There is no leaver penalty for private queues correct, but the afk penalty is in full effect
Also it prevents the forming of a private que with the player under the AFK penalty. A lot of good discussion going now on how this can be improved upon. Ultimately it is not that an AFK system should not exist, but that the penalty should be measured and fully considered on its impact.
That's just the thing though, it is designed to BE hostile. Because people who AFK aren't being fair to others who are actually trying to -play- a game instead of having others play it for them.
Are there false positives? Sure. But I'd rather suck up the false positives than let the afkers continue to be able to mooch off players who are actually trying to play the game.
Well, to be fair and honest, for me, it's "I'd rather put up with a certain number of false positives". As in, if it's a respectably low number, then yes, a few slip-ups here & there ARE going to happen. Nature of the beast. Also, having a system in place, at least, that deals out a low number of false positives, helps lower the problem, while the company possibly works on a better detection system.
If it was an excessive number, than no, I would agree in that case, that no detection system is better than having one.
And sure, does getting hit with a false, suck? Surely does. But if it's super rare, then just switch characters, or go do something else, or come back the next day. Because as one of those that has had to put up with a crappy leecher MULTIPLE times, I would rather have the crappiest elitest noob ever made, than having a leecher around. At least the elitest fool, while he may be only slightly useful, the leecher is totally non-useful, and get's rewarded for MY work, as well as the work of any others in that particular mission.
And as to the "is the AFK'er not just merely like someone who leaves, thus should only suffer the same penalty as one who leaves?" comment. I say, no he is not. He is worse. If someone leaves, one, there is the possibility that someone else MAY come in to fill that empty slot. Whereas the leacher, get's to do at the most so extremely little, to nothing, yet gets a reward? Nope, they are worse, and thus, need to get a worse penalty.
Also, another poster suggested an doubling scale per successive occurrences. Again, as long as the number of false positives stays very low, I can agree with that, whole-heartedly. Only mod I would say on his suggestion of account wide, I would say that the first 3 stay character-only. That helps if you're just having a horrid amount of luck on your connection, build, or detection algorithms. However, "3 strikes and you're out", ie on the 4 th & successive occurrences per time frame, have it progress to account wide. Because if it's happening THAT many times, then yes, that's most likely not bad luck, that's likely purposeful leeching at that point. (Probably before that point, but with the way some bugs run around, and other bad factors beyond the player's control, it IS somewhat possible to accumulate 2-3 strikes in, say, a week's time.) And a week, is what I would suggest as the measurable time period. And if you have more than the 3 strikes, it shouldn't reset either, the next week, it should rollover. As in, do 5 strikes in the first week, you still have 5 strikes pending the next week, so the first time in the second week, will be counted as #6, and have the appropriate penalty. Whereas, if you only have 1-3, those would be "forgivable", and reset back to 0 the following week.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
butcher suspect, "What'd you hit me with?"
Temperance Brennan, "A building"
I think it'll be interesting if an escalation of penalties were set up. Surely as soon as the leechers find out how to script around this they will do so, so the algorithm will be modified an the false positives will increase.
Be careful what you wish for.
Mind you, perhaps this is a larger problem in the system overall. Perhaps if more content were available that is fun, enjoyable, and rewarding outside of the PVE Que there would be more to do in a group when such things happen. That is another thing to look at. As it stands one false positive can ruin a groups day.
First and foremost is the missing information as to how long they afkd.
Now I have spent several instances doing nothing to help, because the game likes to take my boff's out of seating, so I have to waste time putting them back quite often.
And in no way am I a humungous dps dealer, so even when I have dropped into an already running STF with maybe 3-5mins left till completed I still have never received an afk penalty.
So the required dps needed to keep the afk penalty from happening must be super low, and the time frame for doing nothing must by all accounts be longer than 5mins from my own experience of being afk for 5mins at a time, and the level of dps I am able to accomplish in a short 1-5min span is nothing super, so the needed dps to keep away the afk monster is really low.
So to say this person was undeserving of the penalty is heard with deaf ears, and my signature best said for those who complain.
Best thing to do is switch to another character till the timer expires for the other.
Its supposed to be a large chunk of the day, becasue people will enter missions and go afk and not do a damn thing toward the mission just to get the marks...So Cryptic put an end to it. Good for them.
First and foremost is the missing information as to how long they afkd.
Now I have spent sever al instances doing nothing to help, because the game likes to take my boff's out of seating, so I have to waste time putting them back quite often.
And in no way am I a humungous dps dealer, so even when I have dropped into an already running STF with maybe 3-5mins left till completed I still have never received an afk penalty.
So the required dps needed to keep the afk penalty from happening must be super low, and the time frame for doing nothing must by all accounts be longer than 5mins from my own experience of being afk for 5mins at a time, and the level of dps I am able to accomplish in a short 1-5min span is nothing super, so the needed dps to keep away the afk monster is really low.
So to say this person was undeserving of the penalty is heard with deaf ears, and my signature best said for those who complain.
Best thing to do is switch to another character till the timer expires for the other.
Except we aren't SURE it's DPS. It may be any number of criteria from number of enemy ships, to time on the cooldown after the mission spent AFK. We simply do not know the mechanics well enough to argue justification based on violation of a rule. I understand why they are guarding the rules, I'm not even suggesting they come clean with them, but I'm hopeful that someone will read this and if it is something hidden in there that is causing this unfairly that they tweak it. Remember, close of a mission even if you contributed 10kdps till that last second before the closing timer starts actives a 2minute timer. If you AFKed JUST as that timer starts your DPS could, in theory be halved. That wouldn't be enough to get you the penalty if it was just a DPS penalty, but we REALLY don't know that it is based on DPS. Also for all we know the logic system is doubly harsh at the end match timer. There is simply not enough conclusive evidence to say how the penalty is dealt and in this case then not enough to say why it was triggered.
Which, to some level, is the most infuriating part. For my part I don't AFK, if I have to leave I take a leave penalty, for my part I've also been playing longer than my friend, though as I had yet to AFK a match I was totally unaware of the penalty or could have warned her on it.
My point though is to get some ideas rolling as to how this can be tweaked, either to reduce the false positives, or to make the penalty sufficient to deter AFKers and bots, but not to deter genuinely interested players who had something come up.
Tell me this, who does it hurt to prevent us from flying an Azure Nebula Mission after an AFK penalty? How does, other than extremist punishment, that help improve your experience of the game rather than just diminishing ours?
