Some ideas to try and get people to not do this:

• Make it so you can not log out if another player is within say 100-200m.

• Make it so if/when you log out, you body actually stays right were it is for 30-45 seconds, so you really need to make sure your in a safe spot.

• When you log in, if another player is within say 100-200m you are randomly teleported out to about say 500-1000m.

• If you log out AND another player is with 100-200m, you can't log into a different server for 5-10 minutes. If you log back into the one you were on, no wait. However if you attempt to log into another it records that, puts you in the timer, then if you cancel and switch back well you still get the timer.

Just some of ideas I could think of to help prevent server hoppers and ghosting.

LostS77 has some great ideas. i agree with all of them.
combat logging is probably the biggest problem plaguing this game at the moment.
i call "friendly?" and the player instantly logs

The best way would be to keep from spawning in ,in a certain range or log out

There should be timer and restrictions when you can logout. Also if you login to server all loot in range (500m) should be hidden for 15 minutes.

How about loging out and loging in the same spot to be allowed only in outdoor areas such as woods wilderness and the shore. Inside towns building villages hot spots etc loging out will be allowed only with a timer maybe 60 sec but when you try to log back in or change the server you will be teleported somewhere outdoor - in woods ,wilderness or the shore. This will make gameplay inside towns and buildings more realistic - you will actually be able to hide inside a building and defend the exits without someone popping out of nowhere righ buildingyou : _)

I think there should be some kind of mechanics to make the player prefer to keep his character on the same server for longer periods . That will decrease combat logging. I suggest 1:Number one - to restrict players from logout or login inside buildings- it is really annoying and unrealistic when you walk inside a building see that none is in and a guy just logs in behind you.2:logout timer + login timer
3: when longing out near other players each one of them has to conform that you can logout, so when you are with your friends you will be able to safely logout , when you are near hostile players ( bandits ) you will basically expose your presence , hope this helps ; )

i think there is a need for an timer when logging out. if you log in and there is a player in front of you, who did not recognize you - i don't know. just bad-luck if that person is shooting...

First of all I completely agree that a mechanic to prevent combat logging is necessary. The problem is that it has to be simple and not random. There shouldn't be a punishment just because there is someone nearby because sometimes you don't even know it, especially in bigger towns. So, some kind of teleporting the character around when someone else is around can't be the solution.

Maybe we should think about what is required: We want to prevent that someone can log out instantly when he's in combat,maybe fleeing or just about to be arrested by other players. But there is no "combat status" in this game. So, we could maybe use some kind of time mechanism.

For example (combat logging): If someone wants to log out it could take about 20-30 seconds and meanwhile he can't do anything (no movement, aiming or shooting) but he can interrupt the process. And the process itself has some kind of emote, like sitting and folding your hands (...). This would ensure that people need to make sure they are way out of reach of other players and have this amount of time to wait in safety. The emote is necessary to prevent that someone is logging out while being under the gun because other players would recognize it.

Another part is server hopping: In first place there should be a time penalty for rejoining the same (!) server after leaving it for about 10 minutes. This should be enough for a new situation. For joining different servers there should also be such a mechanism which is depending on the time you spent on the previous server. E.g. if someone is playing for 2h on the same server he should of course be able to join another one right away. But if he was playing on a server for only about a few minutes he should get a time penalty for a few minutes which is increasing dramatically if he continues the hopping.

Just some short ideas. :)

Combat logging is a big issue, but there are far more important ones to deal with in the Alpha. Anyways, here's my two cents:

-Abort timer: after hitting "esc", require player to wait a set amount of time (15 secs for example) before they can hit "abort". I believe this was implemented in the Mod.

-Single-Server Persistence: One character, one server. This would prevent ghosting by forcing each character to stick to one server. It would also prevent going to a town, looting, switching servers, and looting another full town.

-I liked Lost's temporary character persistence idea. After aborting, your character remains where they are for a short period of time before actually disappearing. Perhaps they could go through an animation that'd show someone holding them up what they were doing, allowing that person to execute the logger.

Currently this is how it works:

• You find a safe place (a fallacy, there are no safe places in dayz)
• You assess the surroundings and determine you would most likely stay alive for the next 30secs
• you press escape and choose exit
• you are now looking at the main menu.
• your character is still in game sitting down for the next 30secs.

Sure it might stop combat logging, but essentially it's a mechanic designed to provide free loot and kills for griefers. Dean Hall vaguely suggested that it was designed to prevent server hopping and ghosting. But I can't see how it does.

The way it should happen

Prevent Server Hopping & Prevent Ghosting

• Switching server(or server group) within X hours of joining current server(or server group) results in you being moved to a random location that is neither near other players or high value loot locations.

The benefits of this are:

• Loot Hoppers will be facing a far amount of time running to new high value loot locations each time they change
• Ghosters will find that they are now facing a long trek to attempt their "flanking" manuvure.

The downsides are :

• Players performing a legitimate server change will find themselves in new locations.
  • However if these server changes are happening after an hour or so then we should probably leave them in the same location.

Prevent Combat Logging

• You find a safe place (a fallacy, there are no safe places in dayz)
  • ensure you are not in a status of combat.
  • You assess the surroundings and determine you would most likely stay alive for the next 30secs
• You press escape and choose exit
• Your character is sitting down for the next 30secs watching a timer.
  • At this point you are only able to stand back up or move your head.
  • Head movement will not cancel the logout timer process.
  • Standing or clicking the cancel button will cancel the logout process.
• Someone finds you before the timer ends? move and defend yourself. simple. logout prevented.
  • You will then be in combat for the next 60secs.

