It should be possible to lose points for dying too much (but not too many, just to punish those who don't do anything over several games and not those who are just bad at it) and a way to votekick an idle player back to haven. really a system that only passes out rewards just asks for this sort of thing

I am a Afk guy in Pvp and getting some bomber masks by bribing King Kromongo

Well, when I do play the game (haven't AFK'd yet, but started to consider it...), the game is decided more by luck/lag than anything else.

I walk past an intersection, and I die, no sign of any explosions.

I walk past another player, I am 3 squares away, suddenly I find myself rewinded 2 squares with a bomb BEHIND me, and I cannot move forward.

Now, IF I react fast enough, I realize that there is lag hitting me, and I am really behind the bomb, so I need to reverse direction and flee. But I also have to GUESS when I am able to turn since my model is not where I am actually at....

All this and more like it, make this quite a nuisance.

While I do agree that something needs to be done about how easy it is to afk in the arena I believe part of it is due to the horrible prize structure. In a normal eight player round first place gets 746 cr while second gets 373 totaling to 1119. Why are all 1600 cr not distributed amongst the winners? Furthermore third place should be awarded a minimum of 100 cr and an extra token. I think a token prize system of 3-2-2 would fit well. Assuming you are a player who hasn't bought a coin booster it just doesn't make much sense to continue to mass play for a chance to win only one extra token. Yes, you could win more through bribing the king but that in turn raises the "cr" cost of your arena. The game is also semi based on luck (which is actually a good thing) but this in turn leads to you winning less than you ought to. For instance if power ups just happen to continue to spawn by me and not you it's going to be much easier for me to kill you.

As stated previously a fix would be to auto kick people who don't move for 30 seconds after the game has started. The argument of 'what about people who d/c' has been brought up before but honestly…it's 200 cr. They'll be okay.

((First, I like deadpoints suggestion of a 3-2-2, with 3rd getting 100 cr -- or half of 2nds.))

I admittedly would love to see something done about afkers as well. The only problem I see though, is that there are a few different kinds. I was in a game last night where me and only one other guy were actually doing anything "productive." The other 3 on our team were afk. One was completely idle, one was purposely running into wall corners, and one was a suicide bomber. It's just a tad bit dull when you and another person are just attempting to hit each other with bombs -- along with hitting free kill targets to get 1st.

[[Oddly, even though the suicide bomber was killing the afkers sometimes too (and every so often managing to get the ones actually playing), he was dead last on the score board -- the afkers who were sitting there doing nothing had higher scores -- despite no kills.]]

But I digress. Maybe if we could vote kick, or maybe try an "Idle = kick" or something. Not quite sure how to handle kicking these guys.

^ What he said.

The crown payout is and should be less than 100% of the crown entry fees:

1. This makes it a crown sink that helps CE/cr rates from shooting up.
2. In addition to crowns, payout always includes Krogmo Coins and occasionally costume items.

It shouldn't be 1600 cr in -> 1600 cr + 12 Krogmo Coins out (or 1600 cr + 25 ME/CE in -> 1600 cr + 12 Krogmo Coins + bribe prize out).

If it were that universally profitable, there would be very little reason to do anything else in SK other than grind PVP.

While I don't agree with AFK'ers becoming the top ten on a leaderboard I think there's a vast majority of players that are afk'ing for coins. This wouldn't be feasible as a plan if it were for the coin boosters themselves. 300 coins per recipe line? 200 coins for 2 of each 5* trinket. Well over 3k coins in totality and that's not including the masks. So removing afk players from receiving rating points? That's fine and well. Some of those players could care a whit less about the points or the leaderboards.

But for a player to purchase the ability to earn coins (coin boosters) and then be removed from the game and going at a loss for 24 hours at 1800ce? That would be more of a slap to the face from players who use their money to purchase ce. This is a business and as a business model punishing them for their desire to earn those coins at an expedited rate is folly if you provided them the means.

I think that as an idea this needs some revision.

If your main complaint is that they are garnering rating points and placing on the top ten then that is truly justified. AFK reporting should negate rating point earnings. I agree with that whole heartedly. But if your concern with pvp'ers afk'ing out is their desire to earn coins then remove the ability to earn them at an increased rate.

And I know that the majority of this post will more than likely earn me resentment for my standing on this particular matter.

