Afk leeching must be stopped!

merse · November 2014

This is getting ridiculous! I never saw so many Afk leechers as recently. They join the PvE, they put in quarter impulse, they just fly there, occasionally click need on loot, and respawn.

I just left a Mirror invasion event where 4 of our 5 member team were leeching. It was funny though to fly alone against 10 Typhoons... But seriously, in about every second PvE mission there is someone who is Afk and does nothing, ruins the mission for the rest of the team and then grabs the loot.

I know this is not a new issue, so when will leechers be dealt with already?

kemcha · November 2014

There's no issue. Cryptic fixed the AFK leechers awhile back. That remove the rewards for AFKers. However, there's nothing you can do about stopping someone from entering a q and not participating.

peetapipmac · November 2014

Your problem is you are puggin the mirror event. There is no afk penelty on that particular mission and due to the fact that the mission can't be speed up by good performance plus the fact that the mark difference between a good and bad run is fairly negligible. That all makes it a prime target for the regular afk crowd

Plus the fact that you have to do it multiple times for the event means a lot of people (including myself) who would normally never afk have become so burned out that they do it anyway.

razar2380 · November 2014

The current AFK punishing system is really a joke. Even in other missions, like the STFs/PVEs, all anyone needs to do is pop a few shots here and there, then run to one spot and sit. We need a much better system for it, and the vote option can be abused.

I still feel the best thing would be to not queue us with ones that are in our ignore list. Then it can't be abused by anyone.

In fact, when I have reported someone for exploiting the game, and victimizing other players like this, I get an automated response telling me to put them on my ignore list, which is pointless. Lol.

Why not make it so that eventually all of the AFK exploiters will be teamed together, while the actual players playing the game can all team together. By using our ignore list, it will help to do that.

stonewbie · November 2014

razar2380 wrote: »

Why not make it so that eventually all of the AFK exploiters will be teamed together, while the actual players playing the game can all team together. By using our ignore list, it will help to do that.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/11/7/7176231/blizzard-heroes-of-the-storm-leavers

"If you play as a leaver, we will put you with other people who are leavers," Browder said. "Since you have indicated to us that you like that style of play, we will put you with people who share that style of play." -Game Director Dustin Browder

It would be pretty funny to see a system like that put into STO, but you *know* it isnt going to happen.

battykoda0 · November 2014

stonewbie wrote: »

http://www.polygon.com/2014/11/7/7176231/blizzard-heroes-of-the-storm-leavers

"If you play as a leaver, we will put you with other people who are leavers," Browder said. "Since you have indicated to us that you like that style of play, we will put you with people who share that style of play." -Game Director Dustin Browder

It would be pretty funny to see a system like that put into STO, but you *know* it isnt going to happen.

I love this. In so many ways that I might never love another game concept quite the same way!

vsilverwings1 · November 2014

Just had a mirror invasion where 1 alt tabbed and just so happens to spawn <10seconds after the final phase begins and 2 had an act of disconnect who I'm just waiting to spawn back or they saw the afker and left rather than help so for the first part it was a 2 man operation.

The level of idling/leeching/afking call it what you will is happening significantly more in MI. I'm spending more time and effort focusing on the team than I do the mission objective because chances are one of the four will not take part.

rossclansforce1 · November 2014

This is exactly why it is important to run with fleet members. You can run private queued events. I don't care if you came up with a wa wa baby story about why you went afk. "oh I got dc'd.." really? I bet you told your crew to fly in a perfect line and auto need for you too. If you are not motivated to play then why are you around? I miss the old days when we could kick people out. Those were the days.

For those of you having issues with the computer or game this is not directed at you.

decronia · November 2014

I seem to have been very lucky and only seen one afker so far, though I have been in a number of bad teams. The good or bad thing, depending on your view, of the MIE is that it can't be failed, the transporter will always be rewarded.

The one thing I can see workling is a semi-automated system that means it give the target a way to clear it. THe closest thing to this is the report afk system in WoWs BGs. This works in that a player reports anohter afk this is the only thing the reporter/team has power with. After this report the automated system takes over. The person recieves a visable debuff flag and is given a set time limit in which to get involved or they are removed from the BG and then blocked from entering another BG for a set amount of time.

Now if a similar system can be brought in here the time limit to kick and the ban from queueing again would be set by Cryptic. For example it could be set as a three hour queue (all queues not just the one they are kicked from) ban for the entire account for the first time, increasing by an hour each time until the the fifth kick where a weeks ban comes in.

This means the players only power is the report and the rest is automated. This gives the target a way to clear it.

