Another (less obtrusive) solution might be something like a warning message when you join a queue: "Warning, there is one (1) player in the queue with you that is on your ignore list. Do you still want to join?"
I personally like that idea a lot.
I might add to that notion the idea of putting another numeric in the UI when you switch instances, that tells you how many of the people on your ignore list are in that instance. You could then decide to avoid those instances.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I might add to that notion the idea of putting another numeric in the UI when you switch instances, that tells you how many of the people on your ignore list are in that instance. You could then decide to avoid those instances.
It is not a bad idea. Another possibility is to make afk timeout very aggressive in fleet actions. I am thinking a couple of minutes. Then you get a debuff for like 24hrs ( can't queue).
So that when bugs in the game happen which cause you some problem, you FURTHER compound the problems by making people unable to queue for 24 hours. Very pedestrian idea.
Leave the game engineering up to people with an engineering mentality, not a "harm others" at every turn mentality.
S o instead of actually helping new players get better and become experienced veterans, you would rather punish them for trying to seek a new challenge. I agree the trolls, griefers, and AFKers need to be dealt with severely, but I disagree with what you're proposing here, and it can absolutely be subject to abuse. Let's take you for example. I've come to the conclusion that you are an elitist, and elitists can be just as bad as trolls and griefers. You as an elitist meets another player who isn't running the MK12 MACO set and all purple weapons, so you put him on ignore and tell everyone else to put him on ignore too. Well let's say that half the people in the community put him on ignore too. That's cut his chances of being able to get a good team in a PUG by 50% or more, all because he didn't have the gear that you thought he should have. You strike me as the type who likes to bark orders and then grief the players that don't follow your orders. You were once a new player too, and I'm quite sure that you didn't start out knowing all the ins and outs of this game and the best builds, gear, etc. You learned it through trial and error, or another player imparted some knowledge on you, and even then, that guy had to learn it from somewhere. I find it very distasteful that you would want to punish a significant portion of the player base simply because they were less experienced than you.
This is really a great post, and points out some of the very serious problems with the community in this game.
When it comes to being vocal about "ideas" for solutions to problems, a lot of people around here have an abusive mentality, to some degree. Such people ARE NOT game engineers, and should NEVER try to (re)engineer a game. Leave the (re)engineering up to people like this poster who are in touch with reality and willing and able to think about more concerns, such as how new players need to learn, and are here to have fun as well.
I agree that people who literally do nothing during a PvE event are a problem. The events I play are balanced to usually be a challenge when everybody is doing their best, and I'm glad for that.
Rewards should be based on participation. DPS and healing isn't enough. There's other things that people can do that can contribute a lot to a positive outcome which don't cause healing or DPS. Gravity well causes minimal damage in itself, but permits other area effect DPSers to do much better, for example. Resists buff cause no damage and might cause no healing, but could help the team win significantly.
Leave the (re)engineering up to people with engineering mentalities (this means you, all you people who think participation is DPS+healing)
... just to grab the default completion reward is the problem....
It's amazing. Again and again, people point out the REAL problem, and yet ramble on and on about half-minded solutions that don't even address the real problem.
The real problem is that if somebody does absolutely nothing, they still get a reward.
Therefore, the solution is that if you do nothing, YOU GET NOTHING.
No fear uncertainty confusion or doubt about "stressing the servers" or "comparing ASCII text" (lmfao...), or lengthening queue times, or any such utter nonsense.
This solution DIRECTLY addresses the problem.
No participation = no reward.
The person in Mine trap that just stands there gets 0.
The person that warns 20 Romulans, Fortifies 4 times, attacks 30 salt vampires which were attacking buildings, revives 2 Romulans that fell down, prompts 6 Romulans to keep moving, heals 5k HP on Romulans, participates in killing 20 salt vampires at the landing site... that person should get rewards proportionate to their participation too.