The ranking system is broken in general, your rank can only go up, it can't go down currently. Considering you get points for just standing there that makes it less a rank system and more a "i played the most, derp" system. Even if you take last place you still usually get at least half of what the first place person got. I think if they made it so you had to place a certain number of bombs to get the coins/rank then that would take care of the problem... say about 30, that's 6 bombs a minute. And anybody that's actually playing easily places more then that.

When they implement an actual use for rank (tournaments maybe? giving something once a month/week to the top 10 and then wiping the ranks?) they're going to have to wipe the numbers anyways and create something that fluctuates up and down depending on how well you/your team plays.

I said coins also above for one very good reason. A lot of the people that are afk aren't afk... they're using a bot. They show up in the terminal, show up in the arena, then drop a bomb instantly upon spawning. Or take a half step every so often so that they don't idle disconnect. These people aren't playing and walking away, they're cheating plain and simple.

~Gwen

@Providence

I agree with you, with one caveat: AFKers in *TEAM* games are breaking an explicit rule, in that they are intentionally griefing other players (their random teammates).

Rigwald, I totally agree. I was thinking only of FFA because that's all I ever play. Teams should have a vote to kick option.

As for the use of autoclickers, there is no real way for Three Rings or the other players to know for sure. It's a scummy way to play, it shouldn't be allowed, but honestly---how will you know? Three Rings doesn't have to meet proof beyond a reasonable doubt in order to ban someone, but even preponderance of the evidence will be hard to meet, and there will be innocent players that will get banned for lag or ineptitude.

I hadn't realized that I had to use my time and cr/ce in a certain way to follow a set rule so I'd conform to what constitutes the spirit of the game. A game is to be played for personal enjoyment. If mine is to collect the coins, gather my recipes and wash my hands of the experience afterward then that would be my choice to do so. It's not fiscally sound to sit there when I could be making runs and make positive earnings in cr and materials while I afk for this minigame. And dictating what I choose to do is perilously close to infringing upon my choices as a player. As long as I am not using a bot and see no reason to put forth the effort if the reward doesn't justify my work I see no problem. I have and truly played the pvp arenas and done for myself fairly well. A myriad of screenshots can attest to that fact. But I hadn't realized that non-participation had caused me to infringe upon a rule that now seems to dictate my inactivity as unbecoming. So I'm to be punished for not wanting to try? Thank you, I would like another.

So now I suppose I'll aim for one kill and then purposefully sit at my computer while you have your digital wholesale slaughter. Because that would be MY decision.

AFK'ers in team battles? Terrible because it can cause one side to lose. I hate the people who would do this. Because it hinders others.

AFK'ers in FFA? I can see your irritation at their decision to not try. I'll grant you that. But it would be their decision to do so. So long as a bot or macro isn't being utilized I see nothing expressly wrong with doing things that way. It's my time at the keyboard due to insomnia being utilized the way I want, not how it must be.

Nice to hear this being looked into.

I again had another FFA where it was only me and one other person who were "alive." Yes it was a small game, 4 people, but with 2 of 4 AFK, it makes the game dull.

during the week ill be playing serious, but as soon as the weekend comes, with the amount of ppl on the game pvp becomes unplayable around 90% of the time.

my SK program, check on task manager will go from 500Kkb usage - 800Kkb usage in about an hour alone. most in friends list and guild mention the same, and that they all reclient when it starts rising noticably. that may help lag a lil on the computers end, but in PVP arena, alot seem to rubberband around to the point where during weekends it is unplayable.

a fair few have sent reports and been told " it your router" or reasons like that, and the main issue, distance from servers(which part i can understand)
the excuse its the persons router is bull though. unless the router is sposed to be able to make up for the SK program mem leak or whatever the hell it is, and i havent found a router that automatically fixes bad programming.

but as i was saying, weekend, even if i attempted to play, it seems all i can do is teleport across the map with amazing skill. where as in clockworks, i can manage with latency easy enough, and can work out when i need to shield to make up for it and can still play fine.

i still want coins, couldnt care less about making the top ten afkers list. but i will afk on weekends until i can get a game where the lag doesnt make it unplayable. only afk in FFA, not going to ruin a teams chance in random team games.

if you make the game playable, ill play. if its as unbearably laggy as it seems to be so far this weekend(whereas during the weekend i could play fine) then ill be afking for coins.

and just incase you wanna whine at this, every few games i have been paying full cost to bribe krogmo, even though i stand no chance at winning while afk.

