I can share in the anger and frustration of the posters in this thread . this whole weekend was a night mare for getting anything done in fleet actions when pugging it .
the last 13 runs were painfull and often times resulted with upwards of 3 people who would deliberatly afk hovering above the starbase in fleet defense . an doing nothing each time loot popped to be rolled on they had zero problem clicking need. I hate that . If your helping even blowing up due to bad gear , great. I can work with that. We all were in that same boat at one time no shame in it .
What I wish cryptic would allow for , is a grace period of inactivity , maybe someone went to the bathroom during loading or to grab a drink etc . make a brief allowace for that . but once the event's engaged combat . if farming afk none participating player remains useless and unhelpfull . Soon as they click NEED on a loot roll . Presto they become targetablle as an emeny ship an can be shot an killed . Once killed they are denied a respawn button til encounter is over with an all future loot rolls for them in that particular encounter are greyed out .
this would ensure over time people to be less of a leaching sponge an actually participate.
Is that a perfect solution ? No probably not . but At least it would be a step in a right direction for maybe disuading people from going into events an doing nothing but spam need on loot rolls .without breaking a fingernail an giving zero effort.
Surely if you are able to click Engage to enter the event or STF, you should play instead of wasting a spot for others who actually want to play and help out the team.
Yes, I've heard of the real life issues coming up - but come on, if you queue and then join a STF/Fleet Event, you should be ready to focus and play with your team or the rest of the group.
How hard is it to exit the game then if something comes up? Not hard at all.
Besides, we know you are there because when loot comes up - you hit Need/Greed or Pass while having done nothing to contribute to the success of the group/team.
I wish I could meet these people and punch them in the face!
So do us all favor and don't be an TRIBBLE! I see this happening all of the damn time in Starbase Fleet Defense!
I have not seen players afk in fleet event stuff as I have in STF's, but what really burns me is the people who leave early just so that they do not have a CD I think its time Cryptic puts in a leaver penalty setup on all fleet events and if its during the 3- hour event the penalty should last the remander of the event if its on a off hour then it should be an hour long penalty and they should do this by a ninja way don't tell no one just do it, I would be totally in favor for this.
Guys, while the AFK leechers are a menace and a pain the TRIBBLE, you guys get a little too freaking ban happy. Get over it man. It's not that ****ing tragic. Wait your cooldown and go back in, or, pop into one of the elite channels and set your STF through that. I never have issues with failures using it. When you pug, the reality is Forest Gumpism at its finest. Pugs are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. Some of them taste like ****. Wanting to Perma Ban someone is just nerd rage on steroids. Put your big girl panties on and try it again.
The game kicks out players who are inactive for 15 minutes. They should use the same encoding to kick from STFs/Fleet Actions/PVP matches those who are inactive for more than 5 minutes. Need/Greed clicks as not counting as activity.
Sit there moving the mouse around and clicking need everytime it comes up fixes that. using a third party program that does a key click every X second fixes that. Idle time is way too easy to avoid. Hell you can put something heavy on the run key and be AFK forever.
Join Date: Nobody cares.
"I'm drunk, whats your excuse for being an idiot?" - Unknown drunk man. :eek:
Guys, while the AFK leechers are a menace and a pain the TRIBBLE, you guys get a little too freaking ban happy. Get over it man. It's not that ****ing tragic. Wait your cooldown and go back in, or, pop into one of the elite channels and set your STF through that. I never have issues with failures using it. When you pug, the reality is Forest Gumpism at its finest. Pugs are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. Some of them taste like ****. Wanting to Perma Ban someone is just nerd rage on steroids. Put your big girl panties on and try it again.
These are my thoughts exactly. If you pug you gotta except that there will be people who don't play in the way you want them to. Get over it. It'll make your game experience much less stressful.
Also I've said this before and will say it again. The afk/leecher problem is nowhere near big as people here make it out.
It's not myfault ifyoufeel trolledbymyDisco ball...Sorry'boutit.
You don't get what we are talking about, we are talkign about AFKers and you about bad players.
I don't give a **** if a STF fails at least when all people involved are doing something, but what the problem is are the people that klick the accapt button (they know what they are doing) and in the map they don't even move their ship.
We were playing Infected Ground (Elite). It consisted of the 3 of us and 2 randoms. One of the randoms was really good and we worked well with them but the 5th disappeared. We saw him during the first engagement near the start then never seen him again.
You sure the guy just didn't get lost, or lagged out (and possibly then lost)? It's real easy to get lost in some of those ground levels if you don't have the foggiest idea what you're doing.