Save you concerns about when is ignore not ignore but only 'mute in chat' concerns for some other topic (like dealing with griefers of RPers etc)
The BEST way to deal with AFKrs and Slackers in general is to make drops kill specific.
Whoever puts the most damage and finishing shot into an enemy should get that enemy's loot drop, not share it among a team.
Seriously, most MMO woes can be fixed by dropping the socialist bits. We are not Borg after all even thou all MMOs want us to be for some reason.
So somebody who creates gravity well at the best possible place at the perfect time shouldn't get any reward? They've wasted their time? The person who puts the resists buffs on the team at the best possible time gets nothing for it? it was a waste of an action, and they should have chosen something to cause more DPS?
So I should watch you do 99% dmg to a mob, and then swoop in for the killing shot?
Let's just finish making the the two other classes besides tac complete nonsense to play, and escort the ONLY ship type that anybody should sly. Sci and Eng classes and ships should be the joke on new players. Make them regret ever starting to play this game without choosing pure DPS all the way baby.
So somebody who creates gravity well at the best possible place at the perfect time shouldn't get any reward? They've wasted their time? The person who puts the resists buffs on the team at the best possible time gets nothing for it? it was a waste of an action, and they should have chosen something to cause more DPS?
So I should watch you do 99% dmg to a mob, and then swoop in for the killing shot?
Let's just finish making the the two other classes besides tac complete nonsense to play, and escort the ONLY ship type that anybody should sly. Sci and Eng classes and ships should be the joke on new players. Make them regret ever starting to play this game without choosing pure DPS all the way baby.
No.
That's not neccessaily how kill specific works as it doesn't always need to be based on killing blow.
It can be done on a group effort basis where if you are out of weapons range, and so doing sod all for the entire combat, then if the mob drops anything you get nothing the rest of the team however would get to roll on it. It could even be done in a way that one hitwill not count by using a percentage damage system per person though that would take morework and is more complicated. Obviously the "you" here is the person who is leaching and not you personally.
Another (less obtrusive) solution might be something like a warning message when you join a queue: "Warning, there is one (1) player in the queue with you that is on your ignore list. Do you still want to join?"
This would involve the same amount of searching and identification of information as to what Arnthebard originally suggested. So if you go to this much trouble why not simply ignore them? That way you can PvP against them and not have to worry about them being on your team.
FYI**** I went into a Elite Infected Space yesterday and got teamed with 3 AFKers the other active player left the queque and I got screwed.
If a team breaks down, allow the members to vote to remove the leaver penalty. If three teammates agree, then everyone can just leave without the penalty.
I like this idea, personally. This would be pretty hard to sabotage. If one person is AFK'd and the other 4 are unhappy, they dissolve the match and get the no leave penalty. Then they try again in hopes of not getting an AFK'er in their match. It can't be sabotaged by a single griefer either. If 4 players are getting along, with one griefer, he activates the option, the others say no, and griefer either has to stay or take the penalty and leave, while the other 4 complete the mission without the griefer.
My little addition: If those four people said they'd leave and team, that could increase their chances of not getting an AFK'er in their group.
I use the private queue a lot, since I am in a major fleet. But I have had to deal with AFK'ers before in pugs and they can be a nuisance. This could be the closest to a totally fair option for players who communicate with each other in an ESTF. I don't know what would be required to make it, but who knows.
We need to use the ignore list from chat zone to effectively keep people from teaming up. Example: I get teamed up with John Doe, he goes AFK or does some stupid thing like deliberately aggroing enemies. I simply add him to the ignore list, then from now on I can no longer be teamed up with him in a PvP or STF pick up group.
This feature should have been in the game a long time ago. I've gone into two consecutive STF's with the same AFKer, after I had already put him on my ignore list. If someone's on ignore, I shouldn't have to endure their presence in my queue, even if it bumps me back a spot to prevent it.
This feature should have been in the game a long time ago. I've gone into two consecutive STF's with the same AFKer, after I had already put him on my ignore list. If someone's on ignore, I shouldn't have to endure their presence in my queue, even if it bumps me back a spot to prevent it.
