Name was removed dont worry but after his statement one person left the team, then had the audacity to message me after then ignore me. Gotta love the high and mighty afkers who go into this thing with the intent of doing nothing but sit there and yet feel free to give attitude when you call them out on it.
That´s a gem, indeed.
Starbase defenses: 5/5. That´s nice, really. But it won´t help you. The station will get swamped with mirror ships.
Rifts closed: 7. And that´s why.
I don´t think the AFKer was the problem.
No, but they certainly didn't help the matter any!
Nice try I could give a rats rear end how you feel. If you are that stupid to stick around and let a AFK parasite feed off your efforts you deserve the lesser rewards.
I don't think you understand my position on this issue at all. Also, action, not inaction, is what produces the lesser reward. Aggroing the map, getting the station killed, and failing to accomplish anything because the map is spammed in enemies that interrupt everything you do is not productive or rewarding.
But, you people complaining and getting angry about the AFK'ers are giving them exactly what they want. They're probably out there laughing at you guys because they think it's funny.
Well, yes and no. In truth, we don't care one way or another. Others are simply a loud, noisy disruption.
They know nothing about Star Trek or even how to play this game properly. If they weren't getting blown up every 5 seconds because of how much they suck, they wouldn't need to AFK this event.
An overly broad generalization that excludes the fact that high-end players also use this strategy, as less a question of need than efficiency.
I don't know what you're talking about. I fly around blowing stuff up and closing portals and never have an issue being overrun with too many enemies. Probably because I keep joining with PUGs that actually have the brain capacity to know how to do this mission properly.
Like I said, people who AFK don't know how to do do anything properly, especially if you think you get rewarded more for only defeating the dreadnought.
With the daily bonus rep marks, and what I have left in my bonus mark pool, I walk away with around 132 marks a day from this event (I only do it once a day for the event project item). Without the bonus pool I would still be getting over 100 (around 110 I think). I have over 1200 Terran marks and almost T3 Terran rep at this moment. I'm getting marks faster than I can use them. Of course it also helps that I built my character pretty decent. I'm no DPS powerhouse but I do pretty damn good in this event.
But I suppose I can educate you.
Close portals *then* get the base defenses going. Rinse and repeat. After the base reaches T5 just close whatever few portals open up.
Each time the base defenses are started more portals open up. If you get the defenses going too fast you'll wind up with too many portals at once.
BWAHAHAHA...did you bother to look at the name the guy uses? And you want to try and be reasonable with somebody who thinks that name is a good one? He doesn't give a rat's TRIBBLE about anyone but himself. He has said so in this thread. Just leave the troll alone...and if you see him in a queue, just afk with him because he bring two of his crew to make sure the run gets ruined (why he just doesn't grab two more and do a private is beyond me...then again...oh yeah the name...he's a troll).
Name calling and getting angry at people isn't going to accomplish anything. He has some challenges to overcome and we should take pity on him and help him out instead. If we can teach him how the game works and how to build his character better he won't have a need to AFK anything.
When a player is struggling with the functions of the game, sometimes people get angry at them, and it can discourage a player from participating in various multi-player events. I know what it's like as I went through that myself a long time ago. People would get mad at me for messing something up and/or asking questions on how to do the event. Eventually I managed to find some nice players to give me advice and how to build my character and how the game works. I just wanted to pass along the good will.
I had a mirror invasion today with two people away from keyboard. So instead of waiting for 5 minutes for the anti-tachyon pulse I ended up having to wait 2 minutes.
Nice try I could give a rats rear end how you feel. If you are that stupid to stick around and let a AFK parasite feed off your efforts you deserve the lesser rewards.
I don't think you understand my position on this issue at all. Also, action, not inaction, is what produces the lesser reward. Aggroing the map, getting the station killed, and failing to accomplish anything because the map is spammed in enemies that interrupt everything you do is not productive or rewarding.
