36 replies to this topic

[Antares102]

DISCLAIMER:
This thread is ONLY about people who have a stable ping in game but are not moving for an extended period of time after the game started.

In solo queue I rarely have a game in which the entire team is ready to go from the start.
I don't mind people that take 30 sec to start moving although even this delay might mean certain death for an assault on HPG/Skirmish when the other team pushes the single lance.

What I do mind are people who are actually in the game but are away for 5-10 min and just start to move when the team is already dead. This is especially likely when the AFK guy is an assault which was missing from the team.

What I want to have is a penalty for being AFK (=no keyboard/mouse inputs) for an extended period of time. For every 10 sec BEYOND the first minute AFK the perpetrator should be punished with 1 minute matchmaker delay just like the one when doing team damage.
This means if you are 5 min AFK after a match started (which is atrocious) you have to wait 24 minutes to get the next game.

Taking the loading time into account and worst case roster wait time one might have been away for something like 10 min already for 5 min in-game AFK time.

If somebody wants to take a 10 min break then FFS don't press the match button or cancel searching when leaving the PC.

And don't come up with the bloody excuse "searching takes so long".
Searching takes a long time for many players but this doesn't mean you are allowed to fock up other peoples games on purpose that might have searched even longer than you.

Edited by Antares102, 23 August 2017 - 07:18 AM.

[HGAK47]

Just to play devils advocate here - there are times when you are queued up for a battle and then your family, friends ask you for something, the door rings, the phone rings, you need to use the toilet.

There are a multitude of legit reasons why someone may need to leave the computer.

[Antares102]

HGAK47, on 23 August 2017 - 07:20 AM, said:

Just to play devils advocate here - there are times when you are queued up for a battle and then your family, friends ask you for something, the door rings, the phone rings, you need to use the toilet.

There are a multitude of legit reasons why someone may need to leave the computer.

Then cancel match making.. whats the problem?
As soon as you are getting away from the PC cancel match making.
It takes 1 click to cancel a match.

Edited by Antares102, 23 August 2017 - 07:24 AM.

[Dread Render]

unfortunately i see this on occasion also.
there are players who do this as a tactic to get kills
(wait till the enemy takes damage then pop out fresh)
so yes I agree with OP there should be penalty for it
unfortunately getting around detecting it would be very easy.
just run around looking busy till towards the end of the battle.
... i do not see a solution for this kind of vampire type play.

[ANOM O MECH]

Antares102, on 23 August 2017 - 07:12 AM, said:

DISCLAIMER:
This thread is ONLY about people who have a stable ping in game but are not moving for an extended period of time after the game started.

In solo queue I rarely have a game in which the entire team is ready to go from the start.
I don't mind people that take 30 sec to start moving although even this delay might mean certain death for an assault on HPG/Skirmish when the other team pushes the single lance.

What I do mind are people who are actually in the game but are away for 5-10 min and just start to move when the team is already dead. This is especially likely when the AFK guy is an assault which was missing from the team.

What I want to have is a penalty for being AFK (=no keyboard/mouse inputs) for an extended period of time. For every 10 sec BEYOND the first minute AFK the perpetrator should be punished with 1 minute matchmaker delay just like the one when doing team damage.
This means if you are 5 min AFK after a match started (which is atrocious) you have to wait 24 minutes to get the next game.

Taking the loading time into account and worst case roster wait time one might have been away for something like 10 min already for 5 min in-game AFK time.

If somebody wants to take a 10 min break then FFS don't press the match button or cancel searching when leaving the PC.

And don't come up with the bloody excuse "searching takes so long".
Searching takes a long time for many players but this doesn't mean you are allowed to fock up other peoples games on purpose that might have searched even longer than you.

No.

Discos and afk are just part of life. Accept it and play or don't.