Most of the players share your opinion. Some people say it would require too much from the system too that I say prove it. There ARE games which currently use this type of feature. It just seems that when we the players come up with a plausible solution to a problem we get told we don't know what we are talking about.
Some people say it would require too much from the system too that I say prove it. There ARE games which currently use this type of feature. It just seems that when we the players come up with a plausible solution to a problem we get told we don't know what we are talking about.
Honestly, we just don't know. We don't know what goes on under the hood and can't say what it would take from a technical perspective. What some people want to call simple and possible might or might not be so. Technically, anything is possible if they throw enough money at it and don't care about how long it takes or what else breaks along the way.
I'm positive that the idea of using ignore to effectively segregate players from each other has been brought up before and that we got a response from a Dev that basically amounted to "non-trivial", but I don't recall any specifics. Eidetic memory is NOT one of my RL traits.
The Devs have said they intend to focus on PvP in a release. ETL unknown, but let's assume sometime in the next 18 months, hopefully less. I would assume that part of that PvP revamp will also include queue and gameplay changes that would probably affect PvE as well. If the Devs choose to implement a 'total ignore' option, that's probably the best time for them to do it if they're going to do it.
Again, my bet is on them going for something more simple than that to fix AFK leeches. And that the fix will make everybody about as happy as the leaver penalties for STF's did.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
Well Bluegeek we appreciate your honesty. We just get very frustrated at the percieved lack of interest in fixing known issues. Some of us are blessed with technical engineering and software programming backgrounds and then there are the rest of the players. It is difficult when a suggestion is made and examples of software already in exsistence are being been pointed out and the suggestion gets summarily dismissed. All we want is for the DEVS to take a serious look at a plausible alternative. It boils down to this we ALL want a better STO experience.
**RUMOR ALERT**
Kerrat is going to be taken down according to zone chat yesterday. If [and I do say "IF"] this is true I would make a couple of suggestions.
1. Fix the soft walls so the Borg cannot hide in the nodes and shoot you and you cannot shoot them.
2. Make 8 random respawn points that rotate so that it will effectively end spawn camping.
this isnt a hard fix, if you dont do a certain amount of dmg before the match is over you dont get any rewards..
[12:35] Vessel Two of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 225232 (271723) Plasma Damage to you with Plasma Lance.
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
this isnt a hard fix, if you dont do a certain amount of dmg before the match is over you dont get any rewards..
I can appreciate your point of view.. so what would be the damage minium? Since it is teamplay how would you handle the healers or would that also count as say a activity damag/healing counter?
It's amazing. Again and again, people point out the REAL problem, and yet ramble on and on about half-minded solutions that don't even address the real problem.
The real problem is that if somebody does absolutely nothing, they still get a reward.
Therefore, the solution is that if you do nothing, YOU GET NOTHING.
No fear uncertainty confusion or doubt about "stressing the servers" or "comparing ASCII text" (lmfao...), or lengthening queue times, or any such utter nonsense.
This solution DIRECTLY addresses the problem.
No participation = no reward.
The person in Mine trap that just stands there gets 0.
The person that warns 20 Romulans, Fortifies 4 times, attacks 30 salt vampires which were attacking buildings, revives 2 Romulans that fell down, prompts 6 Romulans to keep moving, heals 5k HP on Romulans, participates in killing 20 salt vampires at the landing site... that person should get rewards proportionate to their participation too.
Save you concerns about when is ignore not ignore but only 'mute in chat' concerns for some other topic (like dealing with griefers of RPers etc)
That sounds all fine and good except for this.... how does one place a numerical value on what you as a individual did?
Example: Tacs are going to do more damage... The Sci doesn't but he may help with crowd control so which is more valuable in scoring for rewards?
Talk about a headache, trying to fairly divide the spoils will really bercome a nightmare.
That sounds all fine and good except for this.... how does one place a numerical value on what you as a individual did?
