I've got it myself when the game crashed in beginning of a queue and relogged just in time to put me back in at the end. I've heard people getting it because they got lag/SNR, newbies getting it because they got matched with DPS gods who wipe the map in seconds, and getting it by doing mission objectives instead of shooting things like here. I've never heard of anyone getting it by actually AFKing.
That's because if you ACTUALLY got it by being AFK, you would not complain about it now would you. Or hell...even say anything about. The absence of evidence is not evidence of the absence.
And I have actually seen somebody be AFK and complain about getting the penalty. Yeah, I mean he WAS at the keyboard and derping aound in CSA...but when you don't even bother to full impulse to the enemies and fly around in a circle for half the time...yeah...no you are AFK. The guy even posted a video of him derping around to "prove" he wasn't AFK.
See, that wasn't an AFKer, that was a troll. Unquestionably deserving of a penalty, but a success for an anti-AFK measure it is not. Because an actual AFKer would've "proven" he wasn't AFK by shooting something in the beginning, and gotten away with it.
I'm not saying that it is impossible to spoof the AFK system...or that most pro AFKers haven't figured it out and doing it now. I am saying however that it is better then NOTHING that we had before as it force them to make SOME effort...even if it is 1%. The only real way to deal with them would be to have actual live human GMs who can review complaints and then BAN people who do this for a period of time...getting progressively longer.
Yes, well that's a matter of opinion. I say forcing them to shoot something in the beginning doesn't accomplish anything useful enough to justify the false positives. So it's WORSE than nothing.
I also say this game has never actually had a real problem with AFKing in queues in the first place.
I'm sick of getting a 2 hour afk penalty on the mirror event when i was NOT and NEVER go afk on stf's. I do not depend on other people to start the machines nor close rifts in this event because most people DON'T and so I do it myself. I zoom around the map starting the machines and closing what rifts I can. When all 5 defenses are up I then go around helping others close rifts, some of the time I close the rift while the other person or people have agro. When the dreadnaught comes out I go around closing the rifts and THEN go to kill the dreadnaught. Most people on this event don't bother closing the rifts on this round and just attack the dreadnaught which most times causes it to escape which causes more time for this part and most times causes the timer option to fail. I have been given the 2 hour time penalty TWICE today and once last week. I do report true afk people in these events as I HATE people that do afk and get credit off of mine and other peoples hard work that are active to finish them. FIX this NOW!!
I always wonder what times people play that tell all these horror stories that I never personally experience.
If it's just one anecdote, yes, but if they claim it happens all the time? What are the odds?
But it can't be that hard to avoid the AFK penalty. Blowing up a some random Miranda triplet shouldn't seriously slow down anyone.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I always wonder what times people play that tell all these horror stories that I never personally experience.
If it's just one anecdote, yes, but if they claim it happens all the time? What are the odds?
But it can't be that hard to avoid the AFK penalty. Blowing up a some random Miranda triplet shouldn't seriously slow down anyone.
At this point I think people just putting up hypothetical scenarios that have a chance of happening less then to win a lottery LOL xd
I did the instance at various times with all kind of setups, with undergeared and overgeared captains (for this instance) and never ever experienced anything close to these scenarios... If I try to zoom around the map just closing rifts and powering up stations it just doesn't happen without a fight. If I try only to fight it just doesn't happen I don't have rifts to close. I never saw people just fighting and ignoring rifts and never saw people just closing rifts and ignoring fights through whole instance. Before and after afk penalty was implemented.
Well, before afk penalty, occasionally saw some afker and that's it. Nothing to write home about. Atm, bigger issue seems to be that sometimes people get snr and disconnect at the start of instance leaving the team crippled.
