It's amazing how people are blaming OP for his bad internet connection, when it's more likely because there are no server in south africa, or probably even in africa. The closest is probably Europe or US, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't help for the latency.
And even if it was a connection issue, I'm sure the AFK penalty was meant to punish AFK player, not player with a bad connection, right ?
So, why are you all attacking the OP like it's his fault ? Maybe because he is expecting to be treated like the rest of us ? If people from the US were playing on a South Africa server, and were regularly tagged as afk, the amount of rage you would have on the forum would make the ME3 ending seems like a success. And most of the people trolling the op would be the first ones to flame cryptic.
But no, it's just a guy from south africa. Flame away, there are not enough to be threat anyway.
I'm sure there is a lot of US-EU player with a bad connection that have no issue being tagged as afk, because the server is close. The OP doesn't have this chance. And yes, it's unfair.
When you guys have time, check the word "empathy". You'll learn something.
For once I agree with Nabreeki (that say something), AFK penalty is supposed to affect AFK players. Yet, they found ways to avoid it, while the penalty still affect people like the OP.
I do treat the OP like the rest of us. His internet problem is his ****ing internet problems, just like your internet problems are your internet problems and my internet problems are my internet problems. PWE has no responsibility to put servers near people to make life easier for them. They cost money, putting them there would at minimum have to guarantee more return for the investment of doing so. I seriously doubt that placing servers in SA would lead to a better bottom line for PWE and as such I certainly don't expect them to waste money on that.
The "AFK Penalty" is a very interesting thing. If you lag out or are booted and...simply don't return, you tend evade the AFK penalty, as you disappear from the world and are not present in the instance to receive credit at the end for better or worse. But if you return too early, you are nailed with the AFK penalty for coming back before the instance has shutdown.
Additionally, it is possible to be AFK-penaltied if *YOU* are dropped into a mission which is nearly over, but someone gets booted and you get dragooned to fill the slot. You warp in, the mission ends before you can fire a shot, you're banned for being AFK despite having just gotten there.
I also observed an individual receiving the AFK penalty while clearly NOT AFK. We mowed through an ISE with 5 guys, and at the end of it, one guy complained he had been hit with an AFK penalty. This was quite perplexing, as everyone clearly saw him there, in the action. A parse log revealed, however, that he had apparently not contributed "enough" relative to the group, which had mowed through the level in about 2 minutes, and frankly, that guy was only there because we needed a body to fill the 5th slot.
This, of course, is a very real danger to the random PUGs, that if a semi-premade mows through the level dragging them along as a benchwarmer, they can get dinged for AFK on account of their poor performance, which would not have happened in a normal PUG.
All this could probably be resolved if the AFK penalties were not applied unless the mission duration was at least 15 minutes and the player was part of the initial group.
You might have missed where I said I have had entire missions of lag, and I have been also dropped in on some of these so called half, or even worse 75% completed quick runs, and in those instances I would be lucky if I got even 1.5k worth of registered dps, yet guess what I still have never received an afk penalty since its inception.
Ok, im going to keep moaning about this till someone catches a flippen wakeup.
Im from south africa, our lag to your precious servers sometimes suck deeply. Then the all sucky afk penalty hits me due to the fact that i live too far from your servers.
Really, put something in place to monitor if there is commands coming from my pc before you punish me for even trying to play this game.
*Venting is now off- afk penalty 1hr 49 mins to go*
It's not that they are think we are blaming the OP, they are just grasping at any excuse to get on their soap boxes and rail against the AFK/Leaver penalty.
This is no different than the anti party amp crowd claiming the disco balls prevent them from using the exchange/bank/email when they don't, or how some people claim they are forced to spend money to get C-store items, etc. etc, etc.
You know this. I know this.
My goal is making sure the fence-sitters and audience at large also know this, since they're "the prize" in this thunderously obvious PR campaign.
It's amazing how people are blaming OP for his bad internet connection, when it's more likely because there are no server in south africa, or probably even in africa. The closest is probably Europe or US, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't help for the latency.
There is only one server... In the US... Not sure how you could have missed that fact? As a European player, I've NEVER experienced the AFK-Penalty because of Lag or SNR.
And even if it was a connection issue, I'm sure the AFK penalty was meant to punish AFK player, not player with a bad connection, right ?