Example: Tacs are going to do more damage... The Sci doesn't but he may help with crowd control so which is more valuable in scoring for rewards?
Talk about a headache, trying to fairly divide the spoils will really bercome a nightmare.
I would add to the comment who gets to decide the scoring or value of one's actions? There are no moderators who are going to be watching STF's and a computer cannot fairly decide who was the most valuable player. So we are basically stuck with that idea.
That leaves the original post as the most viable option once the silencing is disabled.
Simple fix for this, implement a vote kick system to allow people to be kicked from the instance and they will take a standard temp ban penalty the same as if they left an instance.
This way the team can decide by majority vote that someone is not contributing or trying to leech as afk and kick the problem person.
no keyboard input and no weapon fired in 1 minute => kick
or users with less than minimum number of dps => kick (since if they have less than minumum number of dps then either a weapon is not fired or they are equipped with mki weapons)
Grinding for MkIV epic gear?
Ain't Nobody Got Time for That
The thing about a solution, is you have to first identify the problem.
People AFK because of Cryptic's REWARD = TIME philosophy. From the 20 hour project window to the mindlessly simple content, players are rewarded based on how much time they spend on the game, and not necessarily how much time they spend playing the game, and certainly not how well they play the game.
It is obvious people have learned that they can get just as much reward by paying peripheral attention to the game client as they can by dedicationg their full attention to it.
A simple solution would be to reduce the reward over time during zero effort: Temp Ban afk'ers Like every other mmo does - there is already a 1hour leaver penalty in place, that coincidentally I have suffered because I will be damned if I pull the weight of an afk and see him get the same (or even greater) reward as me, so we know the code is there. Other games will ban me from pve and pvp ques when I afk for as little as 3 minutes, through a simple game mechanic that we also know is in the game (System notification: you have been afk for 60 minutes proves the code is there) - and another 'voting' mechanic that cant possibly be hard to impliment or STO wouldnt be the only online game that didnt have it.
Afk'ing for an evening, checking in only to que up would no longer get you the thousands of omega marks and dilithium, you simply wouldnt make it to the end of the match, and you would be banned from joining another one. - Putting in effort and acually playing the game would become a more efficient way to generate resources.
This solution is so simple, and yet......
What really bugs me is, why would people afk for rewards in a game they cant be bothered to play? is the content leading up to Tier 5 endgame that boring and unworthy of effort? Is the 20 hour reward system for tier 5 progression really that tedious? -
What really bugs me is, why would people afk for rewards in a game they cant be bothered to play? is the content leading up to Tier 5 endgame that boring and unworthy of effort? Is the 20 hour reward system for tier 5 progression really that tedious? -
Some people are using bots that are strictly forbidden in the Terms Of Service. Then there are others who use a service like EPGAL or other goldfarming service. Not everybody sees the value of grinding in the game the same way.
Money = Power in this game and some people would rather take shortcuts than earn thier equipment or ec or dilithium. These people are the very ones that we are complaining about. You solution does not address the real problem of being teamed up with them again [which does happen all the time] The TOS prevents me from naming names...ahem ...ahem... of the offenders although I personally feel there needs to be a wall of shame.
Bottom line the original post has a permenant solution to the problem assuming they could/would implement it. As far as tediousness yes the grind is and some people do not have the proper amount of time to invest in the game. So they invest money and buy C-store stuff or they go to the darkside.... and leech, farm, or let bots do thier dirty work.
Until they devise a way to either use the idea posted here or actually have a moderator observe and hand down infractions we are stuck. Yes we are at a "Impasse" pathetic players get rewards for doing nothing because of the way the game is setup.
Who knows maybe once they get the Rommie launch over with they might decide to fix the issues. Perhaps they will even spend some money on the servers to enhance gameplay or buy bandwidth.
Bottom line the original post has a permenant solution to the problem assuming they could/would implement it.
We recognize that you really like your idea. But it doesn't truly address the "AFK problem".