Guys, while the AFK leechers are a menace and a pain the TRIBBLE, you guys get a little too freaking ban happy. Get over it man. It's not that ****ing tragic. Wait your cooldown and go back in, or, pop into one of the elite channels and set your STF through that. I never have issues with failures using it. When you pug, the reality is Forest Gumpism at its finest. Pugs are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. Some of them taste like ****. Wanting to Perma Ban someone is just nerd rage on steroids. Put your big girl panties on and try it again.
The problem isn't the leecher. The problem is that the rest of the team suffers because they lose out on a 5th (or 4th, if you got 2 leechers) player. Plus, there is no existing way to get a replacement player who will be active, so that's why people are complaining.
stardestroyer001, Admiral, Explorers Fury PvE/PvP Fleet | Retired PvP Player
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9 My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
While I too dislike AFK'ers, keeping on about them will not solve anything. If a person wants to AFK on purpose let them, at the end of the day I am the better person for not letting them see how it frustrates me. Ok we all want to get the optionals in STF's, but if we miss it just because of an AFK'er so what, it isn't as if we are limited to one STF daily, there is always the next time.
There are players in STO who's main purpose is to persistantly AFK, and they are reading this thread, and having a good ol' belly laugh to themselves because they are seeing just how much they are winding players up.
The less these persistant AFk'ers see how much it is getting on everyones nerves, the less we will see it in game because by not going on about them is showing they aint winning.
Just got out of a pug with an afk'r, no problem if everyone else does their job, except the one with 15 ship injuries and he's the one complaining about the afk'r..LULZ:rolleyes:
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." Q Join the 44th Fleet. [FED and KDF] Apply Online: startrek.44thfleet.com
Every time you leave a Elite level STF early you enact this cool down.
I don't know about you but I do not want to waste an hour waiting for the cool down to have a 50/50 chance of running into the same problem with AFK'ers again.
Other than in Elite STFs, in non-Elite events Optional objectives DO have an effect on the loot or marks dropped.
E.g. In Starbase Fleet Defense, if the Comm Array or Transwarp Array etc. is sabotaged, you lose out on Fleet Marks.
In Mine Trap the number of civilians that makes it to the evacuation point affects the overall number of Romulan Marks rewarded at the end.
In an Elite STF like Khitomer Vortex, if Probes gets through to the portal it could end your game completely because you failed if 10 Probes makes it through, even just a few affects the Omega Marks rewarded and the loot that the Valdore drops (crappy Rares or crappy Very Rares).
In Elite The Cure if the Kang is blown up, game over.
See and understand why having a full team of players actively participating benefits everyone and up to and included the outcome of the battle.
Make it an option to kick these *******s for going AFK, and then release their address so we can all go and punch them and mutilate them for being a useless sack of dung. (Ok the latter is extreme but you get my drift...) :mad:
in fleet alert leaving before the siege grp avoids the 30 min cooldown, meaning you can re-queue instantly and farm endlessly nearly 50 marks in about 7 minutes...that is basically the most efficent way to farm FM without a dedicated grp.
also it is not as much a problem, as the siege grp is easily manageable by 2 average captains that pack enough dps.
I'm tired of idlers, they've killed my joy for this game. I'm trying to rep up all my characters, but these individuals lower overall marks. They can also cause things to fail...
Why is this issue being ignored, I've seen zero updates to combat this issue. Let us majority kick, we're already being griefed by this lack of attention.
I'm ready to just quit and play something else... its too much... I have 10 toons I'm working through rep... this is insanely frustrating... I know I'm not the only one...
EDIT: After some thought, I've decided to just leave every map I see an idler. I'm sorry to people I may be teamed with, but it's the only way for me to not become frustrated.
The issue is being ignored simply because any idea of a fix for it would be a gateway for more griefing. Until such time as a simple solution is invented to fix the issue one that does not allows for a possibility of increased griefing things will most likely not be forth coming to prevent it.
I got a response back from the GM's. Usual generic TRIBBLE - We will look into it. Thanks for letting us know. In other words they don't care....why thats surprising eludes me.
That sad, there are a few repeat offenders I haven't seen around in a while, but to be honest, in pugs I tend to just get on with it however the run is going.
"So my fun is wrong?"
No. Your fun makes everyone else's fun wrong by default.
Personally I'd like the ability to vote and kick them and get them replaced with someone that will actually help(or try to help anyway). But can certainly see this as a problem when it comes to some elitists in the groups trying to kick newbs that don't know what they are doing(the lack of info for these things doesn't help too). Maybe if they used the suggested 'no input' timer of a minute or two followed by a vote, could at least be worth trying.
