Revamp reporting system

[Torva-Messor 104]

Instead of players reporting as it is done now, here's a different idea.

 

Have a "REPORT" buttom at the bottom of the battle screen. This would bring up a small window where you could type the name of the player who is breaking the rules. Then hit "SUBMIT." This would take a video 15 seconds before and 15 seconds after the report. The video would be taken on the server side, not on the player side. This way, those who do not have or can't use a video program has the same opportunity to report the rule breakers (hackers, those preventing fair game play (for instance, the player who is preventing his team mates from capturing the flag in hopes the team mate will get killed so he can grab the flag and score), excessive foul language, etc.). If the MOD thinks the report is legitimate, then the offensive player will get his warning.

 

Of course, this would entail a MOD dedicated enough to view the report videos and take immediate action. I used to play on a game site where this was implanted and it was quite effective. I don't know how the video was taken 15 seconds before the report. I'm not that computer savvy.

 

My biggest beef are the hackers, but I usually don't report them, because a video program slows my machine waaaayy down while playing. By putting the recording on the server side, it wouldn't bother game play and more rule breakers would get caught, making it a more pleasurable game site.

[r_GaIaxy2 8,611]

Amen

[liverpoolaum 811]

how could any one take video 15 seconds before you report

[sha77777_super 877]

how could any one take video 15 seconds before you report

Exactly...

But still it's a great idea. ;)

[liverpoolaum 811]

Exactly...

But still it's a great idea. ;)

ya butit may also distract you from playing the game

[beaku 2,656]

^Hackers and violators distract more. As for the idea itself, even though it might not slow down our computers, it will create an immense workload on servers resulting in slower gameplay and higher lags.

[Torva-Messor 104]

^Hackers and violators distract more. As for the idea itself, even though it might not slow down our computers, it will create an immense workload on servers resulting in slower gameplay and higher lags.

 

how could any one take video 15 seconds before you report

Like I said, I don't know how it is done. Other games I have played had this implemented and it worked very well. The game wasn't laggy at all.

It must be something like: The games were constantly monitored by a computer, of some sort, across all the servers.  When a complaint was filed the computer put a marker in place. That's the only thing I can think of. I'm computer technologically challenged so this is only a guess.

[liverpoolaum 811]

Like I said, I don't know how it is done. Other games I have played had this implemented and it worked very well. The game wasn't laggy at all.

It must be something like: The games were constantly monitored by a computer, of some sort, across all the servers.  When a complaint was filed the computer put a marker in place. That's the only thing I can think of. I'm computer technologically challenged so this is only a guess.

hmm.. what you say is acceptable about how they take video but monitoring us by tanki is against rules

[lordmostafa 3,821]

Just great.. more lag..

There are A LOT of players online, could you imagine the massive load placed on the server if ONLY 100 players voted?

And a 30 second video doesn't prove anything.

Lets say I was shooting at the enemy and you came in-front of me, so I shot you and you flipped. You will report me for sure, but I did nothing wrong, I was only trying to shoot the enemy and you came in, so it's your fault, but I'll get the ban.

There is a reason Game Violators section accepts only at least 5 minute videos, because it's enough time to prove someone is doing something bad.

And don't suggest that the system will record 5 minutes videos, the load will be too much for any server to handle.

[neajohn 0]

Just great.. more lag..

There are A LOT of players online, could you imagine the massive load placed on the server if ONLY 100 players voted?

And a 30 second video doesn't prove anything.

Lets say I was shooting at the enemy and you came in-front of me, so I shot you and you flipped. You will report me for sure, but I did nothing wrong, I was only trying to shoot the enemy and you came in, so it's your fault, but I'll get the ban.

There is a reason Game Violators section accepts only at least 5 minute videos, because it's enough time to prove someone is doing something bad.

And don't suggest that the system will record 5 minutes videos, the load will be too much for any server to handle.

This 5 minutes video can be done if recording/processing is done on player's computer. Absolutely no lag on tanki server. Just an API between the server and PC. You may share the video on request or something like that. Abusers may be automatically ignored in the future as well reports from very low ranks.