Ignoring people won't stop anyone from continuing to leech others and it can't help you when somebody you never teamed with before starts leeching.
All it might do is insure that you don't end up in a queue or instance with someone you don't want to play with twice. Even then it depends on how big your ignore list can get and how fast you're ignoring people. It doesn't remove the incentive to leech, grief, or otherwise.
Taking away the reward by some mechanism is the only way to remove the incentive to leech.
The solution could include more aggressive AFK timers when you're in a team. Instead of 30-60 minutes idle time before it logs you out, it could go down to 5 minutes in PvP and 10 minutes in an STF. Or it could involve kick votes (which would probably invite abuse). Or reduced rewards based on "non-participation" as defined by Cryptic.
Any of those would likely be easier to implement than "Total Ignore" and would target the cause instead of the symptom.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
We recognize that you really like your idea. But it doesn't truly address the "AFK problem".
Ignoring people won't stop anyone from continuing to leech others and it can't help you when somebody you never teamed with before starts leeching.
All it might do is insure that you don't end up in a queue or instance with someone you don't want to play with twice. Even then it depends on how big your ignore list can get and how fast you're ignoring people. It doesn't remove the incentive to leech, grief, or otherwise.
I disagree whole heartedly and here is why sure you cannot control who you get initially teamed up with. But after that they would not bother you. No one has said exactly how many spots are on a Ignore list... so let's use the number 100. If you have ignored a hundred people then you must be on all the time or you have serious social issues and very bad luck. The chances of you running into more than 100 AFKers goes down with each ignore. For instance we see the same people over and over again leeching we report them and nothing happens. Eventually the leechers would either quit or get with the program when it takes them 30 mins to do a STF because they have to be lined up with someone who has not ignored them. Most people who play at the same time and tend to run into the same people. So if the people you run into consistently are AFKing then you have an option to avoid them. It isn't like you are going out there to see how many people you are going to ignore today. Until we get active Moderators following the game who can and will take action against offenders we are all going to suffer fools.
Someone who plays NW go find out how they worked this over there. Because now there's a possibility we can get a solution (or at least a temporary fix) for the AFK problem over here.
You're missing an important piece of what Bluegeek pointed out - this doesn't solve the underlying problem nor will it curb the AFK/leeching behavior. You may not get teamed with a leecher you put on ignore, but the next person will and that leecher still gets a reward.
And it will take time for the leechers to run out of people to leech off of. Sure it is a slow solution but it is better than what we have now. Once the afk and leech crowd find only themselves and like people to play with they will get the message.
If someone is legitimately trying (undergeared or not) they should never be punished for it.
The people that run around shooting balloons or making sure the officers die in ground infected are the ones that TRIBBLE me off.
AFKers too, I never actually understood why they do it. Mine trap is a hot bed of it, too. You get more mark the more you do, so why sit afk? It just drags everyone else down, and youd benefit more in the long run by actually assisting and raising everyones pool at the end, including yours.
Fleet Admiral Rylana - Fed Tac - U.S.S Wild Card - Tactical Miracle Worker Cruiser
Lifetime Subscriber since 2012 == 17,200 Accolades = RIP PvP and Vice Squad
Chief of Starfleet Intelligence Service == Praise Cheesus
Comments
I personally like that idea a lot.
I might add to that notion the idea of putting another numeric in the UI when you switch instances, that tells you how many of the people on your ignore list are in that instance. You could then decide to avoid those instances.
Earth Spacedock #1 (10) (2)
Earth Spacedock #2 (20) (1)
Earth Spacedock #3 (25) (0)
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I have not used the ignore process (yet), but THIS would be awesome to see.
+1
So that when bugs in the game happen which cause you some problem, you FURTHER compound the problems by making people unable to queue for 24 hours. Very pedestrian idea.
Leave the game engineering up to people with an engineering mentality, not a "harm others" at every turn mentality.
This is really a great post, and points out some of the very serious problems with the community in this game.
