I don't think the countdown actually works, cause you could just start 2 clients, kill the one your playing on and log on with another and still have the same "feature" like now kinda, totally without using the logout button.

Keeping the character in game is the real solution there, regardless if its a real logout or a lost connection/killed client the toon should just stay there 15 seconds longer at least - but only if it was in-combat, that way out of combat reloging could remain as quick as it is now and the normal player that just wants to switch toons wouldn't get penalized.

It should also block attempts to log that toon back on within those 15 seconds - because logging back in makes the toon respawn at a different spot so keeping someone in game 15s would solve nothing if it could still be abused to "teleport" away if logging back in right away. So relogging some in-combat toon should give some error message like "this toon is still in combat, please wait 15s" while keeping it there those time.

The feature to spawn at a spawn spot upon relogging should remain as it is however as that is very useful in a lot of stuck in geometry situations while the /stuck command in this game is mostly trash to fix those issues.

Of course there's a way, they just don't want to put the resources into doing it. We've come up with plenty of good solutions that would work and be better than what they have in place, but they continue to let it go on.

1. If you logout, you're done with the match
2. Can't logout while in combat
3. Stay logged in for ~15 secs if your in combat and you log or dc so people can finish killing you
4. Logout starts a one hour cd on queues the same as it does for STF queues
5. Can't log back into that toon until the match is over.
6. Logouts open up an option for team mates to votekick

There's a half dozen ways right off the top of my head that is better than what they have now. There argument that some of them are exploitable makes me lmao. Compared to what? The queues that are filled with afk gold farmers and people logging off instead of playing with honor. Exploitable...lol.

so what if you get the bug where you cant decloak? or if you get stuck in an object and /stuck doesnt work? only one way to fix it then, by logging.

Tough luck?

I still think the best way is add a kill against your team every time you disconnect or change characters in a match. If you get stuck sonny watch where you fly. If you crash sucks but its only one kill.

Not if it's going to count as a kill every time the chronically overtaxed server kicks me.

Then they just need to attach the penalty to the actual logout/change character buttons. This wouldn't solve the issue with people just closing the client, but if they have to restart that, there is a good chance they will time out of the match anyway. "You will be removed from map in 10....9....8...."

Having /logout add to the PvP kill score could be cool, but it may deprive me of one of my favorite STO commodities: Logoff Jones Tears.

An excellent fuel source and readily obtainable, Logoff Jones Tears come in a variety of flavors. Every racist comment and death threat is a new delicacy to savor, every logoff a refreshing ambrosia. Hell, he was in OPvP today bragging about how he just readies /logout in the chat bar and presses enter twice for his little failsploit. Exquisite.

Perhaps someday there will be a patch that puts an end to his little nuisances, but until then, I will just keep enjoying the ever-flowing font of the Tears of Fail.

If you don't mind me saying, perhaps having an instant win for a team, if the entire other team warps or beams out of the map.

I did a ground arena (yes I said ground) a few weeks ago, a FvK, and I was on a KDF toon. After we killed them a few times, they simply all left.

So adding a score if somebody logs out, or if the whole team bails the other team should auto-win.

Those two things alone would help, and hurt. They'd help in making it have a cost as it were to log out like that. It'd hurt in that AFKers would just log out, and log in over and over as quick as they can to rapidly finish a match.

You should just not despawn until red alert clears. Log out if you want, but your character remains ingame until red alert clears.