I'm sick of getting a 2 hour afk penalty on the mirror event when i was NOT and NEVER go afk on stf's. I do not depend on other people to start the machines nor close rifts in this event because most people DON'T and so I do it myself. I zoom around the map starting the machines and closing what rifts I can. When all 5 defenses are up I then go around helping others close rifts, some of the time I close the rift while the other person or people have agro. When the dreadnaught comes out I go around closing the rifts and THEN go to kill the dreadnaught. Most people on this event don't bother closing the rifts on this round and just attack the dreadnaught which most times causes it to escape which causes more time for this part and most times causes the timer option to fail. I have been given the 2 hour time penalty TWICE today and once last week. I do report true afk people in these events as I HATE people that do afk and get credit off of mine and other peoples hard work that are active to finish them. FIX this NOW!!
Wow...you must be in some fail groups if you can't kill the dread in time. I can solo kill that sucker in the time limit alone without rifts closed.
Yeah, the dread is a piece of cake. Anyone not making the time limit should be blaming the 3-4 teammates who inevitably waste the entire time closing rifts.
Closing rifts is still a waste of time in phase 2. It's faster to just chase the dreadnought and kill it. Even closing the rift you're already at after the dread jumps slows down the phase, since if left open the dread has a chance of reappearing from the same one.
It's a shame so few players seem to figure this out. For the biggest LOL of the MI season, some sheep has actually told me I "don't understand the mission" after I soloed the dread while the rest of the team were lollygagging around the rifts.
I always wonder what times people play that tell all these horror stories that I never personally experience.
If it's just one anecdote, yes, but if they claim it happens all the time? What are the odds?
Well my only experience with the penalty was in winter 2014-2015, when my game had a habit of crashing to desktop when joining queues. Occasionally, relogging would put me back in the queue just as it was ending and I got the penalty once or twice.
I don't know how often it happens to low-DPS people because I'm not one. Presumably, players who would try to only do mission objectives and no combat would get it all the time.
But it can't be that hard to avoid the AFK penalty. Blowing up a some random Miranda triplet shouldn't seriously slow down anyone.
It isn't. That's why it's useless for it's stated purpose and only produces false positives. The MI mission for example, never actually tells players they have to blow up some random Miranda triplet or be banned. And obviously players can't help crashes, lag or the game matching them with teammates that have 100x more DPS.
Inevitably, when trying to close Rifts or power up the generators, a unseen Frigate above you takes a pot shot at you to disturb your action. I say to myself, 'you brought this on yourself' and blast him into the next universe in a split second. Grav Wells work wonders with these Terrans, dragging them in from afar. Then pretty much insta-death. My favorite maneuver is grabbing the three Frigates with a TBR set on pull, flinging them around and kill them pretty quick with the damage the TBR dishes out , without having to fire a shot. The Mastery from the Na'kuhl Daemosh Science Vessel - Scavenger Beam, increases damage done by Tractor Beams (and TBR) by 50%.
As an aside, what this game also needs is a Trait - called, let's say, Crew Efficiency, that will reduce the cool down on Red Alert from 10 to 7 seconds.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Inevitably, when trying to close Rifts or power up the generators, a unseen Frigate above you takes a pot shot at you to disturb your action. I say to myself, 'you brought this on yourself' and blast him into the next universe in a split second. Grav Wells work wonders with these Terrans, dragging them in from afar. Then pretty much insta-death. My favorite maneuver is grabbing the three Frigates with a TBR set on pull, flinging them around and kill them pretty quick with the damage the TBR dishes out , without having to fire a shot. The Mastery from the Na'kuhl Daemosh Science Vessel - Scavenger Beam, increases damage done by Tractor Beams (and TBR) by 50%.
As an aside, what this game also needs is a Trait - called, let's say, Crew Efficiency, that will reduce the cool down on Red Alert from 10 to 7 seconds.
Does the Daemosh trait definitely buff TBR? If so that is awesome as I though it was only Tractor Beam it buffed. Still awesome as I can cut a Command Cruiser in half with it as it is, but to know it has other choices will be nice.
So what's your brilliant, totally foolproof plan? How do you distinguish an AFK or otherwise noncontributing player from a simply ineffective, bad player? You can't punish players for being bad.