When it comes to being vocal about "ideas" for solutions to problems, a lot of people around here have an abusive mentality, to some degree. Such people ARE NOT game engineers, and should NEVER try to (re)engineer a game. Leave the (re)engineering up to people like this poster who are in touch with reality and willing and able to think about more concerns, such as how new players need to learn, and are here to have fun as well.
I agree that people who literally do nothing during a PvE event are a problem. The events I play are balanced to usually be a challenge when everybody is doing their best, and I'm glad for that.
Rewards should be based on participation. DPS and healing isn't enough. There's other things that people can do that can contribute a lot to a positive outcome which don't cause healing or DPS. Gravity well causes minimal damage in itself, but permits other area effect DPSers to do much better, for example. Resists buff cause no damage and might cause no healing, but could help the team win significantly.
Leave the (re)engineering up to people with engineering mentalities (this means you, all you people who think participation is DPS+healing)
It's amazing. Again and again, people point out the REAL problem, and yet ramble on and on about half-minded solutions that don't even address the real problem.
The real problem is that if somebody does absolutely nothing, they still get a reward.
Therefore, the solution is that if you do nothing, YOU GET NOTHING.
No fear uncertainty confusion or doubt about "stressing the servers" or "comparing ASCII text" (lmfao...), or lengthening queue times, or any such utter nonsense.
This solution DIRECTLY addresses the problem.
No participation = no reward.
The person in Mine trap that just stands there gets 0.
The person that warns 20 Romulans, Fortifies 4 times, attacks 30 salt vampires which were attacking buildings, revives 2 Romulans that fell down, prompts 6 Romulans to keep moving, heals 5k HP on Romulans, participates in killing 20 salt vampires at the landing site... that person should get rewards proportionate to their participation too.
Save you concerns about when is ignore not ignore but only 'mute in chat' concerns for some other topic (like dealing with griefers of RPers etc)
So somebody who creates gravity well at the best possible place at the perfect time shouldn't get any reward? They've wasted their time? The person who puts the resists buffs on the team at the best possible time gets nothing for it? it was a waste of an action, and they should have chosen something to cause more DPS?
So I should watch you do 99% dmg to a mob, and then swoop in for the killing shot?
Let's just finish making the the two other classes besides tac complete nonsense to play, and escort the ONLY ship type that anybody should sly. Sci and Eng classes and ships should be the joke on new players. Make them regret ever starting to play this game without choosing pure DPS all the way baby.
No.
That's not neccessaily how kill specific works as it doesn't always need to be based on killing blow.
It can be done on a group effort basis where if you are out of weapons range, and so doing sod all for the entire combat, then if the mob drops anything you get nothing the rest of the team however would get to roll on it. It could even be done in a way that one hitwill not count by using a percentage damage system per person though that would take morework and is more complicated. Obviously the "you" here is the person who is leaching and not you personally.
This would involve the same amount of searching and identification of information as to what Arnthebard originally suggested. So if you go to this much trouble why not simply ignore them? That way you can PvP against them and not have to worry about them being on your team.
FYI**** I went into a Elite Infected Space yesterday and got teamed with 3 AFKers the other active player left the queque and I got screwed.
I like this idea, personally. This would be pretty hard to sabotage. If one person is AFK'd and the other 4 are unhappy, they dissolve the match and get the no leave penalty. Then they try again in hopes of not getting an AFK'er in their match. It can't be sabotaged by a single griefer either. If 4 players are getting along, with one griefer, he activates the option, the others say no, and griefer either has to stay or take the penalty and leave, while the other 4 complete the mission without the griefer.
My little addition: If those four people said they'd leave and team, that could increase their chances of not getting an AFK'er in their group.
I use the private queue a lot, since I am in a major fleet. But I have had to deal with AFK'ers before in pugs and they can be a nuisance. This could be the closest to a totally fair option for players who communicate with each other in an ESTF. I don't know what would be required to make it, but who knows.