[dilsharox 2,395]

good idea

however a mod will be getting so many videos from players & most of those may not have anything to do with any violation of rules

[deadtoyou 2,502]

In game recording system will not be added.

 

Reasons:

1. 10,000 Tankers recording......
2. Game Lags horribly......
3. Resulting in horrible videos.....
4. No one wants to play.....
5. Creating mass mayhem on the forum, bad ratings for the game, and Hate PMs for the Devs.
6. Making Tanki less popular.

[Torva-Messor 104]

One of the games I am referring to holds the Guiness World Record for "Worlds Most Popular Free MMORPG" in 2008 with 200 Million accounts, of which 100 Million are active. I'm pretty sure that's more than TO. It can be played on most any PC running Windows, MAC or Linux 10 years old or newer.  I'm not going to say any more about the game for fear of being blamed for adverting.

 

Anyway, the game is based in Europe ( I live in U.S.A) and  has less lag than TO at any given time and still running this monitoring in the background.

 

As for recording time, let's take the above scenerio mentioned by "lordmostafa." The 30 second Video would be adequate enough to show, perhaps, the enemy tank approaching, the team mate running in front of him at the time of the shot being fired and getting tipped. A player doesn't always see what is going on around him, but the monitor would. Now, remember, we are talking about rules breakers, here, not an isolated incident. If the shooter was reported, a marker would be placed to be viewed. The viewer would see the whole incident played out and see what the player didn't see; an isolated incident, an accident if you will, and not an intentional aggressive move on the part of the shooter.

 

As for the reporting time, it would take seconds. Let's say, for instance, a player on your team is being intentionally disruptive to his own team mates. He may or may not be disruptive towards you. The players the disrupter is disrupting can report him and if yor are in the immediate area, you can report the disrupter as well. The reporters have to be within so many meters (I don't recall off hand how many) of the incident and can be easily viewed by you.

 

There is a little more to the reporting system of the aforementioned game than I first recounted. When reporting a rule-breaker, a drop down menu appears and 13 rules are listed. You click on the rule that is being broken and submit. Of course, the game has a lot more than 13 rules, but each rule in the reporting system covers a lot of territory.

 

I just thought of another game (also based in Europe) I recently started playing that has a similar reporting system and very little lag, if any at all. It is doable, all TO has to do is figure out the technology.

[jazz20 1,181]

A pretty interesting idea however besides the fact that there may not be enough staff members to do the job, there is always the fear of spamming as well. People unaware of the game's functions tend to make mistakes, over-use something, etc. This could cause massive problems for the staff members as they would be wasting much time on what would actually be pointless videos. 

[Torva-Messor 104]

A pretty interesting idea however besides the fact that there may not be enough staff members to do the job, there is always the fear of spamming as well. People unaware of the game's functions tend to make mistakes, over-use something, etc. This could cause massive problems for the staff members as they would be wasting much time on what would actually be pointless videos. 

 

They are already viewing pointless videos and pictures. Refer to "Violators" under "General Content." Submission after submission is countered with "not enough proof." I have never seen any of the actual submissions, but I'm sure not all are edited for content, which means the viewer has to go through the entire video to see the offense. Some may refer to a certain time in the video, which may or may not be absolutely accurate. May be the submitter would refer the viewer to 2:37 when actually the time of the incident is 3:00. In this idea, the viewer sees 30 seconds of the game. So, in this case, the marker would be at maybe 3:05, at the time of the report. The viewer would see 2:50 to 3:20. Since the viewer would also have control over the monitoring system, (s)he could view before 2:50 if needed.

 

Let's say, for example, you are sitting at the top of the ramp on Silence where the blue flag is. Someone comes along and pushes you off intentionally. You may not see the person's name right away, but after you respawn, you can. If the persone does it again, you are now armed with information. Click on "Report," type in person's name, click "Next," click on violation (Disruptive game play), click on submit. But if you are going to report this person, it has to be doen right away, You can't wait until you destroy an enemy tank and then decide to submit the report. Besides, most rule violators will do it throughout the game, giving everyone an equal opportunity to report.

