"Borderline exploit", true or false

"Borderline exploit", true or false

from Sins Forums
Greetings Ironclad, Stardock and SOSE gaming community

I would like to ask this question Ironclad developers or an official representative and of course I very much welcome any replies from the gaming community.

I tried to search the forums by using keyword "exploit" but could not find anything on the subject.

Today I've joined a game hosted by I believe Starboy or Baphonaut built few scouts and sent them to their home planets. After arrival I've set a group of recursive way points so the scout will constantly move around the planet.

In return I've received: "Man, this is lame", "stop doing it" and so fourth. I thought ok someone being annoyed which is good, means hopefully I'm doing something right. In the next few hours I've joined yet another game hosted by these Gentlemen yet instead of the expected annoyance I've received words such as "borderline exploit", "do not ever join our game" and so fourth. Now that gotten a tid bit too serious for a simple annoyance so I've decided to make an official post and ask someone in the position of authority:

Is setting a group of recursive way points around the planet is in fact an exploit or is it just a certain group of players being annoyed and blowing some steam by banning me from their games?

I never exploited in haegemonia legions of iron during my play since 2002 and never exploited in homeworld2 during my play since 2003 or so.

Now in Homeworld2 I use recursive way points for the scouts all of the time. Now, I've realized this is not homeworld2 hence my decision to ask this question because I definitely do not want to participate/use in anything that being designated as an exploit.

I've just gotten SOSE about a week or so ago and played only few games here and there, never even heard of what actually considered an exploit in SOSE, still learning the ropes yet already being labeled as an exploiter and banned from the set of games hosted by earlier mentioned individuals.

With best regards.

strategy
9,067 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Nope, not an exploit. This is war. Sounds like they need to position their ships ahead of the scout ;-)

And exploits are more of giving you an unfair advantage to the other player. If wasting a minute or two trying to destroy the scouts is an exploit; than not going to take a piss/drink is an exploit.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
I would just consider that an annoyed player blowing off some steam.

I personally would just not do it because it makes people angry, and it does not really help. I know, for example, that in my games I always build at least 1 frigate factory at EVERY planet I can build at. Just circling their planet is only going to get you so much information before the smart player de-centralizes.

Besides which, they could just station a few ships in the course of the scout and kill it.

It would not officially be an exploit in my opinion, unless it really becomes IMPOSSIBLE to kill the scout, which it could be killed with a wing of fighters from a hangar.

Now as far as "doing something right" because they are getting annoyed, I would not call it doing something right as much as making it hard on them to play the game. Good on you for making up a new strategy to annoy people, bad on you for doing it to the point that they wanted to ban you at a later time.
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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
My thought exactly heh

Haven't said anything to these guys in my original post out of fear of it actually being an exploit but the very first thought that came to my mind: "just build the *beep* frigate and kill the *beep* scout" problem solved, haven't said it like that tough out of desire to be polite to fella gamers.

Instead of spending their time insulting me and informing me that I'm banned from their games they could of just spent that precious minute by building a frigate and killing the scout. Problem solved.

Oo well guess we can call it trials and tribulations of SOSE gaming hehe

Life goes on :)

Appreciate the reply Windexglow and PringleMan


p.s.1 I actually also not sure if that it would in fact help the game play PringleMan. 100% spot on. I'm just a newbie player who still experimenting with things and trying doing different approaches and basically trying to get a feeling of the game so to speak.

These are probably my homeworld2 reflexes kicking in on doing recursive way points. As in regard to annoyance factor. Well if doing something or utilizing game mechanics in attempt to gain advantage makes people annoyed well than I simply sorry to hear that people getting annoyed however I do not see how that is my issue or something I have to change to assure my game play being tailored to other peoples personalities.

It annoys me greatly when real life friends doing FFA game than doing triple alliance and picking off skilled or unskilled players alike in 3v1 (quasi 3v3 games) fashion while the other group trying to polish out "trust factors" yet I always stay quiet when I see it heh just a group of players utilizing game mechanics to their advantage no more no less.

Few more cents to add.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Them scouts wouldn't last long around my planets...

Its a fine and valid tactic.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
One fighter squadron and the scout will be done with quick. If they want to follow it around in a circle with something that isn't faster than it let em try. You didn't exploit anything.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
In starcraft, getting a drone out to scout is alpha and omega, furthermore, keeping that drone alive while continuesly scouting out the opponents build strategy is crucial, there are even training programs that will let you practice building up a base while keeping a drone alive against a zealot on autochase.
What you are doing is exactly the same as any starcraft player, getting a scout in, and keeping him alive and scouting, and I can think of no good reason whatsoever why they should ban you for that, its like them banning you for massing a bigger army than them, pretty silly.
Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

how do you set recursive waypoints?


Something with crtl click :O I think I dunno, I never done it so it worked
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Just because an unit has an automated explore feature, doesn't mean you have to use it. If you can manage to control the game more manually, you'll often be rewarded.

This is what makes a good player even better.

It sounds like the players complaining about it, are just feeling a bit inferior as they use the automatic approach. They can't really complain, as it's covered in the tutorial. And perfectly valid tactic for gaining intel. Also, as stated above, this is very easy to counter.
Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top
Scouting is just as important as building that big fleet to kill the enemy. those two were probably noob's... ;-)
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top
You hold down the shift key while right clicking where you want to go to, every right click que up, so you can que 10+ destinations like that, effectively making the scout run circles around the planet in question as it travels through the waypoint que.

How many waypoints do we get in SoaSe ?
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
You hold down the shift key while right clicking where you want to go to

Wouldn't recursive imply creating a loop as opposed to simply adding to the queue that hopefully everyone knows about?

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

You hold down the shift key while right clicking where you want to go to

Wouldn't recursive imply creating a loop as opposed to simply adding to the queue that hopefully everyone knows about?




Yes. His nomenclature is a bit off. I mean if it were possible to do reSEGMENTATION FAULT



Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top
I wonder why they called it 'borderline exploit'. There's no borderline involved here. Just a hapless scout orbiting someone else's planet. It'll die or have to leave anyway when they build a hangar or put a frigate in it's path, so there really isn't much to worry about.

If those guys were trying to chase the scout around in circles with a frigate, then they were just wasting their time and effort. Like a bull trying to ram a piece of red cloth.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
Sounds like those guys really don't have any idea what an exploit is. An exploit is anything that gives the knowing player an unfair advantage and is unreasonably difficult if not impossible to counter. I don't see how setting a scout on a series of way points around your opponent's planet is the least exploitive.
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
like in SCFA there's an exploit on one of the main units. It gets a lv.2 Regen which is fairly cheap, except instead of giving it a 10% HP bonus then like, an extra 100 regen or something, it heals 10% of its HP (about 1000) every 5 SECONDS. At that stage of the game it is completely unreasonable to believe that you can counter something like that.

A micro'd scout as an exploit? lulz