But, you people complaining and getting angry about the AFK'ers are giving them exactly what they want. They're probably out there laughing at you guys because they think it's funny.
Well, yes and no. In truth, we don't care one way or another. Others are simply a loud, noisy disruption.
They know nothing about Star Trek or even how to play this game properly. If they weren't getting blown up every 5 seconds because of how much they suck, they wouldn't need to AFK this event.
An overly broad generalization that excludes the fact that high-end players also use this strategy, as less a question of need than efficiency.
I don't know what you're talking about. I fly around blowing stuff up and closing portals and never have an issue being overrun with too many enemies. Probably because I keep joining with PUGs that actually have the brain capacity to know how to do this mission properly.
Like I said, people who AFK don't know how to do do anything properly, especially if you think you get rewarded more for only defeating the dreadnought.
With the daily bonus rep marks, and what I have left in my bonus mark pool, I walk away with around 132 marks a day from this event (I only do it once a day for the event project item). Without the bonus pool I would still be getting over 100 (around 110 I think). I have over 1200 Terran marks and almost T3 Terran rep at this moment. I'm getting marks faster than I can use them. Of course it also helps that I built my character pretty decent. I'm no DPS powerhouse but I do pretty damn good in this event.
But I suppose I can educate you.
Close portals *then* get the base defenses going. Rinse and repeat. After the base reaches T5 just close whatever few portals open up.
Each time the base defenses are started more portals open up. If you get the defenses going too fast you'll wind up with too many portals at once.
BWAHAHAHA...did you bother to look at the name the guy uses? And you want to try and be reasonable with somebody who thinks that name is a good one? He doesn't give a rat's TRIBBLE about anyone but himself. He has said so in this thread. Just leave the troll alone...and if you see him in a queue, just afk with him because he bring two of his crew to make sure the run gets ruined (why he just doesn't grab two more and do a private is beyond me...then again...oh yeah the name...he's a troll).
Name calling and getting angry at people isn't going to accomplish anything. He has some challenges to overcome and we should take pity on him and help him out instead. If we can teach him how the game works and how to build his character better he won't have a need to AFK anything.
When a player is struggling with the functions of the game, sometimes people get angry at them, and it can discourage a player from participating in various multi-player events. I know what it's like as I went through that myself a long time ago. People would get mad at me for messing something up and/or asking questions on how to do the event. Eventually I managed to find some nice players to give me advice and how to build my character and how the game works. I just wanted to pass along the good will.
I'm not even name calling. He calls himself that name...by his own choice. That tells you something about him right there.
And he isn't asking questions...he is flat out stating that he is doing what he is doing because he wants to and he is all that matters. In fact he will make sure he is all that matters by taking two friends with him. The fact that he can't grab 2 more people so others don't have to suffer his "fun" says a LOT about him. I can understand the one lone huy who pugs and AFK because they are lazy...but he ACTIVELY picks up two of his friends before he joins a pug. Yeah...he isn't wanting to learn...he is a troll...that was name calling i suppose...but is it name calling when it is true?
You have to read between the lines. He has trouble understanding the game and how it works. He is bitter because in the past nobody would help him learn to play the game better, so he is getting "revenge" by AFK'ing the event and his friends are loyal to him and also bitter because he was mistreated so much. He isn't asking questions out of fear he would get some snide/sarcastic response because that's all he got in the past when trying to learn the game.
Nice try I could give a rats rear end how you feel. If you are that stupid to stick around and let a AFK parasite feed off your efforts you deserve the lesser rewards.
I don't think you understand my position on this issue at all. Also, action, not inaction, is what produces the lesser reward. Aggroing the map, getting the station killed, and failing to accomplish anything because the map is spammed in enemies that interrupt everything you do is not productive or rewarding.
But, you people complaining and getting angry about the AFK'ers are giving them exactly what they want. They're probably out there laughing at you guys because they think it's funny.
Well, yes and no. In truth, we don't care one way or another. Others are simply a loud, noisy disruption.