People claim my idea allows for abuse, but I can't see how.

The common counter argument is:

• Sit in a building, with only a door way view to your sitting location
• Initiate the logout timer
• Wait for someone to come:
  • If no one arrives:
    • let logout timer get to 29secs, cancel the timer.
  • If someone comes, (now here is their crazy logic):
    • Stand-up and defend yourself. (wow, aborted, much combat log, wut?)

There is a group of people that hate the idea that someone logging out can cancel the logout and defend themselves.
The only reason I can think of that someone wouldn't like that is because it means can't catch people in the process of logging out undefended.

Learn from MMORPGs... many have 30 second timers to logout.

[Combat Logging]

A 30 second timer seems more than enough to thwart combat loggers. If you couldn't find the guy within that time frame, then that's on you. Alt F4 hopefully would cause the player to stand around for the allotted 30 seconds as if still logged in.

[Server Hopping] (lootgoblin)

Server hopping for loot a harder fix. The easiest way would be to simply limit the amount of servers you may join within a time span. A reasonable limit would be 3 servers in a 2 hour period. However, a short grace period would be required (3 minutes) in the event the server was lagging, you were kicked, or other reasons beyond your control. This is ample time to decide if the server is where you want to stay, but short enough you would have trouble properly searching a specific military zone for loot.

[Ghosting]

Ghosting is a very simple fix. When a player leaves a server and joins another, for at least 5 minutes, they may not join back into the previous server. People may still try to ghost, but will no longer have an advantage unless you were standing in the same spot for another 5 minutes.

The official Hive System is very important to the standalone because you cant trust a server which has an admin because he can do everything he wants like in the mod where an admin can delete you from the server if he just wants it so or can do even worse things. Im speaking in experience to the mod. I know that the offical hive can cause problems that help players to cheat, ghost or combatlogg but when lost557´s ideas make it in the standalone then such thing wont be happening anymore as we seen them in the alpha untill know. And the most important thing is that the servers are very laggy, desyncy and they do crash in the alpha and may in beta release too and nobody whats to beginn a new character just because of the down or reseted server.

It sounds like they need to have a set amount of time where the person cannot attack or be attacked when they logon. Maybe a counter where if they do it too much, it adds minutes to their hold time.

solution (not many will like this i guess) = RANDOM SPAWNS

just like when starting anew (with a fresh character), geared characters should also spawn somewhere completely random. that way, ghosting will be totally ineffective

I would like to reiterate my belief I have stated other forums there needs to eventually be certain log-in spawn points for current (equipped) characters in a designated SZ with no chance of spawn killing or firing from spawn. [I.E. - you log out and in, in elektro, and you spawn in an elektro spawn SZ (maybe 2 or 3 of them in each zone/area to reduce spawn kill on leaving sz or easily escapable areas with no sniper towers near [infinite possibilities][possible timer that prevents attacking/being attacked for an interval after login? {timer + set spawn point = you show up in certain areas and have time to book it out of there without getting spawn killed exiting sz. at this point it may even eliminate the need for a SZ.}]). Log out and in near Black Mountain = a Black Mountain SZ] this would be a big project to handle sure, but it will eliminate the problems of server hopping behind enemies and spawn killing on logins with gear.(which people seem to do REALLY often for such low population and vast landscape [cheats?]) [EDIT: also clears up the problem of server hopping directly to buildings with fresh high-value spawns, and will "force" you to expose yourself from a randomized, yet specific, set of places eventually, if you plan on farming that coupled M4A1 magazine you can't live without!]
EDIT: Also eliminates random spawning into somewhere 10km away from where you logged out!

As for logging out to avoid combat, there's no way of telling currently (and fairly) whether they are actually logging to avoid combat or if they were just logging (or even planning on it before you showed up with your mighty axe!.) If there were some sort of "punishment" involved, people coincidentally logging when someone else was in the area would end up receiving that same punishment whether or not they had seen your character. As for exiting the game being imposed with a timer, players would have to retain control of their character for said time (or it's completely unfair to everyone logging [imagine someone stalking you waiting for you to log out so they can get an easy kill and all your gear + time lag advantage they would have from you cancelling a "restrained" logout. Restrained timed logouts even if they could be cancelled would always create an unnecessary risk of ever logging off any server!]), and quick logging in the event of an emergency or angry wife(which does happen) irl would not be possible(unless say a set number of quick logs per day were implemented before well... you're screwed by the timer.)

I don't know what the best solution is here, but currently I suggest taking that 300 sec delay away, I join a server and desync try a different server 300sec try the exact same server 300sec. I also do not agree with locking people in a server as I work and on occasion play during lunch, now can you imagine if I can't log back out when I need to get back to work.

1. If you set up static spawn points, those points will be camped by fully equipped people.
2. If the game incorporates random spawn points A MAP FEATURE NEEDS TO BE ADDED IN-GAME. Or have a GPS unit with a track function.
3. When logging in/ spawning, a player should be invincible until able to move and shoot. Either a spawn shield should be incorporated or the character should not be visible to zombies and other players until the character is fully capable of all game functions.