Also outrageous penalties are a fine idea for those who are committed to this game above and beyond everything else in their lives. However, this game will NOT continue based on the experiences of those putting in 20+hrs a day at the keyboard but instead on those putting in an hour, or two, per day. Those are the players who have busy lives and for whom life does get in the way sometimes. Those are the players who wind up paying the bills. I mean that not to speak on my own investment in the game but instead to say, no matter what I as one player contribute the cost of keeping the servers, programs, and profit margin all in check will be impacted more by the casual player than the die-hard.
Again, I'm not for getting rid of the penalty, but a tweaking of the logic that applies it, and perhaps a tweaking of the penalties impact. Also not everyone runs Alts as not everyone plays JUST to farm dilithium. Consider also the impact this rule, which is not clearly laid out or explained in anything close to a reasonable manner during the game, has on new players. Remember without new players we will eventually not have a game to play.
Tell me this, who does it hurt to prevent us from flying an Azure Nebula Mission after an AFK penalty? How does, other than extremist punishment, that help improve your experience of the game rather than just diminishing ours?
The time penalty is there to try to break the cycle, so unscrupulous players don't just simply jump into another mission to do it again.
Mazinger, you do understand that the AFK situation was growing and totally out of control before this right?
The situation, as it is, may not be perfect, but it's way better then what was happening before it.
If it stops one AFKer, it works far better than what we've had, which was chaos.
Let's not tweak in into something less effective just because of a personal opinion. You feel it's too heavy handed?
There are those that disagree.
I think going AFK, is the equivalent of either griefing team members, or a dilithium exploit.
I think people who get banned repeatedly should face an account ban and have to explain to Cryptic why they keep getting banned. Let Cryptic review their data and sort it out as they see fit.
Every game has harsh penalties when it comes to exploits and griefing.
Stuff comes up. The baby cries. The dog knocks over your beer. The cops show up with one of your kids in custody. Your spouse yells at you. The repo man comes for your Escalade, and then there's a zombie outbreak.
None of which is anyone else's problem. If you need to be away from your machine for even a few minutes, you need to leave the match and deal with the leaver penalty. If your life is such an unrelenting disaster that you cannot set aside 20 minutes for a "raid," then you shouldn't be subjecting your team mates to your presence at all. Sorry, but that's life, and life doesn't care what you think is "nice" or "fair." It is necessary for one set of rules to apply the same way to everyone, regardless of your extra special tragic personal circumstances.
Just ran Mirror universe with 2 friends of mine. We que up for this any chance we get as I'm running a fairly geared character this gives us a chance to run something quick, easy, and fun with a lot of explosions.
Irrelevant to the point you're trying to make. You don't get an AFK penalty from doing anything else except for what it was made for. Unless this is an appeal to emotion in an attempt to get people to sympathize with you by trying to create a common ground. In other words, "People who read this play the game too just like I do, making us besties... therefore you support what I have to say, right?"
One of those friends went AFK for a moment, came back, and was hit with a 2 hour AFK penalty. This is completely ridiculous. I could understand a 20 minute penalty but this was just silly.
I love vague descriptions when it comes to the specific argument trying to be made. How much is "a moment"? Is it a quantifiable time? If this is going to be the very basis of the point you're trying to make, if you simply can not effectively communicate anything else right, at least make this the goal of your arguement. Furthermore, whether or not something is "silly" is largely subjective. Your personal opinion does not make fact. Some people don't think 2 hours goes far enough, for instance. And they play the same game you do.
I purchased my lifetime membership a few months ago because I intended to invest time in this game PLAYING WITH MY FRIENDS. This however limits that capability as if they have anything come up our time gets robbed not just by a reasonable penalty marker but by a 2 hour long delay.
Irrelevant. Buying a lifetime membership does not give you special priviledges to ruin gameplay for other people, for instance going AFK. Those other people might be lifers too, should they have to suffer an AFKer on their team? Or do they not matter since they are not your personal friends? Does your personal time mean anything to the rest of us? Do any of us really care about how your personal time is wasted, especially since an AFKer is the culprit? We don't know you. We don't care.
I really wish there was a refund department at this phase, seriously considering just leaving the game all together. I'm guessing this carries no weight with cryptic as they already have my money but I will NEVER suggest to anyone they purchase anything in this game so long as such an outrageous and unfair penalty exists. After all, the penalty in other online games is far lower or well balanced.
Refunds are not given based on your unhappiness when it comes to the policing of a game. People who are banned from STO do not get refunds, people who don't like Cryptic doing this or that do not get automatic refunds based on an arbitrary dislike of a particular aspect of the game. The real world does not work like that. Otherwise I'd ask Cryptic for an immediate refund of everything I ever bought from STO based on the fact I don't like you complaining about the AFK penalty. You also have recognized that STO is not 'other games'. To compare STO's penalty to 'other games' is a childish way of saying, "But mommy, Billy's mom lets him ride his bicycle without a helmet!"
I get having a penalty, but this is just ridiculous. It isn't that hard to code the penalty to be 20 minutes from the time they leave the map for an AFK penalty.
So you agree that a penalty is needed. Good. Now try to recognize that people will be willing to put up with a 20 minute penalty for the sake of AFK farming. It isn't the penalty that is important as much as the deterrant it serves. It is there to deter AFKing. If the penalty is not long enough, then it will not deter. Considering your OP, I would say this is a clear indication that it will deter AFKing. Although you are taking it out on Cryptic instead of the AFKers who caused this penalty to be implemented to begin with.
Sincerely Your's
Disgruntled Paying Player
Paying customer means nothing in terms of f2p. More money is made from microtransactions spread across thousands of players than gold subscriptions/lifetime subs/etc., your money is not better than mine.
And there are more people who are okay with the AFK penalty as-is than those who are not. And even those who are not... we really don't care about their opinions since they're probably the ones who were AFKing to begin with.
I'm also willing to bet I've sunk more money into this game than you. If you really want to go with the fallacy of 'paying customer', if I give more money to Cryptic than you do, then my opinion matters more.
Just ran Mirror universe with 2 friends of mine. We que up for this any chance we get as I'm running a fairly geared character this gives us a chance to run something quick, easy, and fun with a lot of explosions. One of those friends went AFK for a moment, came back, and was hit with a 2 hour AFK penalty. This is completely ridiculous. I could understand a 20 minute penalty but this was just silly.
I purchased my lifetime membership a few months ago because I intended to invest time in this game PLAYING WITH MY FRIENDS. This however limits that capability as if they have anything come up our time gets robbed not just by a reasonable penalty marker but by a 2 hour long delay.
