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AKF'ers Once Again Exploiting FC Event
leemwatson
Member Posts: 5,472 Arc User
I've just completed an FC Event on the XB version where 4 players ALL AFK'D!!! This is an exploit that needs closing! I know the event is supposed to be a bit of fun, but it encourages players to try AFK'ing PvE queues, which they then go and complain about the penalty after! If players can't be bothered to make the effort that other players do, they should not receive the reward. There is no excuse!
"You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
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You're missing the point. It's encouraging AFK'ing that's the problem and it's an exploit. The Engines are Account unlock regardless, but it's getting Marks, Dil, XP etc for ZERO effort by just standing there, that's why it is an exploit and needs to be addressed. It's supposed to be a competition, but awards the same marks, which is 'Irish'
If they wanted to discourage this behavior in this event, or to a lesser degree, any of the 3-week events, they could, and I would immediately suggest disabling the ability to slot Admiralty or Duty Officer assignments on any mission map as a start. It wouldn't end the AFKing, but would at least remove the "double-dipping" of getting the reward for doing nothing and getting extra rewards for other tasks done in place of doing these events. People would still tab out and watch videos or whatever, but they wouldn't get extra rewards for their distractions.
The mark reward is set in stone, the rocket travel distance is RNG as hell and you gain absolutely nothing by getting first, second or third place. Which in term isn't as bad considering the huge RNG factor.
As someone else said in another thread:
The only thing I did today was nonstop popping subspace party amplifiers and when someone else started spamming balloons it became a lot more entertaining than the activity that we were supposed to do.
There's no exploit, no bug but simply very shoddy game design and blaming the players for it just ensures that cryptic continues this way.
And it doesn't encourage AFKing anywhere else as in most queues participation level does indeed influence outcome.
This isn't an exploit, it's wai. If you have an issue with this behavior tough luck, or make a private queue and gather only friends you know will participate.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Why should I? At least I am acting in a mature way. I point out that this does encourage AFK'ing and it is an ongoing concern, especially as people continually complain about the lack of queue's popping. This behaviour just ascertains another reason why people may be avoiding queues. It is exploiting the lack of AFK penalty that is in most other queues, and in other Events. The penalty wasn't in Mirror Invasion until the last year or so, and now, there was very little attempt to afk that that I saw.
On a scale of 1-10 of things to fix, this is a Meh...
But if you wanted a list of things to make this more interactive.
Ditch the 1 minute wait at the beginning.
The time limit should expire if they have all the parts
The method to Improve the parts should be the Partial Collection Puzzle as that requires some skill to pull off.
Besides we all know that the real reason for this event is that we are all too lazy to look on youtube Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride, but hey if it’s in game and we don’t have to do much.... cool....
Quality of Life Improvements for the Mission Journal
Enhancement for the Duty Office Assignments
Enhancement for Admiralty Missions
Enhancement for Accolades and Reward
Enhancement Bridge Officers
The problem with the AFK penalty as it is being put into this event is that it wouldn't work, like at all. Every bit of evidence points to the system checking for a certain amount of damage dealt, or at least abilities used. Not everyone gets the surprise spider spawn, and that's the only time that you would deal any damage in this queue. There's also no need to use any abilities in it, ever.
The minigame to improve parts actually discourages you from getting more Junk, because you can only do the game so many times in a minute. That's why they picked the only minigame that can be that short. Replacing it with any of the others would just further discourage collecting more Junk, because you wouldn't be able to do even the 10ish that you can do now.
I actually like this event, and go out and try to collect the best parts possible, but there's no simple fix to get people to participate. The thing would have to be remade from something lighthearted to something that requires combat or ability use in some way, and that would just ruin the celebration of the event.
The thing is not "so RNG heavy" either. It's a mix of deterministic and random elements, even including whether or not you get good parts while scavenging. I won't go into detail on that here, but there is a reason that I often have the best quality of parts on my rocket, even with everyone else in the event participating. The kind of critical failure that causes a rocket with all purple parts to explode in the range of those with no parts is extremely rare. In about 200 runs these past 2 years, that's happened to me maybe 2 times, so around 1% per player, and maybe 5% per queue, assuming that everyone participated. The real influence of the RNG is in parts adjustment, and that still tends to reward players who did more gathering, since they get more chances.
I also do not see how AFKing an Event coresponds to people learning to AFK STFs. Sounds a bit hysterical, actually. The bold print didn't help The Cause, either. AFK happens in an STF because someone does not do enough damage. Which means no reward and a two hour lock out from that STF for that character. There are threads all the time about someone was "unfairly" penalized for being AFK when they were not.
One of the things I dislike about this playerbase is all the jokers telling me how I have to play STO. And when I choose to walk the Path of Common Sense, they rush right to here to complain loudly and round up sycophants. Where is all that diversity and tolerance they are constantly crowing about? As long as what I might do does not cause a direct reduction in either your reward or your fun, leave me be. If you tended to your own STO business with even half the care you tend to mine, you'd have Epic everything and probably achieve 1,000,000 DPS.