So, why are you all attacking the OP like it's his fault ? Maybe because he is expecting to be treated like the rest of us ? If people from the US were playing on a South Africa server, and were regularly tagged as afk, the amount of rage you would have on the forum would make the ME3 ending seems like a success. And most of the people trolling the op would be the first ones to flame cryptic.
But no, it's just a guy from south africa. Flame away, there are not enough to be threat anyway.
I'm sure there is a lot of US-EU player with a bad connection that have no issue being tagged as afk, because the server is close. The OP doesn't have this chance. And yes, it's unfair.
When you guys have time, check the word "empathy". You'll learn something.
For once I agree with Nabreeki (that say something), AFK penalty is supposed to affect AFK players. Yet, they found ways to avoid it, while the penalty still affect people like the OP.
If he takes up a spot, but dosen't benefit, because his connection prevents him from being a active part, he is dead weight, and shouldn have signed up in the first place... Sucks to be him, but he is getting off easy with the AFK penalty...
With the AFK penalty, he can sabotage a match again in 2 hours... He should be prevented from even signing up in the first place.
Don't look silly... Don't call it the "Z-Store/Zen Store"...
You might have missed where I said I have had entire missions of lag, and I have been also dropped in on some of these so called half, or even worse 75% completed quick runs, and in those instances I would be lucky if I got even 1.5k worth of registered dps, yet guess what I still have never received an afk penalty since its inception.
It depends on what you drop into. 1.5K is still passable if you're in a PUG, but if you drop into a 50K Scimitard rampage, you're probably gonna get slugged. And it's entirely possible to drop into a mission in the last 10 seconds, just in time for it to end before you can even move.
If he takes up a spot, but dosen't benefit, because his connection prevents him from being a active part, he is dead weight, and shouldn have signed up in the first place... Sucks to be him, but he is getting off easy with the AFK penalty...
With the AFK penalty, he can sabotage a match again in 2 hours... He should be prevented from even signing up in the first place.
I know it's popular to demonize AFKers, but really...the truth is, this is purely an irrational emotional reaction that has no basis in anything meaningful. The loss of one player represents maybe a 20% variance in team performance, far less than what can be accounted for simply by the quality level of random teams. If that missing 20% is going to make or break your mission, you were pretty bad at this game to begin with, and are probably liable to get slugged with an AFK penalty yourself if you end up in the wrong group!
I know it's popular to demonize AFKers, but really...the truth is, this is purely an irrational emotional reaction that has no basis in anything meaningful. The loss of one player represents maybe a 20% variance in team performance, far less than what can be accounted for simply by the quality level of random teams. If that missing 20% is going to make or break your mission, you were pretty bad at this game to begin with, and are probably liable to get slugged with an AFK penalty yourself if you end up in the wrong group!
Actually, it's not some nutjob with a dead connection that annoys me... It's the fact that people who are very well aware that they most likely will have issues taking part in a mission and then sign up anyways.
I don't like people who don't commit to things they sign up for... I never have, and especially not when other people are looking for your support.
If you can't finish what you start... Don't start it... If you can't be a part of a team, don't try to take a spot from someone who can.
The arrogance behind first taking a spot that you know you can't live up to, and then having the disrespect of complaining about your own fault afterwards... That's insanely silly, and YES, that does make me angry.
Don't look silly... Don't call it the "Z-Store/Zen Store"...
I daresay that AFKers were a personal problem and forum whining got the penalty put in the game when it was not needed. I ran STF's for years before the penalty and can count on one hand the times I saw a leecher.
The "AFK problem" was only really a problem for lazy players.
Ok, im going to keep moaning about this till someone catches a flippen wakeup.
Im from south africa, our lag to your precious servers sometimes suck deeply. Then the all sucky afk penalty hits me due to the fact that i live too far from your servers.
is op real?
afk penalty is for doing nothing for 5 minutes at least, no place in the world has a 300000 ping.
The "AFK Penalty" is a very interesting thing. If you lag out or are booted and...simply don't return, you tend evade the AFK penalty, as you disappear from the world and are not present in the instance to receive credit at the end for better or worse. But if you return too early, you are nailed with the AFK penalty for coming back before the instance has shutdown.