I really wish there was a refund department at this phase, seriously considering just leaving the game all together. I'm guessing this carries no weight with cryptic as they already have my money but I will NEVER suggest to anyone they purchase anything in this game so long as such an outrageous and unfair penalty exists. After all, the penalty in other online games is far lower or well balanced.
So your stupid friend goes afk and gets penalised for it and you're complaining and screaming refund of life sub even though you yourself were not penalised in any way and could have kept on playing while you friend sits in the naughty corner? Make more friends, do some crafting or build refining while you wait for your friend, spend the next two hours making them feel bad for making you wait two hours.
I think u not played in time n are one of the meny AFKers that ive ran in to bumming off other people running the mission. If it was up to me it would be 5 hours of in game time ive had to go and answer the door bring bag in i was gone 4 mins and i did not ger the 2 hour ban ur full of it. Read my sig
Except we aren't SURE it's DPS. It may be any number of criteria from number of enemy ships, to time on the cooldown after the mission spent AFK. We simply do not know the mechanics well enough to argue justification based on violation of a rule. I understand why they are guarding the rules, I'm not even suggesting they come clean with them, but I'm hopeful that someone will read this and if it is something hidden in there that is causing this unfairly that they tweak it. Remember, close of a mission even if you contributed 10kdps till that last second before the closing timer starts actives a 2minute timer. If you AFKed JUST as that timer starts your DPS could, in theory be halved. That wouldn't be enough to get you the penalty if it was just a DPS penalty, but we REALLY don't know that it is based on DPS. Also for all we know the logic system is doubly harsh at the end match timer. There is simply not enough conclusive evidence to say how the penalty is dealt and in this case then not enough to say why it was triggered.
Which, to some level, is the most infuriating part. For my part I don't AFK, if I have to leave I take a leave penalty, for my part I've also been playing longer than my friend, though as I had yet to AFK a match I was totally unaware of the penalty or could have warned her on it.
My point though is to get some ideas rolling as to how this can be tweaked, either to reduce the false positives, or to make the penalty sufficient to deter AFKers and bots, but not to deter genuinely interested players who had something come up.
Tell me this, who does it hurt to prevent us from flying an Azure Nebula Mission after an AFK penalty? How does, other than extremist punishment, that help improve your experience of the game rather than just diminishing ours?
Also outrageous penalties are a fine idea for those who are committed to this game above and beyond everything else in their lives. However, this game will NOT continue based on the experiences of those putting in 20+hrs a day at the keyboard but instead on those putting in an hour, or two, per day. Those are the players who have busy lives and for whom life does get in the way sometimes. Those are the players who wind up paying the bills. I mean that not to speak on my own investment in the game but instead to say, no matter what I as one player contribute the cost of keeping the servers, programs, and profit margin all in check will be impacted more by the casual player than the die-hard.
Again, I'm not for getting rid of the penalty, but a tweaking of the logic that applies it, and perhaps a tweaking of the penalties impact. Also not everyone runs Alts as not everyone plays JUST to farm dilithium. Consider also the impact this rule, which is not clearly laid out or explained in anything close to a reasonable manner during the game, has on new players. Remember without new players we will eventually not have a game to play.
Well I can tell you this, not once have I ever received an afk penalty, because well I don't afk for any longer than 5mins at a time. I also am not really caring nor effected by other's who receive this penalty, because well I pug every time. I am however effected by more people actually doing something now since the penalty has been implemented, and not dealing with so many leecher's/afker's like before. So I for one am happy with the penalty as it currently stands, if you suspect you need be gone from the keyboard for an extended period of time over 5mins, than I suggest you leave the mission preferably after 15-20mins has expired from the start of it so as to not even suffer the leaver's penalty. Otherwise take the 1hr penalty and cut your losses, or face the wrath of a 2hr afk penalty!
I can most definitely confirm that it is dps of the whole. Dps 20k sometimes has to pug a spot or 2....rarely...and through these power dps runs, the poor pug does so little total damage that they get an afk penalty.
There is simply not enough conclusive evidence to say how the penalty is dealt and in this case then not enough to say why it was triggered.
I was thinking about this statement a bit after reading your post.
To be fair, you've not provided anything to support you've said about the incident either.
We have only your word.
For all we know, you're just taking to the forums to muddy the waters, trying to rally the troops to your cause of getting things tweaked to ineffectiveness.
In which case, dare I say you failed.
If you feel your friend was given the AFK penalty when it wasn't deserved, have your friend fill out a ticket to Cryptic. Let them research the incident. THEY are the ones with all the information AND the answers. They are the ones to do any tweaking if they determine it's needed.
They are the ones you should direct your wishes to get a refund for your lifetime membership to. Good luck with that.
I can most definitely confirm that it is dps of the whole. Dps 20k sometimes has to pug a spot or 2....rarely...and through these power dps runs, the poor pug does so little total damage that they get an afk penalty.
Wasn't our intention...but it happened
If that is the case, than their dps must be 1k or less. I have run several instances with a 1.5k-3.5k and have never suffered a penalty due to average-low dps numbers.
Stuff comes up. The baby cries. The dog knocks over your beer. The cops show up with one of your kids in custody. Your spouse yells at you. The repo man comes for your Escalade, and then there's a zombie outbreak.
None of which is anyone else's problem. If you need to be away from your machine for even a few minutes, you need to leave the match and deal with the leaver penalty. If your life is such an unrelenting disaster that you cannot set aside 20 minutes for a "raid," then you shouldn't be subjecting your team mates to your presence at all. Sorry, but that's life, and life doesn't care what you think is "nice" or "fair." It is necessary for one set of rules to apply the same way to everyone, regardless of your extra special tragic personal circumstances.
This response lacks any compassion whatsoever! I feel sorry for you! I will pray for your soul! Someone send this person a PINK heart-shaped cookie! Someone else get them some Pepto Bismol!
If you feel your friend was given the AFK penalty when it wasn't deserved, have your friend fill out a ticket to Cryptic. Let them research the incident. THEY are the ones with all the information AND the answers. They are the ones to do any tweaking if they determine it's needed.
They are the ones you should direct your wishes to get a refund for your lifetime membership to. Good luck with that.
Now I had considered a ticket but to be frank, what would the explanation for the ticket be? A game mechanic that is not understood may or may not be functioning as intended but it is impossible to tell?
That said, would she be able to file the ticket as she is a pure F2P player?
I can most definitely confirm that it is dps of the whole. Dps 20k sometimes has to pug a spot or 2....rarely...and through these power dps runs, the poor pug does so little total damage that they get an afk penalty.