If it comes down to something only gm's can deal with I'm very suprised that they haven't streamlined the process. R-click and report as afker type of thing with some set penalties that get worse for repeat offenders.
Atm it seems the choices are to live with it and waste your time and effort, don't pug(not typically a realistic option all the time unless you play with rl friends) or don't play. Thinhk I'll go for the latter.
Personally, my solution would be something on design's end where the mission tracks the combat log and anyone in the game who does not deal X amount of damage gets no reward.
X would be entirely subjective, and dependant on an average per map. What is typical, and what is not.
This bar would obviously be set fairly low to take into account people who die often, or focus more on healing, or just plain do subpar damage to everyone else. But afkers would end up with nothing.
Furthermore, the game could take timestamps into account. Anyone who uses abilities that show up on the log throughout the log will get their reward, while anyone who does not register on the log gets nothing, having been flagged as afk. Anyone flagged as AFK would get a mandatory punitive ban from doing any queues for X amount of hours.
This is not a silver bullet solution, but it is better than what currently exists. This would discourage people from AFKing to begin with rather than putting more work on the plates of the GMs.
The combat log is already there. There's already third-party parsers that can review logs. The information there is rich and extremely detailed, and it's already extremely easy to pick out who the afkers are. I don't see how it couldn't be used to flag afkers in the game itself to not receive any rewards.
The system itself should be the solution. There might be people who afk just to grief, but the system should take the combat log into account to not make it a lucrative opportunity to get rewards. If you afk, you get nothing, and maybe a slap on the wrist.
If this isn't feasible, I'd surely like to hear from Mr. Rivera on why it wouldn't be.
The obvious solution for elite STFs is simply to award the 15 marks for the full completion, and the 60+ for the optional
Not only would players strive to improve their game and tactics, but it makes the afk prospect of it completely pointless.
Or for all PvE simply use a mechanic that says "if you havent done at least 20% of the damage (not healing, because healing can be gamed by sitting still and hitting aux2sif) of the highest player on the leaderboard, you get nothing"
So even if the highest player is really good, youd only have to be casually mediocre in the damage department to get a reward, but at least you did something (and there would be absolutely zero way to keep up with a DPS escort by BSing it and only doing something token just to make your 20%).
Fleet Admiral Rylana - Fed Tac - U.S.S Wild Card - Tactical Miracle Worker Cruiser
Lifetime Subscriber since 2012 == 17,200 Accolades = RIP PvP and Vice Squad
Chief of Starfleet Intelligence Service == Praise Cheesus
The obvious solution for elite STFs is simply to award the 15 marks for the full completion, and the 60+ for the optional
Not only would players strive to improve their game and tactics, but it makes the afk prospect of it completely pointless.
With the power creep, 4 competent and reasonably experienced players should get the optionals, (unless they all brought their Science ships) so I honestly don't think that'd help with people AFKing a whole lot.
As all STO players are aware and for quite a long time now we keep getting players in STF'S that just come in and sit there and leech of other players.:mad:
It's about time STO start to take this seriously and give us the option in game to kick players out that do this because it is clearly evident that complaining doesn't get us anywhere.
I'am sure i am not on my own when i say i am fed up of this and it would be easier just to give us a boot icon where if the other players agree we can all just click a boot icon and the player is removed with a 1 hour penalty is in cured.
i have asked for this for 6 months now and it's not fair to other players and also takes the fun out of STF'S,please reply to this thread and get STO to sit up and take note of how frustrating this has become.
As all STO players are aware and for quite a long time now we keep getting players in STF'S that just come in and sit there and leech of other players.:mad:
It's about time STO start to take this seriously and give us the option in game to kick players out that do this because it is clearly evident that complaining doesn't get us anywhere.
I'am sure i am not on my own when i say i am fed up of this and it would be easier just to give us a boot icon where if the other players agree we can all just click a boot icon and the player is removed with a 1 hour penalty is in cured.
i have asked for this for 6 months now and it's not fair to other players and also takes the fun out of STF'S,please reply to this thread and get STO to sit up and take note of how frustrating this has become.
I would prefer the devs not add your insta-troll button, TYVM.
It's a known issue with a known solution - ANY solution to deal with leechers is inevitably worse than the problem itself.
* A time gated auto-kick is a no-go as some STFs can be finished <5 mins;
* An inactive auto-kick (get kicked if not moving) will be dealt with by simply moving fwd and backward a meter;
* A vote-kick is just another tool for idiots to be abused.
* Can't (auto) kick a player if all he does is fly around and not shoot.
Best solutions: don't PUG - Cryptic invented fleets for a reason. Join EliteSTF channel for serious players.
