AFK Penalty is BS!

raeff111 · December 2017

So a guy comes in a borg red alert and kills 4 groups of borg in less than 4 seconds each, and now I have an AFK Penalty flag. Complete BS. Whoever designed this system failed miserably. I'm starting to regret coming back after my long period away from the game. I've got this BS several times now with these leet guys. And 2 hours? Are you trying to keep people from coming back and trying to catch up?

pacelli1 · December 2017

It is a flawed system, but can you suggest a better one? They are trying to address the problem of leaches. Admittedly, it isn't 100% effective in that regard, ether, but it's better than nothing. The scenario you describe is pretty extreme; so much so that you shouldn't see that very often.

And, in response to Coldnapalm, yes, it does happen. As I said, it's rare, but there are some CRAZY overpowered PCs that get teamed up with a group of average to low and they just CLEAN THE BOARD leaving everyone else in a 30 min. time out. It's a HUGE flaw. It's a KNOWN flaw. But, again, what can possibly be done about it?

tigreanpony · December 2017

coldnapalm wrote: »

pacelli1 wrote: »

It is a flawed system, but can you suggest a better one? They are trying to address the problem of leaches. Admittedly, it isn't 100% effective in that regard, ether, but it's better than nothing. The scenario you describe is pretty extreme; so much so that you shouldn't see that very often.

And, in response to Coldnapalm, yes, it does happen. As I said, it's rare, but there are some CRAZY overpowered PCs that get teamed up with a group of average to low and they just CLEAN THE BOARD leaving everyone else in a 30 min. time out. It's a HUGE flaw. It's a KNOWN flaw. But, again, what can possibly be done about it?

Even if you are in a queue with THE best players in this game, you need to be able to do a measley 1%. That is a ship that can do 3k DPS in ISA.

So either the player in question can't do the level of damage needed because of gear...which is is a stupid silly low level of stuff to get.

Or they are terrible at building ships and should ask for help before inflicting their useless self on others.

Or they are just TERRIBLE at playing the game and just followed the DPSer around leeching and basically deserves the AFK penalty.

I am a pretty crappy gamer and I can do queues with 4 of the best players in this game and not get AFKed. That is with EVERYONE else in the team using 250+k ships and skills. So if I can avoid AFK penalties under that circumstance, there is no reason why anyone in a pug can't eak out a measley piddiance of damage to avoid the AFK penalty. If you kill one sphere by yourself and do zero damage to ANYTHING else...even the final ship in the end, you won't get an AFK penalty. If you can't deal with a sphere in 30+ seconds, you really should not be there,

It is people like you that really get me angry. You are an elitist that really makes the undesirable to play because if the ship isn't built a specific way then that person is worthless and shouldn't be playing the game. I guess you forgot that it is a game and should be fun. I do builds that are not standard because I want to have fun or create a minor challenge for myself. I got hit with this penalty once before and really the ship I was using I can go into a battle ground and clear one area of it within a minute by myself yet you are telling me that my build isn't good enough for a red alert? You sir are the type of people that anger me in these type of games. Stop thinking about only yourself and maybe start helping the lower players out instead oh you are no good you shouldn't play the game. So remember IT IS A GAME!

thunderfoot · December 2017

wow. Coldnapalm is one of the most helpful and truthful people in these forums. Never seen him offer advice which isn't based on a very good knowledge of the game.

Even if it was something people do not want to hear.

Lashing out at him does not help the OP. If you cannot state your case without it devolving into an unjustifiable personal attack, then perhaps this thread should be closed post haste.

@baddmoonrizin

thunderfoot · December 2017

tigreanpony wrote: »

It is people like you that really get me angry. You are an elitist that really makes the undesirable to play because if the ship isn't built a specific way then that person is worthless and shouldn't be playing the game. I guess you forgot that it is a game and should be fun. I do builds that are not standard because I want to have fun or create a minor challenge for myself. I got hit with this penalty once before and really the ship I was using I can go into a battle ground and clear one area of it within a minute by myself yet you are telling me that my build isn't good enough for a red alert? You sir are the type of people that anger me in these type of games. Stop thinking about only yourself and maybe start helping the lower players out instead oh you are no good you shouldn't play the game. So remember IT IS A GAME!