Wasn't our intention...but it happened
Is this REALLY working as intended then? Surely there are better ways to measure involvement than just raw DPS comparisons in an "averaged" group. This does start to explain what happened in more detail though and draws the picture more clearly. She goes into this, fairly easy run, with a new ship she is still getting adjusted to, doesn't do phenomenol DPS, steps out just as the Staddi is showing up, and that drops the already low DPS into the fatal zone. Not a time measure then at all, and while it answers my question, it's not exactly a very reassuring answer.
This response lacks any compassion whatsoever! I feel sorry for you! I will pray for your soul! Someone send this person a PINK heart-shaped cookie! Someone else get them some Pepto Bismol!
Compassion has a time and place. I don't think this is one of them.
Now I had considered a ticket but to be frank, what would the explanation for the ticket be? A game mechanic that is not understood may or may not be functioning as intended but it is impossible to tell?
That said, would she be able to file the ticket as she is a pure F2P player?
Is this REALLY working as intended then? Surely there are better ways to measure involvement than just raw DPS comparisons in an "averaged" group. This does start to explain what happened in more detail though and draws the picture more clearly. She goes into this, fairly easy run, with a new ship she is still getting adjusted to, doesn't do phenomenol DPS, steps out just as the Staddi is showing up, and that drops the already low DPS into the fatal zone. Not a time measure then at all, and while it answers my question, it's not exactly a very reassuring answer.
Well some dps is to be expected, because if someone or something can simply just keep the ship a moving or pecking at a single key to keep off the afk penalty, it wouldn't really discourage people from trying to use that to leech with.
Just ran Mirror universe with 2 friends of mine. We que up for this any chance we get as I'm running a fairly geared character this gives us a chance to run something quick, easy, and fun with a lot of explosions. One of those friends went AFK for a moment, came back, and was hit with a 2 hour AFK penalty. This is completely ridiculous. I could understand a 20 minute penalty but this was just silly.
I purchased my lifetime membership a few months ago because I intended to invest time in this game PLAYING WITH MY FRIENDS. This however limits that capability as if they have anything come up our time gets robbed not just by a reasonable penalty marker but by a 2 hour long delay.
I really wish there was a refund department at this phase, seriously considering just leaving the game all together. I'm guessing this carries no weight with cryptic as they already have my money but I will NEVER suggest to anyone they purchase anything in this game so long as such an outrageous and unfair penalty exists. After all, the penalty in other online games is far lower or well balanced.
I get having a penalty, but this is just ridiculous. It isn't that hard to code the penalty to be 20 minutes from the time they leave the map for an AFK penalty.
Sincerely Your's
Disgruntled Paying Player
NO, this is done because of the lazy people that want to get something for nothing the AFK penalty is fair and should not be change. Too many time have I ran a STF or some other que and we have one person that just sits there and does nothing and get the same reward that the rest of us hard working players get NO MORE if you want to do something with friends do a private que.
And this is no worse than if you left a said que before it over i.e STF's
NO, this is done because of the lazy people that want to get something for nothing the AFK penalty is fair and should not be change. Too many time have I ran a STF or some other que and we have one person that just sits there and does nothing and get the same reward that the rest of us hard working players get NO MORE if you want to do something with friends do a private que.
And this is no worse than if you left a said que before it over i.e STF's
I agree, no worse at all, and yet..... it receives a harsher penalty. Also again after the penalty is leveed private queing with that friend became disabled. It's overly harsh in that a comparable offense is given a lesser impact.
I agree, no worse at all, and yet..... it receives a harsher penalty. Also again after the penalty is leveed private queing with that friend became disabled. It's overly harsh in that a comparable offense is given a lesser impact.
It's debatable as to whether it IS a comparable offense or not. Also what is or isn't overly harsh is completely a matter of opinion and therefore not up to the general player base to decide. If the devs say it is the the appropriate penalty, then it is the appropriate penalty.
It's not myfault ifyoufeel trolledbymyDisco ball...Sorry'boutit.
I agree, no worse at all, and yet..... it receives a harsher penalty. Also again after the penalty is leveed private queing with that friend became disabled. It's overly harsh in that a comparable offense is given a lesser impact.
There is nothing wrong with the penalty as it is the only reason to get up set is if u ur self tryed to AFK mission n got stuck with 2 hours time out. As for ppl who quit pugs there is all ways a small chance the game will put someone in to the match. But if ur pugging u should only really join if u can make up for 1-2 people being under par. Of if like me n my orion empire fleet mate today doing cse make up for 2 ppl quiting the match cos 1 person was stuck loading. We even got the optional with 1 min left on the clock so 2 of us did a 5 man team mission with the optional. Its really not that hard if ur a goid player. There need to buff elite missions a little cos its getting to be a ealk in the park.
I was in my Ar'kiff n fleet mate was in the lock box voth ship he tanked i killed every thing that was threat to kang simple if u know wot ur doing.
It's debatable as to whether it IS a comparable offense or not. Also what is or isn't overly harsh is completely a matter of opinion and therefore not up to the general player base to decide. If the devs say it is the the appropriate penalty, then it is the appropriate penalty.
One thing to consider is that there are some people insane enough to intentionally join missions that are short a player.
It's debatable as to whether it IS a comparable offense or not. Also what is or isn't overly harsh is completely a matter of opinion and therefore not up to the general player base to decide. If the devs say it is the the appropriate penalty, then it is the appropriate penalty.
Yup, and this thread has people voicing opinions as to the harshness. It's a way to let the Devs know what people think of things. True my initial start was a bit too hot under the collar, but the intent it is turning out well enough. While the Devs ultimately are responsible for balancing the game, it is the general populations responsibility to voice their opinion on that balancing and provide a scope with which for the developers to understand the impact their balancing is having.
You could say that by not offering an opinion your shrugging off your responsibility to provide meaningful feedback.
Now, while technically all manner of thought can be said to be subjective lets look at the system from its current setup.
AFKing - Can/Does ruin matches because a spot for an active valuable player is taken away.
Early Leaving - Can/Does ruin matches because a potentially valuable player is taken away - depending the run even from a key task - and is not easily accounted for in the remaining players tactics.
Seems from a base level criteria the infringement shares many key characteristics in it's impact on the overall enjoyment of the game. Yet they have punishments that are not comparative.
That said, the AFK Penalty could be tweaked using an earlier members suggestion. Initial AFK Penalty resulting in no reward drop for the player in question. Second time offense in say 30 days resulting in a 1hr ban from that particular que. Third time offense resulting in a one hour Global Ban from Public Que. Fourth time offense the 2hr ban we currently have. Then escalate from there, with infringement removed monthly. This would provide a curve for those not even aware of the mechanic that is not so harshly punishing.
