AFKer Penalty also for the Foundry?

azurianstar

I just completed one of the Featured Foundry missions and instead of getting 2000-2400 Dilithium + other rewards for completing it, I ended up with no rewards?

During the play, I was flagged AFK after a very lengthy load time (which they fix these long load times), and wonder if the new AFKer punishment system is also implemented for the Foundry as well? That's the only thing that I could explain.


I just reported it on the Bug Forum, thinking it could be a bug. (Bran, hope you don't penalize me for spam, that's a report, this thread is a question). But what if it's this AFKer Penality system? Isn't this a very bad thing for the Foundry?

From the recent patch notes, I'm guessing people were exploiting the reward system to get lots of Dilithium by going AFK, but what of honest players who get stuck in long load times like me, or during long Foundry missions people honestly want a break, or Parents having to help their children, or pet owners that have to go AFK? Isn't a AFKer penalty a bad thing?

paxfederatica

They discussed this exploit fix on the new Foundry Files podcast. Apparently the infamous "Admiral Bobo Goes to War" mission, among others, enabled players to put their ships on auto-fire and go AFK for a good chunk of the mission. (Having never played "Bobo" myself, and having no intention to, I wouldn't know firsthand.)

Unfortunately there is no way for the game to distinguish "honest" AFKers from moochers or exploiters, so we'll just have to live with it.

nagorak

That sucks that long load times can cancel out the rewards.

This is not exactly a solution, but just a tip. As far as the load times, if you can, you should consider getting an SSD. Ever since I got an SSD I've noticed my load times in the Foundry were much faster. Although it's hard to say how much the load times are due to the server vs your own computer, it does seem to have made a difference for me.

stoutes

nagorak wrote: »

That sucks that long load times can cancel out the rewards.

This is not exactly a solution, but just a tip. As far as the load times, if you can, you should consider getting an SSD. Ever since I got an SSD I've noticed my load times in the Foundry were much faster. Although it's hard to say how much the load times are due to the server vs your own computer, it does seem to have made a difference for me.

Even though SSD's can speed things up, we shouldn't have to pay extra doodles for such a fix which seems to have very unwelcome side-effects...

azurianstar

paxfederatica wrote: »

They discussed this exploit fix on the new Foundry Files podcast. Apparently the infamous "Admiral Bobo Goes to War" mission, among others, enabled players to put their ships on auto-fire and go AFK for a good chunk of the mission. (Having never played "Bobo" myself, and having no intention to, I wouldn't know firsthand.)

Unfortunately there is no way for the game to distinguish "honest" AFKers from moochers or exploiters, so we'll just have to live with it.

So that's what that "fix" was. Was thinking it was like a hidden timer that stops when players are AFK and resumes when you start moving again.

nagorak wrote: »

That sucks that long load times can cancel out the rewards.

This is not exactly a solution, but just a tip. As far as the load times, if you can, you should consider getting an SSD. Ever since I got an SSD I've noticed my load times in the Foundry were much faster. Although it's hard to say how much the load times are due to the server vs your own computer, it does seem to have made a difference for me.

Yes, it sucks. I could think of several legitimate things that could happen that would result you with bad scores. For instance, lag? And what about disconnections? I wonder if the also have an affect on the timer as well.

But as for the SSD, sorry I won't. And that I can't.

I'm broke, I been unemployed for literally years. All I got is this game.

drogyn1701

To me this doesn't necessarily sound like intended functionality. I would bug report it, see what they say.

doffingcomrade

The Fix had really nothing to do with Bobo, and there's nothing that stops you from "AFKing" a Foundry mission, which is single player content anyway. The Fix was aimed at the Clickies, a particular form of Foundry content in which you accepted a mission and then simply sat on it, going about your regular business, and then turned it in at some later point with a single click. These missions could thus accumulate greatly inflated completion times.