Hey! Cupcake! You were angry looong before you posted here! I strongly suspect from the tone of your post you spend most of your time angry. At everything and everyone around you. Might wanna go seek some help for that.
"Anger leads to the Dark Side!"

And you've only been hit by the AFK Penalty once or twice?
Rookie!

tigreanpony · December 2017

thunderfoot006 wrote: »

tigreanpony wrote: »

It is people like you that really get me angry. You are an elitist that really makes the undesirable to play because if the ship isn't built a specific way then that person is worthless and shouldn't be playing the game. I guess you forgot that it is a game and should be fun. I do builds that are not standard because I want to have fun or create a minor challenge for myself. I got hit with this penalty once before and really the ship I was using I can go into a battle ground and clear one area of it within a minute by myself yet you are telling me that my build isn't good enough for a red alert? You sir are the type of people that anger me in these type of games. Stop thinking about only yourself and maybe start helping the lower players out instead oh you are no good you shouldn't play the game. So remember IT IS A GAME!

Hey! Cupcake! You were angry looong before you posted here! I strongly suspect from the tone of your post you spend most of your time angry. At everything and everyone around you. Might wanna go seek some help for that.
"Anger leads to the Dark Side!"

And you've only been hit by the AFK Penalty once or twice?
Rookie!

For your information I was hit with the AFK penalty once and wasn't to happy about it. I usually do RA before I go to work because I usually only have maybe 15 minutes to get all the dailies done I want to. I play as DPS mostly so yeas I wn't be hit by the penalty often if at all. I get angry at people that try to push people to do what they want them to do not what he/she wants to do. I think the AFK penalty is quite broken because it alienates the people who do Heal builds or Support builds where DPS isn't the concern of the player. RAs are supposed to be a group thing so even if you can do it alone with no problem doesn't mean you should. If you wait maybe a few seconds and let the other players get some hits in then go to town it wouldn't hurt you and even make the RA fun for others. The time that I got hit by the penalty was because one to two people could just wipe the floor and I didn't even have a chance to build up the damage. So I tried to use the support powers that I had in hope that I could at least assist in some way instead of being seen as a leach, I was unaware that there was a damage minimum at the time. So yes I felt a little bit put out about that so now I don't even try to help others and just go as fast as I can and do as much damage as possible not even bothering to use the support power that are meant to assist the group. I feel that is the wrong thing to do but it seems cryptic just wanted to do the easiest thing to enforce assistance instead of taking account all possibilities and coding the penalty right so it doesn't alienate any type of player to the game.

pottsey5g · December 2017

coldnapalm wrote: »

tigreanpony wrote: »

coldnapalm wrote: »

pacelli1 wrote: »

It is a flawed system, but can you suggest a better one? They are trying to address the problem of leaches. Admittedly, it isn't 100% effective in that regard, ether, but it's better than nothing. The scenario you describe is pretty extreme; so much so that you shouldn't see that very often.

And, in response to Coldnapalm, yes, it does happen. As I said, it's rare, but there are some CRAZY overpowered PCs that get teamed up with a group of average to low and they just CLEAN THE BOARD leaving everyone else in a 30 min. time out. It's a HUGE flaw. It's a KNOWN flaw. But, again, what can possibly be done about it?

Even if you are in a queue with THE best players in this game, you need to be able to do a measley 1%. That is a ship that can do 3k DPS in ISA.

So either the player in question can't do the level of damage needed because of gear...which is is a stupid silly low level of stuff to get.

Or they are terrible at building ships and should ask for help before inflicting their useless self on others.

Or they are just TERRIBLE at playing the game and just followed the DPSer around leeching and basically deserves the AFK penalty.

I am a pretty crappy gamer and I can do queues with 4 of the best players in this game and not get AFKed. That is with EVERYONE else in the team using 250+k ships and skills. So if I can avoid AFK penalties under that circumstance, there is no reason why anyone in a pug can't eak out a measley piddiance of damage to avoid the AFK penalty. If you kill one sphere by yourself and do zero damage to ANYTHING else...even the final ship in the end, you won't get an AFK penalty. If you can't deal with a sphere in 30+ seconds, you really should not be there,

It is people like you that really get me angry. You are an elitist that really makes the undesirable to play because if the ship isn't built a specific way then that person is worthless and shouldn't be playing the game. I guess you forgot that it is a game and should be fun. I do builds that are not standard because I want to have fun or create a minor challenge for myself. I got hit with this penalty once before and really the ship I was using I can go into a battle ground and clear one area of it within a minute by myself yet you are telling me that my build isn't good enough for a red alert? You sir are the type of people that anger me in these type of games. Stop thinking about only yourself and maybe start helping the lower players out instead oh you are no good you shouldn't play the game. So remember IT IS A GAME!