They know nothing about Star Trek or even how to play this game properly. If they weren't getting blown up every 5 seconds because of how much they suck, they wouldn't need to AFK this event.
An overly broad generalization that excludes the fact that high-end players also use this strategy, as less a question of need than efficiency.
I don't know what you're talking about. I fly around blowing stuff up and closing portals and never have an issue being overrun with too many enemies. Probably because I keep joining with PUGs that actually have the brain capacity to know how to do this mission properly.
Like I said, people who AFK don't know how to do do anything properly, especially if you think you get rewarded more for only defeating the dreadnought.
With the daily bonus rep marks, and what I have left in my bonus mark pool, I walk away with around 132 marks a day from this event (I only do it once a day for the event project item). Without the bonus pool I would still be getting over 100 (around 110 I think). I have over 1200 Terran marks and almost T3 Terran rep at this moment. I'm getting marks faster than I can use them. Of course it also helps that I built my character pretty decent. I'm no DPS powerhouse but I do pretty damn good in this event.
But I suppose I can educate you.
Close portals *then* get the base defenses going. Rinse and repeat. After the base reaches T5 just close whatever few portals open up.
Each time the base defenses are started more portals open up. If you get the defenses going too fast you'll wind up with too many portals at once.
BWAHAHAHA...did you bother to look at the name the guy uses? And you want to try and be reasonable with somebody who thinks that name is a good one? He doesn't give a rat's TRIBBLE about anyone but himself. He has said so in this thread. Just leave the troll alone...and if you see him in a queue, just afk with him because he bring two of his crew to make sure the run gets ruined (why he just doesn't grab two more and do a private is beyond me...then again...oh yeah the name...he's a troll).
Name calling and getting angry at people isn't going to accomplish anything. He has some challenges to overcome and we should take pity on him and help him out instead. If we can teach him how the game works and how to build his character better he won't have a need to AFK anything.
When a player is struggling with the functions of the game, sometimes people get angry at them, and it can discourage a player from participating in various multi-player events. I know what it's like as I went through that myself a long time ago. People would get mad at me for messing something up and/or asking questions on how to do the event. Eventually I managed to find some nice players to give me advice and how to build my character and how the game works. I just wanted to pass along the good will.
I'm not even name calling. He calls himself that name...by his own choice. That tells you something about him right there.
And he isn't asking questions...he is flat out stating that he is doing what he is doing because he wants to and he is all that matters. In fact he will make sure he is all that matters by taking two friends with him. The fact that he can't grab 2 more people so others don't have to suffer his "fun" says a LOT about him. I can understand the one lone huy who pugs and AFK because they are lazy...but he ACTIVELY picks up two of his friends before he joins a pug. Yeah...he isn't wanting to learn...he is a troll...that was name calling i suppose...but is it name calling when it is true?
You have to read between the lines. He has trouble understanding the game and how it works. He is bitter because in the past nobody would help him learn to play the game better, so he is getting "revenge" by AFK'ing the event and his friends are loyal to him and also bitter because he was mistreated so much. He isn't asking questions out of fear he would get some snide/sarcastic response because that's all he got in the past when trying to learn the game.
I think you maybe reading something that ain't there. Some people are selfish pricks...plain and simple. I admit that I am a prick...but even I don't pull the TRIBBLE he does. So yeah...when the person who is enough of a prick that they call themselves one freely calls ya one...not a good sign.
Honestly I don't care one way or the other.
There isn't anything we can do about people sitting around not helping complete the mission, other than to do the best we can and take what reward we can get. Losing a few marks because of some loser not helping in the mission isn't the end of the world, nor is it going to kill you to miss out on them.
Getting angry over something so trivial is your own damned fault, not the AFK'er. You're the one letting your emotions get the best of you and giving them a laugh. Learn to deal with it. It isn't worth getting so bent out of shape over a video game.
Sometimes it feels like this game has no community. Just a circus. But instead of elephants, lion tamers, and trapeze artists, it's full of clowns.