Mind you, the alternative of course would be to scale the early leave penalty to create some semblance of fairness. Which, honestly, I'd possibly be more up for at this phase. I've yet to be flagged AFK during a run so I had no idea the penalty existed in that extreme. However I was fully aware of the early leave penalty having experienced it first hand so far one time.
My point is that more than anything we have a system in place where one offense of comparable value is judged so much more harshly than another offense that it is unrealistic. Does it drive the message home? Certainly it does. However the message it drives home is of an un-thought-out reactionary system to something that should have been considered years before now.
Always consider how your new player is going to perceive any potential rule. This kind of thing needs to be taken into account. At the very least even an explanation of this rule plain and clear when a character hits level 50 would prepare them for such.
Not even that much is/was given. Should it be? Certainly.
Now I had considered a ticket but to be frank, what would the explanation for the ticket be? A game mechanic that is not understood may or may not be functioning as intended but it is impossible to tell?
That said, would she be able to file the ticket as she is a pure F2P player?
Wait, What would the explanation be? !
You started the thread suggesting/implying that there was some sort of glitch that needed tweaking.
Except we aren't SURE it's DPS. It may be any number of criteria from number of enemy ships, to time on the cooldown after the mission spent AFK. We simply do not know the mechanics well enough to argue justification based on violation of a rule. I understand why they are guarding the rules, I'm not even suggesting they come clean with them, but I'm hopeful that someone will read this and if it is something hidden in there that is causing this unfairly that they tweak it. Remember, close of a mission even if you contributed 10kdps till that last second before the closing timer starts actives a 2minute timer. If you AFKed JUST as that timer starts your DPS could, in theory be halved. That wouldn't be enough to get you the penalty if it was just a DPS penalty, but we REALLY don't know that it is based on DPS. Also for all we know the logic system is doubly harsh at the end match timer. There is simply not enough conclusive evidence to say how the penalty is dealt and in this case then not enough to say why it was triggered.
I'm not gonna write the ticket for you, but if you really believe the possibility that something screwy happened in your incident, explain it on a ticket.
Cryptic has all the meta data of the incident. They keep everything. They can review exactly what happened and determine if something needs tweaking or not.
Infact, If I may be so bold, the comments you've made in this thread have hinted at the possibility of a glitch/glitches.
Perhaps to rally some support for change on a topic many are so polarized against you on? Who's to say? But at this point your argument is staring to turn towards opening a dialog to reduce the penalty because you perceive it as being too harsh.
That's pretty slick there.
If the whole point your argument devolves to this:
1. My friend went AFK and was ignorant of the consequences.
2. Therefore You personally think the penalty is too harsh.
I'm afraid you're not gonna rally much sympathy in these parts.
Because regarding #1. - Consider the penalty the education that going AFK is no longer tolerated. Live and learn and move on. :rolleyes:
Regarding #2 That's your opinion, unfortunately ATM, you are in the minority.
AFKing is generally considered a despicable act.
I personally put it right up there with griefing and exploiting.
Always consider how your new player is going to perceive any potential rule. This kind of thing needs to be taken into account. At the very least even an explanation of this rule plain and clear when a character hits level 50 would prepare them for such.
Trying to gain something by exploiting, which is what AFKers were/are doing, (hence the penalty) is pretty common sense there bud. If new players are coming into this game with the intention to exploit or grief others, then who cares what their perception of the rules are? We don't want those kinds of players here.
If they are ignorant of the rules regarding something so obvious, rather than arguing over the penalty accept it, understand why it was put there, learn from it and move on.
The penalty is as harsh as it is, to deter, that's pretty clear cut there.
AFKing was really getting out of hand, understand this.
So you were inconvenienced for a couple of hours? That's nothing compared to the chaos that was going on before Cryptic finally did something about it. The size of the problem determined the response.
I've said all I care to on this subject. I'm starting to get that I'm talking to a wall feeling.
I hope you and your friend have learnt something about how AFKing is regarded in this game and Please don't do it again, other players don't like it .
I wish you and your friend a happy gaming experience.
Perhaps to rally some support for change on a topic many are so polarized against you on? Who's to say? But at this point your argument is staring to turn towards opening a dialog to reduce the penalty because you perceive it as being too harsh.
I'm in a dual boat on this one. One the one hand I feel the penalty is too harsh for various reasons, but at the same time I feel it was also levied unfairly or may be implemented unfairly. If it's purely a DPS average then it needs to be reconsidered. It means a high spec build could, in theory, come in, do 20kDPS for one minute, then AFK the remainder of the match. It also means someone doing 1 - 2KDPS in a group full of 20KDPSers will get hit with the penalty.
So I'm just overall not happy with the setup. Numerous reasons, a lighter penalty would mean that the impact of false positives would be reduced and while again, this is not affecting me personally it would reassure me for new players coming into this. A bit more forewarning if it was a valid flagged penalty likewise prevents this for new players who may have left matches before and didn't know the discrepancy in penalties. Again I'd almost prefer the 2hr global cool-down on match abandonment in addition because at least then it would all be on equal footing.
So overall it appears to not be a well thought out mechanic. I can see why so many are in support of it in some form, I just think the form needs a bit of tweaking.
There are a number of ways to correct this. Anything from a popup tool-tip on the first time a character runs teamed content explaining the rule in more detail to changing the gauge of the penalty or it's total global impact (again, allow private grouping after an AFK penalty levy)
I'm not stringently in favor of any ONE change, but more in favor that a rethink on some of this be done and a review be taken into account of recent complaints on this including my own. If it is a DPS gauge then I am strongly in favor of a revamp on that as more players reach final build revision we'll see 20kDPS become the new norm over time and that will lead to a degree of problems all its own.
However with the almost nonexistent data on how this works, I get why it is so super secret, it makes making any single suggestion to correct the problem almost impossible. Instead many suggestions become prevalent.
Looking over events, the penalty may have been fair, from a certain point of view. That is to say, running a less than 10KDPS build, stepping away for a minute, the numbers become skewed quickly. Technically that is the implementation of the away penalty as intended, however it also means immunity to those doing far higher DPS who step away for a similar period of time.
Comments
Also it prevents the forming of a private que with the player under the AFK penalty. A lot of good discussion going now on how this can be improved upon. Ultimately it is not that an AFK system should not exist, but that the penalty should be measured and fully considered on its impact.