Who said anything about building a ship a certain way? I never mentioned anything about playing the game the ONE TRUE WAY. I said don't build terrible ships and take them into grouped content. Hell, I mixed cannons, beams, torps and mines with a mix of energy types in one of my ships because it was fun. Yeah I can do 20k DPS breaking every single basic rule of ship building. WAY more than enough to avoid the AFK penalty. Course that ship didn't see queues until about 100 hours of solo play so I can tweak things and I knew it was good enough for group content and contribute in it. If you are in a ship that can clear a BZ area in 1 min or less, the issue ain't the ship. The issue is YOU did something stupid (remember that third option as to why you get AFKed?). Like follow a DPSer around and basically do nothing in the map as they clear everything before you can do anything. Or be the idiot who spends 10 seconds buffing everything while NOT SHOOTING and wondering why your party has already wiped out the transformer because you are in an ISA with 4 100k+ers (you can tell because when this happens, the opeing borg group dies in about 3 seconds...including the 1.5 second click to start moving and travel time travel time).

And yes, this is a game...and it should be fun. But your fun should not infringe on the fun of others. And guess what princess, leaching ain't all that fun for the people being leached from...mostly. I personally PuG queues that I can solo anyways so if you wanna leach off me, whatever, I can get my rewards with or without your help anyways. But for many, yeah it's not that great. So make sure you can contribute before you join...which should be WAY more than the 1% to avoid the AFK penalty.

That’s not true the AFK penalty stopped us playing a certain way which is full team support. My old team build from the old NWS days was ruined by the AFK penalty. I was maximized in team support boosting team damage, doing 100% of the team healing keeping the primary target alive so the NWS mission didn't fail. Everyone else in the group was 100% DPS with zero heals and I was fully speced into team stuff so no weapon skills, maximize skills that boost the team, hanger pets that heal only. Even now I sometimes take weapons that heal the team over DPS. It was a valid playstyle that the AFK penalty stopped us playing in a certain way. Back in the past top DPS players used to rely on us team boosting players to get there maximized DPS score. As we boosted DPS a lot. Now you rarely see any team support and a lot of that is due to the AFK penalty. It sucks to boost a teams DPS by a large amount then be forced to drop out of the teams 2nd run. Back in the past high end DPS channel people used to call out for us team boosting players. You never see that anymore or if you do its very rare.

It was a great social build for pre made groups but the AFK penalty ruined it and forced us into more solo builds.

pottsey5g · December 2017

coldnapalm wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

coldnapalm wrote: »

tigreanpony wrote: »

coldnapalm wrote: »

pacelli1 wrote: »

It is a flawed system, but can you suggest a better one? They are trying to address the problem of leaches. Admittedly, it isn't 100% effective in that regard, ether, but it's better than nothing. The scenario you describe is pretty extreme; so much so that you shouldn't see that very often.

And, in response to Coldnapalm, yes, it does happen. As I said, it's rare, but there are some CRAZY overpowered PCs that get teamed up with a group of average to low and they just CLEAN THE BOARD leaving everyone else in a 30 min. time out. It's a HUGE flaw. It's a KNOWN flaw. But, again, what can possibly be done about it?

Even if you are in a queue with THE best players in this game, you need to be able to do a measley 1%. That is a ship that can do 3k DPS in ISA.

So either the player in question can't do the level of damage needed because of gear...which is is a stupid silly low level of stuff to get.

Or they are terrible at building ships and should ask for help before inflicting their useless self on others.

Or they are just TERRIBLE at playing the game and just followed the DPSer around leeching and basically deserves the AFK penalty.