And sometimes I wonder if the "trolls" are right about us.
A MI normal with people AFKing and TRIBBLE poor results gets me 20 or so less marks. < 90 compared to 110+. So if everyone did that, 20 * 14 = 280 marks. I'd have to play it 3-4 more times, 45-60 more minutes in order to make that up. On more than one toon. Anyone that says it's more effective/time efficient is fooling themselves, unless, they're only doing it for the dil and/or weapon.
Since some people don't appear to know, this is what the word "optional" means:
optional
[op-shuh-nl]
adjective
1. left to one's choice; not required or mandatory.
2. leaving something to choice.
There are optional objectives in Mirror Invasion. Some people are choosing not to do them. It's their choice. Deal with it.
If you want to play in a team where everyone does the optionals, start a private queue and agree upon that strategy before starting. In a pug, you get what you get. Calling people names because they choose a different strategy than you is rude and uncivilized.
And asking the developers to punish people for not doing the optional objectives is silly. If they wanted to force people to do them, they wouldn't have made them optional in the first place.
Before, the AFKers were trying to justify their actions by saying the queue was badly designed (debatable, but I can see the point), then by saying it wasn't that penalizing, then by saying it was time-gated therefore it's pointless to do stuff (must be fun to play with them in sport games), and now, they're almost trying to argue that the objectives, clearly stated by Obisek, were optional all along, that the queue was designed for that, and that players asking for everyone to contribute were asking for it by PUGing.
Just so you wait until they start saying they're being repressed by tyrannical non-AFKers' violence inherent in the system because they're players in an anarcho-syndicalist queue.
There are more and more AFK people who don't fight in the dreadnought phase anymore. So they're doing NOTHING during the whole mission but are still getting the same rewards as the active players. And the most astonishing thing is that AFk-ing players are making loud, repetitive statements that they are AFK-ing on the forums and... that they benefit from a complete impunity. The extent of what can only be called an exploit (doing absolutely nothingduring the whole mission = same rewards as doing the mission) is, imho, so large that the event should have been stopped until a better version of the mission was designed.
Before, the AFKers were trying to justify their actions by saying the queue was badly designed (debatable, but I can see the point), then by saying it wasn't that penalizing, then by saying it was time-gated therefore it's pointless to do stuff (must be fun to play with them in sport games), and now, they're almost trying to argue that the objectives, clearly stated by Obisek, were optional all along, that the queue was designed for that, and that players asking for everyone to contribute were asking for it by PUGing.
Every objective that doesn't lead to mission failure is optional. That's the very definition of optionals in this game. You can't argue with that. Obisek can explain all day what he wants the player to do, doesn't change the fact that the first part is optional, because the mission can be completed without it.
All the arguments you mention are actually connected.
It is badly designed because it is time-gated, the time-gated part is optional, and the rewards for doing the optionals are way too low compared to the marks you can get in that time in other queues.
I totally understand people just browsing the web or doffing during that first phase. I also understand people being annoyed at people doing that.
In the end I think both ways to play the mission are valid strategies. There are always premade groups if you don't want to run into some afk-ing/not afk-ing the first phase.
People read AFK and think of leechers, and go crazy, which imho is wrong in this case. Those are not your average AFKers. These are people who wait for the dreadnought to spawn and then kill, solo if necessary.
OP: You should create a channel dedicated to doing it with your strategy. I'd certainly join and do the next MI-event with more than just a single char.
Not about you, not about the IP, not about their own game or the players. They just don't care.
Nothing will be done about the AFK crowd, and they know it. Report them all you want, because Cryptic won't do anything.
They should though. This game has become so unbalanced, and rather than fixing anything, they just sit there and worry about what to stuff in the next lock box, that people are just afking their way through the advanced event. Cryptic has the metrics, they constantly brag about them, so why can't they actually look at them and strip the players who afk of any ill-gotten rewards? This is an exploit, plain and simple. This is a means to cheat the poorly designed/implemented system to get better rewards for nothing, than smaller rewards for doing something.