A truly effective Anti-AFK measure would need to take into account each aspect of the mission. So in MI you have 3 things to measure; killing enemy ships, closing rifts, and powering the satellites. All three are required for the mission not to go totally TRIBBLE-up so all are valid tactics. Obviously ignoring the rifts will result in less payout, and also risk the station getting fragged if you can't control those Terran swarms. And going solely for closing rifts and powering satellites can also be bad because even a single enemy ship if left unattended can whittle down the station if ignored long enough.
Like @coldnapalm said already, assign each variable a score (damage or whatever) that can be measured and set a threshold players must pass to not be counted as AFK. I don't care if a player parks up at a station and only has his guns on autofire, if he kills enough to pass the threshold he's good. Or if he just parks at a satellite and powers it he's cool as long as he passes that magic number.
It really is not hard to think how the map can be measured. It already counts how many rifts are closed. It already counts the power level of the station. It measures the time limit ticking away. The combat log can measure damage done and kills easily enough. Heck the mission even measures and rewards appropriate experience for kills happening across the map.
There is plenty being measured that can be used to see who is AFK and who is taking part.
As for player who don't meet the threshold, well there's gonna be some losers unfortunately, the odd poor guys who get SNR's or are just too undergeared or not having a clue what to do. They are just going to have to suck it up. They won't always have SNR's and if they are poorly geared they need to get better like all the rest of us. Although i have to admit I cannot see how you could be so badly undergeared you can't even close one or two rifts or kill a few Miranda's
And the funny thing is, Mirror Invasion doesn't even have an AFK issue. It has an recurring controversy between players who want to do optional objectives and players who don't.
I find it a tragic irony that after spending all their time on optional objectives and leaving me to solo the one actually required objective, the dreadnought, the former dare say *I* wasn't "contributing."
I've got it myself when the game crashed in beginning of a queue and relogged just in time to put me back in at the end. I've heard people getting it because they got lag/SNR, newbies getting it because they got matched with DPS gods who wipe the map in seconds, and getting it by doing mission objectives instead of shooting things like here. I've never heard of anyone getting it by actually AFKing.
That's because if you ACTUALLY got it by being AFK, you would not complain about it now would you. Or hell...even say anything about. The absence of evidence is not evidence of the absence.
And I have actually seen somebody be AFK and complain about getting the penalty. Yeah, I mean he WAS at the keyboard and derping aound in CSA...but when you don't even bother to full impulse to the enemies and fly around in a circle for half the time...yeah...no you are AFK. The guy even posted a video of him derping around to "prove" he wasn't AFK.
See, that wasn't an AFKer, that was a troll. Unquestionably deserving of a penalty, but a success for an anti-AFK measure it is not. Because an actual AFKer would've "proven" he wasn't AFK by shooting something in the beginning, and gotten away with it.
I'm not saying that it is impossible to spoof the AFK system...or that most pro AFKers haven't figured it out and doing it now. I am saying however that it is better then NOTHING that we had before as it force them to make SOME effort...even if it is 1%. The only real way to deal with them would be to have actual live human GMs who can review complaints and then BAN people who do this for a period of time...getting progressively longer.
An AFK system? sure. A DPS meter? I'm afraid I have to disagree there.
An AFK system should be taking into account mission-specific activities (closing rifts, powering stations) as higher priority than raw DPS when the mission itself is designed around those activities. THIS one, doesn't do that.
Basically the DPS Meter gives a pass to the guy who's got everything bound to spacebar so he can watch netflix while tapping and turning left, regardless of whether that actually serves the mission as presented.
Either that or they need to get rid of the Interrupt mechanics and rift closure mechanics and just state "Kill x badguys in y time."
y'know, like ISA.
Because that's what the AFK mechanic we're discussing is all about.
Look, I am one of the people who said the AFK system for this map was STUPID...and I have been advocating having closing rifts, powering relays and any other mission specific objective give credit. The easiest way would to be assign high damage value to them when you do it and use the old DPS standards. I also think the whole everything you do interupts you is stupid too...but then again so was having NOTHING. So yeah I agree with you...I do not agree with warpangel that nothing is better however.
