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AFK Penalty never got a shot off...

scorpwanna#3529 scorpwanna Member Posts: 227 Arc User
I went into the Hive Onslaught TFO and before I could get a shot off, everything was killed and then "I am BORG, I AM BORG" in less than 10 seconds. Now I have an AFK Penalty... Someone else in game said that there's a scam going on where it's happening to others and some are even getting banned... What's up with this? I need to do the daily!
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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Comments

  • davefenestratordavefenestrator Member Posts: 10,501 Arc User
    edited November 2021
    Player chat is filled with nonsense and trolling. You will not be banned for one AFK or for five AFK.

    You are unable to do TFOs for 30 minutes, that's it. Relax.

    Grouping is random and you just happened to be paired with some DPS chasers instead of casual players. Odds are it will be a long time before this happens to you again.

    Also, missing an endeavor or 10 endeavors doesn't really mean anything, so relax about that too. You can do all endgame content at elite level with 0 perk points.

    "Don't worry, be happy."
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,248 Arc User
    I've never had deal with an afk due not being able hit things so those can't be that common. Honestly I'd say try again after the penalty is over if you're able (I know some players, including myself to be perfectly honest, have such limits on their playtime that waiting 30 mins isn't always a viable option). Also I've never heard any getting banned just due the number of afks they had.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    edited November 2021
    I went into the Hive Onslaught TFO and before I could get a shot off, everything was killed and then "I am BORG, I AM BORG" in less than 10 seconds. Now I have an AFK Penalty... Someone else in game said that there's a scam going on where it's happening to others and some are even getting banned... What's up with this? I need to do the daily!

    Simply put, it is not possible to complete that queue that fast on any difficulty level. You cannot even complete ISA that fast and your recount of the situation frankly sounds suspect at best. While I will not deny that the AFK system can have some issues, I'm not buying this at all. Between the mass of enemies and cubes in the first wave, to the dual unimatrix and then the queen, there is no way the map ended in 10 seconds without you being able to find enough targets to register 1% damage.

    More then likely, you got paired with a team that did very high damage and you lagged behind them. This resulted in them destroying targets before you arrived which is an unfortunate but rare occurrence. The '10 second' time is an obvious exaggeration, but the map can be finished rather quickly. Even with a high DPS team, you're looking at a couple minutes.

    You got a bad draw for you, unfortunate but possible. Just try again and you'll be fine, you only need to do 1% of the total damage to avoid the AFK. If you want to be sure, don't follow the team, pick a group and engage it yourself. Even if you blow up, you should register enough damage to get credit.
    spiritborn wrote: »
    I've never had deal with an afk due not being able hit things so those can't be that common.

    It's not common, but people like to over exaggerate for the sake of forum drama. Hence the '10 seconds' to complete the map claim.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • postagepaidpostagepaid Member Posts: 2,899 Arc User
    I highly doubt cryptic could legitimately ban people when the afk system isn't robust enough to prove someone was actually afk and not just fallen foul of the flacid pewpew types who'd rather play in normal level pugs that put their ship up against mildly stronger enemies.

    It'd be nice if cryptic had a player damage cap tied to the difficulty levels for the random pugs.
  • scorpwanna#3529 scorpwanna Member Posts: 227 Arc User
    Obviously 10 seconds was an exaggeration... I did fire some weapons as it turned out, which is why I have no idea why I had an afk penalty... https://youtu.be/AJRX0tP--zQ?t=7954
  • scorpwanna#3529 scorpwanna Member Posts: 227 Arc User
    02:19:29 when the TFO was going then 02:19:49 is when I realized that I had the penalty.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    Sorry you got AFK'ed, but yeah.. it's what I thought. You strolled in well after the team had engaged and you just seemed to be zoomed in flying in a circle and not doing much so my guess is you just didn't do any damage. Looks like you queued normal mode and got a team more equipped for Advanced, I am not sure why those guys would queue normal.

    I will give you one tip, and it's not your fault.. it's a game thing. When the cinematic comes up, hold ESC to skip it. What happened was you watched it, and the others skipped it, so the entire time you're watching the little cut scene, they were fighting the two unimatrix. By the time you got through it, they were on the queen.. that one isn't on you.. when you play with others, best to ESC out of those little cinematics. Otherwise you get left behind.