Why is it that when people use a nebula to get around a bad game design, they get punished, but when people do this, and then go bragging about it in chat and on the forums, nothing happens? Oh, that's right! See line one...
It's ridiculous that they would go through so much trouble to up the difficulty (catering to the 50k crowd), but then do absolutely nothing about people exploiting it for free points.
Before, the AFKers were trying to justify their actions by saying the queue was badly designed (debatable, but I can see the point), then by saying it wasn't that penalizing, then by saying it was time-gated therefore it's pointless to do stuff (must be fun to play with them in sport games), and now, they're almost trying to argue that the objectives, clearly stated by Obisek, were optional all along, that the queue was designed for that, and that players asking for everyone to contribute were asking for it by PUGing.
Every objective that doesn't lead to mission failure is optional. That's the very definition of optionals in this game. You can't argue with that. Obisek can explain all day what he wants the player to do, doesn't change the fact that the first part is optional, because the mission can be completed without it.
In this game, optionals are explicitly stated as "optional" or "mark bonus" (like the station health). You're just considering the phase optional because it simply doesn't punish you from doing nothing.
By your definition of optional, Borg Disconnected would be one giant optional mission since everything in it is time-gated, same for Counterpoint, Azura Nebula Rescue, each device of Brotherhood of the Sword, Rh'Ihho Station, Gateway to Gre'Thor and Storming the Spire. Except these ones punish AFKers.
I have done the MI 70 times now and I admit I did afk twice in that 70 runs. It wasn't because planned on it. The two times I started the mission and life called and I had to step away for 10 mins. Both times I managed to get back to the game before the dread appeared.
Did I already post in this thread? Because I am going to say something I have already said before. We have in a way the same situation as in the Voth ground battle zone. Players do not play but wait a certain stage out. They wait at the T-Rex spawn point and kill it when it appears.
The suggestion I have is here. Reward players for doing the preliminary stage. Give a bonus reward for completing the final phase based on the rewards they have already earned. Doing only the final phase gives you nothing, because a bonus over nothing is nothing.
Before, the AFKers were trying to justify their actions by saying the queue was badly designed (debatable, but I can see the point), then by saying it wasn't that penalizing, then by saying it was time-gated therefore it's pointless to do stuff (must be fun to play with them in sport games), and now, they're almost trying to argue that the objectives, clearly stated by Obisek, were optional all along, that the queue was designed for that, and that players asking for everyone to contribute were asking for it by PUGing.
Every objective that doesn't lead to mission failure is optional. That's the very definition of optionals in this game. You can't argue with that. Obisek can explain all day what he wants the player to do, doesn't change the fact that the first part is optional, because the mission can be completed without it.
In this game, optionals are explicitly stated as "optional" or "mark bonus" (like the station health). You're just considering the phase optional because it simply doesn't punish you from doing nothing.
If the mission can be completed without doing X, then doing X is optional. The phase itself is unfortunately not optional (the majority of players would skip it in a heartbeat if it was), but the only required objective is waiting for the 11 minute timer to run out.
Did I already post in this thread? Because I am going to say something I have already said before. We have in a way the same situation as in the Voth ground battle zone. Players do not play but wait a certain stage out. They wait at the T-Rex spawn point and kill it when it appears.
Not the same situation at all. The Voth BZ is not timed, not auto-win. Players can wait at the V-Rex spawn 'til hell freezes over and it won't come. Someone has to capture the other nodes first.
Exactly. Any 'cure' would be worse than the 'disease'. In particular because not doing any damage (by focusing on closing rifts/activating generators) is a valid strategy that would be penalised by an AFK penalty.
To kind of give an example, on the impact of just how much marks someone like myself loses when people don't close portals, nor bother with the sb upgrading in an advanced run.