I'll argue from a kind-of-meta standpoint. The DPS meter is worse than doing nothing, because it punishes players for going after the stated objectives, while elevating players for being "lone rangers" playing the game as a soloist.
It's a multiplayer map. The objectives are designed for team play-but the AFK penalty tosses a wrench in that by requiring them all to do exactly the same thing-that is, spam DPS or get bounced.
and...it doesn't do anything about the guy who basically lurks through the first half of the mission, then jumps on the dready at the end without ever going into anything that supports the team or accomplishes the stated mission objectives. Basically, the way it is set up, a jerk can sit there at the outer edge spawn zone, do his facebook and twitter until the audible cue that says the dready is coming in, spring into 'action' when the last portal gets closed to trap the dready, pop APB/bFAW/Spread, do JUST enough damage, and he's golden. Sure the reward isn't as HIGH, but he got his facebook page updated, checked his twatter feed, looked at cute pics of kittens, and still avoided the penalty without ever contributing a **** thing to the mission.
IF you're going to design an AFK/leaver penalty around a mission that is constructed as a teamwork mission, you need to be counting something besides minimum DPS, either in addition to, or as an alternative to-IOW if you're not doing damage, you better be closing rifts, and a minimum number of them, or you get bounced before phase two-just you, with an opening popping for anyone who's done the mission today already, but would like to double-dip, so there's some competitive threat for the trolls out there.
I'd even extend the penalty to eighteen hours. "You AFK'd, you don't get to play today."
but it would have to actually BE someone being AFK, not just someone "not doing enough shooting."
not when the mission is specifically constructed with non-shooting objectives that mechanically change the battlefield for the shooters.
powering stations? okay, if that's what you're doing, you get to do four per stage, a minimum of two for each increase. if you're lingering on one and checking your facebook? you're out.
closing rifts? well, in the first phase of the first stage, average of two per powersat, right?? (usually), so, figure you need to close at least four, at each 'power up' stage of the station, or you're out when the dready comes through, thanks for playing, here's your five marks, don't come back for eighteen hours, yer done.
DPS? okay, 8K minimum, averaged across the entire map, if you don't make it, you're out, hope your replacement in the final stage (who gets the same marks you WOULD have gotten) does better.
see, I'm a bastahd when I think about how an AFK system should work-it should be absolutely involved in doing something for the mission objectives, and if you're going to have one, it needs to be something people do NOT want to have happen, not even the forty-hour-a-week grinder people, and it absolutely should not wait until the easiest stage is over to take effect.
a lot of the people on this forum would HATE me as a designer, because I really would NOT have purpleribbon rewards as the common meta. esp not on 'Advanced' or 'elite' content. on multiplayer, individual gloryhounding would be radically discouraged, as would closing the dam chatbox and trolling-by-losing or AFK'ing.
I actually think you and warpangel is right about THIS map in particular. What I don't agree with is that it is bad overall. Yes, the DPS centric AFK penalty system is just plain old bad for this map.
The trouble with what you described with the limits is it does not account for the floater player. The one that jumps between things to get what needs to get done...done. Which is why like I said, the easiest would be to assign damage to closing rifts and powering stations.
As far as the twat that stays outside and does nothing...whenever I see one of those folks, I don't bother to close the final portals...I go straight after the dread to try and get them to fail to get the DPS requirement and AFK...yeah I am mean.
well, see I'm only really TALKING about this, specific map. This is a map that shows for one month a year, there's time to tune and fix and, if necessary, design an AFK system that actually works with it, rather than shoehorning a system designed for ISA speedruns (that doesn't work particularly well at all for THAT map!)
If the map is only on one month a year, that doesn't mean that there is some Mirror Invasion dev sitting idly around all year. It means that the map needs a lot less attention then maps that are on all day all year.
