Official statement for "Clever use of gameplay mechanics"

So I guess most people know about this terminology. It's pretty much not playing the game *exactly* how it is meant to be played but still playing by the rules the game itself sets. Some might just call it exploiting. Others call it ... yeah ... clever use of gameplay mechanics.

So, the polarizing nature of this topic aside I saw some people doing it today (namely the Medic-Victim-Killer game) but didn't bother reporting it or something, because hey, they aren't doing anything they are prohibited to do.

Or ARE they? And that's what I want to know. Is there an official statement or specific case where authorities said anything about it or set an example by sanctioning/not sanctioning it for instance?

In the end it's *almost* the same as a MAX that gets willingly shot in front of an enemy spawn so that a bunch of engineers can repair it or people randomly shooting in the air at the warpgate and engineers paving the floor with ammo. Or people running around blowing all the turrets up before capping a base just to repair them again. This kinda stuff happens all the time and its practically the same.

So, yeah ... whats the officials take on this one?

"Stat padding" is a bannable offense and should be reported at every opportunity.
Fortunately SOE has software in place to detect if player A is killing player B repeatedly in a short period of time. Doesn't hurt to report them as well though.

OK, so the medic-victim-killer game, as the OP calls it, is bannable, and detectable....

but what about the other scenarios he mentions? are they frowned upon? or is this sort of behaviour fair game?

I also would like to know where the line is drawn.

What about 2 guys constantly overloading and stabilizing a generator? that's about 300xp every 20 seconds or 900xp per minute.

Due to the last update, this should decrease a lot. You are only able to overload generators with direct connection to friendly territory now, the generator padding deep behind enemy lines isn't possible anymore. So right now, it's much unlikely that people will get along with this for a long time, except during night time with let's say 10 people on a server, that is not much likely. Furthermore, exp get's capped after a specific number of overloads / time, like resupply and everything else. So yeah, that was a problem once but got solved quiet well with the latest GU. And yeah, as others mentioned already, this is statpadding and bannable.

Provide an opt out for the statistics logging. You'd have to stop using the term "statpadding", since most people use these methods simply to gain certs. Banning for using in-game mechanics is just plain wrong. Fix your code to disallow cert gain beyond an artificial level you're happy with.

People I know will just have a friend standing in front of a spawn room while the medic constantly revives him for tons of XP.

There's nothing left to do but wait for capture anyway
It's regarded as a way to "boost" new members so they get rapidly a decent ammount of certs.

Before they made it so only connected bases could have their generators overloaded I caught two guys doing this, recorded it and sent a ticket in. Considering I didn't get a canned response I'm positive they do indeed take it seriously.

As a medic in large battles, I've had the disturbing privilege of reviving the same player 10+ times in a very short period of time. These players are almost always strangers to me, since my outfit mates wouldn't play in that fashion. Blessedly I have not received any inquiry or reproach from doing this and nor would I expect to. However, it does complicate any algorithmic approach to idenfiying genuine "exploiters" or "stat cappers".

I'm absolutely convinced that there must be some tank gunners or lib gunners who have many repeated kills of the same enemy during a 9min spawnroom camping wait in some bases as well.

Conversely it's completely incomprehensible why the hack-exp dry out after 3-4 hacked turrets'terminals for the infiltrator - especially since repair-exp and healing-exp never stops.

One can understand why it would be difficult to very precisely determine the conditions for a bona-fide exploit, unless it's coupled with direct observation. Furthermore, when you have complete control over an AMP station and are just waiting for 7 min until it caps, where's the harm in getting a few hundred EXPs for engineers while they wait? Waiting around, rather than being in a biolab fight for the same duration, will not give you nearly as many EXP, even when using this EXP-exploit.

We can ruminate about this endlessly of course....

As a medic in large battles, I've had the disturbing privilege of reviving the same player 10+ times in a very short period of time. These players are almost always strangers to me, since my outfit mates wouldn't play in that fashion. Blessedly I have not received any inquiry or reproach from doing this and nor would I expect to. However, it does complicate any algorithmic approach to idenfiying genuine "exploiters" or "stat cappers".

I'm absolutely convinced that there must be some tank gunners or lib gunners who have many repeated kills of the same enemy during a 9min spawnroom camping wait in some bases as well.

Conversely it's completely incomprehensible why the hack-exp dry out after 3-4 hacked turrets'terminals for the infiltrator - especially since repair-exp and healing-exp never stops.

One can understand why it would be difficult to very precisely determine the conditions for a bona-fide exploit, unless it's coupled with direct observation. Furthermore, when you have complete control over an AMP station and are just waiting for 7 min until it caps, where's the harm in getting a few hundred EXPs for engineers while they wait? Waiting around, rather than being in a biolab fight for the same duration, will not give you nearly as many EXP, even when using this EXP-exploit.