 

Usually, if someone is ticked off enough to report someone, they will do it immediately and not wait any more than a few seconds to make the report. Yes, there will be players spamming the reporting system, no doubt. No one has absolute control over that no matter what type of system is put in place. Some people do it only because of the anger they are experiencing at the moment.

 

Also with an automated reporting system, the report is made anonymously. In other words, no one in the game knows they are being reported nor does anyone in the game know who did the reporting, unless the reporter chooses to tell; thus cutting down on the argumants and any vindictive retalliations that might occur against the reporter. Does the present in-game reporting system work? I don't know. But from what I read in the forums and lobby chat, many prople don't think so and feel that it's a waste of time, so they don't report, no matter how many rules a player breaks.

 

This is an automated reporting system. No one has to sit in front of a computer 24/7/365. They only have to check on it occasionally. They are already viewong videos and pictures submitted through the forums. This shouldn't be any different.

 

The main reason I am suggesting this revamping is because some computers lag if there are unneccessary programs running in the background. My computer is one of those. If I run a recording program and play a game, for instance, at the same time, my computer lags quite a bit and this game already lags. Sometimes so badly, playing is almost impossible. (By the way, this is the only online multiplayer game I've played that has this much lag. They suggest downloading the stand alone flash player. In the other games, I've never had to do that, nor was it ever suggested. I never heard of it until I came here).  With an automated reporting system, more players will have an equal opportunity to help stamp out rule violators.

[Torva-Messor 104]

Here's another example of why revamping the reporting system to automation would have been a plus:

 

I was on the red team playing CTF on Noise. There were 3 players on each team of a 6 man team, battle was 60 minutes. the battle was half over before other players started to join. One member of our team contributed very little. Why? Because he was very busy playing with his jumping hack, jumping on the buildings. Apparently, he just got it, because he really wasn't very good at it...he was practicing. No, I didn't report him, because recording while playing slows my machine way down and TO wants to see that video.

 

If an automated reporting system was in place, I would have reported him and TO would have their video. Another hacker wins.

 

I have said all I'm going to say on this subject. Obviously, this topic is a big flop. No one wants to think outside the box to technology that has been out there for the past 10+ years.

 

I rest my case.

[Cor7y 13,862]

Good idea but...... Laaaags....

[Torva-Messor 104]

Good idea but...... Laaaags....

 

Did you read my entire post? Other games have already implemented this automated reporting system and they DON'T lag. If it caused lag, then it would cause lag in other games as well.

 

It is not a camera that is hooked up to each individual tank. Invision a helicopter viewing the entire game. Some one makes a report, a maker is made and a video is made by the automated system to be viewed by a live person (I presume) and a judgement is made. Much like it is now, only the automation made the video and not the individual person.

 

This is like beating a dead horse. Just because you don't personally understand the technology, don't assume it can't work. It does work and there is proof. I don't want to advert, so I'm not devulging which games have it in place. You will have to find that out for yourself.

 

Everyone is assuming this is on the Client side. It is not, it's on the server side. The present reporting system is on the client side.

 

A new wrinkle just happened in my brain. I'm beginning to understand what everyone is trying to tell me. TO already has a lag problem on their server side. Adding more tasks would certainly make it lag even more. Before TO can automate their reporting system and bring it from the Client side to the server side, first they have to discover the cause of the lag they are experiencing now.

[deadtoyou 2,502]

Like I said before.......

In game recording system will not be added.

 

Reasons:

1. 10,000 Tankers recording......
2. Game Lags horribly......
3. Resulting in horrible videos.....
4. No one wants to play.....
5. Creating mass mayhem on the forum, bad ratings for the game, and Hate PMs for the Devs.
6. Making Tanki less popular.

A new wrinkle just happened in my brain. I'm beginning to understand what everyone is trying to tell me. TO already has a lag problem on their server side. Adding more tasks would certainly make it lag even more. Before TO can automate their reporting system and bring it from the Client side to the server side, first they have to discover the cause of the lag they are experiencing now.

:)

 

It's not just that, but the simple fact that TO grows every day, and that so many players would use this at once, the server would become, literally, overloaded with files.

 

 

I did hear somewhere that a better reporting system would be implemented in Unity, but we'll have to wait and see.....