Warp out and restart your Pug STF; it may be annoying, but it's less annoying than having a leecher.
Also, sometimes players are AFK in STFs because Real Life butts in. It's hard to tell.
The Mighty 44th. Boldly bashing Borgs to bits since 2010.
well i must disagree with you my friend nearly ever STF i have been on i have had a leech and as i say why should leeches benifit of others hard work unless you side with leeches,regarding your claim to that it's open to abuse then i disagree again it has to be all four players that all agree that the leech is not taking part and that sort of thing to be honest rarely never goes unnoticed.
Comments
the last 13 runs were painfull and often times resulted with upwards of 3 people who would deliberatly afk hovering above the starbase in fleet defense . an doing nothing each time loot popped to be rolled on they had zero problem clicking need. I hate that . If your helping even blowing up due to bad gear , great. I can work with that. We all were in that same boat at one time no shame in it .
What I wish cryptic would allow for , is a grace period of inactivity , maybe someone went to the bathroom during loading or to grab a drink etc . make a brief allowace for that . but once the event's engaged combat . if farming afk none participating player remains useless and unhelpfull . Soon as they click NEED on a loot roll . Presto they become targetablle as an emeny ship an can be shot an killed . Once killed they are denied a respawn button til encounter is over with an all future loot rolls for them in that particular encounter are greyed out .
this would ensure over time people to be less of a leaching sponge an actually participate.
Is that a perfect solution ? No probably not . but At least it would be a step in a right direction for maybe disuading people from going into events an doing nothing but spam need on loot rolls .without breaking a fingernail an giving zero effort.
Anyways I've rambled enough, Cheers .
I have not seen players afk in fleet event stuff as I have in STF's, but what really burns me is the people who leave early just so that they do not have a CD I think its time Cryptic puts in a leaver penalty setup on all fleet events and if its during the 3- hour event the penalty should last the remander of the event if its on a off hour then it should be an hour long penalty and they should do this by a ninja way don't tell no one just do it, I would be totally in favor for this.
Sit there moving the mouse around and clicking need everytime it comes up fixes that. using a third party program that does a key click every X second fixes that. Idle time is way too easy to avoid. Hell you can put something heavy on the run key and be AFK forever.
"I'm drunk, whats your excuse for being an idiot?" - Unknown drunk man. :eek:
These are my thoughts exactly. If you pug you gotta except that there will be people who don't play in the way you want them to. Get over it. It'll make your game experience much less stressful.
Also I've said this before and will say it again. The afk/leecher problem is nowhere near big as people here make it out.
R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy
I don't give a **** if a STF fails at least when all people involved are doing something, but what the problem is are the people that klick the accapt button (they know what they are doing) and in the map they don't even move their ship.
R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy
The problem isn't the leecher. The problem is that the rest of the team suffers because they lose out on a 5th (or 4th, if you got 2 leechers) player. Plus, there is no existing way to get a replacement player who will be active, so that's why people are complaining.
Missing the good ol' days of PvP: Legacy of Romulus to Season 9
My List of Useful Links, Recently Updated November 25 2017!
There are players in STO who's main purpose is to persistantly AFK, and they are reading this thread, and having a good ol' belly laugh to themselves because they are seeing just how much they are winding players up.
The less these persistant AFk'ers see how much it is getting on everyones nerves, the less we will see it in game because by not going on about them is showing they aint winning.
Join the 44th Fleet. [FED and KDF] Apply Online: startrek.44thfleet.com
Every time you leave a Elite level STF early you enact this cool down.
I don't know about you but I do not want to waste an hour waiting for the cool down to have a 50/50 chance of running into the same problem with AFK'ers again.
Other than in Elite STFs, in non-Elite events Optional objectives DO have an effect on the loot or marks dropped.
E.g. In Starbase Fleet Defense, if the Comm Array or Transwarp Array etc. is sabotaged, you lose out on Fleet Marks.
In Mine Trap the number of civilians that makes it to the evacuation point affects the overall number of Romulan Marks rewarded at the end.
In an Elite STF like Khitomer Vortex, if Probes gets through to the portal it could end your game completely because you failed if 10 Probes makes it through, even just a few affects the Omega Marks rewarded and the loot that the Valdore drops (crappy Rares or crappy Very Rares).
In Elite The Cure if the Kang is blown up, game over.
See and understand why having a full team of players actively participating benefits everyone and up to and included the outcome of the battle.
Make it an option to kick these *******s for going AFK, and then release their address so we can all go and punch them and mutilate them for being a useless sack of dung. (Ok the latter is extreme but you get my drift...) :mad:
also it is not as much a problem, as the siege grp is easily manageable by 2 average captains that pack enough dps.
