reset when using the glitch.

First of all, I would like to clarify that this is a glitch that enhances user gameplay with mechanics not originally derived from the game's core mechanisms. Therefore, this is definitely classified as a glitch.

We all need to realize however that banning this glitch will definitely result in quite a lot of swaps, warnings or kicks due to players just noticing the new rule (if it takes place). A lot of the times in JBA, we see it a lot and it has been going on for quite a while now. This is a fact, and in order to counter this flaw within administration, effective warnings should be given out more than usual when coming to this subject in glitching.

Players reading this, you should know that whenever you see a Dark Trooper fly onto a platform of some sort and use their shock weapon once and twice relatively fast, this is that glitch I am talking about. The normal cooldown is around 2 seconds (starting off from 0) or so, and so they are shortening it to attack you faster. In some rare cases, player's lag is able to reduce the cooldown even further.

As a player who plays on JBA quite a lot, I definitely see the unbalance of having a unit of combat being able to fly relatively far within the map and use such a glitch. Not to mention this shock weapon has a stun value attached to it, but adding this glitch can essentially prevent a player from acting at all to counter the dark trooper without being dead only to realize that the actions were fruitless attempts.

Code: Select all

ShotDelay               = "2.0"

The above code represents the delay in which users cannot fire again with the dark trooper's arc caster. The delay is 2.0 seconds and after that time, they can fire again. The glitch automatically resets the cool down when used, bypassing the restriction set by this mechanism. And for those that don't know, rolling will also reset the cooldown.

To point out the actual seriousness of this glitch, this is essentially the same as being choke "zapped" because the stun value added with the no cooldown allows the target to be stunned and electrocuted at the same time. In addition, if used properly, this glitch can kill a full health wookie within 1 second.

Also, the arc caster has a greater chance of hitting the enemy with a wider cone. This makes it more difficult to actually avoid.

Nutshell:
The glitch is overpowered and needs to be restricted within JBA.
The glitch is equal to choke "zap" because both have stun values and do considerate damage.
This is classified as a glitch because it bypasses the cooldown set in place within the game's mechanism.
Many players do complain about this, because quite honestly, it's difficult to avoid.

Other notes:
Rolling resets the cooldown of the glitch as well, however you can only roll once per second. Compared to the traditional method of using the jetpacks to reset the cooldown, this is nowhere near overpowered.

Above all else however, this is my opinion WITH actual source from the game's mechanisms. Please note that I'm also a mod developer and can mod the game (most of you probably know). I was also responsible for modding the =SotG= No-Force Server (the one that attracted a lot of the FFAers/Duelers).

That's all for my complaint.

Link to entire Dark Trooper Unit mechanisms: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwowcL ... 2NrNW1GaG8 (To read the arccaster main functions, take a look at com_weap_inf_arc_caster)

[Doves]

Yeah, now every time i go to JBA, im going to keep a stopwatch by my side. Whenever i see someone shock, ill start the timer, if there next shock comes before 2 seconds....BOOM, banhammer time.

[Draigun]

Yeah, now every time i go to JBA, im going to keep a stopwatch by my side. Whenever i see someone shock, ill start the timer, if there next shock comes before 2 seconds....BOOM, banhammer time.

The way you are thinking about it is irrational. You can't judge this glitch based on the timer. Might I also add that you use this glitch in other servers, Doves? You yourself know this glitch so well, yet you refuse to try to warn and possibly enforce it?

I was simply mentioning the timer the arc caster has when fired. For admins to judge it based on a timed second is not necessary as many other side factors may happen (server lag or client lag).

Simply know it, and enforce it. You are making it more difficult than it needs to be.

[Eyes Only]

Yeah, now every time i go to JBA, im going to keep a stopwatch by my side. Whenever i see someone shock, ill start the timer, if there next shock comes before 2 seconds....BOOM, banhammer time.

There are no technicalities when it comes to enforcing a rule such as this. It is blatantly obvious when someone intentionally uses it. Being able to warn a bunch of times and being able to swap and kick the player if he keeps leaving to get around the swap is all the enforcement that needs to take place. I don't think a ban is necessary for this, since its common enough.

You cannot argue that being able to kill a wookie with a primary weapon in half a second isn't overpowered and not in need of attention.

[Talon Karrde]

I'm fine with using roll/jumps to compensate for the fire rate for Imp Officer, Wookie, and Magna Guard, as those three classes all have particular weaknesses that can be used against them that make them relatively balanced in most combat.

However, the DT is extremely unbalanced versus all other classes if the glitch is used by "expert" players. An experienced Wookie versus an "experienced" DT user will lose because the DT user will be able to fire all three shots necessary to kill the Wookie in the time the Wookie will be able to fire one shot.