Additionally, it is possible to be AFK-penaltied if *YOU* are dropped into a mission which is nearly over, but someone gets booted and you get dragooned to fill the slot. You warp in, the mission ends before you can fire a shot, you're banned for being AFK despite having just gotten there.
I also observed an individual receiving the AFK penalty while clearly NOT AFK. We mowed through an ISE with 5 guys, and at the end of it, one guy complained he had been hit with an AFK penalty. This was quite perplexing, as everyone clearly saw him there, in the action. A parse log revealed, however, that he had apparently not contributed "enough" relative to the group, which had mowed through the level in about 2 minutes, and frankly, that guy was only there because we needed a body to fill the 5th slot.
This, of course, is a very real danger to the random PUGs, that if a semi-premade mows through the level dragging them along as a benchwarmer, they can get dinged for AFK on account of their poor performance, which would not have happened in a normal PUG.
All this could probably be resolved if the AFK penalties were not applied unless the mission duration was at least 15 minutes and the player was part of the initial group.
I had that awesome afk penalty too by joining a nearly finished mission like CSE, KSE, ISE... that was painfull.
I did get it for that too :
We were 5 people doing a private, all well known for hiting the +25k DPS on ISE,
One of us wanted to try it alone but he needed help on heals so everyone left to avoid afk penalty and I stayed to heal both of us and drain agro on me.
Imagine my surprise when I saw I got afk penalty for that !
aparently healer are also AFKer now ?
nice to know there's only place for that :
" WE ARRRE SMART ! WE MAKE SHIP GO BOOOOOM"
Dark Side (KDF)
HOUSE OF BORG
"I am FLATULUS of Borg, Resistance if Futile! Prepare to pull my finger!"
It depends on what you drop into. 1.5K is still passable if you're in a PUG, but if you drop into a 50K Scimitard rampage, you're probably gonna get slugged. And it's entirely possible to drop into a mission in the last 10 seconds, just in time for it to end before you can even move.
I know it's popular to demonize AFKers, but really...the truth is, this is purely an irrational emotional reaction that has no basis in anything meaningful. The loss of one player represents maybe a 20% variance in team performance, far less than what can be accounted for simply by the quality level of random teams. If that missing 20% is going to make or break your mission, you were pretty bad at this game to begin with, and are probably liable to get slugged with an AFK penalty yourself if you end up in the wrong group!
Oh yes, and yes this guy must be bad if loosing 1 teamate is ruining his match. If it's STF he probably do not do more than 2k dps then we should ask for a AFK penalty Under 3K DPS so he understand what "unfair" is realy and respect those that can have trouble from time to time.
As I said before this game tends to be a DPS run only since healer working on their job are still getting AFK penalties,i let's put some AFK for low DPS.
Criptic should think about it, it would force people to buy stuff to get more DPS = money, then raise the DPS from time to time till.... there's no more people playing the game anymore
PS: this is sarcasm ok ! but there's part that reflecting truth anyway
Dark Side (KDF)
HOUSE OF BORG
"I am FLATULUS of Borg, Resistance if Futile! Prepare to pull my finger!"
I'm curious, is it hard for you to see the sunlight when you suffer from such a severe cranial rectal inversion?
In the 12 years I've been playing online games and reading their forums I've found that the people that make statements like the one I quoted more often than not turn out to be the biggest offenders themselves or they are just trolling to see if they can get people angry.
No one is stupid enough to believe that the players who are doing all the work to complete the missions are lazy instead the deadbeats that aren't doing anything except waiting to grab any loot that drops. :P
OH! You made a joke about my head being in my butt! So clever and funny!
As for my lazy statement, you just misinterpreted whom it was aimed at. I will explain in small words and go slowly for you. Said players are lazy because they did not use the already available in game tools to group for STF play while avoiding AFKers. They needed someone to do that for them. And it did nothing to solve the problem anyway, just changed the offending players tactics.
"No one is stupid enough..." Never underestimate the stupidity of game forums. I certainly will not underestimate you. See also: reading comprehension and jumping to conclusions.
Going to go ahead and close this thread since the OP decided to delete his entire post thus making this conversation kinda odd. (Not to mention pointless)
Yes, I'm that Askray@Batbayer in game. Yes, I still play. No, I don't care. Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker. Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113
Comments
No. the point is to punish leechers, regardless of whatever reason they're leeching.