This feature should have been in the game a long time ago. I've gone into two consecutive STF's with the same AFKer, after I had already put him on my ignore list. If someone's on ignore, I shouldn't have to endure their presence in my queue, even if it bumps me back a spot to prevent it.
Most of the players share your opinion. Some people say it would require too much from the system too that I say prove it. There ARE games which currently use this type of feature. It just seems that when we the players come up with a plausible solution to a problem we get told we don't know what we are talking about.
Honestly, we just don't know. We don't know what goes on under the hood and can't say what it would take from a technical perspective. What some people want to call simple and possible might or might not be so. Technically, anything is possible if they throw enough money at it and don't care about how long it takes or what else breaks along the way.
I'm positive that the idea of using ignore to effectively segregate players from each other has been brought up before and that we got a response from a Dev that basically amounted to "non-trivial", but I don't recall any specifics. Eidetic memory is NOT one of my RL traits.
The Devs have said they intend to focus on PvP in a release. ETL unknown, but let's assume sometime in the next 18 months, hopefully less. I would assume that part of that PvP revamp will also include queue and gameplay changes that would probably affect PvE as well. If the Devs choose to implement a 'total ignore' option, that's probably the best time for them to do it if they're going to do it.
Again, my bet is on them going for something more simple than that to fix AFK leeches. And that the fix will make everybody about as happy as the leaver penalties for STF's did.
Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
**RUMOR ALERT**
Kerrat is going to be taken down according to zone chat yesterday. If [and I do say "IF"] this is true I would make a couple of suggestions.
1. Fix the soft walls so the Borg cannot hide in the nodes and shoot you and you cannot shoot them.
2. Make 8 random respawn points that rotate so that it will effectively end spawn camping.
[12:44] Vessel One of Two Unimatrix 01 deals 1019527 (1157678) Kinetic Damage to you with Plasma Energy Bolt Explosion.
I can appreciate your point of view.. so what would be the damage minium? Since it is teamplay how would you handle the healers or would that also count as say a activity damag/healing counter?
That sounds all fine and good except for this.... how does one place a numerical value on what you as a individual did?
Example: Tacs are going to do more damage... The Sci doesn't but he may help with crowd control so which is more valuable in scoring for rewards?
Talk about a headache, trying to fairly divide the spoils will really bercome a nightmare.
I would add to the comment who gets to decide the scoring or value of one's actions? There are no moderators who are going to be watching STF's and a computer cannot fairly decide who was the most valuable player. So we are basically stuck with that idea.
That leaves the original post as the most viable option once the silencing is disabled.
This way the team can decide by majority vote that someone is not contributing or trying to leech as afk and kick the problem person.
or users with less than minimum number of dps => kick (since if they have less than minumum number of dps then either a weapon is not fired or they are equipped with mki weapons)
Ain't Nobody Got Time for That
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
The thing about a solution, is you have to first identify the problem.
People AFK because of Cryptic's REWARD = TIME philosophy. From the 20 hour project window to the mindlessly simple content, players are rewarded based on how much time they spend on the game, and not necessarily how much time they spend playing the game, and certainly not how well they play the game.
It is obvious people have learned that they can get just as much reward by paying peripheral attention to the game client as they can by dedicationg their full attention to it.
A simple solution would be to reduce the reward over time during zero effort: Temp Ban afk'ers Like every other mmo does - there is already a 1hour leaver penalty in place, that coincidentally I have suffered because I will be damned if I pull the weight of an afk and see him get the same (or even greater) reward as me, so we know the code is there. Other games will ban me from pve and pvp ques when I afk for as little as 3 minutes, through a simple game mechanic that we also know is in the game (System notification: you have been afk for 60 minutes proves the code is there) - and another 'voting' mechanic that cant possibly be hard to impliment or STO wouldnt be the only online game that didnt have it.
Afk'ing for an evening, checking in only to que up would no longer get you the thousands of omega marks and dilithium, you simply wouldnt make it to the end of the match, and you would be banned from joining another one. - Putting in effort and acually playing the game would become a more efficient way to generate resources.
