[Suggestion] AFKing at spawn

Hello,

As AFKers still are a thing, and a cashout option seems to be too hard to put in, here's a suggestion for the specific case of people AFK-ing, waiting for participation to decay (and that don't know one can go to OS).

Talking to an NPC or in the WvW UI would allow a player to put himself under an on the go status. That status would have the following properties :

• You can't get out of spawn nor switch map. If you try to, a message will say to go back, or be tossed to the character selection screen
• You can still chat
• You're kicked off your squad (but can stay in a party)
• You still can interact with NPC's
• You don't have to move or do anything, no automatic DC
• You stop counting in the map population
• Once your participation reaches 0, you're automatically sent to character selection screen.

The core idea is you can't do anything WvW-wise, so you stop counting in the map population, but you still can stay at spawn, do whatever stuff with bank or NPC's and get your rewards. A possibility would be to turn characters "on the go" into Mist Walkers (like in Southsun survival).

Any opinions ?

One of the issues I can see with this is that of the map having a limit to the amount of players in it at once - Think PvE instances cap. therefore I don't think that many players would be able to do this at once.It's not the worst idea in the world but unfortunately with the way maps work wouldn't be feasible imo.

That could only be feasible if the people opting in for that status would need to be removed from the active wvw server, they could probably keep them in the chat since I'm pretty sure that's separate, but otherwise it was slow the server down even more and fights can be laggy enough already. There would need to be dedicated instances for those that want to afk for pips, and tbh that seems like too much effort for wasted space basically. It would be easier to let participation tick down in ANY map you go to, even LA. You're basically committing to doing nothing during that time anyway in this status so why no just go about your business in PvE land, or just cash out your pips immediately (minus situational modifiers like commander and outnumbered).

@szshou.2193 said:or just cash out your pips immediately (minus situational modifiers like commander and outnumbered).

This is probably the best idea for it that I have heard yet. This would stop people filling up the actual WvW maps till they get kicked for AFK. It would allow them to go off when they want and not just leave the game running until the participation bar decays enough.

If it was implemented like this it would probably have to award you only 1 pip for the server rank per "tick" as obviously this can change during the time that you would have naturally acquired them.

A better solution would be to add a lobby map for WvW. Have this map reside in WvW just like the BLs, Mist, JP, etc. Relocate all npcs, merchants, etc to this lobby, and give enough gates to travel to each of the WvW maps, and a waypoint. Essentially this lobby can act as a staging area, an area for players to AFK, etc; and it is still considered WvW so players don't have to worry about ticks and decay, but this map would not count against the populations of the actual playing maps. They could even add a gemstore pass area with crafting tables to this lobby. Multiple copies of this map could be created as populations increase so that everyone can be at least in WvW benefiting from ticks even if they're stuck waiting in hours long queues during Friday primetimes.

@Zassz.9283 said:

@szshou.2193 said:or just cash out your pips immediately (minus situational modifiers like commander and outnumbered).

That would indeed be the best choice. Unfortunately, a dev stated in the previous forum that eventhough it had been seriously considered and a bit worked upon, it raised too many difficulties to make it farther in the developement process.

@ThomasC.1056 said:

@Zassz.9283 said:

@szshou.2193 said:or just cash out your pips immediately (minus situational modifiers like commander and outnumbered).

Ah wasn't aware of this. What a shame!

@Bandlero.6312 said:A better solution would be to add a lobby map for WvW. Have this map reside in WvW just like the BLs, Mist, JP, etc. Relocate all npcs, merchants, etc to this lobby, and give enough gates to travel to each of the WvW maps, and a waypoint. Essentially this lobby can act as a staging area, an area for players to AFK, etc; and it is still considered WvW so players don't have to worry about ticks and decay, but this map would not count against the populations of the actual playing maps. They could even add a gemstore pass area with crafting tables to this lobby. Multiple copies of this map could be created as populations increase so that everyone can be at least in WvW benefiting from ticks even if they're stuck waiting in hours long queues during Friday primetimes.

I like the sound of this just wonder whether the devs would be willing to put the time and resources into making this over other WvW things?

You can currently AFK in obsidian Sanctum. It only counts towards THAT maps population AND as participation bleeds out, you gain the rewards on each tick. PLUS you get to chat to others in WvW team chat.

Your LOBBY exists. People need to use it.

Idc what they implement at all as long as I can go to the bathroom, or check the front door etc w/o having to re queue to do so. I honestly don't care about pips or losing participation (though I understand others do and that's great)to afk for a bit. I can't say what specific length of time is cool to afk, but I think maybe going for over 10 min is a bit much when others that are waiting to get in the map.