id love to be able to play, and i agree afkers shouldnt receive rating points, but the rating points mean jack anyway, someone who sucks but plays 4 times more then a good player will be competing for the same or higher spot just coz the rating pts given arent all that different from winner down to loser in alot of cases.

rating should be % based, games played verses games won - highest % of wins is leader.
bonus info on scoreboard, as in KDR ratio, total kills, total deaths, total team kills, total suicides. + the average of each per game.

whether to fit that on scoreboard you only show winning % and u can click on players on the scoreboard to open up game stats(totals/averages on kills) or something similar i dont care. just fix the rating system so people like myself arent rising on the leaderboard as easy as we are just getting coins. or preferable(which i doubt will happen) make the game playable.

i still dont see how i can play other games with higher graphics, on US or European servers and not get lag but in SK i do to the point where i may aswell avoid certain aspects of the game. or where 1 part of the game is fine, yet others are painful to attempt to play.

(long post, sorry)

ufnaA lot of us have these problems. That's just no way to justify making it even worse of an experience for the players who actually try to enjoy it anyway!

OOO doesn't encourage people to not play it but they certainly aren't providing means for them to avoid the mode. I mean, recipes can't be traded so the only way to get the new items is to get your own coins. On top of that, with boosters you actually get more coins from idling than you do actually playing the mode! People naturally are just going to idle and collect more coins than people winning (I mean why play if all you want is coins and playing gets you 8 while not playing leaves you with 7?). On top of that, people having serious issues with the mode will be even more likely to just sit there and collect their coins.

Are you seriously saying bad lag entitles you to afk ??

The Leader Boards are a measure of activity, dedication, and skill. Those who play the exact same number of games but win will be far higher on the board than someone who loses.

You're entitled to play as the game was intended. You're not entitled to purposefully abuse game mechanics to try and make things easier for you - especially in cases where this would give you a competitive edge over someone else, which is the case here. Nick clarified this above, but the devs certainly aren't wanting people to do this.

We faced off against one guild a couple times tonight that was purposefully disconnecting 1-2 of its members so that they could have better odds of winning when the bomb radius gets high. (Less friendly fire.) We still beat them, but it was a really lame tactic and I sent in a complaint against the most obvious one (using an almost identical name for both chars he would d/c.) Hopefully they get checked out and warned.

afking in team mode or manipulating to win is a different story.

if it was a little bit laggy, like during the week, i got no problem with, and i play properly then. but when u try to move, and are teleported back half a screen and find yourself dead, about 5 seconds after you respawn, then what am i sposed to do. and thats without laying a bomb.

now if i lay bombs, i get stuck on my own bomb and die anyway. arent there complaints about ppl dropping bombs just to kill themselves and not playing? no matter what i do during the weekend im going to have people whine at me for afking or constant suiciding, or if i play in a team, team killing due to massive lag.

now think of it this way. how would you feel to pay $100 dollars to play/contribute to a game, then have the devs aswell as other players saying dont play a certain part of the game. or if you do play, whine about TKing, or suiciding. or if you avoid that, bugged for afk'ing.

now theres been a reboot, i hope things will be alot less jumpy, so i can actually play blast pvp. if not, ill be farming for coins again, and either afking or "suiciding" as others will call it, since being so laggy i wont have a choice in whether my bombs blow me up or not.

without being able to play the game the way its meant to, either due to bad programming causing mem leak, or latency by distance to server(as my comp/net speed is way above minimum to play new release high graphics/cpu using games, so its not my comp) ive adapted, without cheating others out of their winnings.

FIXES.
-allow you to choose random/guild team sizes/max players at once. the 2v2 and 4-6 arent too bad(6 sometimes is still a lil jumpy), and i play them.
-have an option to remove the moving gremlin audience, less moving on screen at once may help lag.
-fix the rating system so it is based on skill and not games played
-fix game client so it doesnt jump t double mem usage after an hour online.
-have kick option for random teams
-make the pvp game playable during peak usage for computers that crap all over minimum requirements
-if you make the pvp playable, then take away incentives to afk, as others said, minimum kills to get coin etc. although if you leave game as laggy as it is now, and also take incentives itd be extremely cheap for those that through no fault of their own have game lag from whatever so many people are experiencing.

Unfortunately seeing someone play is not proof that they don't afk as well.
Watching them AFK however is solid proof that they do.