I won’t speak for Korg’s definition here. But I would ask the question in general, are you sure about that?
When I ask that question it isn’t to use the term ‘carebear’ in a derogatory or diminutive sense here. But in the definition for the topic I’m discussing it will mean to be able to pick and choose when one PVPs, or more specifically, when someone’s building can be damaged.
When people discuss DBD, the topic is usually about a mechanic that only enables building damage for someone who is logged in and for a certain time after they log off. The idea is that they no longer have to log in every 5 hour time frame to protect their base. Freeing up days for personal reasons without fear of losing a base if they happen to miss a window or two.
Is that what everyone means when they discuss the topic? Well no.
I have played with offline protection before in a few other games, and it is one of the most exploited things if there isn’t active admins to enforce people not exploiting it. Since CE has no MMO-Style moderation. Active moderation from admins against those exploiting DBD is not possible or feasible.
There has been no indication from the community as a whole that they would NOT mind the exploitation. Usually because they are ignorant of how prevalent it would be. Funcom knows, and it is for that reason they don’t even want to bother with it. And they know the discontent among its PVP players on its servers would have when those exploits are used to the point it becomes normal play.
There’s two major exploits. And the severity of each one depends on the setting for how long DBD takes to kick in.
If the setting is too short, then the exploit would be that when under attack from a force a side can’t, or doesn’t want to bother with, they simply log off. DBD kicks in and they stop the attack with minimal damage.
If the setting is too long, then the exploit is the attackers waiting for a single person to login or wait for a majority of their target’s clan to log off and launch a single focused attack to do as much damage as possible in the allotted time.
If the setting is inbetween, you get a bit of both. Those with larger defenses, thicker walls, can get away with the setting not being as short but achieving the same results. Those new to a server get screwed, many times after their first log off.
DBD helps the larger more established clans far more than it helps the solo player or the new player. In fact its so disproportionate that the latter can do very little (compared to now). It also introduces the problem PVE and PVE-C servers have with serial refreshing, as a player who takes up a choice area only needs to login once every 10 days during slow times. Requiring very vigilant and almost batphone style readiness to make an attack.
In every sense where I’ve seen offline protection there is an active presence of admins and rules that punish players who log off mid raid to avoid being damaged. Those who use overwhelming odds on someone who just logged in and are by themselves. As well as against those who don’t play regularly and only refresh, having their builds admin deleted if they aren’t actively playing. None of these measures are available on FC’s servers. But they are required for DBD enhanced play to be able to follow the spirit of its inclusion.
Without that, the new meta begins to revolve around DBD and then you find yourself playing at weird times to avoid being attacked by coordinated groups, and cutting playtimes short because you see a potential build up happening. I’m not saying this is better or worse. But it is ‘different’ and different enough that players are going to have issues with it.
So in the definition I gave earlier about carebearing. Are you entirely fine with a 10 man clan (or two if a group is split between multiple clans) sitting outside your base and just foundation wiping you as you load in? Are you fine with a raid of your own getting cut short because the defender couldn’t be arsed to deal with you and simply logged out 5-10 minutes ago? Are you fine with someone picking up a spot you might like and sitting on it for months or years without actually playing and you can’t use PVP to take it without having someone online 24/7 to determine their login pattern?
If the answer is no to any of those questions, then yeah its kinda of carebearing in this sense. You and everyone else on those servers need to be willing to accept those new issues. As well as convincing Funcom you’ve accepted them and won’t make frivolous reports when someone gets raided right after they logged off and they come back in the game naked in the desert.
