The funny thing is, and maybe "newer players" don't even know that, the fleet actions were supposed to be tactically challenging maps. You can purchase buffs and NPC support for these maps at your SB and let your buildings lay mines or let a wing of 3 Intrepids or 1 Sovereign warp in that fight by your side. These things were useful at a time the team had to spread out, escorting transports or defen a weak side of the base.
If you look at the sad state of disrepair these missions tumbled into, in difficulty, functionality and rewards, you can't help but mourn the time 3k dps was an achievement.
^ Memory Alpha.org is not canon. It's a open wiki with arbitrary rules. Only what can be cited from an episode is. ^
"No. Men do not roar. Women roar. Then they hurl heavy objects... and claw at you." -Worf, son of Mogh
"A filthy, mangy beast, but in its bony breast beat the heart of a warrior" - "faithful" (...) "but ever-ready to follow the call of the wild." - Martok, about a Targ
"That pig smelled horrid. A sweet-sour, extremely pungent odor. I showered and showered, and it took me a week to get rid of it!" - Robert Justman, appreciating Emmy-Lou
The funny thing is, and maybe "newer players" don't even know that, the fleet actions were supposed to be tactically challenging maps. You can purchase buffs and NPC support for these maps at your SB and let your buildings lay mines or let a wing of 3 Intrepids or 1 Sovereign warp in that fight by your side. These things were useful at a time the team had to spread out, escorting transports or defen a weak side of the base.
If you look at the sad state of disrepair these missions tumbled into, in difficulty, functionality and rewards, you can't help but mourn the time 3k dps was an achievement.
Thanks for this look back and very true. When I first started playing getting together for fleet actions was part of the daily program and getting people together.
I do have a handful of the elite (purple) buffs I've been hanging onto almost forever. Time to pop a few and sit back and watch the fireworks... even the Starbase can defend itself lol.
It's very easy to work around the AFK penalty. Just hit whatever damage cap is in place early in the match and go eat pizza. That's how a lot of us get through that horrible mirror event.
I don't understand, why take part in the event if you dislike it? If a mission was that tiresome for me, I simply would not play it to spare the others of picking up my slack. I personally enjoy showing off and trying to out do the next guy!
New Lunar Republic
"Where monsters rampage, I'm there to take them down! Where treasure glitters, I'm there to claim it! Where an enemy rises to face me, victory will be mine!" -Lina Inverse
In general I would agree with that - but if an event gives out a reward that can't be obtained in any other way, then you may not have much of a choice.
Besides, in well designed missions (and games in general) the actions of the player should always matter to some extent. In the Mirror event it doesn't matter how well you perform as you can't finish early - so what incentive is there to perform well?
This new reputation and its missions will likely be a lot better in that regard.
Yesterday this happened to me - AFK ban for a level 60 alt in Borg alert. I did fight, was not away, and a shallow glimpse into the combat log all showed "normal" for me (I was hitting with non neglect-able damage allegedly), for what I could see. I do wonder if it was lag/bug/fast alert issue though,
or even for the faint possibility that it could possibly have been linked somehow to the fact I use piazo weapons. (unlikely, but who knows, since I understood those still could have healed enemies theoretically in some rare case.)
P.S.
I myself am a newbie but I don't think this specific AFK ban had something to do with that. I don't have any combat log special addon etc but from what I saw, I did a nice damage in comparison to other chars of self (which is never much, but still I mostly don't get banned unless lagging heavily with a lot of SNR etc, or once when tried to run something at level 13. It should suffice for Borg alerts).
Ah, another thing I recalled.
Just as entered Borg alert I was making sure on the last moment that this alt had no cannon since one of the skills one of my boff had by default was cannon related, and eventually could be it was: 1. a fast run which ended 4 waves quickly, and 2. a run in which for maybe 1-2 seconds about I had the U screen open to see if I have cannons or beams <blushes>. Still most of the run I was shooting or moving between targets as applicable, participated all stages, and seemingly, hitting not badly at all. Items, even with mostly default skills for a boff or more (and yes, I had a way to enhance beam and had a polaron's synergy), were supposed to be enough for a Borg alert participation.