AFKing is just the most blatant and obvious form of leeching.
I do treat the OP like the rest of us. His internet problem is his ****ing internet problems, just like your internet problems are your internet problems and my internet problems are my internet problems. PWE has no responsibility to put servers near people to make life easier for them. They cost money, putting them there would at minimum have to guarantee more return for the investment of doing so. I seriously doubt that placing servers in SA would lead to a better bottom line for PWE and as such I certainly don't expect them to waste money on that.
You might have missed where I said I have had entire missions of lag, and I have been also dropped in on some of these so called half, or even worse 75% completed quick runs, and in those instances I would be lucky if I got even 1.5k worth of registered dps, yet guess what I still have never received an afk penalty since its inception.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Just relax with the sounds of Toto -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdBcfRhzzAA
You know this. I know this.
My goal is making sure the fence-sitters and audience at large also know this, since they're "the prize" in this thunderously obvious PR campaign.
There is only one server... In the US... Not sure how you could have missed that fact? As a European player, I've NEVER experienced the AFK-Penalty because of Lag or SNR.
If he takes up a spot, but dosen't benefit, because his connection prevents him from being a active part, he is dead weight, and shouldn have signed up in the first place... Sucks to be him, but he is getting off easy with the AFK penalty...
With the AFK penalty, he can sabotage a match again in 2 hours... He should be prevented from even signing up in the first place.
I know it's popular to demonize AFKers, but really...the truth is, this is purely an irrational emotional reaction that has no basis in anything meaningful. The loss of one player represents maybe a 20% variance in team performance, far less than what can be accounted for simply by the quality level of random teams. If that missing 20% is going to make or break your mission, you were pretty bad at this game to begin with, and are probably liable to get slugged with an AFK penalty yourself if you end up in the wrong group!
Actually, it's not some nutjob with a dead connection that annoys me... It's the fact that people who are very well aware that they most likely will have issues taking part in a mission and then sign up anyways.
I don't like people who don't commit to things they sign up for... I never have, and especially not when other people are looking for your support.
If you can't finish what you start... Don't start it... If you can't be a part of a team, don't try to take a spot from someone who can.
The arrogance behind first taking a spot that you know you can't live up to, and then having the disrespect of complaining about your own fault afterwards... That's insanely silly, and YES, that does make me angry.
The "AFK problem" was only really a problem for lazy players.
is op real?
afk penalty is for doing nothing for 5 minutes at least, no place in the world has a 300000 ping.
op is making stuff up to excuse his idling.
I had that awesome afk penalty too by joining a nearly finished mission like CSE, KSE, ISE... that was painfull.
I did get it for that too :
We were 5 people doing a private, all well known for hiting the +25k DPS on ISE,
One of us wanted to try it alone but he needed help on heals so everyone left to avoid afk penalty and I stayed to heal both of us and drain agro on me.
Imagine my surprise when I saw I got afk penalty for that !
aparently healer are also AFKer now ?
nice to know there's only place for that :
" WE ARRRE SMART ! WE MAKE SHIP GO BOOOOOM"
Oh yes, and yes this guy must be bad if loosing 1 teamate is ruining his match. If it's STF he probably do not do more than 2k dps then we should ask for a AFK penalty Under 3K DPS so he understand what "unfair" is realy and respect those that can have trouble from time to time.
As I said before this game tends to be a DPS run only since healer working on their job are still getting AFK penalties,i let's put some AFK for low DPS.
Criptic should think about it, it would force people to buy stuff to get more DPS = money, then raise the DPS from time to time till.... there's no more people playing the game anymore
PS: this is sarcasm ok ! but there's part that reflecting truth anyway
OH! You made a joke about my head being in my butt! So clever and funny!
As for my lazy statement, you just misinterpreted whom it was aimed at. I will explain in small words and go slowly for you. Said players are lazy because they did not use the already available in game tools to group for STF play while avoiding AFKers. They needed someone to do that for them. And it did nothing to solve the problem anyway, just changed the offending players tactics.
"No one is stupid enough..." Never underestimate the stupidity of game forums. I certainly will not underestimate you. See also: reading comprehension and jumping to conclusions.
Former Community Moderator, Former SSR DJ, Now Full time father to two kids, Husband, Retail Worker.
Tiktok: @Askray Facebook: Askray113