Daily is included: Low end I have seen 100-110 marks, with few portals and/or some upgrading 1100-135, with more portals and/or all upgrading 140-175!!!
Really... this whole topic is not worth the energy we spend typing. It is an issue as old as this and any other game. Really, to play the way you want (be it active or inactive) your best bet is a private team... you know what you are going to get.
PUGs are like a box of chocolate
Now, honestly ... I don't understand the drive people have to run these events more than once per day... especially this MI... fight or don't fight... much less on multiple characters.
Really... this whole topic is not worth the energy we spend typing. It is an issue as old as this and any other game. Really, to play the way you want (be it active or inactive) your best bet is a private team... you know what you are going to get.
PUGs are like a box of chocolate
Now, honestly ... I don't understand the drive people have to run these events more than once per day... especially this MI... fight or don't fight... much less on multiple characters.
Probably because, even w/o the daily bonus, the marks achieved in this event, make pretty much every other queue look like dog meat on advanced.
Really... this whole topic is not worth the energy we spend typing. It is an issue as old as this and any other game. Really, to play the way you want (be it active or inactive) your best bet is a private team... you know what you are going to get.
PUGs are like a box of chocolate
Now, honestly ... I don't understand the drive people have to run these events more than once per day... especially this MI... fight or don't fight... much less on multiple characters.
Probably because, even w/o the daily bonus, the marks achieved in this event, make pretty much every other queue look like dog meat on advanced.
See... I don't understand that either... I honestly don't play for marks, or for dil... I hear that STO is a grindfest... and it absolutely can be... if you let it. I no longer let it.
Oh there was a time, I ran winter, summer, and anniversary events across multiple alts... killed my self on holding upgrades... one day... pretty sure it was a two winter events ago... that I sat back and realized I wasn't having fun... what I would get out of the event wasn't going to change that... if I didn't complete the event, I wouldn't be disadvantaged. So... I stopped. Took an extended hiatus from the game (a year at least)... Came back, and within a month am performinging above average (in my estimation) 20k dps, no griefing from Pug team mates... so all is well.
But your post brings up a great point... the reward equation across all missions needs to be revamped. Everything should be on par... for time + effort = reward. There are things in the queue that I never see pop... why? because, like you said, MIA is the best source for marks for time/effort expended.
A MI normal with people AFKing and TRIBBLE poor results gets me 20 or so less marks. < 90 compared to 110+. So if everyone did that, 20 * 14 = 280 marks. I'd have to play it 3-4 more times, 45-60 more minutes in order to make that up. On more than one toon. Anyone that says it's more effective/time efficient is fooling themselves, unless, they're only doing it for the dil and/or weapon.
why dont you just do min a?
bare minimum is 120 marks from that
Clearly this person is using the results without the daily bonus. With the bonus he should be getting somewhere in the 70s. On Advanced, even more.
I am concerned at the people making requests that AFK should be enforced and that there are some auto-fails put in. All of this to FORCE people to play the crappy designed slog instead of creating incentives to encourage people to slog it out. Why not pay at least 1-2 marks per closed portal? Why not make the next phase pop when say, 20 portals are closed? Why not bring players UP to the challenge instead of forcing them DOWN? Incentivize this damn mission with meaningful payouts that can be noticibly increased by action and this will pretty much solve itself.
I am concerned at the people making requests that AFK should be enforced and that there are some auto-fails put in. All of this to FORCE people to play the crappy designed slog instead of creating incentives to encourage people to slog it out. Why not pay at least 1-2 marks per closed portal? Why not make the next phase pop when say, 20 portals are closed? Why not bring players UP to the challenge instead of forcing them DOWN? Incentivize this damn mission with meaningful payouts that can be noticibly increased by action and this will pretty much solve itself.
I'd close the portals if it would make the mission go faster. But no plausible amount of marks would encourage me to waste time with the current mission layout.