Yeah with the mirror invasion it needs to simply be adjusted to either a) end phase 1 once we close a specific number of portals, or b) give us bonus marks for every additional portal closed after a minimum with then respawing endlessly. That would give teams an incentive to play well and be more involved as decent runs would either end faster or be massive more rewarding.
Me personally I love to let a good swarm of enemies build up and have a right proper fight to regain control.
Same here, I remember when I was in a Mirror event on a less well geared character where the map was filled with enemies (no one was closing portals). It was quite intense and therefore, fun.
But I can certainly understand why one wouldn't really be motivated to actively participate in that event.
It's very easy to work around the AFK penalty. Just hit whatever damage cap is in place early in the match and go eat pizza. That's how a lot of us get through that horrible mirror event.
I don't understand, why take part in the event if you dislike it? If a mission was that tiresome for me, I simply would not play it to spare the others of picking up my slack. I personally enjoy showing off and trying to out do the next guy!
There is no "slack" to pick up in MI. The only thing players need to do in it is wait out the timer and kill the dreadnought at the end. Everything else is optional. And the people who cry over the optionals, are always the last ones to come fight the dreadnought. I've often killed it solo before anyone else even tries to help.
When a mission is made to require players to wait out a timer to proceed, nobody should be surprised players will wait out the timer. Personally, I always use that time to fill up my R&D, doffing and admiralty assignments. That's much more useful than engaging in pointless optionals that reward peanuts.
Yeah with the mirror invasion it needs to simply be adjusted to either a) end phase 1 once we close a specific number of portals, or b) give us bonus marks for every additional portal closed after a minimum with then respawing endlessly.
That would give teams an incentive to play well and be more involved as decent runs would either end faster or be massive more rewarding.
Or they could, you know, ditch the stupid phase timer and have players kill all the enemies like in the original mirror event.
But it's probably better for the metrics that we sit there for 11 minutes, even if we're literally just sitting there for 11 minutes. Only way I can explain all the waiting missions in this game.
It's very easy to work around the AFK penalty. Just hit whatever damage cap is in place early in the match and go eat pizza. That's how a lot of us get through that horrible mirror event.
I don't understand, why take part in the event if you dislike it? If a mission was that tiresome for me, I simply would not play it to spare the others of picking up my slack. I personally enjoy showing off and trying to out do the next guy!
Simply because some people want the reward...without the work. They leach off of the others to gain something that they do not deserve.
I think on the whole it would be easier just to run the Borg, Rebel Klingons, Disgruntled Gorn, and Orion encounters because they afford one dilithium as well (1K an hour is easy)--then when you've got a few ranks under your belt and perform better in Fleet Alert, have at it.
Yesterday this happened to me - AFK ban for a level 60 alt in Borg alert (...)
I myself am a newbie (...)
Ah, another thing I recalled.
Just as entered Borg alert I was making sure on the last moment that this alt had no cannon since one of the skills one of my boff had by default was cannon related (...)
I had the U screen open to see if I have cannons or beams (...)
While you had your toon's UI opened and were checking things the first part of the queue was all but completed. For a lot of players blowing up cubes here is measured in weapons cycles per cube (seconds). Before it was turned into a queue people would solo the entire map, which was rather fun actually, until you eventually realized that without any challenge things don't stay fun for long.
Don't know what the answer is for newer players. Perhaps trying to hone your skills in system patrols? My advice on not getting afk is the same as above: shoot at something as soon as possible.
AFK ban means a player has scored less than 1 percent of the damage required to successfully complete the event. Whatever event it may be. It's a game, not a lifestyle choice. Shouldn't be allowed to become one either. Priorities, along with a sense of perspective, have to be maintained.
I get the occasional AFK penalty. I usually just switch chars and keep rolling. And when I do get the penalty, I own it. I did something dumb and now I have to pay for it. Blaming others for my failings is a weak and distasteful way to live.
Post edited by thunderfoot#5163 on
A six year old boy and his starship. Living the dream.