Also I would, as another poster mentions, like to see is a way that you aren't teamed with those on your ignore list. In WoW they do have an over ride for it in that if queues are low for a particualr thing then you can be queued with those on your ignore list, but on really active queues you are not. THis may have to be done here as the queues themselves are also quiet though as time goes on and more people reach max level this may then work better than it would at the start as things are.

rossclansforce1 · November 2014

There is another option in place we all seemed to have forgotten. There is an attack pattern delta agro doff. They might as well take agro for us right?

orondis · November 2014

The thing is they have very little reason to participate in MIN, beyond keeping the station alive. The rewards are poor and their participation doesn't speed up the grind. Cryptic gives you a 10 minute timer and only when that's run out are you allowed to complete the mission.

Fix that and you'll see a huge drop in AFKers I expect.

starswordc · November 2014

orondis wrote: »

The thing is they have very little reason to participate in MIN, beyond keeping the station alive. The rewards are poor and their participation doesn't speed up the grind. Cryptic gives you a 10 minute timer and only when that's run out are you allowed to complete the mission.

Fix that and you'll see a huge drop in AFKers I expect.

Something I've been saying since the first time the event was available. They should have done it like KSE, where closing x number of rifts triggers the boss fight. The optional then becomes to close x rifts in y minutes. That would both encourage people to participate and to learn the necessary tactics.

As it is, the mission is just bloody annoying. If it weren't for the unique item most people I know would prefer to be doing roughly anything else.

peetapipmac · November 2014

starswordc wrote: »

As it is, the mission is just bloody annoying. If it weren't for the unique item most people I know would prefer to be doing roughly anything else.

Which is why I am so glad I just got my last transponder.

shadowwraith77 · November 2014

stonewbie wrote: »

http://www.polygon.com/2014/11/7/7176231/blizzard-heroes-of-the-storm-leavers

"If you play as a leaver, we will put you with other people who are leavers," Browder said. "Since you have indicated to us that you like that style of play, we will put you with people who share that style of play." -Game Director Dustin Browder

It would be pretty funny to see a system like that put into STO, but you *know* it isnt going to happen.

As nice as this concept is, it has the awful potential to be oh so abused badly.

Think of all the fun mission trolls will have!

The potential at their disposal, to literally drive a large amount of the player base, into a specific designated player status!

razar2380 · November 2014

starswordc wrote: »

Something I've been saying since the first time the event was available. They should have done it like KSE, where closing x number of rifts triggers the boss fight. The optional then becomes to close x rifts in y minutes. That would both encourage people to participate and to learn the necessary tactics.

As it is, the mission is just bloody annoying. If it weren't for the unique item most people I know would prefer to be doing roughly anything else.

The problem with AFKers is not that the mission is boring. It is that they found a way to exploit the game, and other players. If it was that they are bored, then they would be playing it on advance.

I was in a pug where 4 of them went AFK, and I had to try to do everything myself. If I left, I would get a 30 min penalty because that is the cool down timer on the mission. I was only able to close 10 rifts, and get the station to T1. That gave me 20 marks of my choice. With my daily bonus, I had about 75 marks. So, if 20 marks is the bare minimal you will get, that is still 75 marks with the daily bonus marks.

By doing the math, you are looking at 1,050 marks of your choice just from that, plus the 250 marks of your choice from completing the mission. Also, 500 fleet marks, 50,000 dil, and 6,720 total dil from mission rewards. And all of this by not doing a single thing.

Like I said, it isn't because they are bored, but that they found an exploit, and are taking advantage of it, with no care that they are exploiting other players also. If they were bored, they would be playing on advanced where you need to do stuff, or you will lose the mission.

I am sorry, but using "I'm bored" is not a valid excuse for exploiting the game or players, especially when there are options to keep it from being boring. I have run the Borg STFs so much that they bore me. But if I queue for them, I still participate instead of exploiting the game and players. There is no good excuse for intentionally doing that to others.

rygelx16 · November 2014

Because MI sucks. It's boring, slow and nothing you can do to speed it up. Not saying it is right to AFK, just saying this is why. People just want their event thingy otherwise no one would touch this with a 10 foot pole.

stonewbie · November 2014

shadowwraith77 wrote: »

As nice as this concept is, it has the awful potential to be oh so abused badly.

Think of all the fun mission trolls will have!

The potential at their disposal, to literally drive a large amount of the player base, into a specific designated player status!

Thats why the devs would have to set a reasonable threshold to be able to tell the difference between a habitual leaver and someone that had to leave because their grandma needed her oxygen tank refilled.

I played BF3 a few months ago and IIRC "leaver" is one of the stats they tracked for every player. These are people who leave a match at the first sign of fail. But you dont just look at their leaver % number of games left by itself. You also have to look at their win/loss percentage. I dont remember if all of BF3s stats are percentages or if they keep numbers of matches they have done. But say for example a person left 450 out of the last 500 matches and their win rating is really really high. Then that is probably a clear sign of a leaver. I dont remember exactly how it went because its been so long, but you get the idea. Number of wins, number of losses, number of matches left all give you an idea of a players behavior. If someone has a win/loss ratio of 50/50 and they have a 10% leaver rating it is still obvious that the person sticks around to try and tough it out.