Well, to be fair and honest, for me, it's "I'd rather put up with a certain number of false positives". As in, if it's a respectably low number, then yes, a few slip-ups here & there ARE going to happen. Nature of the beast. Also, having a system in place, at least, that deals out a low number of false positives, helps lower the problem, while the company possibly works on a better detection system.
If it was an excessive number, than no, I would agree in that case, that no detection system is better than having one.
And sure, does getting hit with a false, suck? Surely does. But if it's super rare, then just switch characters, or go do something else, or come back the next day. Because as one of those that has had to put up with a crappy leecher MULTIPLE times, I would rather have the crappiest elitest noob ever made, than having a leecher around. At least the elitest fool, while he may be only slightly useful, the leecher is totally non-useful, and get's rewarded for MY work, as well as the work of any others in that particular mission.
And as to the "is the AFK'er not just merely like someone who leaves, thus should only suffer the same penalty as one who leaves?" comment. I say, no he is not. He is worse. If someone leaves, one, there is the possibility that someone else MAY come in to fill that empty slot. Whereas the leacher, get's to do at the most so extremely little, to nothing, yet gets a reward? Nope, they are worse, and thus, need to get a worse penalty.
Also, another poster suggested an doubling scale per successive occurrences. Again, as long as the number of false positives stays very low, I can agree with that, whole-heartedly. Only mod I would say on his suggestion of account wide, I would say that the first 3 stay character-only. That helps if you're just having a horrid amount of luck on your connection, build, or detection algorithms. However, "3 strikes and you're out", ie on the 4 th & successive occurrences per time frame, have it progress to account wide. Because if it's happening THAT many times, then yes, that's most likely not bad luck, that's likely purposeful leeching at that point. (Probably before that point, but with the way some bugs run around, and other bad factors beyond the player's control, it IS somewhat possible to accumulate 2-3 strikes in, say, a week's time.) And a week, is what I would suggest as the measurable time period. And if you have more than the 3 strikes, it shouldn't reset either, the next week, it should rollover. As in, do 5 strikes in the first week, you still have 5 strikes pending the next week, so the first time in the second week, will be counted as #6, and have the appropriate penalty. Whereas, if you only have 1-3, those would be "forgivable", and reset back to 0 the following week.
butcher suspect, "What'd you hit me with?"
Temperance Brennan, "A building"
Be careful what you wish for.
Mind you, perhaps this is a larger problem in the system overall. Perhaps if more content were available that is fun, enjoyable, and rewarding outside of the PVE Que there would be more to do in a group when such things happen. That is another thing to look at. As it stands one false positive can ruin a groups day.
Now I have spent several instances doing nothing to help, because the game likes to take my boff's out of seating, so I have to waste time putting them back quite often.
And in no way am I a humungous dps dealer, so even when I have dropped into an already running STF with maybe 3-5mins left till completed I still have never received an afk penalty.
So the required dps needed to keep the afk penalty from happening must be super low, and the time frame for doing nothing must by all accounts be longer than 5mins from my own experience of being afk for 5mins at a time, and the level of dps I am able to accomplish in a short 1-5min span is nothing super, so the needed dps to keep away the afk monster is really low.
So to say this person was undeserving of the penalty is heard with deaf ears, and my signature best said for those who complain.
Best thing to do is switch to another character till the timer expires for the other.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy
Except we aren't SURE it's DPS. It may be any number of criteria from number of enemy ships, to time on the cooldown after the mission spent AFK. We simply do not know the mechanics well enough to argue justification based on violation of a rule. I understand why they are guarding the rules, I'm not even suggesting they come clean with them, but I'm hopeful that someone will read this and if it is something hidden in there that is causing this unfairly that they tweak it. Remember, close of a mission even if you contributed 10kdps till that last second before the closing timer starts actives a 2minute timer. If you AFKed JUST as that timer starts your DPS could, in theory be halved. That wouldn't be enough to get you the penalty if it was just a DPS penalty, but we REALLY don't know that it is based on DPS. Also for all we know the logic system is doubly harsh at the end match timer. There is simply not enough conclusive evidence to say how the penalty is dealt and in this case then not enough to say why it was triggered.
Which, to some level, is the most infuriating part. For my part I don't AFK, if I have to leave I take a leave penalty, for my part I've also been playing longer than my friend, though as I had yet to AFK a match I was totally unaware of the penalty or could have warned her on it.
My point though is to get some ideas rolling as to how this can be tweaked, either to reduce the false positives, or to make the penalty sufficient to deter AFKers and bots, but not to deter genuinely interested players who had something come up.
Tell me this, who does it hurt to prevent us from flying an Azure Nebula Mission after an AFK penalty? How does, other than extremist punishment, that help improve your experience of the game rather than just diminishing ours?
Also outrageous penalties are a fine idea for those who are committed to this game above and beyond everything else in their lives. However, this game will NOT continue based on the experiences of those putting in 20+hrs a day at the keyboard but instead on those putting in an hour, or two, per day. Those are the players who have busy lives and for whom life does get in the way sometimes. Those are the players who wind up paying the bills. I mean that not to speak on my own investment in the game but instead to say, no matter what I as one player contribute the cost of keeping the servers, programs, and profit margin all in check will be impacted more by the casual player than the die-hard.
Again, I'm not for getting rid of the penalty, but a tweaking of the logic that applies it, and perhaps a tweaking of the penalties impact. Also not everyone runs Alts as not everyone plays JUST to farm dilithium. Consider also the impact this rule, which is not clearly laid out or explained in anything close to a reasonable manner during the game, has on new players. Remember without new players we will eventually not have a game to play.
The time penalty is there to try to break the cycle, so unscrupulous players don't just simply jump into another mission to do it again.
Mazinger, you do understand that the AFK situation was growing and totally out of control before this right?
The situation, as it is, may not be perfect, but it's way better then what was happening before it.
If it stops one AFKer, it works far better than what we've had, which was chaos.
Let's not tweak in into something less effective just because of a personal opinion. You feel it's too heavy handed?
There are those that disagree.
I think going AFK, is the equivalent of either griefing team members, or a dilithium exploit.
I think people who get banned repeatedly should face an account ban and have to explain to Cryptic why they keep getting banned. Let Cryptic review their data and sort it out as they see fit.
Every game has harsh penalties when it comes to exploits and griefing.
None of which is anyone else's problem. If you need to be away from your machine for even a few minutes, you need to leave the match and deal with the leaver penalty. If your life is such an unrelenting disaster that you cannot set aside 20 minutes for a "raid," then you shouldn't be subjecting your team mates to your presence at all. Sorry, but that's life, and life doesn't care what you think is "nice" or "fair." It is necessary for one set of rules to apply the same way to everyone, regardless of your extra special tragic personal circumstances.
