Ectar Talks about Anti-AFK System

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Hello everyone,

under the original link, Ectar explains the reasoning behind the new 9.3 anti-AFK and anti-suicide system. I think it is worth reposting, because there is a lot of truth behind what he wrote. Here’s what he wrote.

This system is set up to take action against people not playing, there is a key difference here. If I play 5 aside football with you and you stand still for 10 minutes (and you’re not a goalkeeper) you’re not playing and I don’t want you on my team or benefiting from our success. Likewise If you enter a team based computer game and go afk multiple times or quit multiple times before the battle is done, you’re not playing and I don’t want you on my team or benefiting from our success.

If you want to defend passive play then you don’t play passively every game by sitting still. This system won’t punish people who play hyper passive. It will punish people who are blatantly abusing the game mechanics by not actively taking part in the game. – You can justify playing cautiously in a few matches, heck you can even likely throw up specific examples. You can’t justify it for every battle and it’s those types of players this system is set up to deal with. I find it rather sad in a way that when we take measures to do something about repeatability being afk or not participating. We’re still wrong for doing something just because it’s not XXXX player’s specific idea how to deal with people.

When this system is implemented, If you don’t want to be punished from leaving the game early – Don’t leave the game early! You still have the choice to leave the game early if you want however it will come with consequences. If you don’t want to be punished for being AFK multiple times… Don’t go afk! If there is something external causing you to be away from the PC all the time or away from the game then perhaps that’s not the best time to be playing a team game..

Life is full of decisions, many of them however have consequences and repercussions. Eventually you’re going to have to deal with those choices wither you like it or not.

And as a bonus, you don’t have to worry about looking at a Soviet commissar, because apparently, the pictures of the warning screen will be server-specific:

KYQQaqq

90 thoughts on “Ectar Talks about Anti-AFK System”

  1. Read this in the forums , hence , why ectar is the person i hold the most respect to .

    About the last thing he wrote , i was like : whaaaaaaat ? a russian looking at german tanks ?

    But he immediatly cleared it for us

    • Problem is this is just doing something for the sake of doing something and the unintended consequences could be worse than the original problem. AFKers aren’t suddenly going to start playing properly, they will just find something to make sure the tank moves in each battle.

  4. “If there is something external causing you to be away from the PC all the time or away from the game then perhaps that’s not the best time to be playing a team game..”

    Me and my pal see too often people being afk, but I just can’t understand it, they pushed the play button, then had instant diarrhea? Meteor landed on the roof? There is no logic to people clicking play then not playing.

    Also I have to say most people play this game wrong, since the game is meant to be fun, and average player camp soooo much, are you having fun sitting still? Might as well watch tv?

    • One can happen to have an instant diarrhea when he sees that his stock T29 gets thrown into a tier IX game. :)

    • I had games (not glad of them) where I switched to my browser while the battle was loading – and then forgot about the battle.

      Needless to say, it happens to me… once a month? Two months?
      Not twenty times a day.

      • And the music and “move out” sound doesn’t warn enough? ;) also the little icon blinks red if it notice you’re not in the wot window when I think 5 seconds are left.

    • i tell you, one category of afk-retarded-people are the ones that talk for hours on their mobile phones. they prefer to answer the phone than playing WoT.

  5. I read this post on the forums too and the amount of people complaining about the new sytem (even here on ftr) is sickening.
    Excuses like: “but i have a dog/children/wife/gf” or “pizza/mail man is at the door” or “now i cant play anymore because i cant leave a bad game early” are just ridicules.
    Like Ectar said, dont play a team game if you dont have the time.
    I am happy this gets implemented and afk bot farmers will get 0xp and 0credits.

    • Yeah sure… Good idea. Punish 1 million people who CAN get AFK because of reasons instead of the 1 hundred abuser twats.

      • You won’t be punished if you live for 30 secs to pay the pizza guy.If you press the “Battle” button and then you are AFK the hole battle multiple times a day than you deserve to be punished whatever your reasons are.

        • I read it. Multiple times. But i don’t get some points and that bothers me.