ANd it's trivially easy to avoid the AFK penalty for the map. You get hit by it once? Next time you know about it and can avoid it. It might not actually accomplish what it was designed to do, but so be it. It's the system they are applying to every map, this map doesn't get a special rule just because the penalty produces a few more false positives or false negatives then other maps.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
And the funny thing is, Mirror Invasion doesn't even have an AFK issue. It has an recurring controversy between players who want to do optional objectives and players who don't.
I find it a tragic irony that after spending all their time on optional objectives and leaving me to solo the one actually required objective, the dreadnought, the former dare say *I* wasn't "contributing."
So...you are against an AFK system because you are an AFKer...gotya. And you are probably pissed because me or somebody like me probably went after the dread before you could and triggered the penalty for you. I hope you enjoyed wasting your time...because the other players I am sure did not.
As I've explained just a few post up the thread, I've only ever got the penalty due to the game crashing. Reading comprehension, ahoy. And name-calling will get you nowhere with me.
This alleged "AFK system" doesn't affect me the slightest. And why would it? I'm not AFK, I just choose not to pursue the optional objectives. And as we've already established, the AFKbot agrees with me the optionals are worthless. But I pity the unfortunates who fall victim to this charade.
On the other hand, I have long enjoyed NOT wasting my time in MI. And although ragequitters are sometimes amusing too, I do sincerely advise others to do the same instead of getting all bent out of shape over optionals.
TBR with Graga Mal changes it to a Tractor Beam. I never really tested it in a purely TBR mode as my one Character that has the Daemosh has Graga and I always use it in that mode. I will need to verify.
Now all Temporal Recruits that get four Commendation areas to Level 4, get VR Doffs which includes a Graga equivalent and a Zemok equivalent.
'But to be logical is not to be right', and 'nothing' on God's earth could ever 'make it' right!'
Judge Dan Haywood
'As l speak now, the words are forming in my head.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
I always wonder what times people play that tell all these horror stories that I never personally experience.
If it's just one anecdote, yes, but if they claim it happens all the time? What are the odds?
But it can't be that hard to avoid the AFK penalty. Blowing up a some random Miranda triplet shouldn't seriously slow down anyone.
I like to do tag team rifting. Two ships in a pair fly towards the rift, one obliterates, the other closes, then swap roles for the next rift. Works best if you have powers that let you close rifts while taking fire.
I think it's at it's most fun when I pick up a wingman, and we play as you describe. It never takes more than a few bursts to wipe out a whole spawn group for me, and the portals are closing before I can get started good on them. Whenever this happens, I quit trying to close & look for a satellite to power or more bad guys to shoot.
YESSS!!!! That is what is fun. Spending 15 minutes ROFLPWNZORing everything that moves!
I've managed to tune a few ships to be able to aggro the entire Terran Armada... and not die.
Well, except for the Terran MVAE... Not sure WHAT they do but I'm guessing they can do a triple beam overload after they separate or something. 'cause that's what it sounds like.... getting zapped with BO 3 times in rapid succession... hurts like heck... That and the ships with PDS are pretty dangerous.
I hate it when peeps are so dumb and dont close enough rifts causing the Starbase to explode. This has happened ever since this PVE was created. Yet..you do a great thing and get AFK. Sorry for you OP...you should file a ticket for doing the right thing.
The base can't explode. It is impossible to fail this the way it is set up.
Honestly an afk penalty is not going to do much other than make those not wanting to waste the time to do the stf to find the least amount of effort to put in to get credit. Now if you actually worked out a method of making it that doing the content can actually speed up the completion of the stf that would have an effect.
Like I have suggested prior they should work on implementing a mechanic that allows you to reduce the time till the phase change. Something like that when you get the stations defenses maxed out, as well as clearing the area of rifts, than you would be able to activate the four sats speeding up the charge of the anti-Tachyon pulse. This could reduce the time-gate till the phase change by between 30 seconds to 2 mins, and so would incentives actually playing by rewarding good teams with a quicker run. Because even I hate when I a good group is waiting 2-5+ mins to finish the stf, because we are actually doing well an then just have to sit an twiddle our thumbs.
How about just having the optional rewards given only to those who actually complete them?
Close 20 rifts on your own - bam, you get 50 extra marks.