We can ruminate about this endlessly of course....

The official response should be

"Stop being such a lame idiot, play the game like the rest of us, instead of running around doing stupid crap to make easy XP."

I go out of my way to kill people I see doing stuff like this, it make me feel all warm and fuzzy knowing I made them mad because I spoilt their little XP gaining adventures.

Yes, exploiting in general is bannable. Stuff like finding ways to be able to constantly repair something is exploiting and bannable. EDIT: As in there were people banned for stuff like this.

What exactly would be exploiting is dabatable though, but in general you should be able to figure it out if something's intended or not. If you need to question yourself it's probably not intended.

I dont see many of those issues as anything but smart. A ma standing in front of a spawn room? opportunistic and friendly (to supporting units). Destroying turrets for the XP reward, and subsequent repair XP? same thing, just a smart move if you like that.

The ammo dump in the warpgate isnt an issue because there is an XP cap on resupplies. So, really, who cares?

I draw the line of stat padding when the situation requires an "enemy" to gain XP. If your taking advantage of natural XP gains, then all for you. If your organizing with a friend from the opposite faction, then your just stat padding and that should be frowned upon. Then again, many people do these sort of things for testing/videos and are not actually stat padding, so reporting may be uncalled for.

All in all, in a game like this, does anybody REALLY care if someone statpads?

They should just remove XP from the game if they really want to stop that. I don't care really. Let them farm a few thousand certs. These are the NPCs you shoot in every video game. A few of us are real players and love it when we get to shoot them because all they can do is farm.

It totally depends on what is "exploiting" and what isn't. No way should anyone ever be banned for destroying enemy turrets and then repairing them after the base flips. That is a totally legit game mechanic, and denying the enemy from using a turret when a base is under siege is fine, as is fixing it after. Generally, when you are fixing it after most of the attackers are off to an new base, and you are much less safe trying to fix it anyway. Its not just free XP
Dropping ammo at the warpgate should be fixed. That is free XP in a place where no harm can come to you. But I don't think you should be banned for it, it should just be made to no longer work.
Max getting shot for free engie repairs is pretty borderline. But the Max is putting itself in danger, so there is that.
Blatant stat padding, like killing an alt over and over, reviving them, etc is another story. That's the kind of stuff that is clearly an exploit and should be enforced as such.
SOE should probably comment on this, but I wouldn't expect it. Maybe we can get them to tweet about it.

It is exploiting. Now whether or not you choose to put a negative connotation on the word exploit is up to you.

In video games people associate exploit with cheating.

Most of these complaints easily fall into the "who gives a ****?" category.

I hope this isn't bannable, I do this all the time, especially in bio labs. If iam in a MAX and some engineers were healing my the whole fight, yes I stand about 30-40m from the spawn room and shoot at them and let them hit me so my engineer can make some points. Its kind of the point of a MAX, keep them shooting at you so your teammates can dome them.

I want to know as well, I don't stat pad, but when your waiting for 3-4 mins you might as well help your team out no?

Using an AV MANA Turret to kill infantry is a "clever use" of gameplay mechanics. The turrets weren't meant to be used as AI-turrets in the first place, but you won't get banned for it.
Using a droppod to land inside structures like ammo towers, where you can shoot out, but the enemy can't see/hit you is an exploit and will hopefully get you banned (although it has already been fixed in a patch a while ago I think..).
Stat padding is another thing and I doubt anyone will seriously argue against its... "ban'ability".

Thanks for all the replies, guys! Still the definition remains a big vague.

That's not "clever use of gameplay mechanic". That's just dully shooting at whatever you can shoot at. At most thats "use of shooty-stuff to shoot at stuff".

I would define that as glitching. Just yesterday some NC shot at me from inside a building structure. I was a MAX and tried a few times to figure out where exactly inside the ceiling he was but couldn't find anything. So I just left him there and walked away.

The problem remains, where is the line? An official statement would really help on that, since scenarios that could be defined as "stat padding" are common practice. In the MAX example: The MAX knows exactly he doesn't have to be shot at. And he knows exactly he is feeding unnecessary XP to the engineers. The engineers know perfectly well that the MAX is getting his face melted of for just that purpose and even the enemies in the spawn know that the MAX is willingly eating all the bullets just so for the engineers to repair him. Everyone has been there and everyone participating is in silent agreement.

So what's the difference? That the one thing is planned and the other spontaneous (even though it happens every. friggin. time. So thats hardly "spontaneous" anymore)? Honestly that can hardly hold up as a valid argument as to why the latter one is completely okay and the other gets the ban-hammer.

Personally I am more in agreement with SadButTrue. People are doing what the game allows them to do in any case. If the officials say thats bad, then so be it but in the end they have the means to put a stop to it. Not by punishing people who play the game in a way it wasn't "intended" to but by making such things impossible in the first place.