    Looks like it was just an unfortunate run, the AFK system definitely isn't perfect. If you get on a team that does high damage, you have to get your damage in fast, you don't have to do much.. but even something like lagging a bit behind or watching a cut scene while others fight could cost you. :wink:
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,951 Arc User
    a ban, doubful to not gonna happen

    It is rare but does happen. Have read of several temporary account suspensions (a portion of a day) over at r/sto. It seems afk / non-participation is a ban able offence but the thing to focus on is the threshold... it's going to take an unknown quantity of multiple reports to have it happen. Far more than to be any cause for worry.

    The *one time* I decided to simply observe transports instead of closing gateways while playing Gateway to Grethor I was informed by a fellow player that I had been reported. The player was nice about it. It was good for a laugh. I even asked him how I could be afk when chatting in team chat and flying my ship. The player didn't want to see their parse. Nothing bad happened even though I was caught *red handed* in an information-gathering-behavioral-study-of-transport-survival sort of thing.

    If somebody is afk for enough of their play time to garner the required number of reports I'm actually glad a temp ban is a possibility. The threshold helps protect against false reports or those times where somebody may be having a legitimate issue with the game.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    Sorry you got AFK'ed, but yeah.. it's what I thought. You strolled in well after the team had engaged and you just seemed to be zoomed in flying in a circle and not doing much so my guess is you just didn't do any damage. Looks like you queued normal mode and got a team more equipped for Advanced, I am not sure why those guys would queue normal.

    I will give you one tip, and it's not your fault.. it's a game thing. When the cinematic comes up, hold ESC to skip it. What happened was you watched it, and the others skipped it, so the entire time you're watching the little cut scene, they were fighting the two unimatrix. By the time you got through it, they were on the queen.. that one isn't on you.. when you play with others, best to ESC out of those little cinematics. Otherwise you get left behind.

    Looks like it was just an unfortunate run, the AFK system definitely isn't perfect. If you get on a team that does high damage, you have to get your damage in fast, you don't have to do much.. but even something like lagging a bit behind or watching a cut scene while others fight could cost you. :wink:

    Honestly, cutscenes should not be present in TFOs unless they can't be skipped (which sucks, so they just shouldn't be present). Leave the cutscene stuff to story missions.

    Completely agreed.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,951 Arc User
    protoneous wrote: »
    a ban, doubful to not gonna happen

    It is rare but does happen. Have read of several temporary account suspensions (a portion of a day) over at r/sto. It seems afk / non-participation is a ban able offence but the thing to focus on is the threshold... it's going to take an unknown quantity of multiple reports to have it happen. Far more than to be any cause for worry.

    The *one time* I decided to simply observe transports instead of closing gateways while playing Gateway to Grethor I was informed by a fellow player that I had been reported. The player was nice about it. It was good for a laugh. I even asked him how I could be afk when chatting in team chat and flying my ship. The player didn't want to see their parse. Nothing bad happened even though I was caught *red handed* in an information-gathering-behavioral-study-of-transport-survival sort of thing.

    If somebody is afk for enough of their play time to garner the required number of reports I'm actually glad a temp ban is a possibility. The threshold helps protect against false reports or those times where somebody may be having a legitimate issue with the game.

    if continual, id agree on it, but in this case it didnt sound as if the OP was an habitual offender.

    Yes, nothing to do with the OP. Just responding to your comment about an afk related ban above.
  • scorpwanna#3529 scorpwanna Member Posts: 227 Arc User
    Err my bad the TFO starts at 2:12:02
  • alcyoneserenealcyoneserene Member Posts: 2,412 Arc User
    Been in Hive Adv which completed that fast if not faster as in OP's video. It was a bit of a challenge to reach anything in time without flying too close to warp core breaches - normally not an issue, but it was with how absolutely blinding STO is due to the visual spam and full screen whiteouts that they refuse to make optional.
    Y945Yzx.jpg
    Devs: Provide the option to Turn OFF full screen flashes from enemy ship explosions
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  • saurializardsaurializard Member Posts: 4,385 Arc User
    Leave the cutscene stuff to story missions.
    As a counter-argument:
    20211123005321_1.png?raw=1
    Take a wild guess how many players knew what to do and how many didn't.
    #TASforSTO
    Iconian_Trio_sign.jpg?raw=1
  • psymantispsymantis Member Posts: 329 Arc User
    I had this happen in the Borg red alert once. When it was going to happened again I full impulsed to a mob and did some damage to avoid it. Barely managed it though.
  • spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,248 Arc User
    The issue with Cutscenes is when they allow some players to do things earlier then others, I think FF14 does it best in that you're locked into a location and cannot engage enemies until all members of the party are done with cutscenes and also you don't get mid dungeon cutscenes that often, only ones at start and end.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,951 Arc User
    psymantis wrote: »
    I had this happen in the Borg red alert once. When it was going to happened again I full impulsed to a mob and did some damage to avoid it. Barely managed it though.

