- Proposal
- Do not ban players for AFKing
- Justification
- The dev teams inability to correctly implement literally anything with a semblance of competence should be proof enough that you guys will mess this up and inadvertently ban innumerous innocent players
- Motivation
- Banning players for executing a critical part of the game is a colossally stupid idea
What a day in Resto 3 history.
Banning players for AFK play? I would have honestly thought this was a fever dream had I not seen a developer diary on the subject.
I will now cover my Player-Voice concerns on why I think the heavy-handed approach for banning players for AFK play is a colossally bad idea.
Perhaps this story begins with the idea that SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) never intended for the game to have macro'd AFK play. This of course was buffeted by the selective use of former SOE developer comments on the matter:
These are again cherry picked comments from the former SOE team about macroing. However, years of SWG Emulator play has taught the community the benefit and necessity of AFK macro'd gameplay within the SWG environment. There are dozens, if not hundreds of guides on how and when to macro certain aspects of the game that we know and love. One of many examples is the SWG macro wiki page:
swg.fandom.com
The macro system within SWG was built for purpose: Many mechanics within the game were tedious and time consuming. Namely, the mechanics that the Restoration staff wish to abolish. However, the Restoration team has thus far failed to incorporate the necessary replacement mechanics to justify abolishing AFK gameplay. To begin we will list a few that require AFK play to be viable:
We will start by discussing the mechanics in order of gameplay importance: (Note: All of the following mechanics are assumed to be played "AFK" by the majority of the community. Any player that does enjoy these activities At The Keyboard (ATK) should read no further, and seek active mental help.)
Junk loot:
Looting many (thousands) pieces of junk loot is currently necessary to reverse engineer (craft) weapon, armor and clothing attachments. Killing and looting by hand the many thousands of mobs required is not only tedious, but a near impossible task to do by hand and still be solvent when crafting said components. Please refer to the RE guide for further questions: https://swglegends.com/wiki/index.php?title=Skill_enhancing_attachment
Hand Sampling:
Resource sampling by hand has been apart of SWG gameplay since the beginning of the first beta server (Bria) and most likely will continue until the games end. It is a way for a simple crafter to gather a modest amount of resources to begin their crafting reign on a particular trade. Not only that, but it is an essential part of the server building experience as gathering resources by any other means is not possible without first gathering them by hand. This may seem like a non issue to some, however if a new player were to start on Restoration tomorrow with the grand aspect of becoming a server renown crafter, they would first have to start by hand sampling. However, they would soon find themselves banned as this widely practiced activity is now faux pas on the Restoration server. Further discussion can be had on rare/difficult to gather resources on impossibly placed harvestor planets, but that is a balance discussion and not an AFK discussion.
Entertainer Experience:
Hey gang, lets grind an Ent! Everyone come watch me in the cantina! (Said no SWG player ever)
Grinding out the required experience for a master entertainer (Mdancer/Mmusic) is a laborious task to say the least. Factor in the aspect of not being allowed to AFK? Yikes, what an endeavor. Even with the modified experience gain of Restoration, grinding the prerequisite skills of a master entertainer is a mindless task to say the least. The least of which should require At the Keyboard play.
Collecting Loot:
What little productive "end game" loot if any there is to be gained on this server would best be accomplished AFK. The high end loot of yesteryear: Krayt tissues, Acaklay bones, Gorax shards etc... are of little to no use on this server. (That will be a topic for yet another needless player voice that should have been addressed in house another time.) However, one thing that does or rather could need collecting are the requisite loot for Collection items. The Restoration server was built around NGE combat/loot mechanics. Many of these mechanics are designed in such a way that mobs were meant to be killed quickly, and in vast numbers. Not only that, but the respawn time on many if not all mobs was much faster during an NGE environment. Meaning, that the very low likelihood of looting a rare item was greater given the fact that you could kill many mobs faster than what is currently possibly on the CU variant of the game. Thus, killing these mobs in endless fashion has become a mindless task, fit for an AFK macro.
Early Game Leveling
Yikes, what a prospect of leveling AFK during the CU. Group experience was and is the champion of gaining experience during the Combat Upgrade. However, given the vastly diminished population of the Restoration server, many players have taken to AFK grinding low end mobs outside of NPC cities in order to gain their first few skill boxes. This is of course common practice over the dozens of SWG emulator servers that have existed over the years. Taking this seemingly harmless task away from players, and potentially banning them for the practice speaks volumes to the gameplay ignorance of the staff, and their experience of the player-base.
This concludes my list of obvious use cases for AFK play, though I am sure there are many others that I have yet to mention.
I will now begin showing the obvious distaste for such heavy handed actions taken toward the community:
discord.com
Feel free to scroll through at your leisure. I will not post specifics as players are often heated/speak out of turn when confronted with such game changing dynamics.
In closing I would like to say that I for one agree with and support anti-AFK systems within the SWG environment: PROVIDED there are ample opportunities for the player base to excel without the need for AFK mechanics. The Restoration team has thus far provided NO solutions to circumvent AFK play, and therefore deserves no community support for these heavy-handed measures.
Lastly, I would be remised if I didn't mention a solution: simply disconnecting players for AFK play would achieve a 90%+ solution to your perceived problem of over AFK utilization. Banning players for a mechanic that many if not all have participated in during the last 10 years of emulator play is the worst possible way to achieve community support I have ever seen.
Yours,
A concerned Player
Banning players for AFK play? I would have honestly thought this was a fever dream had I not seen a developer diary on the subject.