[Antares102]

Just had it in another game on Caustic. Two people AFK for 3 and 5 min respectively.
On Nascar maps such as Caustic this means you just lost 2 mechs for an avoidable reason.

tker 669, on 23 August 2017 - 07:40 AM, said:

Discos and afk are just part of life.

Discos yes, I have no problem with that.
AFK is just another form of trolling your team just like killing people even though its a much milder form.
We have punishment for team damage/kills.

Being AFK actually is a reportable offence and it can easily be detected in the game.
But simply reporting it doesnt cut it because PGI wont temp-ban somebody just for being AFK if they look at that reporting at all.
Team killing is also a reportable offence BUT there is also an automatic punishment built into the game already.

With your logic we could also remove team damage/kills punishment from the game because hey.... its just part of the game. And if somebody has fun shooting his own team so be it, right?
With both actions you are just reducing the chance of your team to win.

Dread Render, on 23 August 2017 - 07:38 AM, said:

unfortunately getting around detecting it would be very easy.
just run around looking busy till towards the end of the battle.
... i do not see a solution for this kind of vampire type play.

If you are running around you are actually present or at least were present at the beginning of them game to give the first command. What I am talking if is still standing at your initial position without and mouse/keyboard inputs.

Edited by Antares102, 23 August 2017 - 07:50 AM.

[InfinityBall]

And there are certain players who do this deliberately, every match, then show up with crit seeking weapons because they know people will have lost armor when they start playing.

[Dread Render]

Antares102, on 23 August 2017 - 07:47 AM, said:

If you are running around you are actually present or at least were present at the beginning of them game to give the first command. What I am talking if is still standing at your initial position without and mouse/keyboard inputs.

then yes, this should be easy to detect.
Mech has a ping > 0 and is not moving... beep beep beep

[Davegt27]

lets wait until after 8v8 is out for a month

[Rovertoo]

Umm... An afk punishment system is fine, only because I do occasionally see peoplr wait for a long time so they can swoop in for kills, but that is not only not very prevalent but also not an entirely unbearable thing to see. Your suggestion is a tad................................harsh.

Something like after the first 10 minutes, you get 1 minute penalty for every minute of AFK is fine.

[Xmith]

This actually happened to me once not too long ago. I was getting no response from my controllers. I was able to get it going again 3-4 minutes. There was no advantage what so ever. I was not able to swoop in and take out the remaining mechs on the red team. It is really was a waste of time. I should have just left. Six red against the two remaining in the closing seconds of the match is not fun at all.

[Dread Render]

Xmith, on 23 August 2017 - 09:12 AM, said:

This actually happened to me once not too long ago. I was getting no response from my controllers. I was able to get it going again 3-4 minutes. There was no advantage what so ever. I was not able to swoop in and take out the remaining mechs on the red team. It is really was a waste of time. I should have just left. Six red against the two remaining in the closing seconds of the match is not fun at all.

this is very true... if a team starts a mech down they will likely loose so the tactic is bad all the way around,

[VonBruinwald]

Your punishment is overkill and punishes those who are simply late to the party. A better method would be:

If you your 'mech hasn't moved for 30seconds you receive a 30second matchmaker penalty for every allied 'mech (including yourself) that is destroyed.

The penalty can range from 30s to 6min depending on how late they are to the party and also also affects the run-off-and shutdown-in-a-corner crowd.

[Racerxintegra2k]

Antares102, on 23 August 2017 - 07:12 AM, said:

DISCLAIMER:
This thread is ONLY about people who have a stable ping in game but are not moving for an extended period of time after the game started.

In solo queue I rarely have a game in which the entire team is ready to go from the start.
I don't mind people that take 30 sec to start moving although even this delay might mean certain death for an assault on HPG/Skirmish when the other team pushes the single lance.

What I do mind are people who are actually in the game but are away for 5-10 min and just start to move when the team is already dead. This is especially likely when the AFK guy is an assault which was missing from the team.