This solution is so simple, and yet......
What really bugs me is, why would people afk for rewards in a game they cant be bothered to play? is the content leading up to Tier 5 endgame that boring and unworthy of effort? Is the 20 hour reward system for tier 5 progression really that tedious? -
Some people are using bots that are strictly forbidden in the Terms Of Service. Then there are others who use a service like EPGAL or other goldfarming service. Not everybody sees the value of grinding in the game the same way.
Money = Power in this game and some people would rather take shortcuts than earn thier equipment or ec or dilithium. These people are the very ones that we are complaining about. You solution does not address the real problem of being teamed up with them again [which does happen all the time] The TOS prevents me from naming names...ahem ...ahem... of the offenders although I personally feel there needs to be a wall of shame.
Bottom line the original post has a permenant solution to the problem assuming they could/would implement it. As far as tediousness yes the grind is and some people do not have the proper amount of time to invest in the game. So they invest money and buy C-store stuff or they go to the darkside.... and leech, farm, or let bots do thier dirty work.
Who knows maybe once they get the Rommie launch over with they might decide to fix the issues. Perhaps they will even spend some money on the servers to enhance gameplay or buy bandwidth.
We recognize that you really like your idea. But it doesn't truly address the "AFK problem".
Ignoring people won't stop anyone from continuing to leech others and it can't help you when somebody you never teamed with before starts leeching.
All it might do is insure that you don't end up in a queue or instance with someone you don't want to play with twice. Even then it depends on how big your ignore list can get and how fast you're ignoring people. It doesn't remove the incentive to leech, grief, or otherwise.
Taking away the reward by some mechanism is the only way to remove the incentive to leech.
The solution could include more aggressive AFK timers when you're in a team. Instead of 30-60 minutes idle time before it logs you out, it could go down to 5 minutes in PvP and 10 minutes in an STF. Or it could involve kick votes (which would probably invite abuse). Or reduced rewards based on "non-participation" as defined by Cryptic.
Any of those would likely be easier to implement than "Total Ignore" and would target the cause instead of the symptom.
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I disagree whole heartedly and here is why sure you cannot control who you get initially teamed up with. But after that they would not bother you. No one has said exactly how many spots are on a Ignore list... so let's use the number 100. If you have ignored a hundred people then you must be on all the time or you have serious social issues and very bad luck. The chances of you running into more than 100 AFKers goes down with each ignore. For instance we see the same people over and over again leeching we report them and nothing happens. Eventually the leechers would either quit or get with the program when it takes them 30 mins to do a STF because they have to be lined up with someone who has not ignored them. Most people who play at the same time and tend to run into the same people. So if the people you run into consistently are AFKing then you have an option to avoid them. It isn't like you are going out there to see how many people you are going to ignore today. Until we get active Moderators following the game who can and will take action against offenders we are all going to suffer fools.
They just did this in NW last night:
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?243972-Patch-Notes-NW-1-20130416a-23&p=3193252&viewfull=1#post3193252
Someone who plays NW go find out how they worked this over there. Because now there's a possibility we can get a solution (or at least a temporary fix) for the AFK problem over here.
Mine Trap Supporter
And it will take time for the leechers to run out of people to leech off of. Sure it is a slow solution but it is better than what we have now. Once the afk and leech crowd find only themselves and like people to play with they will get the message.
The people that run around shooting balloons or making sure the officers die in ground infected are the ones that TRIBBLE me off.
AFKers too, I never actually understood why they do it. Mine trap is a hot bed of it, too. You get more mark the more you do, so why sit afk? It just drags everyone else down, and youd benefit more in the long run by actually assisting and raising everyones pool at the end, including yours.
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so if someone sits afk they get nadda.
and the more u put into a fight.missions.event. the bigger ur reward is
i think this system is best to aviod afkers. since afk = no rewards
best players = highest reward. its win win