          A., For how long will i “carry the flags”?
          B., How long do i need to be AFK to get flagged?
          C., So if i move my tank till 5:00 and AFK afterward, the system won’t flag me? Then what will stop me from “RRR -> go to cook -> come back 2 mins later -> stop tank, move the mouse -> back to cook -> come back -> repeat”?
          D., Will i be warned that “you are now redeemed yourself… you can go AFK again…”?
          E., They said i won’t get any XP&credit after ONE(!!!!!!) AFKing/suicide.
          F., How does the system know that i killed myself? Are there any algorithms that can analyze this action?
          G., It won’t stop botters. It will only make them “evolve”.
          H., Is THIS the most important, most broken and mostly abused thing in WoT? Because they introduced an XP system from the beginning that punished AFKers and botters. And they denied so many times that bots and AFK players are NOT so frequent.

      • Somebody must learn these idiots to READ the actuall article and theeeen let’s they put there fckng tonge in there brain and talk
        but hey internet dont need to say something clever i am invisible behind a black screen

    • Completely agree, the system is only directed to repeating offenders anyway, it’s not like you will be punished because you had to open the door for a pizza once. And, by the way, ordered a pizza? Don’t play until it arrives, or hell, play a couple of matches and then stop until you have it with you. I have done it a few times, and I maaaay have left the delivery guy waiting at the door until a battle is finished a few others. WoT battles are short, worst case scenario he will have to wait 3 minutes and I will have to spend a little in a nicer tip but that’s it. (Can always blame it on the elevators, hahaha).

  6. “You have a life and you can’t control every single little thing in it? Then perhaps that’s not the best time to be playing a team game.”

    You know… it’s really sad if LoL players are MORE tolerable towards you about the AFK thing then the WoT players…

    • WoT battles last, on average, 8-10 minutes. 8 to 10 minutes. It’s simple, if you can’t predict if you will be able to play for 8 minutes straight without interruptions, don’t hit the Battle button.

        • This must blow your mind but i tell you anyways… And i will progress in the sentence slowly to let the info sink into your braincells.

          People. Do not. Have to. Go. Away. From. The keyboard. Every. 5. Minutes. Or less. For. About. 4 minutes. So. This. System. Is. Useless. Anyways. Ergo. Why. Should. We. Implement. It?

          BTW If you go AFK for 4 mins you lose a battle in WoT thus waisted 4 mins. BUT If you go AFK for 4 mins in LoL you waisted at least 20 mins.
          And they always cry for a system like this… and Riot never implements it. Because there is a REPORT SYSTEM ALREADY.

    • There’s a difference between occasionally having to leave a game to answer the phone (if you can’t multitask) or the door, and doing it on a regular basis. If you’re in the later, Ectar is right, maybe you should play games where your lack of participation wont impact others.

      • wont impact others.
        wont impact others.
        wont impact others.
        wont impact others.

        So… no MMO, no games without the option to pause, no “partygames”… Basicly i must go back to the Atari age?

  8. Cure for the symptoms, not for the cause.

    I think much better way to get rid of afkers would be marking them as free, silver providing target after 3 minutes of standing still on spawn or 5 anywhere else.

    Simple as that, players would take care.

    • This is a very bad idea.
      If you are an arty you can very well stay still in your spawn position and do damage.Also,maybe a guy returns to the battle after 4 mins of being afk and he could’ve saved the game if he wan’t killed by his team mates,it happens.
      Most importantly,why should one team have the advantage of free credits.This way you could platoon with two guys that will be afk and you get free credits.People will start hoping to get AFK players in their teams and everyone will camp in base when they see an AFK player,waiting for him to become free credits pignata.

      • Arty shots, afker doesn’t.

        Amazingly awaking afker happens is much more rare than afker that does nothing.
        One team should have an advantage of free credits because at the same time has a disadvantage of afker presence in it and thus less chances to win.

        In case of platooning with afkers and farming them afterwards – still bonus for winning a battle is bigger than reward for afker HPs, so it will be more profitable to fight anyway, and afker would be just peanuts to sweat the bitter lose because afker was afking and team was weaker.