I will now cover my Player-Voice concerns on why I think the heavy-handed approach for banning players for AFK play is a colossally bad idea.
Perhaps this story begins with the idea that SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) never intended for the game to have macro'd AFK play. This of course was buffeted by the selective use of former SOE developer comments on the matter:
These are again cherry picked comments from the former SOE team about macroing. However, years of SWG Emulator play has taught the community the benefit and necessity of AFK macro'd gameplay within the SWG environment. There are dozens, if not hundreds of guides on how and when to macro certain aspects of the game that we know and love. One of many examples is the SWG macro wiki page:
Macro
Macros have been implemented into Star Wars Galaxies as a way to help the players. They are in game scripts that can be developed to automate an action, or series of actions. SWG Macros may be looped, and can also be used to take advantage of the toolbar for commands that are normally typed...
swg.fandom.com
The macro system within SWG was built for purpose: Many mechanics within the game were tedious and time consuming. Namely, the mechanics that the Restoration staff wish to abolish. However, the Restoration team has thus far failed to incorporate the necessary replacement mechanics to justify abolishing AFK gameplay. To begin we will list a few that require AFK play to be viable:
We will start by discussing the mechanics in order of gameplay importance: (Note: All of the following mechanics are assumed to be played "AFK" by the majority of the community. Any player that does enjoy these activities At The Keyboard (ATK) should read no further, and seek active mental help.)
Junk loot:
Looting many (thousands) pieces of junk loot is currently necessary to reverse engineer (craft) weapon, armor and clothing attachments. Killing and looting by hand the many thousands of mobs required is not only tedious, but a near impossible task to do by hand and still be solvent when crafting said components. Please refer to the RE guide for further questions: https://swglegends.com/wiki/index.php?title=Skill_enhancing_attachment
Hand Sampling:
Resource sampling by hand has been apart of SWG gameplay since the beginning of the first beta server (Bria) and most likely will continue until the games end. It is a way for a simple crafter to gather a modest amount of resources to begin their crafting reign on a particular trade. Not only that, but it is an essential part of the server building experience as gathering resources by any other means is not possible without first gathering them by hand. This may seem like a non issue to some, however if a new player were to start on Restoration tomorrow with the grand aspect of becoming a server renown crafter, they would first have to start by hand sampling. However, they would soon find themselves banned as this widely practiced activity is now faux pas on the Restoration server. Further discussion can be had on rare/difficult to gather resources on impossibly placed harvestor planets, but that is a balance discussion and not an AFK discussion.
Entertainer Experience:
Hey gang, lets grind an Ent! Everyone come watch me in the cantina! (Said no SWG player ever)
Grinding out the required experience for a master entertainer (Mdancer/Mmusic) is a laborious task to say the least. Factor in the aspect of not being allowed to AFK? Yikes, what an endeavor. Even with the modified experience gain of Restoration, grinding the prerequisite skills of a master entertainer is a mindless task to say the least. The least of which should require At the Keyboard play.
Collecting Loot:
What little productive "end game" loot if any there is to be gained on this server would best be accomplished AFK. The high end loot of yesteryear: Krayt tissues, Acaklay bones, Gorax shards etc... are of little to no use on this server. (That will be a topic for yet another needless player voice that should have been addressed in house another time.) However, one thing that does or rather could need collecting are the requisite loot for Collection items. The Restoration server was built around NGE combat/loot mechanics. Many of these mechanics are designed in such a way that mobs were meant to be killed quickly, and in vast numbers. Not only that, but the respawn time on many if not all mobs was much faster during an NGE environment. Meaning, that the very low likelihood of looting a rare item was greater given the fact that you could kill many mobs faster than what is currently possibly on the CU variant of the game. Thus, killing these mobs in endless fashion has become a mindless task, fit for an AFK macro.
Early Game Leveling
Yikes, what a prospect of leveling AFK during the CU. Group experience was and is the champion of gaining experience during the Combat Upgrade. However, given the vastly diminished population of the Restoration server, many players have taken to AFK grinding low end mobs outside of NPC cities in order to gain their first few skill boxes. This is of course common practice over the dozens of SWG emulator servers that have existed over the years. Taking this seemingly harmless task away from players, and potentially banning them for the practice speaks volumes to the gameplay ignorance of the staff, and their experience of the player-base.
This concludes my list of obvious use cases for AFK play, though I am sure there are many others that I have yet to mention.
I will now begin showing the obvious distaste for such heavy handed actions taken toward the community:
Join the SWG Restoration Discord Server!
Fan revival of sandbox MMO Star Wars Galaxies. Play for free and return to the greatest Star Wars saga ever told, yours! | 13489 members
Feel free to scroll through at your leisure. I will not post specifics as players are often heated/speak out of turn when confronted with such game changing dynamics.
In closing I would like to say that I for one agree with and support anti-AFK systems within the SWG environment: PROVIDED there are ample opportunities for the player base to excel without the need for AFK mechanics. The Restoration team has thus far provided NO solutions to circumvent AFK play, and therefore deserves no community support for these heavy-handed measures.
Lastly, I would be remised if I didn't mention a solution: simply disconnecting players for AFK play would achieve a 90%+ solution to your perceived problem of over AFK utilization. Banning players for a mechanic that many if not all have participated in during the last 10 years of emulator play is the worst possible way to achieve community support I have ever seen.
Yours,
A concerned Player
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