AFK ban means a player has scored less than 1 percent of the damage required to successfully complete the event. Whatever event it may be. It's a game, not a lifestyle choice. Shouldn't be allowed to become one either. Priorities, along with a snese of perspective, have to be maintained.
I get the occasional AFK penalty. I usually just switch chars and keep rolling. And when I do get the penalty, I own it. I did something dumb and now I have to pay for it. Blaming others for my failings is a weak and distasteful way to live.
Except you didn't do anything dumb. You didn't fail, no mission has objectives requiring specific player to do a specific amount of damage. Your team completed the mission as ordered and you were incorrectly punished for not hitting some invisible undocumented score, because Cryptic put in a shoddy system to appease whiners and it doesn't work.
Except that doing over 20k DPS isn't 'being bad at the game'. Certainly not when everything is being vaporised in mere seconds, meaning that enemies are dead before torpedoes or cannon fire can hit them. 20k is actually quite high in such cases.
The problem here isn't with the guy doing 20k DPS which is sufficient for 90% of the game content (and probably already much higher than the average player pulls off), the problem is that it is possible for one player to do ten times that amount - or 2 times the damage a full 5-man team would need for most advanced content.
Add to that that the top DPS results are even twice as high as that 200k or 20-25 times what a normal player needs, and it's not difficult to see what the problem is here. Except if one is purposefully ignoring it of course (have we already seen diversion tactics such as the call for elite difficulties in this thread?) or lost all feeling with what's supposed to be 'normal', 'bad' and good performance.
Except that doing over 20k DPS isn't 'being bad at the game'. Certainly not when everything is being vaporised in mere seconds, meaning that enemies are dead before torpedoes or cannon fire can hit them. 20k is actually quite high in such cases.
20k isn't bad in any situation. I've soloed advanced STF with a 30k build...back when I still cared enough to parse them. And the game has been repeatedly made easier since then.
20k is quite sufficient for all the popular content.
In general I would agree with that - but if an event gives out a reward that can't be obtained in any other way, then you may not have much of a choice.
Besides, in well designed missions (and games in general) the actions of the player should always matter to some extent. In the Mirror event it doesn't matter how well you perform as you can't finish early - so what incentive is there to perform well?
This new reputation and its missions will likely be a lot better in that regard.
Oh I see, it is an acquisition thing. In that case there are other rules that apply in Star Trek.
<Rules of Acquisition>
9> Instinct plus opportunity equals profit.
11> Latinum isn't the only thing that shines.
14> Anything stolen is pure profit.
21> Never place friend ship before profit.
28> Morality is always defined by those in power.
40> If you see profit on a journey, take it!
49> Old age and greed will always overcome youth and talent.
Although I no longer play as Luna, she had all of the Ferengi items in the game. But it was fun role playing her at one time according to these laws, it was how I could afford the Iconian dreadnought for my Empress character. But I do understand the need to exploit, because it is profitable!
New Lunar Republic
"Where monsters rampage, I'm there to take them down! Where treasure glitters, I'm there to claim it! Where an enemy rises to face me, victory will be mine!" -Lina Inverse
Besides, in well designed missions (and games in general) the actions of the player should always matter to some extent. In the Mirror event it doesn't matter how well you perform as you can't finish early - so what incentive is there to perform well?
Starship mastery? I mean there is a full armada of enemy things to blow up.
This penalty is very punishing in the Undine BZ. As a new player my gear is not so great yet, but its not bad. I understand most of the mechanics and have somewhat decent builds on my characters. But when groups of 50k-100k DPSers show up to the Undine BZ the only reasonable thing I can do (if I want to maximize my haul for the time spent in the game) is leave and find something else to do until the leet DPS gets bored and leaves.
During the off hours I always get full rewards in the Undine BZ. During the busy hours I'm lucky if I walk out with anything. So basically I can't play at the playground when the bigs kids are there.