As a side effect, it's possible the accumulated reward tables were purged, because otherwise those clickies would remain live for quite some time until they were farmed back down to the Red Zone, due to very high average completion times due to sitting.

thegreendragoon1

So the AFK penalty in general (Foundry or group content) isn't suppose to be live on Holodeck, but leaked live unintentionally. It's also been reported that it's been miss-flagging and even the Devs feel it needs more testing.

Right now I'd definitely err on the side of not working as intended. I'd also definitly post it in the Foundry bug forums so Cryptic Frost can see it.

On a related note, I'd say an easier way to prevent AFK-ing in the Foundry is after 5 minutes of inactivity, it simply stops the clock until some type of interaction occurs. It makes AFK-ing ineffective, but doesn't overly penalize someone who takes a little too long to read a paragraph.

crypticfrost

AFAIK, the AFK penalty only applies to specific PvE maps and each map had to be hand set by a dev, so I'm reasonably certain that's not the problem.

That doesn't mean there's not a bug as to Featured rewards, and I'll look into it.

azurianstar

crypticfrost wrote: »

AFAIK, the AFK penalty only applies to specific PvE maps and each map had to be hand set by a dev, so I'm reasonably certain that's not the problem.

That doesn't mean there's not a bug as to Featured rewards, and I'll look into it.

Definitely a bug, or most likely a hiccup in the system.

I logged on that same character today and learned I still had that same foundry mission in my mission roster. In spite of finishing that Featured Event all the way to the end (I played that mission a few times before). So it completed, yet not completed at the same time. Which would explain why it didn't yield the reward.

Given I seen other reports of Fleet Actions not giving out Dilithium rewards, this might be a related problem and not a Foundry specific problem.

crypticfrost

azurianstar wrote: »

Definitely a bug, or most likely a hiccup in the system.

I logged on that same character today and learned I still had that same foundry mission in my mission roster. In spite of finishing that Featured Event all the way to the end (I played that mission a few times before). So it completed, yet not completed at the same time. Which would explain why it didn't yield the reward.

Given I seen other reports of Fleet Actions not giving out Dilithium rewards, this might be a related problem and not a Foundry specific problem.

Did you try loading into the Foundry mission to see if the maps still counted as completed or if it had reset and would've required you to play through again?

I'd like to get an idea of how frequently this occurs. For those who've experienced this issue, approximately how often have you seen it?

drogyn1701

The only time I've seen something like this was when the Broadcast UGC show played through my mission "Over There." They encountered a bug where the objectives for all of the players but one didn't update, but they were able to progress through the mission until the end when the one guy finished, but it didn't finish for the rest. This was a team-play situation (And it was about a year and a half ago), so it may be unrelated, but I thought I would post it here just in case.

http://starbaseugc.com/index.php/podcasts/broadcastugc/broadcast-ugc-episode-24/

azurianstar

crypticfrost wrote: »

Did you try loading into the Foundry mission to see if the maps still counted as completed or if it had reset and would've required you to play through again?

I'd like to get an idea of how frequently this occurs. For those who've experienced this issue, approximately how often have you seen it?

Honestly I wasn't paying attention.

I initiated the foundry mission, played it through to the end and didn't get a reward. The next day I noticed that mission was still active, entered it, and it continued until the last map as if I left the mission before completing. I simply completed that final objective and the mission finished and rewarding me the reward.

My guess is that the server didn't register that trigger. Which it appears Drogyn experienced the same thing. So guess it's not a continuous bug, but a bug that happens once i a while. Or perhaps some kind of server lag?

crypticfrost

This looks to be a rare, probably lag related, hiccup. Thanks for the info guys.

vengefuldjinn

azurianstar wrote: »

I'm broke, I been unemployed for literally years. All I got is this game.

Azurian, I'm very sorry to hear this. Things are pretty tough down my neck of the woods too. I'm recently married, with a son, and a bun in the oven, so I'm hustling for every dollar, believe you me, so I feel your pain. I just got hit with a thousand dollar car repair too !

I get by, but it's an understatement to say that it's never easy. Don't give up and never pass by an opportunity to make a buck ! (sound advise for any economy me thinks).

I wish you luck