What I want to have is a penalty for being AFK (=no keyboard/mouse inputs) for an extended period of time. For every 10 sec BEYOND the first minute AFK the perpetrator should be punished with 1 minute matchmaker delay just like the one when doing team damage.
This means if you are 5 min AFK after a match started (which is atrocious) you have to wait 24 minutes to get the next game.

Taking the loading time into account and worst case roster wait time one might have been away for something like 10 min already for 5 min in-game AFK time.

If somebody wants to take a 10 min break then FFS don't press the match button or cancel searching when leaving the PC.

And don't come up with the bloody excuse "searching takes so long".
Searching takes a long time for many players but this doesn't mean you are allowed to fock up other peoples games on purpose that might have searched even longer than you.

Ready to go at the start... so i can rush to a spot where all the long range assaults start lobbing missiles at any blip while the "snipers" shoot at 1500 meters back and forth for 7 minutes. Its better to stay tabbed out looking at pr0n for those 7 minutes and join in when the real fight starts.

[Jackofallpots]

I just saved someone who was AFK at the start of the match from being overrun by Lights and escorted them to the rest of the group and we won

That's why I try to hang back near base when there is an AFK on modes like Skirmish and Assault

I suppose it does theoretically hurt the team more than it helps though :/

[Catalina Steiner]

As someone who takes gaming seriously, I like this idea.
If I don't have 15 minutes time to have a quick play match / 30 minutes to have a FP match, I don't play.

[KursedVixen]

Antares102, on 23 August 2017 - 07:23 AM, said:

Then cancel match making.. whats the problem?
As soon as you are getting away from the PC cancel match making.
It takes 1 click to cancel a match.

if the matchmaker has already put you into a match you have no idication and the circle could still be spinning pressing cancel at this time does nothing.

unfortunately this would be impossible to properly implement without forcing other players who connect later or even reconnect to just quit games instead.

I feel this would make a small problem worse. People whose game crashes just as the match starts will be stuck with a penalty for no reason, thus less incentive to play. At this point in time the playerbase has been shrunk so much we cannot afford to tick more people off.

Edited by KursedVixen, 23 August 2017 - 10:22 AM.

[Antares102]

Xmith, on 23 August 2017 - 09:12 AM, said:

This actually happened to me once not too long ago. I was getting no response from my controllers. I was able to get it going again 3-4 minutes. There was no advantage what so ever. I was not able to swoop in and take out the remaining mechs on the red team. It is really was a waste of time. I should have just left. Six red against the two remaining in the closing seconds of the match is not fun at all.

KursedVixen, on 23 August 2017 - 10:19 AM, said:

if the matchmaker has already put you into a match you have no idication and the circle could still be spinning pressing cancel at this time does nothing.

All these examples are ok but they do not happen every second game.
I understand that there will be cases where it seems "unfair" but those will NOT be the norm.

Currently you get punished much harder when you set an arty incorrectly and do team damage/kills suddenly you have to wait for ages just because your lights were suddenly running into your arty.

People being AFK for minutes however DOES happen every second game.

Edited by Antares102, 23 August 2017 - 10:48 AM.

[Exilyth]

Would be nice if mm could replace afk/dc players with people from the queue.

[Marcomies]

Adding some draconian punishments for afkin would only hit those who don't do it on purpose (door, phone, family etc). Any automated detection would be easy to circumvent for those who are exploiting it. Overall it would have no positive impact on the matches or playerbase. I would imagine that if the devs receive enough AFK reports on the same player over several games they will do something about it.

One thing that could help would be a sound and icon flashing that indicates when alt-tabbed game (drop) starts. It takes 3 to 5 minutes from pressing quick play to the drop and expecting or requiring people to spend the entire time staring at nothing is unrealistic and unreasonable.

I have also several times encountered a bug where a player has seemingly been afking for the entire match (not listed as disconnected) but the moment they are destroyed the game crashes. Sometimes the seemingly AFK players might also still be loading the game.