AFK Timer or Removal of CT Requirements on Essence Shop

SHOKK

This is becoming a issue due to the nature of the essence shop that requires Combat Trial levels. People are starting to AFK because the game lets them re-queue by being idle or simple looping macro or bot to hit rematch/requeue on the victory/loss screen.

Either remove the limit of the Combat Trial levels for the essence shop and just jack up the Fragment costs in accordance, or introduce a AFK timer. The AFK Timer will not be a flawless solution, because someone can just again, program a macro or bot to move themselves to counter it.

I'm more so for the Combat Trial level requirement to be removed, as there'll be fewer people willing to idle in Combat Trials for gear, as it'd be quicker to just play the matches and get the potential 2-3 Pips, rather than 1 from being 3-0'd.

I am concerned for the longterm of this game. The meta pushes creative playstyles away, and new players. And the AFKers just make playing with a low population, very annoying cause you get re-queued against these guys constantly if a player isn't farming off them.


The quickest solution currently is to disallow AFK players from timing out in the loss/victory screen to re-queue. Which will either force these players to play, or to stop playing(which means they never cared about the game anyway, good riddance).

SHOKK

I'm running into so many who when they don't fight, they just AFK in CT. This wasn't a case since the RNG Combat Trial drops prior to the prestige update.

slcp_Furolles

Hey there SHOKK, thank you ever so much for sharing your thoughts with us on AFK players. I really appreciate the level of detail you've gone into when explaining the situations you encounter.

I can tell you that the team are currently looking into solutions for AFK's, though nothing is currently set in stone. We'll be sure to share any more information we get once it becomes available though, so please stay tuned.

Thank you again, an please accept my apologies for any frustration you've experienced in the meantime.

JXS

I mentioned this in a post a day after, which basically is the same thing SHOKK is saying.
Cliff notes:

JXS said:

Players have discovered that, mathematically it is more efficient to just keep losing in combat trials over and over. This is the quickest way to level and it gets you the required combat trial level to beat the final boss at level 3.

Bare in mind I realize combat trials may have been something the devs considered as an option for some players who were not interested in PvE content at all. What I do not think they anticipated is some players abusing this by joining combat trials and leaving their game running. This done with the notion that the other player will defeat them over and over, taking free wins or leave and the next opponent will be faced with the same situation. I've joined combat trials where I have seen the same player several dozen times, clearly not at their keyboard/controller, for several hours. These same players have absurdly high prestige levels, so there is no telling how long they had been doing this.

I feel that this behavior needs to be discouraged but not by penalizing player who lose. To do so would alienate those who are trying to play legitimately. Offering more options to reach the endgame may incentivize better player habits. More PvE and PvP content is obvious. Adding server timeouts to boot players who idle too long, or not starting combat trial matchs until both players start moving. This would at least prevent "AFK leveling" and any keyboard macros.

I quite enjoy this game and I want to see it succeed, get better and grow. I don't like the idea of it being killed off by toxic behavior

Blion

What's the feeling on reporting these players through Steam using the 'Report Violation' button on their profile? Would that even make a difference? It's not technically cheating is it? I'm getting really sick of pairing up with AFK'ers