Its great that some of the people can do such amazing DPS but when that DPS is several magnitudes above what is required to do the content and there's a system in place that splits the reward based on simple proportions it unfairly disadvantages those with average (yet acceptable) DPS. I can understand this type of thing in an elite instance but in open world content like the Undine BZ I think something needs to change.
This penalty is very punishing in the Undine BZ. As a new player my gear is not so great yet, but its not bad. I understand most of the mechanics and have somewhat decent builds on my characters. But when groups of 50k-100k DPSers show up to the Undine BZ the only reasonable thing I can do (if I want to maximize my haul for the time spent in the game) is leave and find something else to do until the leet DPS gets bored and leaves.
During the off hours I always get full rewards in the Undine BZ. During the busy hours I'm lucky if I walk out with anything. So basically I can't play at the playground when the bigs kids are there.
Its great that some of the people can do such amazing DPS but when that DPS is several magnitudes above what is required to do the content and there's a system in place that splits the reward based on simple proportions it unfairly disadvantages those with average (yet acceptable) DPS. I can understand this type of thing in an elite instance but in open world content like the Undine BZ I think something needs to change.
There is no penalty in the BZ's. That's the tagging nerf in play over there. It really sucks, too. But you really should be able to get shots in at the planet killers, since there is a non-combat phase that will delay killing them no matter how big DPS guys there are.
If necessary, you can always camp the PK's spawn point when the map is nearing completion so you can get shots in right away.
I've never personally got an afk penalty. I thought for sure I would one time when doing CCA and lagging out so bad (had some connection issues that day) that I didn't even get a shot off, but didn't get it. I was pretty disappointed.
I'm a new player and I've played SB24 once. I don't care to do it again. I was so outclassed by my co-players that I got maybe a half dozen shots off --- and ended up with the AFK penalty as my reward. The AFK penalty only makes sense when all the co-players are basically balanced (+/- 10%) in their abilities. It makes no sense when L5's are allowed to play with Admirals. I am, after all, playing by STO's rules ... which apparently don't want lower level players to play despite inviting them to do so. Until some kind of balancer is put in place --- even if it's only a half-dozen "rooms" that restrict play to "Level X or lower" --- the AFK penalty is nothing more than a punishment for being a new player.
Hell, I didn't even get an AFK penalty when I flew in to a queue with all of my weapons removed except for my KCB. I have had the occasional lag induced AFK penalty but that is bound to happen at some point. Most of the people that complain about AFK bans got them because they deserved them.
When you see "TRIBBLE" in my posts, it's because I manually typed "TRIBBLE" and censored myself.
Nearly 3 years playing I only got an AFK penalty once, and that's because I went into Fed Fleet Alert at level 15 and the DPSers DPS was so high I never got a chance to shoot at anything because it was all dead in seconds. So STOP GOING AFK!!
Comments
If you look at the sad state of disrepair these missions tumbled into, in difficulty, functionality and rewards, you can't help but mourn the time 3k dps was an achievement.
Get the Forums Enhancement Extension!
I do have a handful of the elite (purple) buffs I've been hanging onto almost forever. Time to pop a few and sit back and watch the fireworks... even the Starbase can defend itself lol.
I don't understand, why take part in the event if you dislike it? If a mission was that tiresome for me, I simply would not play it to spare the others of picking up my slack. I personally enjoy showing off and trying to out do the next guy!
"Where monsters rampage, I'm there to take them down! Where treasure glitters, I'm there to claim it! Where an enemy rises to face me, victory will be mine!" -Lina Inverse
Besides, in well designed missions (and games in general) the actions of the player should always matter to some extent. In the Mirror event it doesn't matter how well you perform as you can't finish early - so what incentive is there to perform well?
This new reputation and its missions will likely be a lot better in that regard.
or even for the faint possibility that it could possibly have been linked somehow to the fact I use piazo weapons. (unlikely, but who knows, since I understood those still could have healed enemies theoretically in some rare case.)
P.S.
I myself am a newbie but I don't think this specific AFK ban had something to do with that. I don't have any combat log special addon etc but from what I saw, I did a nice damage in comparison to other chars of self (which is never much, but still I mostly don't get banned unless lagging heavily with a lot of SNR etc, or once when tried to run something at level 13. It should suffice for Borg alerts).