Irrelevant to the point you're trying to make. You don't get an AFK penalty from doing anything else except for what it was made for. Unless this is an appeal to emotion in an attempt to get people to sympathize with you by trying to create a common ground. In other words, "People who read this play the game too just like I do, making us besties... therefore you support what I have to say, right?"
I love vague descriptions when it comes to the specific argument trying to be made. How much is "a moment"? Is it a quantifiable time? If this is going to be the very basis of the point you're trying to make, if you simply can not effectively communicate anything else right, at least make this the goal of your arguement. Furthermore, whether or not something is "silly" is largely subjective. Your personal opinion does not make fact. Some people don't think 2 hours goes far enough, for instance. And they play the same game you do.
Irrelevant. Buying a lifetime membership does not give you special priviledges to ruin gameplay for other people, for instance going AFK. Those other people might be lifers too, should they have to suffer an AFKer on their team? Or do they not matter since they are not your personal friends? Does your personal time mean anything to the rest of us? Do any of us really care about how your personal time is wasted, especially since an AFKer is the culprit? We don't know you. We don't care.
Refunds are not given based on your unhappiness when it comes to the policing of a game. People who are banned from STO do not get refunds, people who don't like Cryptic doing this or that do not get automatic refunds based on an arbitrary dislike of a particular aspect of the game. The real world does not work like that. Otherwise I'd ask Cryptic for an immediate refund of everything I ever bought from STO based on the fact I don't like you complaining about the AFK penalty. You also have recognized that STO is not 'other games'. To compare STO's penalty to 'other games' is a childish way of saying, "But mommy, Billy's mom lets him ride his bicycle without a helmet!"
So you agree that a penalty is needed. Good. Now try to recognize that people will be willing to put up with a 20 minute penalty for the sake of AFK farming. It isn't the penalty that is important as much as the deterrant it serves. It is there to deter AFKing. If the penalty is not long enough, then it will not deter. Considering your OP, I would say this is a clear indication that it will deter AFKing. Although you are taking it out on Cryptic instead of the AFKers who caused this penalty to be implemented to begin with.
Paying customer means nothing in terms of f2p. More money is made from microtransactions spread across thousands of players than gold subscriptions/lifetime subs/etc., your money is not better than mine.
And there are more people who are okay with the AFK penalty as-is than those who are not. And even those who are not... we really don't care about their opinions since they're probably the ones who were AFKing to begin with.
I'm also willing to bet I've sunk more money into this game than you. If you really want to go with the fallacy of 'paying customer', if I give more money to Cryptic than you do, then my opinion matters more.
And my opinion is the AFK penalty is fine.
So your stupid friend goes afk and gets penalised for it and you're complaining and screaming refund of life sub even though you yourself were not penalised in any way and could have kept on playing while you friend sits in the naughty corner? Make more friends, do some crafting or build refining while you wait for your friend, spend the next two hours making them feel bad for making you wait two hours.
Well I can tell you this, not once have I ever received an afk penalty, because well I don't afk for any longer than 5mins at a time. I also am not really caring nor effected by other's who receive this penalty, because well I pug every time. I am however effected by more people actually doing something now since the penalty has been implemented, and not dealing with so many leecher's/afker's like before. So I for one am happy with the penalty as it currently stands, if you suspect you need be gone from the keyboard for an extended period of time over 5mins, than I suggest you leave the mission preferably after 15-20mins has expired from the start of it so as to not even suffer the leaver's penalty. Otherwise take the 1hr penalty and cut your losses, or face the wrath of a 2hr afk penalty!
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Wasn't our intention...but it happened
My PvE/PvP hybrid skill tree
I was thinking about this statement a bit after reading your post.
To be fair, you've not provided anything to support you've said about the incident either.
We have only your word.
For all we know, you're just taking to the forums to muddy the waters, trying to rally the troops to your cause of getting things tweaked to ineffectiveness.
In which case, dare I say you failed.
If you feel your friend was given the AFK penalty when it wasn't deserved, have your friend fill out a ticket to Cryptic. Let them research the incident. THEY are the ones with all the information AND the answers. They are the ones to do any tweaking if they determine it's needed.
They are the ones you should direct your wishes to get a refund for your lifetime membership to. Good luck with that.
If that is the case, than their dps must be 1k or less. I have run several instances with a 1.5k-3.5k and have never suffered a penalty due to average-low dps numbers.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
This response lacks any compassion whatsoever!
Now I had considered a ticket but to be frank, what would the explanation for the ticket be? A game mechanic that is not understood may or may not be functioning as intended but it is impossible to tell?
That said, would she be able to file the ticket as she is a pure F2P player?
Is this REALLY working as intended then? Surely there are better ways to measure involvement than just raw DPS comparisons in an "averaged" group. This does start to explain what happened in more detail though and draws the picture more clearly. She goes into this, fairly easy run, with a new ship she is still getting adjusted to, doesn't do phenomenol DPS, steps out just as the Staddi is showing up, and that drops the already low DPS into the fatal zone. Not a time measure then at all, and while it answers my question, it's not exactly a very reassuring answer.
My character Tsin'xing
Well some dps is to be expected, because if someone or something can simply just keep the ship a moving or pecking at a single key to keep off the afk penalty, it wouldn't really discourage people from trying to use that to leech with.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
NO, this is done because of the lazy people that want to get something for nothing the AFK penalty is fair and should not be change. Too many time have I ran a STF or some other que and we have one person that just sits there and does nothing and get the same reward that the rest of us hard working players get NO MORE if you want to do something with friends do a private que.
And this is no worse than if you left a said que before it over i.e STF's
I agree, no worse at all, and yet..... it receives a harsher penalty. Also again after the penalty is leveed private queing with that friend became disabled. It's overly harsh in that a comparable offense is given a lesser impact.
It's debatable as to whether it IS a comparable offense or not. Also what is or isn't overly harsh is completely a matter of opinion and therefore not up to the general player base to decide. If the devs say it is the the appropriate penalty, then it is the appropriate penalty.
R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy
There is nothing wrong with the penalty as it is the only reason to get up set is if u ur self tryed to AFK mission n got stuck with 2 hours time out. As for ppl who quit pugs there is all ways a small chance the game will put someone in to the match. But if ur pugging u should only really join if u can make up for 1-2 people being under par. Of if like me n my orion empire fleet mate today doing cse make up for 2 ppl quiting the match cos 1 person was stuck loading. We even got the optional with 1 min left on the clock so 2 of us did a 5 man team mission with the optional. Its really not that hard if ur a goid player. There need to buff elite missions a little cos its getting to be a ealk in the park.