I am a pretty crappy gamer and I can do queues with 4 of the best players in this game and not get AFKed. That is with EVERYONE else in the team using 250+k ships and skills. So if I can avoid AFK penalties under that circumstance, there is no reason why anyone in a pug can't eak out a measley piddiance of damage to avoid the AFK penalty. If you kill one sphere by yourself and do zero damage to ANYTHING else...even the final ship in the end, you won't get an AFK penalty. If you can't deal with a sphere in 30+ seconds, you really should not be there,

It is people like you that really get me angry. You are an elitist that really makes the undesirable to play because if the ship isn't built a specific way then that person is worthless and shouldn't be playing the game. I guess you forgot that it is a game and should be fun. I do builds that are not standard because I want to have fun or create a minor challenge for myself. I got hit with this penalty once before and really the ship I was using I can go into a battle ground and clear one area of it within a minute by myself yet you are telling me that my build isn't good enough for a red alert? You sir are the type of people that anger me in these type of games. Stop thinking about only yourself and maybe start helping the lower players out instead oh you are no good you shouldn't play the game. So remember IT IS A GAME!

Who said anything about building a ship a certain way? I never mentioned anything about playing the game the ONE TRUE WAY. I said don't build terrible ships and take them into grouped content. Hell, I mixed cannons, beams, torps and mines with a mix of energy types in one of my ships because it was fun. Yeah I can do 20k DPS breaking every single basic rule of ship building. WAY more than enough to avoid the AFK penalty. Course that ship didn't see queues until about 100 hours of solo play so I can tweak things and I knew it was good enough for group content and contribute in it. If you are in a ship that can clear a BZ area in 1 min or less, the issue ain't the ship. The issue is YOU did something stupid (remember that third option as to why you get AFKed?). Like follow a DPSer around and basically do nothing in the map as they clear everything before you can do anything. Or be the idiot who spends 10 seconds buffing everything while NOT SHOOTING and wondering why your party has already wiped out the transformer because you are in an ISA with 4 100k+ers (you can tell because when this happens, the opeing borg group dies in about 3 seconds...including the 1.5 second click to start moving and travel time travel time).

And yes, this is a game...and it should be fun. But your fun should not infringe on the fun of others. And guess what princess, leaching ain't all that fun for the people being leached from...mostly. I personally PuG queues that I can solo anyways so if you wanna leach off me, whatever, I can get my rewards with or without your help anyways. But for many, yeah it's not that great. So make sure you can contribute before you join...which should be WAY more than the 1% to avoid the AFK penalty.

That’s not true the AFK penalty stopped us playing a certain way which is full team support. My old team build from the old NWS days was ruined by the AFK penalty. I was maximized in team support boosting team damage, doing 100% of the team healing keeping the primary target alive so the NWS mission didn't fail. Everyone else in the group was 100% DPS with zero heals and I was fully speced into team stuff so no weapon skills, maximize skills that boost the team, hanger pets that heal only. Even now I sometimes take weapons that heal the team over DPS. It was a valid playstyle that the AFK penalty stopped us playing in a certain way. Back in the past top DPS players used to rely on us team boosting players to get there maximized DPS score. As we boosted DPS a lot. Now you rarely see any team support and a lot of that is due to the AFK penalty. It sucks to boost a teams DPS by a large amount then be forced to drop out of the teams 2nd run. Back in the past high end DPS channel people used to call out for us team boosting players. You never see that anymore or if you do its very rare.

It was a great social build for pre made groups but the AFK penalty ruined it and forced us into more solo builds.

Umm...you are talking about pre-mades. Unless they changed things, private groups do not have the AFK penalty system. So you can still do your support in pre-mades with DPSers who have zero heals all you want. I could have sworn that those DPS records were done doing exactly that. If they placed AFK into private queues...well that should be removed. It's private. If somebody wants 4 people to AFK so they can do a solo run, it should be allowed if everyone wants it that way,

Not just pre mades. I get the impression you are relatively new to this game. Back in the past when we had real team work STF raids not the massively dumbed down over simple STF’s we have now. Back when we had real team work missions like the original 2012 No Win Scenario pure support characters that did 0 or low DPS space DPS where very welcome in queues. People used to like it when you popped up in a random queue as a support character. Back then real team work was often required for most groups and support playstyles was a valid form of play in queues.