Ah, another thing I recalled.
Just as entered Borg alert I was making sure on the last moment that this alt had no cannon since one of the skills one of my boff had by default was cannon related, and eventually could be it was: 1. a fast run which ended 4 waves quickly, and 2. a run in which for maybe 1-2 seconds about I had the U screen open to see if I have cannons or beams <blushes>. Still most of the run I was shooting or moving between targets as applicable, participated all stages, and seemingly, hitting not badly at all. Items, even with mostly default skills for a boff or more (and yes, I had a way to enhance beam and had a polaron's synergy), were supposed to be enough for a Borg alert participation.
That would give teams an incentive to play well and be more involved as decent runs would either end faster or be massive more rewarding.
Me personally I love to let a good swarm of enemies build up and have a right proper fight to regain control.
But I can certainly understand why one wouldn't really be motivated to actively participate in that event.
When a mission is made to require players to wait out a timer to proceed, nobody should be surprised players will wait out the timer. Personally, I always use that time to fill up my R&D, doffing and admiralty assignments. That's much more useful than engaging in pointless optionals that reward peanuts.
Or they could, you know, ditch the stupid phase timer and have players kill all the enemies like in the original mirror event.
But it's probably better for the metrics that we sit there for 11 minutes, even if we're literally just sitting there for 11 minutes. Only way I can explain all the waiting missions in this game.
Simply because some people want the reward...without the work. They leach off of the others to gain something that they do not deserve.
Don't know what the answer is for newer players. Perhaps trying to hone your skills in system patrols? My advice on not getting afk is the same as above: shoot at something as soon as possible.
I get the occasional AFK penalty. I usually just switch chars and keep rolling. And when I do get the penalty, I own it. I did something dumb and now I have to pay for it. Blaming others for my failings is a weak and distasteful way to live.
A bit like they should've been told to go to PvP bootcamp to stop themselves getting blown up and how to use their abilities correctly.
The problem here isn't with the guy doing 20k DPS which is sufficient for 90% of the game content (and probably already much higher than the average player pulls off), the problem is that it is possible for one player to do ten times that amount - or 2 times the damage a full 5-man team would need for most advanced content.
Add to that that the top DPS results are even twice as high as that 200k or 20-25 times what a normal player needs, and it's not difficult to see what the problem is here. Except if one is purposefully ignoring it of course (have we already seen diversion tactics such as the call for elite difficulties in this thread?) or lost all feeling with what's supposed to be 'normal', 'bad' and good performance.
20k is quite sufficient for all the popular content.
Oh I see, it is an acquisition thing. In that case there are other rules that apply in Star Trek.
<Rules of Acquisition>
9> Instinct plus opportunity equals profit.
11> Latinum isn't the only thing that shines.
14> Anything stolen is pure profit.
21> Never place friend ship before profit.
28> Morality is always defined by those in power.
40> If you see profit on a journey, take it!
49> Old age and greed will always overcome youth and talent.
Although I no longer play as Luna, she had all of the Ferengi items in the game. But it was fun role playing her at one time according to these laws, it was how I could afford the Iconian dreadnought for my Empress character. But I do understand the need to exploit, because it is profitable!
"Where monsters rampage, I'm there to take them down! Where treasure glitters, I'm there to claim it! Where an enemy rises to face me, victory will be mine!" -Lina Inverse
My character Tsin'xing
During the off hours I always get full rewards in the Undine BZ. During the busy hours I'm lucky if I walk out with anything. So basically I can't play at the playground when the bigs kids are there.
Its great that some of the people can do such amazing DPS but when that DPS is several magnitudes above what is required to do the content and there's a system in place that splits the reward based on simple proportions it unfairly disadvantages those with average (yet acceptable) DPS. I can understand this type of thing in an elite instance but in open world content like the Undine BZ I think something needs to change.
If necessary, you can always camp the PK's spawn point when the map is nearing completion so you can get shots in right away.