Power the station to full power all by yourself - you get 30 extra marks
Sit on your TRIBBLE doing bugger all for 10 mins - you get the basic payout.
Have it so that the AFK'ers are not sponging off those doing the work, the extra rewards are only issued to those doing the work. So if you chose you sit and do nothing you get a worse payout, no mater how well the mission goes.
How about just having the optional rewards given only to those who actually complete them?
Close 20 rifts on your own - bam, you get 50 extra marks.
Power the station to full power all by yourself - you get 30 extra marks
Sit on your **** doing bugger all for 10 mins - you get the basic payout.
Have it so that the AFK'ers are not sponging off those doing the work, the extra rewards are only issued to those doing the work. So if you chose you sit and do nothing you get a worse payout, no mater how well the mission goes.
With the daily bonus for marks that would not solve the problem. Most afk-ers will do the queue to get daily bonus and fill out the event.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
Comments
Yes, well that's a matter of opinion. I say forcing them to shoot something in the beginning doesn't accomplish anything useful enough to justify the false positives. So it's WORSE than nothing.
I also say this game has never actually had a real problem with AFKing in queues in the first place.
If it's just one anecdote, yes, but if they claim it happens all the time? What are the odds?
But it can't be that hard to avoid the AFK penalty. Blowing up a some random Miranda triplet shouldn't seriously slow down anyone.
At this point I think people just putting up hypothetical scenarios that have a chance of happening less then to win a lottery LOL xd
I did the instance at various times with all kind of setups, with undergeared and overgeared captains (for this instance) and never ever experienced anything close to these scenarios... If I try to zoom around the map just closing rifts and powering up stations it just doesn't happen without a fight. If I try only to fight it just doesn't happen I don't have rifts to close. I never saw people just fighting and ignoring rifts and never saw people just closing rifts and ignoring fights through whole instance. Before and after afk penalty was implemented.
Well, before afk penalty, occasionally saw some afker and that's it. Nothing to write home about. Atm, bigger issue seems to be that sometimes people get snr and disconnect at the start of instance leaving the team crippled.
Yeah, the dread is a piece of cake. Anyone not making the time limit should be blaming the 3-4 teammates who inevitably waste the entire time closing rifts.
Closing rifts is still a waste of time in phase 2. It's faster to just chase the dreadnought and kill it. Even closing the rift you're already at after the dread jumps slows down the phase, since if left open the dread has a chance of reappearing from the same one.
It's a shame so few players seem to figure this out. For the biggest LOL of the MI season, some sheep has actually told me I "don't understand the mission" after I soloed the dread while the rest of the team were lollygagging around the rifts.
Well my only experience with the penalty was in winter 2014-2015, when my game had a habit of crashing to desktop when joining queues. Occasionally, relogging would put me back in the queue just as it was ending and I got the penalty once or twice.
I don't know how often it happens to low-DPS people because I'm not one. Presumably, players who would try to only do mission objectives and no combat would get it all the time. It isn't. That's why it's useless for it's stated purpose and only produces false positives. The MI mission for example, never actually tells players they have to blow up some random Miranda triplet or be banned. And obviously players can't help crashes, lag or the game matching them with teammates that have 100x more DPS.
As an aside, what this game also needs is a Trait - called, let's say, Crew Efficiency, that will reduce the cool down on Red Alert from 10 to 7 seconds.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
Does the Daemosh trait definitely buff TBR? If so that is awesome as I though it was only Tractor Beam it buffed. Still awesome as I can cut a Command Cruiser in half with it as it is, but to know it has other choices will be nice.
A truly effective Anti-AFK measure would need to take into account each aspect of the mission. So in MI you have 3 things to measure; killing enemy ships, closing rifts, and powering the satellites. All three are required for the mission not to go totally TRIBBLE-up so all are valid tactics. Obviously ignoring the rifts will result in less payout, and also risk the station getting fragged if you can't control those Terran swarms. And going solely for closing rifts and powering satellites can also be bad because even a single enemy ship if left unattended can whittle down the station if ignored long enough.