The first death blow to that playstyle was the dumbed down super short STF’s we have now. The 2nd blow was the removal of team work missions like NWS. Some of us tried to keep playing support but the AFK penalty was the last death blow that ruined support builds and stopped us playing that way. The AFK penalty killed what was a valid and useful playstyle. Now few people even know how to play a full support role and the skills/builds to boost the teams DPS via support is all but lost.

Now if you add 20k or 50k+ via support instead of direct DPS you get punished.

fadmbambam · December 2017

It's definitely gotten better since PWE originally implemented the AFK penalty. For a while, I would often get the penalty when playing the Crystalline Catastrophe.... even though I placed first, second or third and received the associated reward (but not the normal CCE rewards. That hasn't happened for quite a while, so it appears they fixed it.

pottsey5g · December 2017

coldnapalm wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

coldnapalm wrote: »

pottsey5g wrote: »

coldnapalm wrote: »

tigreanpony wrote: »

coldnapalm wrote: »

pacelli1 wrote: »

It is a flawed system, but can you suggest a better one? They are trying to address the problem of leaches. Admittedly, it isn't 100% effective in that regard, ether, but it's better than nothing. The scenario you describe is pretty extreme; so much so that you shouldn't see that very often.

And, in response to Coldnapalm, yes, it does happen. As I said, it's rare, but there are some CRAZY overpowered PCs that get teamed up with a group of average to low and they just CLEAN THE BOARD leaving everyone else in a 30 min. time out. It's a HUGE flaw. It's a KNOWN flaw. But, again, what can possibly be done about it?

Even if you are in a queue with THE best players in this game, you need to be able to do a measley 1%. That is a ship that can do 3k DPS in ISA.

So either the player in question can't do the level of damage needed because of gear...which is is a stupid silly low level of stuff to get.

Or they are terrible at building ships and should ask for help before inflicting their useless self on others.

Or they are just TERRIBLE at playing the game and just followed the DPSer around leeching and basically deserves the AFK penalty.

I am a pretty crappy gamer and I can do queues with 4 of the best players in this game and not get AFKed. That is with EVERYONE else in the team using 250+k ships and skills. So if I can avoid AFK penalties under that circumstance, there is no reason why anyone in a pug can't eak out a measley piddiance of damage to avoid the AFK penalty. If you kill one sphere by yourself and do zero damage to ANYTHING else...even the final ship in the end, you won't get an AFK penalty. If you can't deal with a sphere in 30+ seconds, you really should not be there,

It is people like you that really get me angry. You are an elitist that really makes the undesirable to play because if the ship isn't built a specific way then that person is worthless and shouldn't be playing the game. I guess you forgot that it is a game and should be fun. I do builds that are not standard because I want to have fun or create a minor challenge for myself. I got hit with this penalty once before and really the ship I was using I can go into a battle ground and clear one area of it within a minute by myself yet you are telling me that my build isn't good enough for a red alert? You sir are the type of people that anger me in these type of games. Stop thinking about only yourself and maybe start helping the lower players out instead oh you are no good you shouldn't play the game. So remember IT IS A GAME!

Who said anything about building a ship a certain way? I never mentioned anything about playing the game the ONE TRUE WAY. I said don't build terrible ships and take them into grouped content. Hell, I mixed cannons, beams, torps and mines with a mix of energy types in one of my ships because it was fun. Yeah I can do 20k DPS breaking every single basic rule of ship building. WAY more than enough to avoid the AFK penalty. Course that ship didn't see queues until about 100 hours of solo play so I can tweak things and I knew it was good enough for group content and contribute in it. If you are in a ship that can clear a BZ area in 1 min or less, the issue ain't the ship. The issue is YOU did something stupid (remember that third option as to why you get AFKed?). Like follow a DPSer around and basically do nothing in the map as they clear everything before you can do anything. Or be the idiot who spends 10 seconds buffing everything while NOT SHOOTING and wondering why your party has already wiped out the transformer because you are in an ISA with 4 100k+ers (you can tell because when this happens, the opeing borg group dies in about 3 seconds...including the 1.5 second click to start moving and travel time travel time).