And in this case, since an AFK means the rocket you're busy improving will outlast at least one other, you'll probably "win" the Event.
now that's..... a proper burn
so much for the whiney baby event afk police
I don't endorse the behaviour in normal queus, but in the case of these events it is total hysteria to complain especially as it barely touches or doesn't affect anything but your personal moral center
so you don't like it, okay, then form your own teams if you don't want afkers in your queues, which is what you should be doing in the first place but thats another subject
LOL! Armada Leader, always cuts through the bull.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” -- Benjamin Franklin
Now, now Thunder, you of all people know I'm not one for complaining. I'm highlighting the bigger problem of AFK'ing in THIS event WILL encourage AFK'ing in OTHER STF's.
Very true Valoreah. Then you get the inevitable 'the AFK penalty is unfair' posts in the forum later.
So let them learn the hard way when they try to AFK elsewhere. I do not see why you feel obligated to defend others from their own stupidity or laziness. And when they post threads here about, 'AFK penalty unfair!' enjoy a good laugh at their expense. It's what I do.
I've only played this event one time this time around. Beautiful idea. Even better map. Shame these get wasted on such a badly designed and even more poorly executed Event. But then, I've always preferred the Day of Honor Event instead. But being part of the 16% of the playerbase which Geko hates, I don't get to do that one any more.
When you take part the only thing you are doing is lowering the reward you walk away with for the time spent. Why wast time running about collecting pointless parts when you can stand still and walk away with a higher reward?
Simply put....these events are not designed for people to afk and just do their doff'ing etc. What you are doing IS exploiting the lack of an AFK penalty and you're actively promoting it!
Its not an exploit as nothing unfair or underhand is going off. The mission is designed for people to stand around just like the trench run of the Breach event is a multiplier map designed for 1 person to play while the other 4 wait around pointlessly AFK.
Why are you getting so worked up over how someone else wants to play the game when it has zero impact on you? There is nothing wrong with being AFK when it has no negative impact on other people.
As for the AFK penalty they need to get rid of it or change the way it works as its done more harm then good to this game with how terribly its been implanted. It was a large part of what killed team builds and killed team work which is what a STO game should be about and was about before we had the stupid AFK penalty.
If being AFK was a real problem in FC, then they could make the event more competitive, so where you place has some form of higher reward, but then you might end up with other complaints, because there's a lot of RNG involved.
It's a quick and silly event, going AFK in it didn't hurt anyone. Going AFK in something that requires a team, that will hurt others, and that should be punished.
As so many others have said about the FC event, whether one person goes AFK, or everyone goes AFK, it has no effect on anything, It does not effect how long the event is going to take, it has no, or minimal effect on the performance of any given persons rocket (and definitely doesn't effect anyone's rocket but their own). The key thing is that it definitely has absolutely no effect on any other player except themselves.
If anything, players should be grateful for AFKers in FC. Since they aren't collecting parts and all that jazz, you should have a much better rockets than they do. Yes, those AFKers are just trying to assist you other players in having the best rocket....not that it makes any difference whatsoever as to the reward you are going to get at the end but hey, you can still walk away knowing you had a better rocket than they did.
If Cryptic wanted it to be mandatory to collect rocket parts, they would have made the event so that you get no reward if you don't collect parts. They didn't, so AFKing the event is a perfectly acceptable method of playing it. Just because you don't want to AFK it does not mean that others have to play the same way you do/want.
Okay, okay, the most important and key point here has already been said. Unless/until what another player is doing actually some kind of effect on you, you play the way you want , and don't worry about how other players are playing because they are playing the way they want and it has absolutely no effect on you or your game play other than in your own mind.
It's not always an intentional AFK. I attempted to do mission: Defeat Nukara Tholian Captain. From the start it was a bust. I'm reading the information from the security officer there, finished that and then turned on my EV Suit. went to go help the fight, and it wouldn't let me go out of the cave. Then I'm banned for the game not letting me into the mission???? Makes no sense. Automatic bans should be "banned". This is ridiculous. If you're reporting people for being AFK, you should at least find out if that was really the case. I wasn't killed, and so couldn't use the respawn button if you are familiar with that event and had read the briefing you would know that takes you out until the game is over. As I said, I never even got into the battle because I was reading the briefing, but yet was banned. No doubt reported by the other people in game that for some reason were able to get into battle (at least until they hit respawn after they died and ended up in the same place I was being kept captive).
The AFK ban is system managed, and it is extremely, extremely rare to get a ban like you claim you got. I have gone into CCA's late and the PvE has been won with-in seconds and still not received a ban. I've also had two false-positives in the same, even though I have done plenty of damage, but this was due to server issues at the time. I've never had a ban otherwise though.
In cases where progression of a PvE Queue is being prevented by a bug, you MUST report it in-game via the Bug Reporting tool, then make a post in the forum's support section, detailing as much as possible, whilst keeping it civil. You will find the bug-hunters respond much better to a well detailed and civil post. Without sufficient information, it just makes bug-hunting harder.
The purpose of this post however is that people are exploiting the lack of AFK system. The rewards are supposed to be for doing a particular activity. If people are not doing what the event was intended for, i.e. just standing there, they are using an exploit to gain a resource they would not normally be rewarded with. Other PvE queues that have the AFK system give such a user a ban, and AFAIK they get no reward as well, which is the way ALL activities should be. The event's other problem is that it doesn't scale reward with effort, and people use this as an excuse to AFK and do their doffing.