Why is this issue being ignored, I've seen zero updates to combat this issue. Let us majority kick, we're already being griefed by this lack of attention.
I'm ready to just quit and play something else... its too much... I have 10 toons I'm working through rep... this is insanely frustrating... I know I'm not the only one...
EDIT: After some thought, I've decided to just leave every map I see an idler. I'm sorry to people I may be teamed with, but it's the only way for me to not become frustrated.
R.I.P
a duplicate thread is a duplicate thread...
.
---- FIRE EVERYTHING ! ----
Officially Nerfed In Early 2410
That sad, there are a few repeat offenders I haven't seen around in a while, but to be honest, in pugs I tend to just get on with it however the run is going.
No. Your fun makes everyone else's fun wrong by default.
If it comes down to something only gm's can deal with I'm very suprised that they haven't streamlined the process. R-click and report as afker type of thing with some set penalties that get worse for repeat offenders.
Atm it seems the choices are to live with it and waste your time and effort, don't pug(not typically a realistic option all the time unless you play with rl friends) or don't play. Thinhk I'll go for the latter.
They could also relate to the rest of the staff how fun it is to grind and regrind the same missions.
X would be entirely subjective, and dependant on an average per map. What is typical, and what is not.
This bar would obviously be set fairly low to take into account people who die often, or focus more on healing, or just plain do subpar damage to everyone else. But afkers would end up with nothing.
Furthermore, the game could take timestamps into account. Anyone who uses abilities that show up on the log throughout the log will get their reward, while anyone who does not register on the log gets nothing, having been flagged as afk. Anyone flagged as AFK would get a mandatory punitive ban from doing any queues for X amount of hours.
This is not a silver bullet solution, but it is better than what currently exists. This would discourage people from AFKing to begin with rather than putting more work on the plates of the GMs.
The combat log is already there. There's already third-party parsers that can review logs. The information there is rich and extremely detailed, and it's already extremely easy to pick out who the afkers are. I don't see how it couldn't be used to flag afkers in the game itself to not receive any rewards.
The system itself should be the solution. There might be people who afk just to grief, but the system should take the combat log into account to not make it a lucrative opportunity to get rewards. If you afk, you get nothing, and maybe a slap on the wrist.
If this isn't feasible, I'd surely like to hear from Mr. Rivera on why it wouldn't be.
Not only would players strive to improve their game and tactics, but it makes the afk prospect of it completely pointless.
Or for all PvE simply use a mechanic that says "if you havent done at least 20% of the damage (not healing, because healing can be gamed by sitting still and hitting aux2sif) of the highest player on the leaderboard, you get nothing"
So even if the highest player is really good, youd only have to be casually mediocre in the damage department to get a reward, but at least you did something (and there would be absolutely zero way to keep up with a DPS escort by BSing it and only doing something token just to make your 20%).
Fleet Admiral Rylana - Fed Tac - U.S.S Wild Card - Tactical Miracle Worker Cruiser
Lifetime Subscriber since 2012 == 17,200 Accolades = RIP PvP and Vice Squad
Chief of Starfleet Intelligence Service == Praise Cheesus
With the power creep, 4 competent and reasonably experienced players should get the optionals, (unless they all brought their Science ships) so I honestly don't think that'd help with people AFKing a whole lot.
It's about time STO start to take this seriously and give us the option in game to kick players out that do this because it is clearly evident that complaining doesn't get us anywhere.
I'am sure i am not on my own when i say i am fed up of this and it would be easier just to give us a boot icon where if the other players agree we can all just click a boot icon and the player is removed with a 1 hour penalty is in cured.
i have asked for this for 6 months now and it's not fair to other players and also takes the fun out of STF'S,please reply to this thread and get STO to sit up and take note of how frustrating this has become.
Unlikely to happen.
Anyway the leacher problem isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be anyway.
R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy
I would prefer the devs not add your insta-troll button, TYVM.
* A time gated auto-kick is a no-go as some STFs can be finished <5 mins;
* An inactive auto-kick (get kicked if not moving) will be dealt with by simply moving fwd and backward a meter;
* A vote-kick is just another tool for idiots to be abused.
* Can't (auto) kick a player if all he does is fly around and not shoot.
Best solutions: don't PUG - Cryptic invented fleets for a reason. Join EliteSTF channel for serious players.
Warp out and restart your Pug STF; it may be annoying, but it's less annoying than having a leecher.
Also, sometimes players are AFK in STFs because Real Life butts in. It's hard to tell.
The Mighty 44th. Boldly bashing Borgs to bits since 2010.