@JDjitsu.7895 said:Idc what they implement at all as long as I can go to the bathroom, or check the front door etc w/o having to re queue to do so. I honestly don't care about pips or losing participation (though I understand others do and that's great)to afk for a bit. I can't say what specific length of time is cool to afk, but I think maybe going for over 10 min is a bit much when others that are waiting to get in the map.

The current AFK timer on most areas is around 10 minutes I believe.

@Strider Pj.2193 said:You can currently AFK in obsidian Sanctum. It only counts towards THAT maps population AND as participation bleeds out, you gain the rewards on each tick. PLUS you get to chat to others in WvW team chat.

Your LOBBY exists. People need to use it.

I know that too well. Unfortunately, either players don't know, or they're reluctant to go there. It must be said that participation bars aren't display in OS, eventhough they're still there, you only have /t chat and nothing to do. Adding more functionnality with some NPC's to OS would probably be the easiest and most clever solution.

there was a case because some were pip farming, a guy held the cata pult hostage unless our commander tagged down. i was like. haha, we made a catapult and took the tower.

because of outnumbered buff.

there should be no pip bonus for outnumbered but basically increases base pips and server doing best should have the best pips. imo.

so if players afk, then they lose pips, then they learn to be participate instead of afk.

Personally, i'd rather see the spawn areas not accumulate pips . So if you sit in spawn, you don't gain anything and have to go out into the 'danger' zone to start collecting pips again. For example, the entire area that allows gliding around spawn will not grant any pips if you are in there at any point during the pip interval.

Would also address the issue where folks way point to spawn constantly to only hit the two camps around spawn point. People would be less likely to waypoint if it removes pip generation for that interval each time.

As soon as you AFK - after 3 minutes you time out. Period.

@mulzi.8273 said:Personally, i'd rather see the spawn areas not accumulate pips . So if you sit in spawn, you don't gain anything and have to go out into the 'danger' zone to start collecting pips again. For example, the entire area that allows gliding around spawn will not grant any pips if you are in there at any point during the pip interval.

Would also address the issue where folks way point to spawn constantly to only hit the two camps around spawn point. People would be less likely to waypoint if it removes pip generation for that interval each time.

When the east or west tower is under attack and the commander ports to spawn half the zerg wouldn't follow when they would risk their pips.BTW people would just afk in a keep.

So this would just cause problems and not solve any.

I'd rather we and Arenanet spend more time getting people engaged in the mode by teaching them play and cleaning up the quality of play, rather than by punishing people who may not even be doing anything 'wrong.'

@diamondgirl.6315 said:I'd rather we and Arenanet spend more time getting people engaged in the mode by teaching them play and cleaning up the quality of play, rather than by punishing people who may not even be doing anything 'wrong.'

Problem is those AFK'ers take positions that could be used by people WANTING to play WvW. It just means less active players on the map.

There is definntely some afk at spawn going on but for the most part those people move to less populated maps in hopes of outmanned ticks.

The real problem is the ones who sit in SM repairing walls for hours because they know it'll be damaged before their participation timer runs out

@Raymond Lukes.6305 said:

@ThomasC.1056 said:I know that too well. Unfortunately, either players don't know, or they're reluctant to go there. It must be said that participation bars aren't display in OS, eventhough they're still there, you only have /t chat and nothing to do. Adding more functionnality with some NPC's to OS would probably be the easiest and most clever solution.

How about automatically cashing out your participation when you exit?

@Strider Pj.2193 said:You can currently AFK in obsidian Sanctum. It only counts towards THAT maps population AND as participation bleeds out, you gain the rewards on each tick. PLUS you get to chat to others in WvW team chat.

Your LOBBY exists. People need to use it.

I'd love to see some rework to OS, making it more of a true lobby - adding NPCs, hell, maybe even crafting stations. Jumping puzzle and dueling arena as something to do while you are waiting for queue/waiting for participation to tick out.

@Samug.6512 said:

@Strider Pj.2193 said:You can currently AFK in obsidian Sanctum. It only counts towards THAT maps population AND as participation bleeds out, you gain the rewards on each tick. PLUS you get to chat to others in WvW team chat.

Your LOBBY exists. People need to use it.

That would be good. Having the vendors and crafting, while the OS currently has a JP, (that you can kill other server players in BTW ) and a large arena space which is actually a decent size for GvG, but people tend to troll there. But dueling CAN take place there with other servers.

@McKenna Berdrow.2759 said:

@Swamurabi.7890 said:How about automatically cashing out your participation when you exit?

I'd implement it so that cashing out gives a minor bonus compared to what it would normally be, but puts a multiple hour lockout on pip accumulation. This implementation would incentivize players to cash out when they're actually done with WvW for the night, plus a little bonus because why not? You wouldn't get people spamming it all the time due to the lockout period, so that would cleanly fix all of the problems you brought up.