A fail condition makes logical sense. Unfortunately some people here hate fail conditions with a passion, everything should be guaranteed success for them, and the devs are siding with them. On the other hand a fail condition might also create even more tension between the minimalists and the portal-closing brigade, since the best way to prevent the station from being destroyed is not aggroing any of the terrans in the first place.
Comments
No, but they certainly didn't help the matter any!
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Name calling and getting angry at people isn't going to accomplish anything. He has some challenges to overcome and we should take pity on him and help him out instead. If we can teach him how the game works and how to build his character better he won't have a need to AFK anything.
When a player is struggling with the functions of the game, sometimes people get angry at them, and it can discourage a player from participating in various multi-player events. I know what it's like as I went through that myself a long time ago. People would get mad at me for messing something up and/or asking questions on how to do the event. Eventually I managed to find some nice players to give me advice and how to build my character and how the game works. I just wanted to pass along the good will.
You have to read between the lines. He has trouble understanding the game and how it works. He is bitter because in the past nobody would help him learn to play the game better, so he is getting "revenge" by AFK'ing the event and his friends are loyal to him and also bitter because he was mistreated so much. He isn't asking questions out of fear he would get some snide/sarcastic response because that's all he got in the past when trying to learn the game.
Honestly I don't care one way or the other.
There isn't anything we can do about people sitting around not helping complete the mission, other than to do the best we can and take what reward we can get. Losing a few marks because of some loser not helping in the mission isn't the end of the world, nor is it going to kill you to miss out on them.
Getting angry over something so trivial is your own damned fault, not the AFK'er. You're the one letting your emotions get the best of you and giving them a laugh. Learn to deal with it. It isn't worth getting so bent out of shape over a video game.
Sometimes it feels like this game has no community. Just a circus. But instead of elephants, lion tamers, and trapeze artists, it's full of clowns.
And sometimes I wonder if the "trolls" are right about us.
I'm not even interested in the Dil. Just the weapon.
R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy
There are optional objectives in Mirror Invasion. Some people are choosing not to do them. It's their choice. Deal with it.
If you want to play in a team where everyone does the optionals, start a private queue and agree upon that strategy before starting. In a pug, you get what you get. Calling people names because they choose a different strategy than you is rude and uncivilized.
And asking the developers to punish people for not doing the optional objectives is silly. If they wanted to force people to do them, they wouldn't have made them optional in the first place.
Before, the AFKers were trying to justify their actions by saying the queue was badly designed (debatable, but I can see the point), then by saying it wasn't that penalizing, then by saying it was time-gated therefore it's pointless to do stuff (must be fun to play with them in sport games), and now, they're almost trying to argue that the objectives, clearly stated by Obisek, were optional all along, that the queue was designed for that, and that players asking for everyone to contribute were asking for it by PUGing.
Just so you wait until they start saying they're being repressed by tyrannical non-AFKers' violence inherent in the system because they're players in an anarcho-syndicalist queue.
Every objective that doesn't lead to mission failure is optional. That's the very definition of optionals in this game. You can't argue with that. Obisek can explain all day what he wants the player to do, doesn't change the fact that the first part is optional, because the mission can be completed without it.
All the arguments you mention are actually connected.
It is badly designed because it is time-gated, the time-gated part is optional, and the rewards for doing the optionals are way too low compared to the marks you can get in that time in other queues.
I totally understand people just browsing the web or doffing during that first phase. I also understand people being annoyed at people doing that.
In the end I think both ways to play the mission are valid strategies. There are always premade groups if you don't want to run into some afk-ing/not afk-ing the first phase.
People read AFK and think of leechers, and go crazy, which imho is wrong in this case. Those are not your average AFKers. These are people who wait for the dreadnought to spawn and then kill, solo if necessary.
OP: You should create a channel dedicated to doing it with your strategy. I'd certainly join and do the next MI-event with more than just a single char.
Not about you, not about the IP, not about their own game or the players. They just don't care.
Nothing will be done about the AFK crowd, and they know it. Report them all you want, because Cryptic won't do anything.