    Some players are pretty quick for sure. Luckily even after four mobs are taken down there's still time to fly over to the big Borg pickle ship and focus fire on that.

    Pretty sure the afk penalty is set at less than two percent of a team's damage so even though it's not perfect it shouldn't be a worry most of the time.
  • saurializardsaurializard Member Posts: 4,385 Arc User
    edited November 2021
    Leave the cutscene stuff to story missions.
    As a counter-argument:
    20211123005321_1.png?raw=1
    Take a wild guess how many players knew what to do and how many didn't.

    That has nothing to do with cutscenes and everything to do with players who refuse to pay attention. They wouldn't do any better even if there was a cutscene telling them, in exacting deal, every last thing they needed to do.
    Maybe, but at least it'd officially get rid of the honest "but the game isn't clear of what to do, not my fault!" excuse, so you'd know you can properly attribute to malice that which is not adequately explained by stupidity, and take the proper measures (leave, mostly, and potentially report).
    #TASforSTO
    Iconian_Trio_sign.jpg?raw=1
  • kayajaykayajay Member Posts: 1,990 Arc User
    The thing that gets me the most...you're in an STF, one or two people leave, you can't finish the episode without them (or with the ones who remain and don't know what they're doing) leave yourself or log-out and then find yourself punished. I wish there was a "I'm not quitting unilaterally, I'm stuck in Grethor" button.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,951 Arc User
    When that sort of thing happens sometimes taking a quick break can do wonders.
  • scorpwanna#3529 scorpwanna Member Posts: 227 Arc User
    Sorry you got AFK'ed, but yeah.. it's what I thought. You strolled in well after the team had engaged and you just seemed to be zoomed in flying in a circle and not doing much so my guess is you just didn't do any damage. Looks like you queued normal mode and got a team more equipped for Advanced, I am not sure why those guys would queue normal.

    I will give you one tip, and it's not your fault.. it's a game thing. When the cinematic comes up, hold ESC to skip it. What happened was you watched it, and the others skipped it, so the entire time you're watching the little cut scene, they were fighting the two unimatrix. By the time you got through it, they were on the queen.. that one isn't on you.. when you play with others, best to ESC out of those little cinematics. Otherwise you get left behind.

    Looks like it was just an unfortunate run, the AFK system definitely isn't perfect. If you get on a team that does high damage, you have to get your damage in fast, you don't have to do much.. but even something like lagging a bit behind or watching a cut scene while others fight could cost you. :wink:

    Did you watch the same video that I posted? I sat there before the TFO started, I actually used my weapons during the TFO (which I forgot I did), I did skip the cutscene. Start the video at 2:12:02.
  • saurializardsaurializard Member Posts: 4,385 Arc User
    kayajay wrote: »
    The thing that gets me the most...you're in an STF, one or two people leave, you can't finish the episode without them (or with the ones who remain and don't know what they're doing) leave yourself or log-out and then find yourself punished. I wish there was a "I'm not quitting unilaterally, I'm stuck in Grethor" button.

    What they should try to add is a system where you can leave without penalties if you're stuck in a bad team but only under certain circumstances, like 5 minutes min passed in a TFO and only once per day per account, to avoid abuse.
    #TASforSTO
    Iconian_Trio_sign.jpg?raw=1
  • kayajaykayajay Member Posts: 1,990 Arc User
    kayajay wrote: »
    The thing that gets me the most...you're in an STF, one or two people leave, you can't finish the episode without them (or with the ones who remain and don't know what they're doing) leave yourself or log-out and then find yourself punished. I wish there was a "I'm not quitting unilaterally, I'm stuck in Grethor" button.

    What they should try to add is a system where you can leave without penalties if you're stuck in a bad team but only under certain circumstances, like 5 minutes min passed in a TFO and only once per day per account, to avoid abuse.

    That would be terrific, especially if it's during a daily event.
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