nice-guy rules?

[BFM_Donut]

In my current campaign to scrupulously follow the rules, I'm finding that I have a tendency to slide down a slippery slope into either doing things that look to my opponent like infractions but aren't, or (worse) that actually are infractions, albeit accidental ones.

Example: I was playing on Blood Gulch tonight, and spawned to see a rocket hog, stationary, a medium grenade throw away from me. One opponent was in the driver's seat, and a second opponent was approaching the gunner's seat, about to climb in. I figured this was a self-defense case, and tossed a plasma nade at it. It flipped, and we all started shooting at each other. A couple of other teammates of mine spawned nearby, and... hilarity ensued.

When the smoke cleared the bad guys had been killed, a teammate of mine was driving, and I was gunning the hog we'd taken. As we drove off, though, one of the guys we'd killed observed that there were other hogs there. I looked back, and sure enough, on the far side of where I'd spawned, behind where I'd been facing when I arrived, there were two or three empty hogs all lined up.

I still think a case could be made that my initial attack was justified under the self-defense rule. But given the distance to the hog I attacked, I think I might well have survived if I'd turned around, seen the empty hogs behind me, and just jumped into one and driven off. And in the heat of the moment I didn't check to see if any were there.

Another case: Last night I was playing in Danger Canyon, and a player team-naded me twice, blatantly, because he wanted to drive the hog I was in. This made me angry, so as he drove off I stuck a plasma on his rear bumper. That was wrong, I realize, though at the time I was annoyed enough that I didn't remember the two-wrongs-don't-make-a-right thing.

If I play for an hour, it's a pretty good bet that there will be at least 3 or 4 cases like that. (Well, not like that last one. That was an exception, and now that I'm more aware of it I don't think I'll do that again. A similar situation developed tonight, again in Danger Canyon, and this time I was really cool and collected when the hog I was in was team-naded multiple times by someone who felt it was "his".) But in general, I think it's just going to happen regularly that two opponents see the same situation from their different perspectives, with one or more of them maybe not being completely well-versed in the official rulebook, and there are going to be accusations of camping and rudeness and all the rest. Then the admins have to take time out from racing to issue warnings and calm things down, and it just generally makes for a sub-optimal experience.

So I was thinking about it, and I think I might like to try changing my behavior (and only my behavior; I'm not suggesting that anyone else has to do this) as follows: I will follow all the official rules, and in addition, I will _only_ attack opponents when I'm gunning or riding as passenger in a moving hog. If I'm on foot, I just won't attack enemies, period. If an enemy and I both spawn near an empty hog, and he's closer to it than I am, he'll get it, and I won't nade him. If I'm on foot and a solo enemy driver comes by in a hog, I won't try to hogjack. If an enemy hog gunner is attacking me, too bad for me. Yeah, I'll die a few more times, and probably spend a little more time on foot, but I think I'll also avoid a lot of the unpleasantness surrounding rule-infraction controversies.

A potential downside to this is that I'll be letting my teammates down once in a while. If a bunch of us are on foot with no hogs, and an enemy hog comes along, there'll be one less of us trying to nade it. If a firefight is going on for an empty hog, my side is going to lose a few more times. But I think the overall effect might still be a win, in terms of improving the game experience for everyone.

I'm curious what others think about this. Thanks.

Pvt Donut

 

[BFM_Exodus]

You bring a good discussion Pvt Donut. Where you spawned and threw a plasma nade at your two enemies loading up you were doing nothing wrong. The fact other hogs were there does not matter, as in this case it was true self-defense as you said. Should you kill one of them and your remaining enemy stops then you should take one of the other hogs, assuming they were there at the beginning of the fight, and assuming your enemy stops firing at you. You cannot do any more than that, what you did was perfectly legal and was in an attempt to preserve your life and thus get more laps. If you do believe however you could get away without confrontation often this is the best solution, however for that you must use your best judgement.

As for team nading a rude teammate, no that is not right. But it is good you realize that and are willing to admit you did do this, even in frustration. It does show integrity on your part, however I still recommend refraining from doing this in the future.

And as for accidental infractions. Well this is one thing we teach all our BFM members when they are recruits. We teach them to look at situations from beginning to end, apply all doubt that could possibly be given to the person in question in regards to the rules and the fundamentals of race and then make a judgement call. We don't always get it right, myself and other experienced admins included, however we do our best. For our regular and more experienced racers such as yourself that are known to try your very best to race we especially give the benefit of the doubt.

If you feel the need to change your gameplay to a less slayer based approach that is totally up to you. Personally from what I read and understand I don't see a problem. All I can say is keep racing in our servers and keep learning more about race. There is always more to learn.