The AFK Police

[Skyhawke]

32 minutes ago, twozerofoxtrot said:

 

One of them being named Arriviste is just a little too on the nose.

 

Plus they have the "Helper" tag. Helping themselves to your xp!

 

[ZacKing]

The AFK MMs are annoying.  There's not much anyone can do outside of reporting them and hoping a GM will take action.  As for me, if I'm leading a team or league during ToT and I see someone is AFK, I boot them and fill with someone who isn't AFK.  If there's too many MMs AFKing at the motel in PI, I move to a different location.  Let them AFK with nothing for their pets to shoot at.  

[madicen]

21 minutes ago, ZacKing said:

The AFK MMs are annoying.  There's not much anyone can do outside of reporting them and hoping a GM will take action.  As for me, if I'm leading a team or league during ToT and I see someone is AFK, I boot them and fill with someone who isn't AFK.  If there's too many MMs AFKing at the motel in PI, I move to a different location.  Let them AFK with nothing for their pets to shoot at.  

 

As much as I dont want to begrudge anyone of how they choose to play whatever game this specific behavior, afk MM leachers, ruin the experience of everyone but themselves in a PUBLIC zone. Those types of players/people/humans I try to avoid in game and out, I'd just rather not spend my time with people who are so selfish they have no concern for the other people around them. 

 

The one thing I can choose to do as a player is utilize the rating system, which while not visible to others clearly marks someone's global account name so I know when I see them on other characters they are someone who I don't really want to group with. 

 

Over the years I have come to like ToT less and less. I was stoked for it this year then quickly remembered the things about I dont about it. The XP is not the greatest, with the exception of a well oiled machine with multiple Incans and the majority of the league actually playing...kind of the perfect storm but rarely happens. If I really want to level a character to 50 I just spin up my alt fire farm account and presto I have another 50 within a couple good hours. ToT for me now is get the badges and get out. I'll stick around on a new 50 for a while and lead groups when needed to "give back", but that being what I primarily spend my time doing in October when logged in not a thing anymore. 

[lemming]

8 hours ago, Clave Dark 5 said:

"Historical"?  Ha ha I'm still seeing it nearly every time I ToT this year - same names same MMs.

Historical for me since I haven't ToT'd as much this year and if on Excel, not at all.  Bummer they're still there.

[Major Britain]

Happening on Everlasting too 

[Troo]

On 10/14/2025 at 8:26 AM, madicen said:

As much as I dont want to begrudge anyone of how they choose to play whatever game this specific behavior, afk MM leachers, ruin the experience of everyone but themselves in a PUBLIC zone. Those types of players/people/humans I try to avoid in game and out, I'd just rather not spend my time with people who are so selfish they have no concern for the other people around them. 

 

Just report them and move on.

If they are repeatedly reported. The Homecoming team will take care of them. (sometimes it takes a bit)

It's up to the player to behave on a shared resource.

If they are reported enough a 'timeout' may be in order.

 

Again, that doesn't mean players need to harass or police the zones. The mods do what they can.

 

Edited 21 hours ago by Troo

[Krimson]

I don't think the HC team needs to provide a babysitting service to a farm. It's already established that the optimal TEAM, not LEAGUE, size is around 6-8. HOWEVER instead of leveraging the HUNDREDS of other AVAILABLE doors to knock on, these same players would rather camp at the motel and complain about the Masterminds that they could EASILY avoid by taking a little initiative. Back on Live, no one had problems running ToT on teams. 

[ShardWarrior]

3 hours ago, Major Britain said:

Happening on Everlasting too 

 

You may want to remove the player name from that image as I am thinking this falls under the "no naming and shaming" rule.

 

With that said, I agree AFK leeching is unfortunately rampant and frustrating.  Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about it other than report it and move on as others have suggested.  Let the GM team do their thing.

 

I will say that AFKing is nowhere near as bad here as it is in STO, especially after Cryptic added the Cindarian ship, aka the "lazy AFK ship".  

[Ukase]

On 10/14/2025 at 10:26 AM, madicen said:

I'll stick around on a new 50 for a while and lead groups when needed to "give back"

Thank you!

[MsSmart]

I find myself soon or later league leading, and boy if that is heavy work. But to deal with AFKs, I take turns targeting through players. eventually I get to were I am targeting nothing and I follow with a tell to the one who is distracted or afk. A few moments later a second tell is sent with a kick warning, if nothing happens, then the boot happens.

[Bob]

Eh, only one thing kept people somewhat in line in mmorpgs in single, server based environments.  Was name and shame.  Remove that, and this is to be expected.  Was basically happening in MSR anyway, except worse.  You think most of that ball is actually playing? 

 

These people don't give a crap.  They aren't technically breaking rules.  They wont be punished by homecoming devs, and I would be surprised if the original devs would do anything.   At the end of the day, the issue is core game design.  Tagging in this game sucks.  If the event would have been designed so that the door enemy spawns were given the tags to the person/group who spawned it, then it would solve the ungrouped problem.  

 

One of my biggest gripes of this game is how tagging works in a league.  Why in the world did they design this game so that a team within a raid group had to also get their own tags?  It makes no sense.  It surely doesn't stop these hard grinds anyway.   Sure would make it so teamed, AFK MM players are at least useful though. 