And yes, this is a game...and it should be fun. But your fun should not infringe on the fun of others. And guess what princess, leaching ain't all that fun for the people being leached from...mostly. I personally PuG queues that I can solo anyways so if you wanna leach off me, whatever, I can get my rewards with or without your help anyways. But for many, yeah it's not that great. So make sure you can contribute before you join...which should be WAY more than the 1% to avoid the AFK penalty.

That’s not true the AFK penalty stopped us playing a certain way which is full team support. My old team build from the old NWS days was ruined by the AFK penalty. I was maximized in team support boosting team damage, doing 100% of the team healing keeping the primary target alive so the NWS mission didn't fail. Everyone else in the group was 100% DPS with zero heals and I was fully speced into team stuff so no weapon skills, maximize skills that boost the team, hanger pets that heal only. Even now I sometimes take weapons that heal the team over DPS. It was a valid playstyle that the AFK penalty stopped us playing in a certain way. Back in the past top DPS players used to rely on us team boosting players to get there maximized DPS score. As we boosted DPS a lot. Now you rarely see any team support and a lot of that is due to the AFK penalty. It sucks to boost a teams DPS by a large amount then be forced to drop out of the teams 2nd run. Back in the past high end DPS channel people used to call out for us team boosting players. You never see that anymore or if you do its very rare.

It was a great social build for pre made groups but the AFK penalty ruined it and forced us into more solo builds.

Umm...you are talking about pre-mades. Unless they changed things, private groups do not have the AFK penalty system. So you can still do your support in pre-mades with DPSers who have zero heals all you want. I could have sworn that those DPS records were done doing exactly that. If they placed AFK into private queues...well that should be removed. It's private. If somebody wants 4 people to AFK so they can do a solo run, it should be allowed if everyone wants it that way,

Not just pre mades. I get the impression you are relatively new to this game. Back in the past when we had real team work STF raids not the massively dumbed down over simple STF’s we have now. Back when we had real team work missions like the original 2012 No Win Scenario pure support characters that did 0 or low DPS space DPS where very welcome in queues. People used to like it when you popped up in a random queue as a support character. Back then real team work was often required for most groups and support playstyles was a valid form of play in queues.

The first death blow to that playstyle was the dumbed down super short STF’s we have now. The 2nd blow was the removal of team work missions like NWS. Some of us tried to keep playing support but the AFK penalty was the last death blow that ruined support builds and stopped us playing that way. The AFK penalty killed what was a valid and useful playstyle. Now few people even know how to play a full support role and the skills/builds to boost the teams DPS via support is all but lost.

Now if you add 20k or 50k+ via support instead of direct DPS you get punished.

I started playing AFTER the 10% and such was abandoned due to powercreep. Basically with LoR. I do remember the NWS before they took it away...but by then, it never popped beyond pre-mades anyways. If by some miracle you got in a PuG, it was full of terrible players who expected to get carried to get the title and threw a hissy fit when it failed because they ACTIVELY worked against the scenerio by doing things like pulling mobs to the KM. So yeah, when I started playing, PuGs and teamwork was already well dead and you could solo most of it anyways. So the AFK penalty changed NOTHING as far as I was concerned. So really, the playstyle you are saying the AFK penalty killed was long dead before the AFK penalty. At least in PuGs. You can still do your playstyle in private queues like always however since I was AFK in a private match for somebody who wanted to run a map solo and need 4 cloakers to do it. Full reward, no AFK penalty. So pre-AFK vs now...nothing has changed.

It wasn't dead just very rare at that stage and while it didn't change anything for you it did for those of us that still played that style. The AFK penalty killed the last of the team/support builds in a game that should promote team based work. The AFK penalty keeps punishing people who are doing nothing wrong as they are supporting the team. Not to mention all the times it has triggered even when you do high DPS.

Yes I can still do my playstyle in private queues but that just means the AFK penalty has been counter productive and forced a bunch of players away from general queues. As far as I am concerned the AFK penalty has done more harm then good and its a poor system that only half works. When the AFK penalty is punishing returning players who are trying to learn all the changes and who are not AFK then the AFK system isn't working correctly. How are returning players meant to learn all the changes when they get a long ban from trying to actively play? How are they meant to upgrade the outdated equipment when the first thing they do gives them a long ban? The AFK penalty is causing people to quit the game which is a bad thing.

AFK Penalty is BS!

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