EDIT: for STO it might be a little more complicated since our issue is AFKers. I used to mess around with damage meters in WoW and i believe it tracked player activity as a percent. A dps player that does 1mil dps, 10k damage but was only active for 1% of the fight duration vs another dps player that does 10k dps, 10mil damage but was active 99% of the fight duration. DPS, damage done and duration participation all come together to give you some idea of what happened to both players. The first player got a little bit of burst dps off then died and stayed dead for the whole fight. But the second player managed to stay alive for a good portion of the fight. The second players participation percentage can give you an idea of their dps uptime. If they are a turret caster it tells you how often they had to move etc etc. And their damage/dps figures can tell you how they stack up on the overall fight if its average or above/below average.

and i completely forgot the point i was trying to make with the edited post so i'm gonna eat my dinner cause it smells goooood. hehe

shadowwraith77 · November 2014

stonewbie wrote: »

Thats why the devs would have to set a reasonable threshold to be able to tell the difference between a habitual leaver and someone that had to leave because their grandma needed her oxygen tank refilled.

I played BF3 a few months ago and IIRC "leaver" is one of the stats they tracked for every player. These are people who leave a match at the first sign of fail. But you dont just look at their leaver % number of games left by itself. You also have to look at their win/loss percentage. I dont remember if all of BF3s stats are percentages or if they keep numbers of matches they have done. But say for example a person left 450 out of the last 500 matches and their win rating is really really high. Then that is probably a clear sign of a leaver. I dont remember exactly how it went because its been so long, but you get the idea. Number of wins, number of losses, number of matches left all give you an idea of a players behavior. If someone has a win/loss ratio of 50/50 and they have a 10% leaver rating it is still obvious that the person sticks around to try and tough it out.

EDIT: for STO it might be a little more complicated since our issue is AFKers. I used to mess around with damage meters in WoW and i believe it tracked player activity as a percent. A dps player that does 1mil dps, 10k damage but was only active for 1% of the fight duration vs another dps player that does 10k dps, 10mil damage but was active 99% of the fight duration. DPS, damage done and duration participation all come together to give you some idea of what happened to both players. The first player got a little bit of burst dps off then died and stayed dead for the whole fight. But the second player managed to stay alive for a good portion of the fight. The second players participation percentage can give you an idea of their dps uptime. If they are a turret caster it tells you how often they had to move etc etc. And their damage/dps figures can tell you how they stack up on the overall fight if its average or above/below average.

and i completely forgot the point i was trying to make with the edited post so i'm gonna eat my dinner cause it smells goooood. hehe

If and, that's a big IF, they could correctly track all of this to better monitor and, even rate people.

You still run the high risk of, some jerk off troll trying to purposely sabotaging the mission, just to make people quit/leave.

stonewbie · November 2014

shadowwraith77 wrote: »

If and, that's a big IF, they could correctly track all of this to better monitor and, even rate people.

You still run the high risk of, some jerk off troll trying to purposely sabotaging the mission, just to make people quit/leave.

Nah i dont think they could add in a reliable system.

But even with that situation you talked about? that would not count as a "leaver" type situation. *If* they could add a reliable system it would have to differentiate between a mission or STF that is completed, incomplete and one that is a failure. If a person leave when a mission has not gotten its pass/fail flag then they are a leaver. However if a person stays until the mission has failed then they leave, they wouldnt count as a leaver.

But i think i mentioned in my previous post (i was sorta rambling) our problem isnt really with leavers, its more with afkers.

EDIT: of course this thread and discussion wouldnt even be necessary if they had a good ticket/reporting, investigating or tracking system. Person AFK/Trolling? report them the CSRs investigate and if in the wrong they get a 3 day ban. Person continues to AFK/Troll in instances? perma ban.

jon1764 · November 2014

razar2380 wrote: »

The problem with AFKers is not that the mission is boring. It is that they found a way to exploit the game, and other players. If it was that they are bored, then they would be playing it on advance.

Too bad cryptic doesn't see AFKing as an exploit. Therefore it is working as intended.

cookiecrook · November 2014

The current penalty doesn't seem to work as intended. It seems to catch the odd person not AFK'ing and it doesn't make AFK'ers want to stop. Perhaps some fine tuning along with increasing the ban from all PvE content to 12 hours might help.

jon1764 · November 2014

Just implement it so that if a player is on our ignore list we cannot be queued with them.

It is the simplest solution.

sjokruhlica · November 2014

I've been playing since Season 4. There's always been leechers, and there always will be. You'll never get rid of them entirely. I used to report them, but nothing comes of it. So now i just ridicule them mercilessly.

Afk leeching must be stopped!

Comments