[Skyhawke]

I was on one the other night where the league leader was the AFKer. He was, of course, a Bots MM just sitting there. It became more and more evident that something was weird when people would leave, nobody would fill in the spots on teams and 50s weren't getting shifted onto teams without a 50. Someone remarked that the league leader was AFK and sure enough, they were just sitting there behind the parked cars with their bots surrounding them. A quick look at the team setups showed that it was just the leader and another MM (their other account? Probably) on team 1. There was talk about everyone quitting and reforming the league but that went nowhere. I left. I'm betting others did as well. 

 

On a side note, the leader and the other MM on their team had these little purple icons beside their names. I don't think I've ever seen that before. What is it?

[Gerswin]

There are tons of ways you can afk farm in both zone and instanced content, both native and AE, with masterminds and many other ATs. The only real benefit to doing it at the motel (or other busy ToT location) is that you can get the badges and associated prisms.  That being said, the badges take about 20 minutes afk in an active ToT location, so day-long afkers are just being obnoxious.

 

Avoiding the afkers is easy; just ToT somewhere else.  If you really want to flex on them and claim the territory, though, drop a Kronos on them.

 

[Troo]

11 hours ago, Bob said:

They aren't technically breaking rules. 

 

well.. Code of Conduct:

 

9. Be considerate of others and mindful of zone capacity

• Raid zones (The Hive, The Abyss, The Labyrinth of Fog, etc.) have a limited capacity per instance, and AFKing in these zones can lock players out from participating in these raids.
  • In these zones, you are expected to participate or move to another zone to free space for other players.
  • Players who are found AFKing for long periods of time in these zones may be removed from the zone by a Game Master, and repeated offences of this behavior may result in further action being taken against your account.
• You may be disconnected by a GM if you use Task Forces and Architect Entertainment to bypass the AFK logout timer.
  • In most cases a GM will only intervene if you are using this functionality in a disruptive way.
  • Further action may be taken if you repeatedly ignore warnings from a GM.

[Rokkeb]

If you're going to randomly TP people out of ToTs, at least be a real griefer and drop then on monster island.

[Bob]

1 hour ago, Troo said:

 

well.. Code of Conduct:

 

9. Be considerate of others and mindful of zone capacity

• Raid zones (The Hive, The Abyss, The Labyrinth of Fog, etc.) have a limited capacity per instance, and AFKing in these zones can lock players out from participating in these raids.
  • In these zones, you are expected to participate or move to another zone to free space for other players.
  • Players who are found AFKing for long periods of time in these zones may be removed from the zone by a Game Master, and repeated offences of this behavior may result in further action being taken against your account.
• You may be disconnected by a GM if you use Task Forces and Architect Entertainment to bypass the AFK logout timer.
  • In most cases a GM will only intervene if you are using this functionality in a disruptive way.
  • Further action may be taken if you repeatedly ignore warnings from a GM.

Yet even with more serious leeching, it was stated that it isn't so simple.

 

They are not going to take time out of their day to deal with XP leechers if they wont deal with more serious matters.  I am not even implying that they should, but I am implying that the solution is clear.  Hold each other accountable for selfish behavior.  Let there be social consequences for decisions that drag others down. 

 

Also worth considering that most of the event has now passed.  Most of this double XP has now passed.  Even 'if' they were to someday temporarily ban people for a minor infraction, it would be way too late to do so.  It just isn't realistic to hope for that kind of crap.  Either way, I see nothing wrong with calling people out 'in game' by name if they choose to do this, and let people blast them all over global chats.  If they want to play that selfish game, then deal with the shaming.  

[biostem]

15 minutes ago, Bob said:

They are not going to take time out of their day to deal with XP leechers if they wont deal with more serious matters.  I am not even implying that they should, but I am implying that the solution is clear.  Hold each other accountable for selfish behavior.  Let there be social consequences for decisions that drag others down. 

We are talking about a 20+ year old video game, run by a volunteer staff.  Nobody here has any leg to stand on, with regard to moral behavior or "consequences".  If you find yourself spiraling down that hole, maybe it's time to log off for a little while - there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.  Still, if it matters that much to you, start your own TOT league and YOU take the burden upon yourself to set the "proper" example...

[Bob]

31 minutes ago, biostem said:

We are talking about a 20+ year old video game, run by a volunteer staff.  Nobody here has any leg to stand on, with regard to moral behavior or "consequences".  If you find yourself spiraling down that hole, maybe it's time to log off for a little while - there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.  Still, if it matters that much to you, start your own TOT league and YOU take the burden upon yourself to set the "proper" example...

You misunderstand my posts.  I am not blaming homecoming staff; I am understanding of the absolute fact, that they do not have time to manage thousands of players as a volunteer team.  I have no ill will against them.

 

I do, however, have a strong feeling of disappointment towards those (99.9% of whom are 35+ years old) who know better, yet choose to leech off of other people and drag down their gameplay, for the sake of their own gains.  My post was simply a reply to the person mentioning that the devs will likely do something.  They wont. 

 

For the record, I just stopped doing ToT unless I happen to recognize the leader (who actually does something).  Leeching got so bad, that as a 50 the inf gains started sucking, and for lvling the gap had narrowed relative to other kinds of play.  It is worth noting that there are only so many instances of the zone open at any given time.. and even if you want to start your own team, that may not be an option the majority of the time.  So frankly, that is a bit of a cop out statement.  At most you might be able to get a single team going for a KW session, but that is no where near as good as a league (though funny enough, I think KW would be better anyway if people chose it as the 'main' spot). 

Edited 4 hours ago by Bob