        • Sadly, my internet is inconsistently crap…After several lag free games, I’ll hop into one and immediately get 999ms, which won’t go away until I restart, sometimes two times. As far as my crap stats, I’m not a bot XD, just really, really bad. I must say, I’m wondering how this will work when, for example, your internet decides that you will get the “Connection Lost” window. One would assume such a thing would not count as AFK, but, technically, you still are. And then, of course, there is the sad fact that you will no longer be able to jump into a battle, get one-shot by someone a minute in, and just leave, rather than going through the boredom of watching the rest of your team disintegrate as the idiots on the enemy team decide to hunt the light tank hiding in some obscure place, rather than just ending the pain and capping out…and this happens to me at least once in each tank, each day XD, whether it’s arty, a medium, a TD, or a scout…

    • Thats to harsh imho. Even tho these types of afking is annoying aswell. This is mostly directed to the press battle button and alt tab guys to fap in between games. And ofc to the most common type of bot/macro that presses the battle button.

  9. “And as a bonus, you don’t have to worry about looking at a Soviet commissar, because apparently, the pictures of the warning screen will be server-specific”

    Oh good we’ll get some “Asian” on the SEA server…..

    Even though I don’t go afk or quit before I’m finished fighting I still think it’s racist.

  10. what is going to be the punishment??

    I think no more than 0 credits and 0 exp in an afk game

    so what is the problem??? why u wanna earn something that u havent fight for? I simply dont get the point of people complaining about this

    yeah, i have had games like this. i received a phone call and i had to left the game or go afk. and thats it, I cannot mind to get no reward for something i didnt do

  11. I won’t exit early, I will just park somewhere admiring the sky telling my team how utter garbage we were in the first place. If you think this stupid attempt to “force” me to play is going to do anything WG you have once again failed. So I won’t get XP the next battle? Great then I’ll deal with it. Punishment lasts according to a similar stupid algorithm like what you use to justify 100 ton tanks driving in open field and spotted only for a millisecond when they shoot then vanish again? Great, I will exit and go play something else. Not playing this game means I am playing something else and potentially spending money there. You are getting too big for your own britches, be careful how you move in them.

    • I’m a bit confused, are you going to play WoT and hide in the corner because you don’t like your team and you don’t like some of the game mechanics so you are going to exit and play something else?!?

      Why on earth are you even playing WoT? It must be utter hell for you, playing match after match and exiting early because “reasons”.

      Please, play something else than WoT if this is how you feel, because you don’t bring anything positive to the game at all.

    • mommyyyyyy the bad guy on WG force me to play the game i am sad i want you to sue them snif snif

      your comment impression right now

  12. If someone has to go AFK then rush ahead at the enemy and you will be destroyed quickly. Problem solved. You wont get punished and you can go do whatever you want.

  13. “people who are blatantly abusing the game mechanics by not actively taking part in the game”
    That’s a pretty accurate description of arty…

  15. What about the event of “Complete Crew Death” ?

    Your vehicle is not “destroyed” – you still have some remaining hitpoints, but you can no longer control the tank or heal crew.. Does quitting in this case counts as leaving battlefield too early ?

    • That causes your tank to be knocked out, had it happen several times on low tier matches, damn PZ1C’s!

      • its knocked out, but you dont get the gray-ish “death screen” and cannot even “scroll” through teammates like if you were destroyed. You can just sit there or leave to garage… IIRC

  16. Sorry you can hate me for this but i cant hold it

    nEctar

    Other than that…. great system coming to rule this corupted world of bots, leavers and sadomasochists and bots and some more bots.
    Also some bots i think

  18. if teams weren’t constantly so shitty that in 3 minutes you could tell who was going to win they wouldn’t even need this. punishing people who don’t want to waste their time is a shit move

    • When I find myself in that situation, I try to farm as much damage as I can so it is not a wasted effort and sometimes miracles happen and the battle is won. Just rage quitting or suiciding because you are losing is stupid.

  20. Lately i noticed that number of people quitting seconds before the battle is over (i.e. base is captured and/or all enemy vehicles are destroyer and it’s only 5 seconds “cooldown” left) increased. Now they get less credits and XP. I wonder if this new system will punish them even further.

  21. Wouldn’t mind having a chance to look at different officers. That commissar pic looked pretty cool! Oh well. Just going to have to get used to whatever the American one will be, I guess.

  22. Just asking from what people on the Wot Forums will players who have died and leave be effected (I know this is a Noob Q but when I die I tend not to watch the rest of the battle so I can play another tank vise verser)