I was in my Ar'kiff n fleet mate was in the lock box voth ship he tanked i killed every thing that was threat to kang simple if u know wot ur doing.
My character Tsin'xing
Yup, and this thread has people voicing opinions as to the harshness. It's a way to let the Devs know what people think of things. True my initial start was a bit too hot under the collar, but the intent it is turning out well enough. While the Devs ultimately are responsible for balancing the game, it is the general populations responsibility to voice their opinion on that balancing and provide a scope with which for the developers to understand the impact their balancing is having.
You could say that by not offering an opinion your shrugging off your responsibility to provide meaningful feedback.
Now, while technically all manner of thought can be said to be subjective lets look at the system from its current setup.
AFKing - Can/Does ruin matches because a spot for an active valuable player is taken away.
Early Leaving - Can/Does ruin matches because a potentially valuable player is taken away - depending the run even from a key task - and is not easily accounted for in the remaining players tactics.
Seems from a base level criteria the infringement shares many key characteristics in it's impact on the overall enjoyment of the game. Yet they have punishments that are not comparative.
That said, the AFK Penalty could be tweaked using an earlier members suggestion. Initial AFK Penalty resulting in no reward drop for the player in question. Second time offense in say 30 days resulting in a 1hr ban from that particular que. Third time offense resulting in a one hour Global Ban from Public Que. Fourth time offense the 2hr ban we currently have. Then escalate from there, with infringement removed monthly. This would provide a curve for those not even aware of the mechanic that is not so harshly punishing.
Mind you, the alternative of course would be to scale the early leave penalty to create some semblance of fairness. Which, honestly, I'd possibly be more up for at this phase. I've yet to be flagged AFK during a run so I had no idea the penalty existed in that extreme. However I was fully aware of the early leave penalty having experienced it first hand so far one time.
My point is that more than anything we have a system in place where one offense of comparable value is judged so much more harshly than another offense that it is unrealistic. Does it drive the message home? Certainly it does. However the message it drives home is of an un-thought-out reactionary system to something that should have been considered years before now.
Always consider how your new player is going to perceive any potential rule. This kind of thing needs to be taken into account. At the very least even an explanation of this rule plain and clear when a character hits level 50 would prepare them for such.
Not even that much is/was given. Should it be? Certainly.
Wait, What would the explanation be? !
You started the thread suggesting/implying that there was some sort of glitch that needed tweaking.
You've made further statements supporting a supposed glitch hypothesis.
I'm not gonna write the ticket for you, but if you really believe the possibility that something screwy happened in your incident, explain it on a ticket.
Cryptic has all the meta data of the incident. They keep everything. They can review exactly what happened and determine if something needs tweaking or not.
Infact, If I may be so bold, the comments you've made in this thread have hinted at the possibility of a glitch/glitches.
Perhaps to rally some support for change on a topic many are so polarized against you on? Who's to say? But at this point your argument is staring to turn towards opening a dialog to reduce the penalty because you perceive it as being too harsh.
That's pretty slick there.
If the whole point your argument devolves to this:
1. My friend went AFK and was ignorant of the consequences.
2. Therefore You personally think the penalty is too harsh.
I'm afraid you're not gonna rally much sympathy in these parts.
Because regarding #1. - Consider the penalty the education that going AFK is no longer tolerated. Live and learn and move on. :rolleyes:
Regarding #2 That's your opinion, unfortunately ATM, you are in the minority.
AFKing is generally considered a despicable act.
I personally put it right up there with griefing and exploiting.
Trying to gain something by exploiting, which is what AFKers were/are doing, (hence the penalty) is pretty common sense there bud. If new players are coming into this game with the intention to exploit or grief others, then who cares what their perception of the rules are? We don't want those kinds of players here.
If they are ignorant of the rules regarding something so obvious, rather than arguing over the penalty accept it, understand why it was put there, learn from it and move on.
The penalty is as harsh as it is, to deter, that's pretty clear cut there.
AFKing was really getting out of hand, understand this.
So you were inconvenienced for a couple of hours? That's nothing compared to the chaos that was going on before Cryptic finally did something about it. The size of the problem determined the response.
I've said all I care to on this subject. I'm starting to get that I'm talking to a wall feeling.
I hope you and your friend have learnt something about how AFKing is regarded in this game and Please don't do it again, other players don't like it .
I wish you and your friend a happy gaming experience.
I agree wholeheartedly,
Going AFK IS griefing teammates. Therefore we all need to show some compassion and not go AFK.
I'm in a dual boat on this one. One the one hand I feel the penalty is too harsh for various reasons, but at the same time I feel it was also levied unfairly or may be implemented unfairly. If it's purely a DPS average then it needs to be reconsidered. It means a high spec build could, in theory, come in, do 20kDPS for one minute, then AFK the remainder of the match. It also means someone doing 1 - 2KDPS in a group full of 20KDPSers will get hit with the penalty.
So I'm just overall not happy with the setup. Numerous reasons, a lighter penalty would mean that the impact of false positives would be reduced and while again, this is not affecting me personally it would reassure me for new players coming into this. A bit more forewarning if it was a valid flagged penalty likewise prevents this for new players who may have left matches before and didn't know the discrepancy in penalties. Again I'd almost prefer the 2hr global cool-down on match abandonment in addition because at least then it would all be on equal footing.
So overall it appears to not be a well thought out mechanic. I can see why so many are in support of it in some form, I just think the form needs a bit of tweaking.
There are a number of ways to correct this. Anything from a popup tool-tip on the first time a character runs teamed content explaining the rule in more detail to changing the gauge of the penalty or it's total global impact (again, allow private grouping after an AFK penalty levy)
I'm not stringently in favor of any ONE change, but more in favor that a rethink on some of this be done and a review be taken into account of recent complaints on this including my own. If it is a DPS gauge then I am strongly in favor of a revamp on that as more players reach final build revision we'll see 20kDPS become the new norm over time and that will lead to a degree of problems all its own.
However with the almost nonexistent data on how this works, I get why it is so super secret, it makes making any single suggestion to correct the problem almost impossible. Instead many suggestions become prevalent.
Looking over events, the penalty may have been fair, from a certain point of view. That is to say, running a less than 10KDPS build, stepping away for a minute, the numbers become skewed quickly. Technically that is the implementation of the away penalty as intended, however it also means immunity to those doing far higher DPS who step away for a similar period of time.