Like @coldnapalm said already, assign each variable a score (damage or whatever) that can be measured and set a threshold players must pass to not be counted as AFK. I don't care if a player parks up at a station and only has his guns on autofire, if he kills enough to pass the threshold he's good. Or if he just parks at a satellite and powers it he's cool as long as he passes that magic number.
It really is not hard to think how the map can be measured. It already counts how many rifts are closed. It already counts the power level of the station. It measures the time limit ticking away. The combat log can measure damage done and kills easily enough. Heck the mission even measures and rewards appropriate experience for kills happening across the map.
There is plenty being measured that can be used to see who is AFK and who is taking part.
As for player who don't meet the threshold, well there's gonna be some losers unfortunately, the odd poor guys who get SNR's or are just too undergeared or not having a clue what to do. They are just going to have to suck it up. They won't always have SNR's and if they are poorly geared they need to get better like all the rest of us. Although i have to admit I cannot see how you could be so badly undergeared you can't even close one or two rifts or kill a few Miranda's
I find it a tragic irony that after spending all their time on optional objectives and leaving me to solo the one actually required objective, the dreadnought, the former dare say *I* wasn't "contributing."
If the map is only on one month a year, that doesn't mean that there is some Mirror Invasion dev sitting idly around all year. It means that the map needs a lot less attention then maps that are on all day all year.
ANd it's trivially easy to avoid the AFK penalty for the map. You get hit by it once? Next time you know about it and can avoid it. It might not actually accomplish what it was designed to do, but so be it. It's the system they are applying to every map, this map doesn't get a special rule just because the penalty produces a few more false positives or false negatives then other maps.
This alleged "AFK system" doesn't affect me the slightest. And why would it? I'm not AFK, I just choose not to pursue the optional objectives. And as we've already established, the AFKbot agrees with me the optionals are worthless. But I pity the unfortunates who fall victim to this charade.
On the other hand, I have long enjoyed NOT wasting my time in MI. And although ragequitters are sometimes amusing too, I do sincerely advise others to do the same instead of getting all bent out of shape over optionals.
This my friend is the pro-AFKer way in these events. Otherwise, you'll get hit with the AFK penalty.
Now all Temporal Recruits that get four Commendation areas to Level 4, get VR Doffs which includes a Graga equivalent and a Zemok equivalent.
l don't know.
l really don't know what l'm about to say, except l have a feeling about it.
That l must repeat the words that come without my knowledge.'
My character Tsin'xing
I've managed to tune a few ships to be able to aggro the entire Terran Armada... and not die.
Well, except for the Terran MVAE... Not sure WHAT they do but I'm guessing they can do a triple beam overload after they separate or something. 'cause that's what it sounds like.... getting zapped with BO 3 times in rapid succession... hurts like heck... That and the ships with PDS are pretty dangerous.
My character Tsin'xing
The base can't explode. It is impossible to fail this the way it is set up.
Like I have suggested prior they should work on implementing a mechanic that allows you to reduce the time till the phase change. Something like that when you get the stations defenses maxed out, as well as clearing the area of rifts, than you would be able to activate the four sats speeding up the charge of the anti-Tachyon pulse. This could reduce the time-gate till the phase change by between 30 seconds to 2 mins, and so would incentives actually playing by rewarding good teams with a quicker run. Because even I hate when I a good group is waiting 2-5+ mins to finish the stf, because we are actually doing well an then just have to sit an twiddle our thumbs.
Close 20 rifts on your own - bam, you get 50 extra marks.
Power the station to full power all by yourself - you get 30 extra marks
Sit on your TRIBBLE doing bugger all for 10 mins - you get the basic payout.
Have it so that the AFK'ers are not sponging off those doing the work, the extra rewards are only issued to those doing the work. So if you chose you sit and do nothing you get a worse payout, no mater how well the mission goes.
With the daily bonus for marks that would not solve the problem. Most afk-ers will do the queue to get daily bonus and fill out the event.