They should though. This game has become so unbalanced, and rather than fixing anything, they just sit there and worry about what to stuff in the next lock box, that people are just afking their way through the advanced event. Cryptic has the metrics, they constantly brag about them, so why can't they actually look at them and strip the players who afk of any ill-gotten rewards? This is an exploit, plain and simple. This is a means to cheat the poorly designed/implemented system to get better rewards for nothing, than smaller rewards for doing something.
Why is it that when people use a nebula to get around a bad game design, they get punished, but when people do this, and then go bragging about it in chat and on the forums, nothing happens? Oh, that's right! See line one...
It's ridiculous that they would go through so much trouble to up the difficulty (catering to the 50k crowd), but then do absolutely nothing about people exploiting it for free points.
By your definition of optional, Borg Disconnected would be one giant optional mission since everything in it is time-gated, same for Counterpoint, Azura Nebula Rescue, each device of Brotherhood of the Sword, Rh'Ihho Station, Gateway to Gre'Thor and Storming the Spire. Except these ones punish AFKers.
The suggestion I have is here. Reward players for doing the preliminary stage. Give a bonus reward for completing the final phase based on the rewards they have already earned. Doing only the final phase gives you nothing, because a bonus over nothing is nothing.
If the mission can be completed without doing X, then doing X is optional. The phase itself is unfortunately not optional (the majority of players would skip it in a heartbeat if it was), but the only required objective is waiting for the 11 minute timer to run out.
Not the same situation at all. The Voth BZ is not timed, not auto-win. Players can wait at the V-Rex spawn 'til hell freezes over and it won't come. Someone has to capture the other nodes first.
Daily is included: Low end I have seen 100-110 marks, with few portals and/or some upgrading 1100-135, with more portals and/or all upgrading 140-175!!!
The difference, is actually quite a bit.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
PUGs are like a box of chocolate
Now, honestly ... I don't understand the drive people have to run these events more than once per day... especially this MI... fight or don't fight... much less on multiple characters.
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
Probably because, even w/o the daily bonus, the marks achieved in this event, make pretty much every other queue look like dog meat on advanced.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
See... I don't understand that either... I honestly don't play for marks, or for dil... I hear that STO is a grindfest... and it absolutely can be... if you let it. I no longer let it.
Oh there was a time, I ran winter, summer, and anniversary events across multiple alts... killed my self on holding upgrades... one day... pretty sure it was a two winter events ago... that I sat back and realized I wasn't having fun... what I would get out of the event wasn't going to change that... if I didn't complete the event, I wouldn't be disadvantaged. So... I stopped. Took an extended hiatus from the game (a year at least)... Came back, and within a month am performinging above average (in my estimation) 20k dps, no griefing from Pug team mates... so all is well.
But your post brings up a great point... the reward equation across all missions needs to be revamped. Everything should be on par... for time + effort = reward. There are things in the queue that I never see pop... why? because, like you said, MIA is the best source for marks for time/effort expended.
Star Trek Online, Now with out the Trek....
Clearly this person is using the results without the daily bonus. With the bonus he should be getting somewhere in the 70s. On Advanced, even more.
I am concerned at the people making requests that AFK should be enforced and that there are some auto-fails put in. All of this to FORCE people to play the crappy designed slog instead of creating incentives to encourage people to slog it out. Why not pay at least 1-2 marks per closed portal? Why not make the next phase pop when say, 20 portals are closed? Why not bring players UP to the challenge instead of forcing them DOWN? Incentivize this damn mission with meaningful payouts that can be noticibly increased by action and this will pretty much solve itself.
A fail condition makes logical sense. Unfortunately some people here hate fail conditions with a passion, everything should be guaranteed success for them, and the devs are siding with them. On the other hand a fail condition might also create even more tension between the minimalists and the portal-closing brigade, since the best way to prevent the station from being destroyed is not aggroing any of the terrans in the first place.