It think it's easy to enforce because very few users know how to use this exploit to its fullest. I can name two players who abuse it on our servers and are (admittedly) good at abusing it - with Rewards they are near unkillable unless it's with a Jedi (in other words, using something even MORE broken to counter something that's broken). PSYCHO_DAD and easy_mode both abuse the DT glitch/exploit after detrushing everyone with engineer to gain the necessary points. Jet Trooper can do a variant of this, but that class actually has some clear disadvantages (only two firings before reloading, their flying is slow and can be easy to snipe, very small ammo count, etc).

If all classes could do what the DT can, I would be fine with it, but they can't (this is why we allow wall running, although some classes can do it better than others). The DT actually isn't as exploitable in the console versions because of the low default sensitivity of the joystick (the same reason why Vader is actually weaker in the console version since people can't crank up the sensitivity and play him like as though he's a normal character). I use it too, because it's allowed, but I'm not going to cry a river if we remove the ability to use it, because it makes sense that you shouldn't be able to override the fire rate so you can fire 2-5x faster than normal.

I think it should be OK to allow people to roll and zap, because you're simply making it fire at the same rate as the PS2 version, but that zap on the ground, fly, zap, fly, zap, land, zap thing is just too stupid. Imagine if a rocket guy could fire 5 rockets at once in the span of a couple seconds anywhere on the map and then be able to fly away from you before you can retaliate? Yeah - kinda dumb. I know people will argue that "it's in the game, so it's legitimate", but I've heard that argument hundreds of times for all sorts of competitive games I've played; we need to assess each glitch/exploit on an individual basis (like we normally do) and see if the allowance of the exploit would be detrimental to the game. I know people are also going to argue that if we ban DT glitch, it would result in a slippery slope towards banning other things that we deem unbalanced (mine spamming, detrushing, etc), but again, I think we can look at things on a case by case basis instead of thinking every thing we ban would lead to a slippery slope.

Of course, this still doesn't help the fact that Bothan Spy and Clone Commander are horribly gimped, but I think people generally avoid playing those classes anyway because of how weak they are.

[Eyes Only]

I know people are also going to argue that if we ban DT glitch, it would result in a slippery slope towards banning other things that we deem unbalanced (mine spamming, detrushing, etc)

The thing with that argument is that it has no basis. Things like mine and detrushing are created as a direct result of teamdamage being off. It's an exploit, but not a glitch. A glitch/bug is an error in some part of a computer program that results in incorrect or unintended results. The ShotDelay timer getting reset is clearly an unintended result of firing off the jetpack and the way jetpacks handle being able to fire weapons mid-air. It's an unintended result in the same way that infinite choke and chokezapping is an unintended result of doing a specific action while playing as a hero.

Exploiting game features and exploiting bugs are two entirely different things, and bugs should not be looked at in the same way as features are. Unfortunately, this is exactly whats happening. I think people need to realize that what they're exploiting is a glitch, and not an intended feature of the game. Just because they use it, doesn't make it not a glitch.

[WD-40]

So now we need to babysit the DTs during the game.....Ban half of the players that become a DT for using the glitch, fill up the banlist, chase away a lot of vetran players due to it.... This would be interesting.

[11_Panama_]

BAN THEM ALL!!!!

[Eyes Only]

So now we need to babysit the DTs during the game.....Ban half of the players that become a DT for using the glitch, fill up the banlist, chase away a lot of vetran players due to it.... This would be interesting.

I was playing on JBA earlier, full server, and the only person using the dark trooper glitch was psycho dad. Most darkies don't actually use it, its the ones that spam it to death and intentionally abuse it that need to be dealt with. They darkie glitch to get all the awards and then they cant be touched. Also, if you had read the entire thread you would have been a little bit more informed about your post. This isn't Fox News.

[Draigun]

So now we need to babysit the DTs during the game.....Ban half of the players that become a DT for using the glitch, fill up the banlist, chase away a lot of vetran players due to it.... This would be interesting.

Eyes had already mentioned that there would be no need for banning because the recommended penalty would be either swapping or warning, kicking necessary if player avoids the swap.

I was playing on JBA earlier, full server, and the only person using the dark trooper glitch was psycho dad. Most darkies don't actually use it, its the ones that spam it to death and intentionally abuse it that need to be dealt with. They darkie glitch to get all the awards and then they cant be touched. Also, if you had read the entire thread you would have been a little bit more informed about your post. This isn't Fox News.

I can also attest to this. Not every player is able to play a dark trooper. Half of the maps (approximately half?) are of the Clone Wars era. The maximum number of players using the glitch that I've ever seen were two.